I want to ride my bicycle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARwZ3scXQ7U&feature=youtube_gdata

Enough said.

On another note, I realised that I haven't written out a proper update in a while. I also haven't finished writing up my posts from my June Travels, but plan to get some more done over the weekend. Ta arrives on Monday - my first guest from Australia, and a completely unexpected one. I got an email a few days ago asking if she could stay, and of course I said yes. I haven't seen her in quite some years now, and we were closest when I was between the ages of 17 and 19, but have still caught up a few times since. I'm hoping she's not too bored with things here, but she has been warned...

I've had a great day today. I got up at 6:15am, a little earlier than usual (yeah, I know, 15 minutes isn't a big deal) and had a coffee. Sat in bed and watched Home (the documentary), which To had posted a link to on Facebook. It was awesome, but depressing. I know that the end is supposed to be uplifting, but I really don't find it cheers me up at all after the low point in the film's storyline. I've seen it once before, but it was nice to see it again. It reminds me that I'm doing something right. Anyway, I had a shower and got ready, and by 10:30am was out walking. It takes me about 25-30 minutes to walk a little further than Paderborn North train station, which is now my favourite foraging ground for wild blackberries. It's much better than the patch near my house, which is quite thin on the ground and riddled with nettles. I'm scratched but not stung, have pulled more thorns out of my hands than I care to think about, but happily brought home between three and four kilos of wild blackberries. When I think that they cost about $6 for a 250g punnet back in Australia, well, let's just say that I'm economical. ;)

I'm definitely always interested in free fruit. Even when it's just the sort hanging over someone's fence... but that's another story. I'm a neighbourhood fruit thief, although that's mostly for fruits like persimmons and pomegranates that idiots leave on the tree to rot, instead of enjoying. It's just another example of me hating to waste food. If it weren't for the problem with those tiny black fruit flies in our kitchen (ahem, Mitbewohner...) then I'd definitely have a container full of scraps for stock, but at the moment it's not a very viable option. I don't want to encourage the insects any more than the plates of crumbs, nutella, unemptied coffee filter and sugary cereal bowls already do.

So, how do I summarise the past two weeks? There's not much that I can really say. I've been attempting to go walking more often, and have included some bike riding in the mix. Sd has kindly given me an old fixie that he bought off of Be, because she's going home in a week or so. It desperately needs some air in the tyres and some oil (if I'm listening to Pig Destroyer and can't hear it squeaking, then shhh, neither can anyone else) but it's mine, and I'm pleased. I feel bad about it though, because I really don't want to hang out with him at all lately. I tend to get repelled by people who latch on and get all clingy, and this is an example of that. I ran into Fi in Netto the other day when I was ducking in to buy a loaf of bread, and she told me that she'd met him recently, and had discovered that tendency. Especially because he was trying to talk to her about me, which I find really quite creepy. I think I'll need to have some words with him. I already see him every day in the Pause, and that's more than enough, because we don't have anything to talk about on a daily basis. It's getting pretty agonising.

Of course, I did promise to cut his hair (why did I ever admit that I played hairdresser for all my Australian friends? Now I have to clean someone else's hair from my bathroom floor!)... and he did say he'd make some kind of Turkish eats, but the item he'd mentioned (forget the name) is just zucchini fritters, which a) I can't eat because I'm still on a low-salicylate diet, and have maxxed out my sals for the day with berries, and b) I don't want to eat because I already know how to make fritters. I know that's ungrateful, but I feel like it's me inviting an Asian friend over to share the secret Australian recipe for stir-fry. If I say that I want to learn more about other food cultures, I'm serious about the learning part. While I'm running off on a tangent, can everyone please stop being surprised that I know what za'atar / hommous / dolmades / sumac / pomegranate molasses / other foreign ingredient is. Thx.

Ok, so off of the topic of me being ungrateful, and onto what I'm supposed to be doing, which is summarising the last two weeks. Ok, fine: Lately I've been especially appreciating being antisocial, not hanging out with anyone, and having time/space to myself. Yep, that's about it. I watched No Impact Man recently, which was completely awesome, and I'm trying to save money for when Jayne comes to visit. That's about it. I realise it's boring, but at the moment, I just can't express how much I'm enjoying that. I'm definitely missing Adelaide more than usual, because I keep hearing about interesting things that my friends are doing. But there are things I'm enjoying here, and I've got a lot of future projects simmering away in my brain at the moment, so I just need to hang tight and get things underway.

My first step is to write more. It's about the only thing I think I'm good at (slight exaggeration: I can also sing and cook, but that's where any talent ends!) and when I'm capable, on those oh-so-rare moments, to actually think about what I'd like to do in the future, a lot of it revolves around writing. And not necessarily non-fiction (ahem, sorry to a certain history professor who might read this) but all the ideas that surface in my brain. I need to stop thinking, "oh, that's a great idea!" and forget about it without ever putting pen to paper - or fingers to keys, as the case may be. I've got ideas and I'm certainly opinionated enough to say something. I just need to start somewhere.