Okay, when I said that I’d try to get Internet access, I didn’t think it would take this long. As you probably know by now (for anyone who actually bothers to read this nonsense), my “liveblog” idea has crashed and fallen in almost Hindenburg-like disaster.
Well, since I’ve only got this lousy old-fashioned computer, completely devoid of broadband in a tiny (but lovely) town called Katoomba somewhere out here in the country, I’ll try to fill in everything that’s happened this week briefly. Pictures will be uploaded when I get home, because as I said, this is an OLD computer. And I can’t use my laptop for some reason.
Hmm.
So, there are just two major things that really stick out in my mind here, I guess I’ll talk about it. The first is terribly tragic (it still makes me feel like crying) and the second is wonderfully fantastic (oh the irony…).
For those of you who know me or have slept in the same room/dorm during school camps/trips, you may know that I have a very good friend.
Someone I keep close to me.
Someone I usually keep secret (it’s somewhat embarassing).
You see, I have a bear. A small, cloth bear, tattered and worn, put into my tiny hands when I was first brought into this world, and never let go off since. Her name is Dot, because that’s the pattern of her original cloth body (now sewn over with two other layers of cloth). And the somewhat embarassing thing is that I can’t sleep at night without her, despite my age and maturity and other facts of my life that deny that I should have a comfort object.
I don’t have a bear, I had a bear.
On the very first night after we arrived in Sydney, we stopped to stay at an inn called The Log Cabin in a town, Penrith, where my parents stayed in exactly 15 years ago on their honeymoon. We were in high spirits, it being the start to our holiday, so we settled in, unpacked, had afternoon naps, and once it was dark, slipped out for dinner. There were two entrances to our room (we got one in a corner), the front door which we locked, and a screen door that opened out onto a lawn. This lawn was facing a large gate and low fence that were next to the main street and the huge Napean river that ran next to the inn.
We thought we’d only be out for a short while, so we locked the front door, left our room in its untidy state without locking the bags. and didn’t bother to check the screen door. We, of course, assumed it was locked, because we hadn’t opened it.
Tragedy struck when we returned, just in time to see the screen door ajar. I shall not describe the utter sadness of it all, but suffice to say, I have lost one of my best friends in the world (to, as the police said, druggies), and it felt like somebody had died. Here’s a list of what was stolen:
1. $4000, most of the cash we brought.
2. My dad’s office Blackberry.
3. All the cables, chargers, plugs.
4. Two of our three toiletry bags.
5. My ipod and my earphones.
6. My sister’s sketchbook and her grey file.
7. A book, I am the cheese by Robert Cormier.
8. Our medicine bag.
9. Dot.
I can’t remember if that’s everything, if there’s more, I’ll write later. Anyway, that’s alot of stuff and there was lots of drama, police called in, fingerprints dusted on the door, me breaking down and everyone fussing, but you know, like what my Dad said, “It’s nothing we can’t replace, except for that bear.”
Oh god. I’m going to blub again. Hang on a minute…
I’m alright now. Of course, we’ve gotten cash again after a few phone calls back to sort out credit card issues, and the essentials such as toiletries have been replaced. When I can upload the photos, I’ll just put up something for Dot here. It’s been hard sleeping without her, and I try to, but I keep thinking I’ll wake up and it’ll be back to Tuesday morning, before we checked into that beastly inn. Or that we’ll get a call, someone saying they found her.
Funny how your whole life changes in just an hour. One dinner, and it’s upside down.
Well.
You know what? I think I’ll stop here. Maybe mull over this some and try not to wish so damn hard that she’ll come back.
FYI, I made my parents book an earlier flight back. So I’ll be in on the 2nd instead of the 7th. We all felt pretty blown after what happened, you know, a bad start to the holiday and what-have-you. Plus, I need to see familar faces, hear familar voices.
The second thing, which is in high contrast to this, is that just two nights ago, I went to a star observatory 22km from Cowra (another tiny town)! I don’t think I’ll ever have an experience like that again, and I’m really blessed I have because most people never do. 
What do you imagine a star observatory to be like? Well, whatever it is, I can tell you right now that’s not it at all. It was way out in the middle of miles of open countryside, dark and lonely, resembling an abandoned warehouse more than some high-tech building. We were the only ones there (you have to make an appointment) and it was $7 each (a real good bargain). So we went.
We stayed 3 hours. For seven bucks!
I’ve got the pictures, they are absolutely stunning. I took some through the telescope. It’s difficult to describe it without seeing it.
You know what it’s like to read about tales of fantasy, full of words about how the “stars were diamonds nestled in black velvet” and “the moonlight showed the way” and so on… It paints such beautiful pictures in your mind. But you close your book and you sigh and you never imagine things like that exist. I always thought that without electric lights, it’s too dark to see anything!
But no. When it’s completely dark, the stars shine bright. And the moonlight is almost blinding. You feel like some nocturnal animal with piercing eyes and large black wings, the wind stirring your hair, and the sky completely ablaze with lights! Our only company were the quiet man who shared his knowledge of entire galaxies millions of lightyears away, and his silent cat. I am very grateful to him. He loved the night sky very much.
And peering through the eyepiece, your eye becomes a magnifying glass, sharpening, bringing the Milky way or Orion close, close, intimately close, touchable… Gazing at a green-blue nebula through the glass, for one moment, there it was, flashing across yet to me, moving infinitely slow and precisely in a celestial orbit, all flaming rock and charred dust, I smiled and made a wish, for the first and probably last time, upon a star…
Everyone was jealous, I was the only one who saw it.
Our quiet host then said something alomst heartbreaking in its beauty.
”You know, our sun is a third generation star, and it’s made of heavy elements which are what make up matter. The first generation stars, well, they’re made of nothing but helium and hydrogen. So they’ll never have life in them. It’s only when they exploded that the heavy elements were formed to create second and third generation stars. So if you think about it, since heavy elements are what make up stars and also what make up matter, then you’ll know that deep inside us, somewhere in the haemoglobin that makes our blood, we have star stuff. Stardust runs in our veins…”
I’ll be back soon with more on stars, lost property and life in general. For now, wish me a safe trip and I hope to see everyone soon.
Love.
Thanks for making me smile.