Terrigal

DAY 1

It was a busy morning. A trip to the optometrist's for Lily's contacts and then a train ride back to where I used to live. I decided against bringing my book and kept myself entertained on my phone. I was almost giddy with excitement at the thought of travelling, but at the same time, I couldn't shake off the dissonance that came from travelling both away from and towards what I thought of as home.

Terrigalz & boiz met up with me and we were off to pick up Justine from the Hills, aka middle of nowhere (luv u justine). It was a fairly short drive along an assortment of freeways and highways that ran past lakes and national parks and through carved out mountains. I felt so close to all the people in the car despite having not seen them for almost a month and it felt so natural to just pick up from where we left off.

We sat in the car and waited as Jason sorted out the keys to the rental house. Everybody was gradually becoming restless and hungry; the afternoon crept by and a few of us had barely eaten. A few of us were itching to explore the beach. We spent the afternoon lounging around and unpacking. Night time, pasta for dinner and more problems with the stove. We still managed to prepare a tasty meal for everybody with the barbeque and afterwards, we learnt how to play mafia. Those who knew the rules argued relentlessly until those who didn't know the rules started to grow bored. Eventually though, we did play and it quickly had everybody on their toes. Some of us fired accusations all over, while others sat, feigning ignorance, disinterest. It was so interesting to watch and learn how everyone acted and deceived one another. We made each other do dares and it evolved into a game of disgusting ways to eat tomato sauce. Also just disgusting stuff in general. It was a good night.

DAY 2

We were off to a late start - everybody slept in and could barely bring themselves to leave the house. I felt completely defeated a few times when I tried to get people to go out with me, only to have people respond "no" or  "it's cold outside" without looking up from their phones. After a late breakfast though, people eventually did amble to the beach. It wasn't a memorable or particularly enjoyable day, although Shao/Justine/I did walk out along the right stretch of the beach to reach the rock pools and cliff. It was lovely out on the beach but we didn't stray too far. We stayed until sundown and had a relaxing stroll back home, where we made hot pot for dinner and baked cookies for dessert. Everybody was bursting from all the dinner and junk food and we played mafia again. We endured a painful screening of Quarantine and then put on White Chicks to cheer ourselves up afterwards. I fell asleep through the second movie and woke up on the communal mattress in the living room the next morning, completely forgetting how I got there.

DAY 3

 

Definitely the most memorable, but because of both good and bad happenings. It was a late morning again, and everybody's laziness pretty much snowballed and led to everyone just waiting around for each other, playing games on their phone. It felt rather sad; having driven out this far to live near such a wonderful place only to surrender ourselves to the confines of the house. I mean, it was comfortable, sure, but it was a fucking waste of time to just sit around. Jennifer clearly felt the same way and ended up having a go at a few people which finally kicked us into action, thank goodness.

We went to the same place on the beach, running in and out of the closest waves. I tripped backwards and landed on my back, covering my phone and camera with sand. It was absolutely devastating and I was worried sick for the next 15 minutes as I tried to clean myself and my things up. Everything was managed to be salvaged and I'd gotten tired of spending all my time in the same place. We hardly saw the rest of the beach, and there were rocks that stretched away and then out of view. I walked in the direction of the rocks on my own as everybody was content with staying where they were. They should've come though; the views were amazing, the coastline was mesmerising and it was just so pleasant to explore. I spent the rest of the afternoon by myself. At first I was trying to shake off my agitation at the rest, but after I calmed down and just tried to be in the moment and take in everything around me, I found myself loving every minute from then on.

The rocks made the terrain look almost otherwordly. From a few places where I stood, the water sat completely still in the rock pools and reflected the sky perfectly. Waves crashed up, threatening to knock over anything that strayed too close to the edge of the cliffs. The smell of salt filled my nose and the sound of the waves filled my ears. It was such a wonderful afternoon. Around the other side of the beach, I followed up the hills behind the cliffs and saw the beautiful horizon as the sun slipped below. I walked past dozens of locals with their dogs. I don't think I've ever been jealous of a dog before but I thought them incredibly lucky to be able to live by such a beautiful area and with families that love spending time with them there. Even I had trouble dragging my bunch of people out of the house that morning (they're still gr8 tho).

After it got dark, I returned home by way of the lolly shop. I bought some rock candy and bonbons to share with Dom but as it stands, I've already opened it and given a few to Lily. I've also eaten a few.

I'm not sure what it was that night, but the laksa and pasta for dinner was so delicious. So delicious. I hadn't enjoyed Asian food like that laksa in such a long time. We had a great post-dinner bonding time, I showed a few people my photos from the afternoon, and we pulled out the sparklers. I'm not sure where the energy came from, but we went all out with our cameras that night. Selfies, photoboms, silly faces; left, right, centre. I bet it was what those zoo animals felt like when they discovered how to take photos of themselves with cameras they stole off people. It was so much fun though.

We wound down to a quiet-ish night and then brought out the monopoly. Smores were to be had and after a long, hearty chat with Justine and Judy, we finally fell asleep hours before we had to be up again. 

DAY 4

Driving home. Well, driving Justine home first. The drive back was probably more fun than the drive there. I had my music going, which I guess Justine enjoyed as well. We played a bit of house, but the real party began when we pulled out the Queen, ABBA, NSYNC playlist. It was such a ball singing and dancing in the back seat. The other car could only wish they were having so much fun. I recorded a few videos out the window and the others played prank calls on the other car, screaming funny sounding city names into the phone every time every time we came across a new one. It became a cacophany of "moony moony moony moony" or "woy woy woy woy woy" and all our sides were hurting from the laughter. It was a good ride.

After reaching Justine's place, we had lunch at a shopping complex nearby before taking Justine home again. Jason fumbled with the GPS as we were leaving, and we ended up waving goodbye to Justine and her mum for a good couple of minutes and just laughing until we were hurting again because nobody stopped waving, and we weren't moving. Jason ended up just driving off to another street before figuring out the rest of the way.

We drove through the main street in Granville with my window open, filling the car with the smell of charcoal chicken.

I feel like I've come out of this trip knowing who I am able to better get along with. Closer friends have emerged while my attitude towards a few other people have changed, much to my surprise. Being within such close proximity to a group of people probably strains every facet of a friendship no matter how close each party already was. At least for now and probably until uni starts up again, we can all agree that we've had enough of each other's company.