Connolly's Colonies

Run

conlay — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:24:00 GMT

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It’s hard to say where I am at the moment. I know I’m in the wonderful Paihia, New Zealand. Although apart from that geographical fact I’m pretty much in some sort of liquid fluid state. I’m working now for the first time in 6 months, doing a job for half the pay that I usually got and having to work 60 hour weeks to get a decent pay-check behind me.

I’m thankful to have a job where I work outside and get exercise, but the hours really eat up into my ability to experience things or to travel. Travelling at the moment is the very thing I’m not doing, I’ve been stuck in the same place now for 2 months, I’m a quarter into my New Zealand stay and I haven’t even seen 1/8^th of the country. My feet are starting to get itchy, not due to poor hygiene, but more wanting to get out and run around again. The American leg of my tour was an absolute blast; it was fast paced and jam packed. I often would wake up and not know which town I was in. Now I know, quite firmly where I am. I did crazy things like travel to other cities because there was a party going on that night, or climb a mountain because it was looking at me the wrong way and I wanted to get to the top and punch it in the summit.

I was a loner, I had people who travelled with me, but in the end after a couple of weeks I was back to square one. Matt alone, trying to find the next group. Since I’ve been in NZ I’ve had pretty much the same group for a month. It actually feels like I’m waiting for them to move so I can. This is the thing that perturbs me most. After being independent, single minded and impetuous, I’m returning to the same old mould. Work, drink with friends, go the bed.

People ask me if I’m starting to get homesick or if I’m just upset that certain people from the group have left, maybe that’s why I want to run again. It’s not that, I’m the opposite of home sick. Paihia is fast becoming a home, I know the local people and they know me. I know where to go and tell people who are new in town what to do. Home to me is the nemesis to my travels. Home is what happens when the adventure stops. Once I get back to that, it feels like there’s no more dreams, no more horizons. It’s just the eventual plod towards that terrifying mortality that certainty of death and taxes.

It’s not going to happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but I get the feeling that my days in Paihia are marked and it’s counting down to the time where I tear up these burgeoning roots and keep moving till the talons of inevitability shackle me down and bring me back to the start.

Mortality - Life's Buckaroo

conlay — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:09:00 GMT

You are mortal. I hate to be blunt, but there's no other way to break it to you. You have absolutely no idea at when your time will come, but you know it will. It's like the delivery man from Comet, apart from life involves a lot more awkward small talk.

Because of this, people will tell you things "You have to do before you die" or "Live each day like it's your last, because one day it will be." These people are invariably insufferable cocks. They tell you this because they've swam with dolphins or have jumped off a cliff with only a slither of elastic stopping them from becoming substantially more two dimensional.

These people will have you doing all the things you want to do, but at each time checking your novelty watch until the little boney hand meets the big scythe and you get that funny feeling in your left arm. The truth is live life how you want it. If you want to go to Vegas, go gamble and see Penn and Teller. If you want to swim around the great barrier reef, get your ticket and leave. If you want to bungee jump, get a brain scan (then go ahead anyway).

In the end it's not going to be on your deathbed when you think of what you wanted to do in your life. It's going to be at the times when you should be doing it. If you've got yourself a dream. Take hold of it and make it real, before it becomes an echo of the life you could have had.

Love, Laugh and Live.

Connolly

It's going like an American dream.

conlay — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 21:12:00 GMT

I made it! 9 Hours later and I've arrived and so far so good. Also i seem to be snapping out of the forementioned dazed state. Things are still a bit alien though. It was odd driving from the airport to the hostel, and seeing glimpses and flashes of incredibly familiar landmarks. I saw the Washington Monument (read as "dong") as i flew in. Followed later as we drove on the highway past the back of the Lincoln memorial, although I must say that the highlight was looking down a very very long street and seeing the front of the White House, that's when things became ever so real

The flight was good, and even though I had brought pleanty of reading material (Worst Case Scenario Almenac + The Communist Manifesto, the latter courtesy of Comrade Pearce). It was needed as my in flight entertainment was on demand. So I got to watch largely unedited films. Decided to prep myself for DC with "In the Loop", which was absolutely fantastic and has increased my swearing vocab about 150%. Airport security turned out to be an absolute breeze, and even though i got my bag searched (thank-the-good-lord-fuck they didn't find the manifesto). I didn't get my anus probed! Guess putting on clean pants this morning was a waste of time.

So my American adventure begins. Tomorrow should be filled with either lots of touristy photo ops, or I might just go Mr Smith goes to Washington and look awe struck at the buildings and be overcome by a sense of democratic pride.

Con

on a side note, is it just me or do they love their flag out here, I've seen about 100 of the things attached to everything possible. I imagine that if i were to have something to eat here, when i shat it out, there would be a little stars and stripes on a cocktail stick poking out.

Dazed and Con-fused

conlay — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Well, it finally happened. I’m leaving, I’m going off to meet new interesting people and make them feel nervous and uncomfortable. This date has been coming for such a long time now, but it never seemed very real at all. It was one of those dates you pick at random, one so far off into the future it would never happen. It still doesn’t seem very real. I travelled down from the north yesterday and stayed overnight at a friend’s in London. She was probably more enthusiastic about the whole idea than me. She constantly screamed and bounced with enthusiasm and excitement about my impending departure, you probably could have been mistaken into think it was her who was flying out today.

My mood was somewhat different, mostly because it still doesn’t feel real. It always seemed like travelling was something that was happening in the future. I don’t think I’ve actually comprehended its going to happen. My overly enthused friends asked me if I was excited about it. I told her that it felt like a war film, not that there’s going to be blood, guts and me telling people that when I get home to my sweetheart I’m going to start a llama farm, moments before I get my head blown off. It’s like the part where the hero has just had a shell explode next to him, he stands up and looks around. The explosion is still ringing in his ears. Everything around him is still moving, but in slow motion. He knows what’s going on but he’s dazed by the whole thing. That’s where I am right now. I’m sat in an airport and I’m in a total daze.......

Hopefully I’ll snap out of it soon, or else there’s going to be an incredibly confused Briton who’s dawdling around Washington DC in 9 hours time. On the plus side I have about half a rock of Kendal mint cake to get through before I arrive. So it’s either dazed or off my tits high on sugar.

Wish me luck

Con