Half days

Almost back to normal life. My eyes are almost healed, so i`m working half days for the moment. But i have to confess, i like this way of life, a half day to earn that hard money, and another half day to paint, and do what you really want to do.

The last month a half went pretty fast, two weeks Thailand, one week bush in yulara,one week struggling blind in my unit, one week sick leave and one week on half days. Life is beautiful.
The life drawing course started again on the Wednesday, so i`m back there drawing. It`s hard to find a model, you imagine asking a woman. Hey can you pose naked for me, i would love to make a drawing or painting of you? You see them immediately thinking .....
Maybe just finding a girlfriend is the solution, but i don`t think that `s gonna work. She will be probably bored by just sitting or standing for hours naked under a spotlight without a conversation and touching her. And after a while she starts feeling used. So that`s no good idea.

So, i`m starting to draw faces, again with oil paint, that`s along time ago, damned, i didn`t knew it was so hard. My unit starts to look like a paint workshop, paint on the wall, paint on the floor, paint on the dishes, paint on my clothes, paint on the ceiling, paint on the furniture, paint on the beer bottles, paint rags everywhere, i think you got an idea now. Mmmh, i wonder what the real estatement will think about it?
One thing is fun, i seems to be always high by the fume of the oil and turpentine. That`s maybe why i see those strange lines in the faces or was it because i couldn`t see properly. And i have to confess, i like this painting, its pretty big, it`s 1m20 on 1m40 and i like the strenght of it. Maybe i need that conjunctivitis back, to make paintings that i like.

So, next week back to "normal" life.

Revenge

Not again, you will think, that bastard is going on a holiday again !

No, i truly have to confirm you that i `m not going on a holiday again. The revenge that i`m talking about was not mine. It was time that work and nature had to have there payback.

So, two days after i got back, not even fully recovered of my big expedition in Thailand, work send me on a bush trip to Yulara. Again the rock, i`m thinking to relocate to that rock, after the eight bush trip to the resort. This time the job was a bit more dirty. We had to clean out the area where all the unclean water ends up. Quite a big area, we had to dig a 250 square meter of dirt away, about 1 meter deep, fill it with plastic boxes and fill it up with dirt again. So it was time to learn to drive a bobcat and tipper. That was fun. Driving like a madman, i was well trained back in Thailand, scoping out dirt , throwing it in the tipper, and back again into the dirt. And after a hard days work , relaxing in my 6 stars room. It was almost that i never left Thailand, except he nighttime hours.

But nature had something in petto for me, My eyes were a bit red the last days. It started with one eye, and soon my other eye started to look red too. No worries, it will go away, i`m forty, so my body was a bit exhausted i thought. But after a few days my eyes were almost popping out of my skull. Swollow and almost no more white in my eyes, scary i know. It`s not a photo that i would place on a datingsite.

So time to see the nurses in Yulara. Mmmhhh, thats no good, we will have to send you back to Alice with the flying doctors. At that time , my sight was going backwards too. I had a view of the world , like when you are under water and open your eyes . So, almost blind, and hitting the wings of the plane with my head, i stepped on the plane , and flew back. It was almost that i was in the series "the flying doctors"of a few years back. I only couldn`t see if it was the same crew.

So i can add a new experience on my list, flying with the flying doctors, it is not something everybody can do.

The hospital, Alice Springs, after several tests they found out that i had a severe conjunctivitis on both eyes with an infection as bonus. Highly contaminated.

So the last days i`m living constantly under water avoiding people and people avoiding me. The good thing was i had a free week, mmmh i thought it was a good thing. Pretty boring , living like a blind man. No movies, no books, no painting. Imagine going to the toilet and trying to aim at a blurry toilet opening, but i have to confess, i`m getting better in my aiming.

I`m living under constant heavy painkillers, antibiotics and some creme i have to put in my eyes every 6 hours. I just wonder where the thoughts where from the doctors when they told me to put some cream in my eyes. For godsake, i can`t even see my eyes, lets say putting something in it. I almost blinded myself the first time with the tube.

But i`m recovering , as prove this post on my blog, and with a prospect of another week paid sick leave.

My revenge part 2

It was sweet, oh so sweet. Going on a holiday and being paid for it. That`s how life should be.
Thailand, a land full of contradictions, 9 star resorts and as neighbour a shed fabricated out of garbage. A family town in daylight that transforms by night into a place where even a priest become a hunter or pray of the beautiful Thai ladies or lady boys. It`s a place where a single man lays on the beach in the day and burn wounds been taken care of during the nightly hours. The place to celebrate my delayed birthday as a single man. How the path of life change. One moment you are making plans to extend the family, and the next day you are in the middle of an ex(r)otic nightlife, suppressing your midlife crisis.

Acting as a young boy, i went canooing around the 1253 little islands around the mainland, see the famous "man with the golden gun" island. Going on ATV (4wd scooter)tour in the green wilderness, doing rafting in the Thai jungle, with as result that the next day you are confronted with the real age of your muscles. But no worries, they have thought about that. The Thai massage ladies have developed a second sense to pick out the rafting causalities. Picking them out the crowd and offering them a massage. And who would refuse when you are struggling to getting around and in mind the prospect of the nightlife that still has to come.
Night time, where the dead town turns in a wild turbulent life. Where were all the people hiding themselves during the day. I still don`t have a clue.

It`s pretty exhausted exploring the late hours, being hold up by every tailor man , who wants to have a chat and convince you should wear a suite, that he could make for you. Every restaurant offering you a meal . Walking souvenir shops who trying to sell `the made in china `useless accessories . From every bar beautiful ladies calling you to have a drink or a challenging game.
So after one hour walking about 24 metres, you are happy that you didn`t refuse the Thai massage . So you are ready to take the next metres without a problem.
But after a while you get thirsty, so after 169 times refusing the bar ladies, it`s time to say yes.
Dragged into the bar , you order your first drink for you and the lady that managed to get you in the bar. Having a chat in very prehistoric English with support of strange sign or body languages they managed you to play little bar games, what extend your time in the bar. Games like 4 on a road, domino, `loser pays a drink` games,etc. And as an ignorant tourist you win the first games, but than you suddenly start loosing from the daily trained lady. Hurt in your male pride , you play again, and again still hoping you`ll finally win a game. Frustrated , you take a run out of the bar. Time to walk another 5 metres, ending up , playing another game . This time you managed to play with 5 ladies at a time, building all kind of weird constructions with those little wooden blocks. With new energy, 1 to 5 changes you have to pay, thinking about winning my drinks back. You devoted yourself to the new game. Only one little detail, you lose, you pay the participants a drink, you win you receive one drink. No worries, 1 to 5, i can`t be that bad in the game. I never saw constructions like this before, ignoring gravity and insulting every physical law. (normally one game exist about 50 blocks i think, can`t remember the name of the game, so if somebody knows , but the bar use like 4 individual games to play one big game).
There goes my male pride again, so your are ending up in the early mornings,(maybe one of the reasons why there is nobody around during daylights) provided the half bar with free drinks for the night and hoping for a revenge the next day.