27 April 2011

I am writing on a balcony of a holiday house on the outskirts of Denmark, WA. It is heavily forested and the sun is just coming up (officially it came up 4 mins ago, at 6:15). I have been out here working on a book project for some time and my feet are cold but I do not sense mosquitoes, which makes a difference from last night. We are about 4 km from Denmark (Mia’s sister referred to this as the ‘city centre’ then corrected herself but everyone then seemed to pick up the habit) and on the gulf, rather than the river. There is a ton of wildlife and domesticated life out there – birds and dogs mainly. Also some cars periodically speeding around and I can hear the little boys are up and about inside the house too. I am sure I didn’t put it in these words but everyone assures me that I did, last night, promise Rohan that in the morning I would go for a run and he could accompany me on his bike. Why I would say ‘run’ I don’t know but I assume he won’t cavil if I don’t run. We will probably try and find our way to the water, which is easily seen through the trees and obviously quite close, but not apparently easily accessible (there is what looks like a track directly opposite the house but it has Private Property signs all over it). It rained quite heavily last night but I don’t believe that is what has been predicted for today. Denmark itself seems like a pretty enough town. As usual (I think this is my third visit) the south-west of WA reminds me more of exurban Tasmania than anything else, even though I daresay it’s its own place too, and it certainly has its own distinct look in terms of flora. Denmark is your standard country-town-gone-to-the-trendies, which is fine by me and probably by everyone who sold out to the trendies ten or fifteen years ago; there’s an organic co-op, for instance, and a bookshop I’m interested in exploring today if possible though it may just be overpriced copies of things you can get in any Perth bookstore… we’ll see. Eleven hours later: the bookshop was actually pretty decent (I think it was called Odyssey) but cash only, so any serious visit will have to be put off until tomorrow, payday. We did go to the two Denmark op shops and the amazing craft shop. What was most amazing is that Denmark does not appear to have a mail box or at least as far as I could tell the only mail box at the post office was one which catered for mail sent to Denmark and Walpole only! I can’t figure that one out. I am on the verandah yet again and there are people celebrating down the hill. I am totally outraged as I just discovered via my iPhone and facebook that Buckingham Palace have axed the Chaser’s royal wedding commentary, not that I would have been particularly up for watching it, but this is a grotesque and appalling piece of censorship. I am so averse to the royal wedding (if you can call it that – some people in the royal family are getting married apparently) I really, really want it all to be over and finished, it’s such a crock of shit, and a cynical crock of shit at that. You just have to forget that rubbish and concentrate instead on the pleasurable sounds of pink and greys cracking seeds on the verandah. Deep breaths.