For the Returning

For the Returning

You will return. This will frighten you.
Don't be afraid of getting bored. Don't be afraid of tasting vanilla when for so long you've bathed in magical spices. Even vanilla has a smokey sweetness that can mystify the tongue.
Don't be afraid of feeling alone amongst your friends, a stranger at home. You will know them by their qualities. You have always known them.
It's true though, you can never go home. Not to the home that was before. Now there is a new home, and it will take you time to feel comfortable after moving in.
Yes, the same rooms will be there, but their meaning has changed. That's all.
Sometimes you will dance in far away fields, only to find yourself returned with a jolt to the cafe, the bus seat, the party, and you will feel lost.
This will frighten you. But do not let it. Others will always dance with you.

Inspired by AM, EB, LG, JL, and AV.
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Two Months

So it's probably a touch early, but I thought that an update on the next fieldwork trip was in order. Two months from today, on August 20th, I fly to London (via NYC!) then later to France to begin walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, interviewing people as I amble. It's a pretty exciting prospect, firstly because walking the Camino is something I have wanted to do for years, and secondly because my fieldwork in India was so successful and I can't wait to get to do more.

Speaking of which, I'm now in the final stages of writing up the India chapter of my thesis. It's a tricky assignment, and I think the final product will reflect the personal nature of the trip. It looks like it will be a heady mix of first person accounts and rich description with smatterings of academic theory thrown in as spice. There are echoes of de Botton and Dalrymple, and some playfully irreverent stuff in the style of Tim Moore, all done in a form inspired by Bruce Scates (his book on Gallipoli pilgrims was the final inspiration for me to go back to Uni to do this). In the end, I hope it says something meaningful and useful to some other people, but mostly I'm just happy to be writing it at last.

This makes me extra excited at the prospect of getting onto the Camino. It won't be like India at all, but in a strange way it will be. The people I meet (and have already started to meet at pilgrim meetings here ) will make it another enlightening and enriching experience. Best of all, it's another chance for me to do what I love and to be able to say something about it. I can't wait.
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Some Random Pictures

In the absence of something meaningful to say (some would argue I am in this state perpetually) here are some photos from around here. They were all taken on my shiny new DSLR (yay!).

Here we start with an nice photo of a cup.
Still life anyone? (18-55mm@38mm, 1/50, f5.0, ISO400. Saturation)

Shafts of Light (18-55mm@55mm, 1/13, f5.6, ISO100. Tones, saturation. Centennial Park, 06/06/07.)

The Change (18-55mm@24mm, 1/50, f7.1, ISO800. Tones, saturation. Centennial Park, 06/06/07. I was trying to capture two things with this. Firstly, the sense of slow but constant change inherent in seasonal movements, and secondly, the introspective beauty of autumn. When I saw the bench sitting under this tree I felt it was the link that expressed both of those things - To sit and watch the wind and trees play, to sit and contemplate the beauty of the change, these are childhood dreams)

Buses 3 (18-55mm@54mm, 1/25, f18, ISO100. Saturation)

Foley Street (18-55mm@18mm, 1/160, f3.5, ISO100. Sepia)

Drops (18-55mm@38mm, 1/100, f5, ISO1600. We've had some pretty spectacular and devastating storms here for about a week. The Hunter Valley (just north of Sydney) in particular has been subjected to some wild weather. Sitting on my balcony, these are the only drops of it that I caught).

Wet-footed Abandon (18-55mm@18mm, 1/8, f4, ISO400. Curves. 7am, 10/06/07, Palmer St., Darlinghurst. The rain finally stopped on Saturday, and Sunday morning I went to meet Pip for a coffee and a chorizo roll. On the way I met this couple - leather shoes and fluffy slippers. Somehow they had found each other amid the deluge, their masters perhaps leaving them for more free-footed fields).

Reading Corner. (18-55mm@25mm, 0.5, f7.1, ISO200. Saturation)























That's it for now.
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