Patchwork

We got in the car and drove with the sun streaming through the windows and the wind rushing through our hair. I sat in the back seat, eyes closed and a soft smile lingering on my lips and felt perfect… clean and warm and perfectly perfect.

S guided the car around bends and up mini hills and suddenly the ocean opened up like a vast blue canopy before us. All the way along the coastline different coloured houses and apartments rose up omnipotent, watchful and protective of the spread before them. The water winked at us while delicious ocean air filled our lungs and buoyed our spirits.

I thought of the Amalfi coast and the lavish majesty of that perfect azure coastline. I remembered the winding roads narrow and laced with hairpin bends that dissolved our balance. I remembered the scooter ride to Pompeii along what felt like a thousand miles of endless hypnotic blue, blue and blue. And then I came back to and lay my head against the door frame, inhaled as much ocean air as my lungs would allow and could have cried for how beautiful it was.

I’ve found a bright and airy apartment for us near the ocean and a cute little jeep like run-about along with numerous other small essentials for this new life. From our home we can stroll to the white sandy beaches of Bronte and Tamarama where the air is so clean you want to sing and you can sit for hours on the rocks over the swells of un-patrolled beaches which seem to go on forever.

I felt euphoric on our drive. S parked the car and we walked down to the promenade. We strolled from one beach to the next, sat and watched beach volley ball and giggled so much my sides hurt. Just before we were about to turn back C suggested we walk the next bend in the rocks and visit the hermit that lives there. I laughed at him and dared him to show me, thinking I could call his bluff – and so he did.

Jhyimy "Two Hats" Mhiyles lives on the cliff face over looking Bondi Beach. His is a priceless view that no one can own, yet Jhyimy lives there free of rent and restriction. The story goes that J came to the coast in 2000, set up home on the cliff face and became such a part of the coastal fabric that when the council began eviction proceedings – the community rallied around him and petitioned for him to stay. And stay he did! In return J regales walkers and friends alike with poetry and stories. He is as colorful as the ramshackle lean to he’s made into his home, clothes drying on rocks and a small BBQ as his kitchen. I didn’t speak to him, but perhaps next time I will.

Living here still feels like a patchwork quilt in the making. Each piece I see is as colorful as the last and as I go along I am reassuringly aware that soon all the pieces will come together and I’ll know exactly where I am and how all this meshes together to become home.