10 Years a Slave

Approaching 30 and birdless:

“I stopped looking for a dream girl. I just wanted one that wasn’t a nightmare.” – Charles Bukowski

As luck would have it, one turned up anyway – and it wasn’t long before we were shacked up and due to get spliced. From day 1 it was obvious she was gonna do more than sweep up and make and the tea. The world outside my [pub] window opened up – mostly in ways I didn’t bargain for.

That was the summer of 2004 – 10 years ago last month. So to mark the milestone I borrowed a mates motor and took her up the Princes Highway …to the Mornington Peninsula. Our first trip out of the city since arriving.

We made our way down the coast stopping at places that took our fancy; Mornington -> Dromana -> Rye. By late afternoon we reach Sorrento. It looked like the pick of the bunch so we stay overnight in the imaginatively named – Sorrento Hotel.

Sorrento is touted as an upper class seaside resort (I’d left me cravat at home, but blokes like me can fit in anywhere). Apparently, it was where the first Europeans settled and it pre-dates Melbourne by 30 years. The windswept coastline and cloudy skies remind me of home.

(Something you may not know: In 1967 Australian PM Harold Holt went for a dip off one of these beaches and never returned. The absence of a body led to rumours; some say he faked his own death and sloped off with some tart, others think he was a Chinese spy who got picked up in a submarine? …Just another politician out of his depth if you ask me.)

Some pics from the mobile blower (no filters):

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Looking back over the years I can see things have changed. My ideas (that were often forgotten by morning), now have someone who makes them happen. The barfly’s spreading his wings and life’s become a bit more interesting… Might keep her on for another decade (or two).

“See, don’t ever set me free. I always want to be by your side.” – Ray Davies

The cynics say, marital bliss eventually gives way to Stockholm syndrome… I’m still waiting.

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Related Article: The Mysterious Disappearance of Harold Holt