tathra

(three days ago)

Greetings from Tathra Beach House at Tathra NSW. It is a delectable beach resort/ fishing/ caravan park/ retirement town not massively far from the Victorian border. It is absolutely delightful in 101 ways, the town and the accommodation, which by the way I would unreservedly recommend to anyone who wanted to go anywhere, including those who wished to simply lock their doors and dismiss the world entirely, as the lodgings themselves – the beach ‘house’ houses are probably about five years old – are marvellous, though I suppose the setting is the thing.

I have no gripe, but it’s worth noting that anyone above #6 in the beach houses has a view, whereas all I see from this lovely front verandah is some rocks and a driveway, but as I said, I have no gripe.

Why here? Been at a workshop into rural and regional research held by University of Wollongong/ ARC at Bega. Discussion of how to appropriately conduct research in rural communities, discussion with local community figures/ workers/ leaders, and good times. The co-attendees (13 of them) are terrific people, very interesting (sorry, that’s an in-joke concocted in a car driving back Bega-Tathra, ‘interesting’ being the worst thing you can say about someone or something). But seriously it’s been marvellous and I’m very grateful for the opportunity. I do function in isolation somewhat.

I used to be utterly terrified of the country (of the boredom). I am still very scared of boredom, and I imagine that I will probably always be a suburbanite (why? dunno) but I am way into places like this, and Bega, and Cooma, which we also went through and will be back in this afternoon. I am going to drive from Cooma to probably Orbost tonight, then on through Latrobe Valley tomorrow. Should be ace. Field trip, work, I love my work, so that’s cool too!!!

There is a gourmet pizza place here in Tathra, it seems to be about the only restaurant on beach level (Tathra comes in two parts, an upper and a lower, though I think this is merely an unofficial reality). It is (a) expensive (b) brilliantly inefficiently run by city standards i.e. you can place an order but you might have to wait an hour or two (on Wednesday night, I waited two hours for takeaway – in their defence they told me that’s how long it was going to take) (c) not bad, not bad at all. Last night I had a camembert and spinach pizza with a greek salad. Actually, by the end of that I felt so absolutely stuffed with stuff that I could barely lie down, though I managed it. I mixed my drinks, too, which didn’t help (three different kinds of red wine).

I have been reading the biography of Angry Anderson, published early 90s, written by a Ray Martin producer. Though she’s obviously not that au fait with music (she says, for instance, Australia didn’t have any punk bands so Rose Tattoo was the only group to fit the bill – funnily enough a claim also made in various books for Dragon by Johnny Dick, and by a host of unbelievably ignorant Europeans on behalf of AC/DC) it’s pretty interesting, I guess because reading between the lines it seems like her role was as a skilled arranger of Anderson’s ramblings. I like him a lot more now (of course!) than I did before. I am interested to note that he came from North Coburg, went to N Coburg primary, etc, where if I’m not mistaken Rupert Bruce-Lee can expect to be in attendance in the not-so-distant future. Rupert, Angry found shaving his head incredibly liberating, and he now does it every morning in the shower. His mother is now used to it.

No newspapers, internet or Mia (the staples of life) for three days now, but I will be back in the fold tomorrow. Also missing pets and dear old Lorraine. But on the whole I reckon if I have more travelling highlights of this calibre this year, it’ll be a pretty grand year.