Christmas in Oz

Christmas and New Year seem like a long time ago now - part of a different chapter in my life, experiences had by a different kind of Ollie. I'm not being melodramatic - things really have changed since then.

I'm no longer the selfish and hedonistic young man who would sleep all day and party all night, stumbling through life and love and friendship without a care for anything or anyone. Like a machine on autopilot caught in a loop going round and round in circles. Experiencing everything but not learning anything.

Okay, so maybe I am being a bit melodramatic. I do take myself far too seriously sometimes.

It's like this: Over the last six weeks, life on the road and coming to terms with the end of my free time has taught me a thing or two about the nature of travelling. You regress then you progress.

In the last six months I think it's safe to say that I've regressed. I lost my sense of responsibility. I had a fine old time but I hadn't really achieved anything useful by the end of it, except perhaps to begin to perceive this new kind of self-awareness. The funny thing is that I needed this. I needed to regress before I was ready to progress - as we all do. You cannot really progress your life by being mature and grown up all the time, by piling responsibility on top of responsibility, pressure on top of pressure - by just coping and thus allowing that steel spring inside your soul to wind itself a little bit tighter.

Well, now is the time for progression. Now is the time to take this knowledge and build something with it. It's time to produce something, to do something worthwhile, to give a little bit back. I'm not talking about words on a page or on a website. I'm talking about growing up - but in the right way.

I will of course, with alarming and embarassing honesty, let you all know how I get on in this new and exciting endeavour.

Enough of the deep shit, here are the pictures. If you only look at one of these then make it the sunset on the last day of the year.


First day in Sydney

Our first sight of the opera house and harbour bridge

The city and the gardens

Opera house #1

Opera house #2

Opera house #3

Docklands


Ferry ride

Ferry across to Manly #1

Ferry across to Manly #2

Ferry across to Manly #3


Christmas Day

(Some of) our Christmas Day crew

Santa Claus

Santa's little helpers

Steve, Robin and Dave

Anne, Beth and Fran

Drunken self portrait


New Years Eve

New Year's Eve crew

Me and Steve on New Year's Eve

Sunset on the last day of the year