Today's Date is What!?

So here it is. The obligatory "it's the final countdown" post. 14 days, 14 hours and counting.

Apparently October didn't exist this year. I expected to have all 4 of its weeks to calmly prepare for my dive into the abyss. Calm probably isn't something I've been for the last week. Frazzled is perhaps a better description.

Although it's mostly unfounded come to think of it. I've packed up all my gear right on schedule for my move onto my sister's futon, I've booked everything I need for my first fortnight in a strange land, I've told people where and when I will be drinking and being merry in a farewell fashion, and I'm no longer employed on Australian soil.

Perhaps I'm physically and materially ready ... but I think emotionally I'm still a wreak.

A Slight Detour

I started planning a firm and sensible itinerary for the first leg of my trip this week. Things like dates for accommodation, flights to Calgary, bus tickets to Fernie etc. This evening, after discovering some new information on my usual interweb journeys, I basically lit my original plan on fire and stomped on the ashes. The cause? A spontaneous decision over a band - obviously.

I have been reckless before when it comes to live music. I once flew to Melbourne on a whim on my own for four days to catch "the Australian gig of a lifetime". This time however I've stepped things up a notch or two. I'm flying across three Canadian Provinces after getting off my 19 hour trans-Pacific flight, putting my "get a job on a ski hill" plan back by about 10 days but obviously all the while reveling in the fact that I'm going to make good on something I've regretted not doing all year. If I hadn't of been a sook I would have trekked to Melbourne or Sydney to see Tool in January after Big Day Out. Obviously, I was a sook and have spent all year being ashamed of myself.

So now I have an equally firm, highly unreasonable, but ever so exciting itinerary. Fly into Vancouver, fly out of Vancouver to Saskatoon via Calgary. Stay in Saskatoon and surroundings for 10 days, after 10 days - see Tool. Leave Saskatoon in total and fulfilled bliss only rivaled perhaps by Buddha himself, fly back to Calgary, get on a bus, arrive in Fernie 6 days late however, as I said, totally blissful.

I'm hoping this trend of doing things spontaneously simply because it makes me ridiculously happy and excited to be alive doesn't stop any time soon.

Now I'm Going, Now I'm Not

The countdown has begun and true to my form I've been having mini-anxiety attacks all over the place. My biggest problem is coming to accept I'm leaving this place and all the people I've met. All the things I've taken for granted for six years just won't be accessible to me anymore. I was even upset the other day that I wouldn't be able to just go around Pat's house and play Wii whenever I wanted. How odd is that?

Surely living on the side of a snow covered mountain makes anything in Brisbane pale in comparison. But now the sky has begun to get that summer blue colour to it and the Jacarandas have begun to bloom and I'm getting all home sick before I've even left. One minute I'm excited about leaving, the next I'm in tears and I don't want to go.

So don't hate me if I start to get a bit clingy during my last month here, it's just my way of soaking up as much Brisbane as I can before I leave.