Running away

When shit hits the fan, I run away. I just noticed this recently. Is that a bad thing? A lot of the good things that have happened to me have come about because I've run away from a bad situation. For example, when I was living with a friend who liked to pick on me and make me feel bad about myself I moved out, into a share house with people I didn't know and who became some of my bestest friends. Then, when that house got too cold and busy and depressing I ran away and moved in with another bunch of strangers, one of those strangers is reading this blog now and is one of my bestest friends also. Again, when N and I finished our undergrad studies and couldn't find jobs or PhD projects in Melbourne we ran away to Armidale (the jury is still out on whether this was a good idea). Now, I'm getting sick of being here. Should I run again?

Something tells me I should stick it out. Someone tells me that too. I like a challenge usually, or do I? I don't know, I'm confused. This time the running will probably take me back to some of the stuff I ran away from originally. I guess there are a limited number of places to run and eventually you have to face the shit. Problems don't go away, they just look less menacing from a distance. This little pickle may never be resolved. So that's how I'll leave my post.

Rural vegan life...

I am writing this from a little shack on the eastern slopes of Mount Kaputar in New South Wales, Australia. N and I are on a field trip, finishing up N's vegetation surveys and doing some fixing-up, weeding, and general mending of my ongoing competition experiment (even further west of here). Basically, you couldn't find us if you tried. Doug is at the kennel with all of his fellow abandoned friends. He is probably sitting in his little shack having flash-backs to his pound-puppy-past. I wish he had a mobile phone, I'd text him and say goodnight. (This is me in the present: we picked up Doug and he was having a whale of a time. We are watching him sleep it all off now.) 

Anyway, back to us (N and me). We've actually had a fun trip so far. This is new for me because I usually hate field work. The weather has been mild (present me: just moments after I wrote this a wild electrical storm hit the farm we were staying at. I didn't sleep because the farmer had just told us horror stories of people being struck by lightning on the hill we were staying on. BEST. STORM. EVER. all the same - we had to leave early the next morning (today)). Yesterday was a tough slog but we finished everything at my sites before the rains (predicted, then happened: 27mm in 1 hour), so I don't have to come out again for a month! N's work is much more interesting because we get to hang out on farms all over the slopes and plains, with pretty views, flowers, quad bikes (yes quad bikes), and lambs with long fluffy tails. Did you know that sheep are supposed to have long luxurious tails? It's sad that when we imagine sheep we don't see tails. That's some ingrained mutilation. And the calves! So happy, so energetic, as if they haven't figured out that they only exist to be eaten. 

The main point of this post was to walk you through what it's like to be vegan in very rural Australia. REALLY rural. Not like Dandenong or other peri-urban centres. These towns are inhabited by hillbilly folk who wear big hats (like in cartoons), and go to rodeos and ute musters for fun! Food is an issue for us. We try to cook most of our meals but sometimes that's not possible. This trip included some interesting examples of 'eating out' in really tiny towns. Have a geez:

Chips, potato cake, corn jack, vegie dim sim from "The Chip-In" - Gunnedah

The innards of the vegie dim sim (they rock)

Home brand corn flakes, OJ and Oat milk for b-fast before a HUGE day at my field sites

This was fairly gross, it's curried veg at the Chinese restaurant in Wee Waa (which is inside the RSL)

Vegie singapore noodles from the same place (N liked it but I thought it tasted like arm-pits)

Satay vegie thing at the shack; with a nice view of the brewing storm

10 things I love about Armidale

Ok, for those of you who know me, you will be acutely aware of how hard this is for me. I basically winge about Armidale every hour of every day. For those of you who have to put up with this winging, I'm sorry. Yesterday I had a crazy thought: there are some things I love about living in this town. The thing is, I'm just a big old winger and I never say positive things. So this post is like therapy for me. I will try to include funny things for you.

1. October, November, (not December because everything is closed), February, and March (if it's still warm). Those are the best months to live in Armidale. It's sunny but not too hot. Everything is green (well the plants are). There are sometimes kick-arse electrical storms (which I love). You can have BBQs and you can sit outside to eat dinner.  (oh shit, have I put all of my fave things in the first point? Maybe, let's see).

2. There are heaps of nice parks and places to go for walks within a few kms of our house. Actually, this is Dougy's fave thing about Armidale. But during our fave months we are too scared to let him off the lead because he has been known to get bitten by snakes and nearly die. Sniff.

3. There are amazing gorges and waterfalls and nature-y things less than an hour from town. So when people come to visit we can impress them with scenery.

4. NO TRAFFIC. Although I kind of hate that I use my car as much as I do, it is pretty cool that we never have to burn fossil fuels stuck in traffic. I don't think I have ever sat in the car idle behind a build up of traffic (Coles carpark doesn't count - that place is a nightmare). 

5. Hills and high-ish altitude make me a fit rabbit. 

6. Cheap rent means we can afford to live in a architecturally designed 60s mansion.

7. Op shops still have cool shit because there aren't many hipsters raiding them.

8. You are considered hugely stylish if you wear something other than a rugby jumper.

9. We have become vegan master chefs because we can't go out to eat (EVER). This also means we can survive on our meager scholarships.

10. We have met HEAPS of amazing new friends who we will love forever (and who live all over the world so we could do a massive overseas adventure and never pay for accommodation).

Well, now that was nice wasn't it. Appreciating things doesn't come naturally to me but I promise to try harder in the future.