Friday, 30 July 2021
Settling Context
Settling for a vacation on home soil when planning to travel to New Zealand just isn’t the same. Coming from the Australian sunshine state, many of my compatriots don’t get the lure of a cold or snow holiday.
The thing I need to remember is, at least I’m getting a vacation away from home. COVID in other states and other countries has changed how we view recreation leave, but on the whole, Queenslanders around Brisbane don’t venture south.
There are, of course, exceptions. When I passed through Horne Island, a humidly tropical island near the equator and not too far from Darwin, I overheard some sweating airport officials describing their perfect vacation. Locations mentioned were “Siberia” or the north or south poles, just anywhere “cold” was the conclusion.
If you’ve ever watched the film Cool Runnings (1993), inspired by the Jamaican Bobsled team at the Winter Olympics in 1988, I doubt they’d be please when they got there. When a friend of mine moved from Darwin to Brisbane (which is still considered hot and humid by most), his comment was he didn’t understand what cold was until he’s moved.
So, I think the Horne Island officials should settle for somewhere not as cold sounding; they might be surprised by something closer to home.
What Queensland Hasn't Got
Don’t get me wrong; the southern parts of Queensland can get cold; there’s been ice, snow, and everything. Australia, specifically Queensland, doesn’t have one thing, and that’s a high mountain to go skiing on. I read somewhere Australia boasts one of the world’s smallest highest mountains, but that’s not in Queensland. 🥲
And while Australia does get more snow than Switzerland, it’s a fact often brushed aside by my Swiss relatives, until they find out the height of our highest mountain, a mere 2,228 m (7,309 feet). The extra snow results from being closer to the coast, and possibly the larger surface area could account for the amount of snow.
Getting back to my point, sure, you can go west and have a fireplace, curl on a lounge in flannel pyjamas with a hot chocolate and marshmallows, but you can’t go skiing. At first, we had to face the reality about not skiing in Australia; then, we settled for somewhere else.
Finally, vacationing in Queensland was one of our options. As our world became smaller, we were going to be fortunate to get away at all. There was definitely a short trip in whatever mountains were available to us. We’ll head south-westward to visit a friend and put those pyjamas to work
Somewhere Else
If you’ve read Day 208, you’ll know that my husband wasn’t keen on my alternative to going to the Red Centre for a walking holiday for the same period. My husband’s former vacations have all been ritzier than the ones I where I eked out time. He has since advised that if this were in a year and my ankle was better, and we were both fitter, he wouldn’t have an issue – I guess he’s had time to think about it!
As a compromise to the ski trip’s alternative desire to do more walking and exercise my ankle, and my husband’s desire to be somewhere comfortable, we settled on O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. It’s comfortable all around, including being only a two-hour drive from us.
O’Reilly’s has stunning views, the price is a fifth of the cost of New Zealand, is half the duration away, but has bushwalks and the comforts of a fireplace, spa and lots of wonderful, wonderful peace. It’s something we can settle on for the time being.
It’ll have to do.
Today's Cards
The Cards - Settling Analysis
Carryover Cards
Two cards carried over from yesterday; Ordinariness moved from Outcome to Now, and Schizophrenia moved from Future Energy to the Distant Past.
Cross
Ordinariness moving to the Now fulfils the Outcome from yesterday but is influenced by Compromise. Ordinariness was our annual ski trip. The Compromise was between a vacation or no vacation, and the Goal was to find Silence or peace.
The indecision of Schizophrenia which was there yesterday, is now only a memory in the Distant Past. The Success of settling on a good holiday location in the Recent Past makes way for Totality of acceptance in Future Energy.
Base
I feel like reaching a mutually agreeable decision is the grown-up thing to do; it shows Maturity.
Others’ Views, presumably those of my husband, might be that I am holding back on maybe my frustration or a little on my true feelings. Thus, the card of Suppression occupies this spot.
Hopes & Fears has the card of Breakthrough, which indicates I’m glad of the Breakthrough and am secretly hoping this COVID situation will just blow over with a decent lockdown. After all, Ms Berejiklian (State Premier of New South Wales – NSW) has usually limited the spread by locking down areas.
Apparently, the Delta strain is different and more contagious. In conclusion, I hope the variant isn’t as bad, and the borders can open up for a last-minute ski trip. However, I fear this will not be the case if the numbers go up.
The Outcome is The Miser. Funnily, the thing that happened when the New Zealand trip got cancelled, we became more tight-fisted with spending money on another trip. It could be because we haven’t gotten our refund yet.
References
- Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
