After lunch, and while sitting in on a training session Thursday afternoon, I heard a song being played on the Instructor's iphone. I listened to the tune for several minutes. The words began hitting me and the rap song began to dance round and round in my head. It gave to me an answer to my week that had been presenting itself as subtly as Mt Krakatau... on a bad day.
I would have to put this past week down to being one of the most interesting weeks’ of my entire life. It was just all wrong... on so many levels... and, just as absurdly, it was so right. It was ‘GOOD’ and ‘BAD’... multiplied several times... with a kick. Everything appeared to be magnified; all the feelings, experiences, opportunities, phone calls, comments, emails, emotions. If something was really good this week... it was ridiculously so. If something was not so go... it affected me profoundly. The equilibrium to the last seven days was nonexistent. Well... not until I heard that song.
I got up from my desk at the back of the room and went to ask him what it was. I went home that night down loaded it and have listened to it at least three thousand times.
More about this later...
(BAD...) On Monday I went to the showroom where I had first seen the Kompressor (re: last week’s blog). It had been shipped that day and now all that remained was an empty space.
(GOOD) So I sat in the Fitzroy Garden and read a chapter from ’Northern Lights’ – the novel by Philip Pullman that I had been given for Christmas. I was up to the part of the story where Lyra had escaped from Mrs Coulter with her daemon and the aletiometer and had joined the Gyptians in the Fen. I was lost in the story and was seated in the most magnificent setting; it was if the entire text had come to life around me. Beautifully coloured butterflies nestled on the steel arms of the chair, the sun was shining, birds flew overhead and tweeted as if to say ‘hello’, and the multitude of summer flowers were bright and sweet smelling.
(Good) Throughout the week I received hundreds of email from people all over the world who had read the blog last Sunday. They all made the most interesting comments (and observations). More than I had ever received previous. Particular a woman from Mexico... who likes my blog so much that she wished to link here website to it...
(Good) I commenced my new job on Wednesday and I have never been in a position that I have enjoyed so much. I am sure that most of you will relate to being the new person in town. You meet so many people and you take in so much information and everyone seems so very nice... (only to be confronted several weeks later that you have forgotten almost everyone’s name, your brain fried due to information overload, and everyone who appeared so nice initially... is not as nice as you first thought... and they hate their job) (BAD!). Well – this situation appears different – almost everyone to whom I have spoken over the past three days informs me that they LOVE their job and one particular person (her name is Flint) advised me that the people with whom I am working are as consistent with their friendliness on day one as they have been over the past three or four years since she first arrived.
Flint was my multiplied work experience for the week... (I know we will become very good friends) – she has a wicked sense of humour and I learned that she is into ‘spinning’ and she told me in detail of how people have developed yarns from soy and from plastics for sustainability... oh there was also the story about her Uncle whom the family call ‘Lucky Len the Lovely Lama Farmer’ (guess what he does for a living?) (Good... with a ha ha!)
I stubbed my toe on the end of the bed Tuesday night and grimaced in pain. I was tired from the lack of sleep during the previous night that I just got into bed and tried to cope with the pain of it all. Wednesday morning I woke to find blood stained sheets and a much bruised big toe. (BAD... and painful!), I burned the toast twice (BAD and smelly), Harry knocked a bottle of wine from the kitchen counter (the bottle did not belong to me!!) (BAD and expensive and messy), I received a horrible email from a man in the United States of America claiming that I was spamming the internet with information about '209 A Story' (BAD and yucky... and a complete lie!). I lost my rail card (BAD and inconvenient), was abused by someone when I ran across the road to the station (BAD and uncalled for), and I also forgot my umbrella (BAD in Melbourne!)
THEN... I received a copy of the cover of ‘209 A Story’. There is very little else to which I can compare, or explain, the feelings I had when I saw the cover of the book (with the title and my name). It is the culmination of almost four years of work and a life-time of interest... (VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, GOOD! :-)
I was then bought back to 'my week that was' and I realised that had no one with whom to share my joy (BAD and sad!). I had moved away from my friends in South Yarra and I was overwhelmed with a staggering sense of loneliness. I tried to console myself with the thought of it being a truly ‘personal’ experience... and the start of something amazing... (it really didn’t work... BAD and delusional) – I was just lucky that I had my new job to go to the next day.
I met up with my friend Ben Smith for coffee- (he is an amazing fashion designer here in Melbourne). See... even my friends this week were good and bad... he gave me his opinion of my obcession with the Kompressor and then we laughed alot about the individual paths that this year of 2009 are taking... My friend KT - a person whom I love very, very much expressed her concern that I had been ignoring people (ie my friends) for too long and I needed to stop and see what was really important in my life... (btw thanks for that slap! x)
So... I go to the front of the room and asked Brendan for the name of the song... and he replied... It’s IT feat Rhianna and the name of the song is... ‘Live Your Life’!’ While standing there, the chorus started and this is what I heard... ‘You’re gonna be a shining star, fancy clothes, fancy cars... And then you’ll see, you’re gonna go far. Cause everyone knows, who you are... So... LIVE YOUR LIFE...’ but it was the next line I heard that really got to me... ‘What you need to do is to be thankful for the life you’ve got (you know what I’m saying?)... Stop looking at what you aint got and be thankful what you do got!’
Have a good (and bad) week everyone... tee hee
Cheers
Steven
Cheers
Steven
