I'm waiting for the bus to take me back to my little hometown from Canberra. On Sunday my parents and I drove over to Canberra to visit my eldest brother, and do some shopping. We checked in with my brother, and he really needs to get outdoors and get some exercise. He is a great computer nerd, and could do with more fresh fruit and exercise, and less cigarettes. Still he is happy with his life I think, so what judgement should I pass?
My parents dropped me off in Red Hill, and then headed home. I walked to Red's house, and renewed our friendship, which has always been strong. I met her new girlfriend Allison, and then Allison gave me a lift into the City to a hostel before she headed to an AIDS benefit event. Red had settled in for an evening of Eurovision.
The next day was lazy and unplanned, as much of this holiday has been so far. I called a few people and organized to meet up along with headed back to my old coffee shop stomping grounds. Canberra has changed and Red had mentioned a few of the greater transformations. I walked over to the University for coffee flavoured milk, and a freshly baked sun-dried tomato roll. Much to my surprise I also found Jolt cola, something that had escaped Kadie's diligent search of eastern Montana. I dropped by my old lab, although I knew my boss was somewhere else around the globe. I chatted with some of the lab staff that were at morning tea.
In the afternoon I took a bus to Woden where I met up with Peta G. She was looking well, and we had coffee and caught up. She is always very happy to talk about Tristan, but never really talks much about her self, maybe because mostly all she does is work and look after Tristan. I am somewhat curious as to why so few of my Canberra friends in that community are in relationships. Between the two Peta's and Rachel, I don't know if any of them have been in long-term relationships since I was in Canberra. But Peta did take very good care of me, and we went back to her house and drank red wine and ate spaghetti. Later when Tristan came home with a friend, we watched Family Guy and Red Dwarf. Peta dropped me back at the hostel around 11 pm.
Today, I was up again early and after breakfast at Café Essen I caught a taxi to south Canberra for a laser electrolysis appointment. It's been about 4 or 5 years since my last appointment, and so I have had some regrowth. It was quite painful, but thankfully took only about 30 minutes to do the worst spots. I'm red and spotty at the moment, but hopefully it will keep the regrowth down.
Red wasn't feeling well; so she cancelled our morning catch up. Instead I called Peta B and met up with her at 11:30 am at Essen. We had a nice catch up, and she is less involved with the Democrats these days, and is instead spending much of her time pampering her new grandson Kyan. We hung out for a few hours, and Rachel called about 1:30 pm to let me know she wouldn't be able to catch up. That was a bummer, and so I decided to get a bus back home instead. Alas, I had just missed the next bus and so I have to wait about 5 hours for the next one. I still have another 90 minutes to go and then it will be a 2-hour ride, but at least I'll be home with my parents. My Dad needs my help to finish putting up a new woodshed, and I want to set up the new scanner so that I begin to scan in the family photos.