Folking Around

Nabeela and I headed to Willunga in the early morning sun. We caught a bus straight through, which was good to find as I think we will be making this trip often from now on. I was all eyes during the journey, because everything is so new I like to take notice of my surroundings.

We drove through some truly terrible areas. One in particular that still strikes me cold was this huge (to me) housing estate, done up with identical houses, show homes, adverts, a shopping complex right next door, manicured gardens and to top it all off- fake grass squares positioned outside each house!

Since coming over to Australia I have been feeling some extremely strong emotions- one moment I will be floating in the clouds with happiness, knowing that we have made such a wonderful decision coming here, the next, I’ll be in a black hole of misery, almost crying out to click my fingers and be back at home, nestled in that familiar nest of family and friends.

The bus journey to Willunga was one full of those negative emotions. After being astonished and shamed by the plastic grass we drove through a hideous shopping complex and onwards towards a wine growing region, brimming with row upon row of neatly ordered vines, desolate from lack of trees and Mother-natures beautiful chaos.

I was having another I-must-go-back-home moment. This country is too Americanised for me. What’s going to happen to the wild bush and scrubland of the real Australia? Why did the English have to come here and rape the land of all its magic and wonder, the land that the Original peoples revered so much?

I feel ashamed of the British for marching in, reducing Aboriginals numbers so drastically and declaring the land theirs, whilst conveniently ignoring the real people who managed quite well before they came along.

All of these questions, emotions and conundrums pop up and swirl around my head frequently at the moment. They strike in particular during moments where I witness capitalism in all its neon glory. For some reason it hits me so much harder in Australia than it did in the UK- maybe because I feel that we robbed this land from people who deserve it so much more. It may also be because all of the issues between Brits and Aboriginals are so new and fresh- like a barely healed wound, I can’t help but see its mark.

Although I won’t forget these things that disgust me about Australia- from its plastic, sickly shopping centres, to the way it ignores its true history, I also realise that it’s not my worry to take on as my own. I can’t up and leave because I feel like the land isn’t mine- we are all just borrowing the land from the Earth and Mother-nature after all. However, I will never forget or ignore these things- they come with the whole package of immigrating to Australia: along with its beautiful face it also has an ugly side, no matter how Australians try to overlook it.  

Bobbing along on the bus all of the above was whirring behind my eyes and tears welled up before I could stop them. But then we arrived...

And I found my Saltburn! Although it is inland, I immediately felt in tune with the place. The busy, little market was brimming with an array of locally grown, organic and healthful food. As I wandered from stall to stall, beneath the glare of the sun I surreptitiously watched others and appraised the little villages ‘feel’. By the time I had scanned through all of the stalls and slowly filled my wheelie-bag with groceries I had decided that I liked being here and around the people that call it home.

Later, waiting for Ryan to join us (after finishing his cleaning), I found an organic, fair-trade vegetarian cafe; noticed an organic cooperative grocers and discovered a natural parenting group! If only it was next to the beach too! Well you can’t have everything, and it is only a ten minute drive away!

Once Ryan arrived with our house-on-wheels we made directly for the Fleurieu Folk Festival. Set within a playing field (or oval, as a true Aussie would say) the festival was a few marquees- ranging in size from small and intimate to large enough to hold a big crowd and keep them warm at night- with a few stalls dotted around and contained within a fringe of temporary homes. We set up camp and left Brucey van to stay cool beneath a stand of shading trees, while we ventured out into the sunlight for a bit of laid back music and tasty veggie fast food.

For the last several days Nabeela has been ill with a ‘green snot cold’ and hand in hand with this has been a developmental milestone and apparently teething. It’s taken us a while to realise, but she seems to get all of these things together every few months (to coincide with growth spurts I’m presuming). So our little girl has been showing a range of overt and difficult emotions recently- from teeth gnashing temper tantrums, to clinging to Mammies legs, to jealous scowls, all the way to ‘running and flying’ joy!

Obviously the confusion of moving and its entailing emotions are affecting these things further, so on the whole, we have been having a very challenging time with Nabeela recently. There always seems to be a delay with Nabeela’s behaviour and challenging times. It happened when we moved in with friends and it’s happened this time around- she seems to be handling the change supremely well and then a few days/weeks later we run into the problems. It’s almost like she’s running on adrenaline at first and when that runs out, then she starts feeling upset by it all. Which I think makes sense- it’s not evolutionarily very intelligent to freak out during the crisis, but you can do so once you’re out of danger!

Needless to say, we had a few challenges during the festival with Nabeela, although mostly we had a wonderful time.

On the positive though, developmentally Nabeela is flying along. She is now singing the songs that we have been repeating over and overt to her. So ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and ‘Peter Hammers’ are now being echoed back to us several times daily in a cute, half-formed Nabeela voice. She is also getting involved with the actions to songs, particularly ‘Peter Hammers’ at the moment. It still feels weird hearing her little voice, from a distance, forming sentences!

The festival was such fun and we became acquainted with several talented artists- Richard Perso, Daniel Champagne, Lucy Wise and the B’Gollies and the Self Preservation Society. Check them out- they’re all quite different but equally talented musicians/ singers/ songwriters.

We spent far too much money on vego junk food and far too long playing in the kids play park (as Nabeela insisted!) But we did manage to witness some inspiring music, have a little boogie and sing along to songs we came to recognise. My favourite tent above all others was the small intimate young artist’s tent. Most of the musicians were 22 and under and many looked like typical student types, but they all had plenty of fun and played exceptional music. Both Ryan and I were shocked by the talent on display, from people so young and what made it even more exciting was that the festival was so small and un-crowded- all the better to see the musicians personality and energy on stage.

For the first time, Ryan and I also saw a tarot card reader together. She had never done a family reading before, but was up for the challenge (who wouldn’t be if they were getting paid!) Surprisingly she was quite accurate with the things she mentioned and had some interesting and likely pertinent advice for us too! It mainly surrounded the problem of taking on too much at once and not rushing things- which is great really; because it is something we had promised ourselves we wouldn’t do. So the track were tramping at the moment seems to be the right way to go- letting opportunities slowly present themselves, not forcing anything and staying positive to what we want in life.

We ran into some of the same people we had met previously and made an acquaintance with some more people who lived nearby and we would likely meet again. It is odd, but exhilarating to have people we can say hi to by name after only being here for a few weeks. I don’t know if it is the people, place or just our different outlook on life and socialising that has meant we are meeting people much quicker than we did in the UK. I only hope some of them may become as enduring friends as the people back in the UK are!