Summertime Girls

"Them summertime girls, they drive me crazy
I think I'm in love
They're looking so good, they're so amazing
Like da-da-daa-da-da
They got the sunkissed skin and golden curls
Smiling at the world
Them summertime girls, they drive me crazy
It's all about them summertime girls
Them summertime girls,
It's about them summertime girls"

Summertime Girls - Masketta Fall

It has been two and a half months since I arrived back from my Australian adventure. I have slotted back into life in New Zealand relatively well; I got a new job, have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with all my friends, and started plotting more trips to keep the boredom at bay. Sometimes I miss Australia, especially Perth, a place that captured my heart in mere minutes, and the friends I made along the way. But I stand by what I wrote about in Back Home - that New Zealand is where I need to live.

It may have taken me a few weeks to get to writing this blog (there's been some other secret writing projects going on!), but did you really expect me to go all over Australia and not find a sweet band to follow? I came across Masketta Fall after Twitter hype about them opening for The Vamps, my favourite British pop rock band. I missed seeing The Vamps but I did get onto Spotify to see what the Masketta Fall fuss was about. And they are pretty cool. They are my favourite kind of fun music; cute guys on instruments, catchy and friendly songs, and, I don't doubt, a pretty funky group to see live.

And I really would like to see these guys play a live gig. I asked them to come over via Twitter last night and this was the response:

So, in an attempt to get these guys to cross the ditch, I'm putting the word out there about how awesome Masketta Fall are. If you know any people who love pop rock boy bands then let them know about these guys, because I'm not keen on losing this challenge. And I know that you know someone - because most people pretend to hate this kind of music but secretly love it. Or, if you're like me and loud and proud about your boy band obsession - i.e. you have music from One Direction, Hot Chelle Rae and The Wanted - then get aboard the Masketta Fall fan base. 

Australia have given us some great pop music over the past few years - Sheppard, 5 Seconds of Summer, Justice Crew and my favourite lil rocker Reece Mastin, and I think we can add Masketta Fall to that mix. But I won't know for sure until I see them live, so show them some love and help me get them across the Tasman Sea. 

Man in the Mirror

"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change"

Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson 

I have spent a lot of the past month in observation mode, specifically focussing on how people treat each other. I watched people in everyday life, I watched people playing sports, and, most importantly, I watched people interact with others on the internet. We are quite considerate in person. Sport will always have it's fair share of poor sportsmanship but that's just the game for you. But online, wow, do people let loose. 

The internet is a great place for expressing opinions; I do it every time I write a blog. But I like to think my blogs are a more structured opinion piece, where I write what I really think and feel, and tend to stay away from personal attacks against people. My Twitter feed, however, it is a different story. Clicking on any trending topic will bring a up a slew of rather disgusting attacks no matter what the story is, and most of the time it's against a particular person. And it is, quite frankly, horrible reading. 

Of course, being so rude has for a long time been the topic of many songs by my favourite pop artists. 

Taylor Swift said "Why you gotta be so mean" 

Magic! said "Why you gotta be so rude" 

And Lily Allen just went "Fuck you. Fuck you very very much" 

I don't particularly condone that last one, but it kind of gets the point across - online trolls aren't worth much time. 

But what does this have to with Man in the Mirror and Michael Jackson? Well, the King of Pop called it all those years ago. The change starts with you. It's time we took ownership of what we say and do. The best way to get rid of the nasties is to keep the nasty out of your own comments. I'll tell it to your face: those comments aren't funny, they are hurtful, and if you wouldn't say it in real life then you shouldn't say it online. I have Twitter-challenged myself to tweet only positive comments to people, and I tell you, it does make me feel great, and I like to think the person receives it smiles when they read it. 

I, of course, have much bigger plans to change the world that just telling people to clean up their internet act. I have certainly looked in the mirror and thought about all the ways I can make this world a better place. I'll start by spreading the good vibrations. And I'll finish this blog by saying two things: one, that you should listen to Man in the Mirror and get that inspiration to do some good, and two, that you are a bunch of beautiful people. 

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

"Oh! I wanna dance with somebody
I wanna feel the heat with somebody
Yeah! I wanna dance with somebody
With somebody who loves me"

I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston 

Let's me start with this: I love this song. It's a classic ballad delivered from peak era Whitney Houston. It's been killed by thousands of people at karaoke bars - in both the good and bad way. It's that song that comes out near the end of the night at parties and weddings and everyone gets into it. I remember it coming on when I was at a club in Melbourne (incidentally, the same club which inspired The Nights and All The Small Things) and it made me think about how much I want to eventually find someone to dance with. 

There's many types of dancing out there: ballet, salsa, rumba, contemporary, hip hop, country line dancing, dancing in the rain, that weird move you always do in the club, dancing around like maniac when your favourite song comes on and that secret bum wiggle dance every tries out at least once. Dancing is part of life - even if you have never done it professionally it's still something that can bring a lot of joy and bring people together. I am always keen to get a dance floor going, however minimal. I was once on a dance with floor with one friend and three American girls I had just met, and I had a ball. 

But I Wanna Dance With Somebody is more about the dance of life. The song talks about finding that person who will dance with you through thick and thin. As a person who has never really had a serious relationship I see this song as an ideal, a goal, the end result. We all know life will throw great things and terrible things at you, and for many of us these things will be dealt with alongside a partner. I would like to think that we will all end up with someone holding our hand and dancing around the good and the bad, from your first dance at your wedding to the Saturday night dance at the retirement village. 

One day I will find someone to dance with. I blog time and time again about the importance of being an individual and following your dreams, but I still believe you can do all that with someone dancing alongside you. In the mean time, I will dance with friends and family, with strangers and by myself, until I find my dance partner. 

Wings + The Nights

"Mama told me not to waste my life,
She said spread your wings my little butterfly
Don't let what they say keep you up at night
And they can't detain you'
Cause wings are made to fly"

"He said, "One day you'll leave this world behind
So live a life you will remember."
My father told me when I was just a child
These are the nights that never die
My father told me"

Wings - Little Mix + The Nights - Avicii 

Not long before I left for Australia my mother came up to me and asked if I had heard Wings before. I said yes, of course, it's played all the time on the pop stations. She said something like good, that's what I want you to do. I got all sorts of other advice from my parents before I left - be safe, have fun, remember why you are going, do it for both of us. It was the typical parent stuff. It was comforting; before I left I had always wanted my parents permission to go off on this big adventure. Although I'm in my early twenties and could have gone off without their permission it was nice to know I had support back home. 

As I traveled I met a lot of young people like myself and one thing we often talked about was what our parents thought about us being on the road. I met a girl from London whose mother was reluctant to let her get an Australian Visa, and another girl from Sweden said her parents had begged her to come home for Christmas. There was an English girl who missed her parents so much she decided to go home after two months. I even met a mother who loved traveling so much she was taking her son along the Australian East Coast. Then there was the American grandmother I met who hinted it was she who needed her children's permission to go on her overseas experience. 

I'm lucky my parents let me go without too many reservations. It's a pretty big deal to let your child board a plane with just a few places of accommodation booked in a foreign country. Indeed, my mother she hardly sounded surprised when I called her from the Sunshine Coast and said "I'm off to Vietnam in two weeks!" And since I've been home my older brother has headed off on his overseas trip and my mother has let him to do his thing. Between myself and my older brothers we've always come back a bit wiser from all our overseas trips - my mother always said I came back different from my first solo overseas trip to Sydney when I was eleven. 

I picked out two songs this week to dedicate to my mother and father. The song by Avicii is a banger I am absolutely digging right now. I first heard it when I was in Australia and then it came on when I was in a club in Melbourne with my friends I met in America. I think that night, when we were all friends met while traveling, we remembered the nights we had together in Australia and America.

So this post is a double header of two pop songs my parents would probably never listen to, but you get the point. Thanks, ma and pa.

Really Don't Care

"But even if the stars and moon collide

I never want you back into my life

You can take your words and all your lies

Oh oh oh I really don't care

Even if the stars and moon collide

I never want you back into my life

You can take your words and all your lies

Oh oh oh I really don't care

Oh oh oh I really don't care"

Really Don't Care - Demi Lovato feat. Cher Lloyd 

I have never shied away from writing blogs to people. Sometimes I write them because I simply cannot put the words into real life what I want to say to them. Sometimes they have gone - they've left my life or passed away - and I feel this blog is the only time I have to tell them something. I've written to friends, family, co workers, to people I've briefly met and to people I will never meet. But now for the first time, I'm writing to someone who will not listen to me. So, for nearly all of you, this blog will be an entertaining story about a troublesome person in my life. One that, as you will soon find out about, I really don't care about anymore. 

Let's begin where it all broke down - the reunion. When you see someone for the first time in a while it's never going to be easy sailing. Whether it's your best friend or a mere acquaintance, there is a distance created by being apart. There's moments of awkwardness, hesitation about which subjects to bring up - do you stick to the good ones or do you venture into the bad times you had to go through together? And really, after all this time, how much can you say you really know about each other?

It got off to a decent start, I guess. There was banter and laughs with the others and it seemed like maybe everything was going to be okay. I suppose we are both lucky we can joke about some of the things that happened; I am a fan of being able to laugh at the past. But as the night went on things started to go downhill, aided by our best friend and worst enemy: alcohol.

I knew at some point there would be an intense conversation. Imagine my relief - after months of thoughts and feelings and confusion, written only in this blog, I would be able to talk to you. But, oh, how it went so badly. It's a pet hate of mine, to ask me a question and then not bother to listen to my reply. Or even better, to tell me to explain then walk away without a comment, leaving me to my own emotional mess. But I pride myself on knowing myself better than you ever will, so I came prepared with the tissues, because I knew I couldn't get through a whole weekend without there being a few tears.

One of my favourite parts was the spun story about backing off because you couldn't bear the feelings. I should have picked you to run from emotions. Or perhaps I should have picked you to tell stories to try make me feel better. I guess I'll never learn which one was the truth. You asked me so many times whether I was mad at you and I said no every time, because I wasn't until we had this little chat. After that I was filthy mad with you, something I think you always wanted to try feel better about yourself. 

Though perhaps a little thank you is in order for this night - you walking away meant I walked straight into the arms of another man. It's funny how distant one becomes when they're no longer the centre of attention.

There's a line which stands out to me in Really Don't Care: I can't believe I ever stayed up writing songs about you. That's what it was: Demi Lovato writes songs, I write blogs. Either way, you pour your emotions into words and a few months later it just seems like silly thoughts which never resonated with the intended target. Maybe that's what will happen again here - but at least I tried.   

I don't like you and I don't care about you, but in a funny, twisted way I will always have a touch of love for you. That's what happens when you come on my emotional roller coaster ride, and I never forget those who climb aboard.

That's nearly my whole story. There is just one thing left - the happy ending. Well it's simple: I am perfectly content with creating my own happiness and my own stories and memories with people I really care about. 

All The Small Things

"All the small things
True care, truth brings
I'll take one lift
Your ride best trip

Always I know
You'll be at my show
Watching, waiting, commiserating

Say it ain't so,
I will not go,
Turn the lights off,
Carry me home"

All The Small Things - Blink-182

When you start travelling you meet all sorts of people: the partiers, those interested in the local cultures, even those who are sulking about being overseas (an odd bunch of people these ones). Sometimes when travelling you only get a few days or even a few hours to get to know someone and then one of you moves on. From these limited interactions it becomes quite common to have a generalised opinion of them, even though you hardly know much more about them then where they are from and what they do. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with some people I met while doing my first travels through America and my original impressions of them changed, and there's one in particular which brought me to writing this blog.

It started when I found out they read nearly every post I write, and I had no idea apart from their comments on one travel related blog. It's one of the biggest compliments a person can give me, saying they read and like my blog. There are people I know read this blog every time a post goes up and I value their feedback. But there are others who read this and I have no idea who they might be - but that's the internet for you. 

It shouldn't seem too out of the ordinary that he reads this given how many random blogs and articles we click on every day, right? Well, this person also happens to be the loosest person I have ever met. I have never seen anyone party as much or drink as much as they do, to the point where I was nearly fearful of them. I honestly have no idea how they made their way on their travels given the nights we had out. It was all in good fun and towards the end of the trip I wished I had gotten to know them a bit better. When I reunited with the group recently the guy was, without a doubt, still one of the loosest people I had ever met. It's like that's their thing, their one big impression they want everyone to remember them by. 

But as this reunion went on I began to see the smaller things. The compliments about my writing came out again and the support offered about a few of my sadder posts. We talked more and actually listened to one another (a topic which I intend to cover more in my next blog). We laughed and danced to terribly awesome 1990s music with the rest of our group. And when some idiot made me drunk cry at about 1am we drunk sung Shake It Off together. I always knew they weren't a bad person but I never knew they were such a good person.  

There were other revelations about my travel mates on this reunion - like the girls who turned out to be lovely and fun and not at all stuck up like I first thought. And then, unfortunately, the people who turn out to not be as good as you once thought. I guess it works both ways. 

I love all the people I meet while I travel, as they are part of a huge adventure. I enjoy their stories and goals and visions for where they are going next. I wish I could keep in touch with everyone I meet and get to know them a lot better, but realistically that's not possible. I take what I can get from people as I go, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to meet them again, and maybe some of them will really turn into my life long friends. 

Back Home

"See, we won't forget where we came from
The city won't change us
We beat to the same drum
No, we won't forget where we came from
The city can't change us
We beat to the same drum, the same drum

(Hey!)
La-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah
La-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-doe
(Hey!)
And no matter where we go
We always find our way back home"

Back Home - Andy Grammer 

I'm home. Four months on the road and I'm home. 

Melbourne - Perth - Brisbane - Sunshine Coast - Byron Bay - Sunshine Coast - Vietnam - Perth - Adelaide - Melbourne - home. 

I left with one thing in mind: to find out what I really wanted to do. It was an open planned adventure. I didn't know if I wanted to travel and explore new places or if I wanted to live across the ditch. I had planned out the first five weeks and let the rest fall into place. This ended up meaning my time in Byron Bay was extended with a night's notice, a trip to Vietnam was booked three weeks in advance and while I tried to settle in Perth for a bit I woke up one day and thought "I'm ready to go home". People asked me why I was heading back. The best answer I could give was "it's not working". I didn't have any luck finding a job and as I wandered around Perth I lost the desire to live both there and anywhere else in Australia. Perth is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to and I enjoyed my time but living there was another story. I wasn't ready to live away from home. 

Along the way I met people with great stories. They came from all over - South Africa, England, France, Sweden and America. They were on youth visas searching for work, or just visiting because they too were not ready to live away from home. I met one girl who had her visa but decided to cut it short because she couldn't bear to be away from home for Christmas. I met a Grandmother from Pennsylvania who was doing conservation work in Adelaide - this was her time in her life to leave her kids behind and travel. It was these stories which helped me develop my own and realise that I just had to do what was right for me. 

To be honest, I didn't think I figured out what I wanted to do. I'm back home, unemployed and living with my parents and not sure what my next move will be. But I did figure out what I want to be. I want to be happy. I want to find the good in the bad. I want to be able to trust the vibes of a place or trust what my gut tells me to do without doubting the consequences. I had the amazing time doing what I wanted and needed to do. It wasn't always easy - there were tears and fears and confusion but I always kept going until I knew it was time to come home. 

Now I'm back I'll settle for a little bit here then consider my next move. But no matter what sights I saw, and I saw some amazing sights while I was gone, nothing compares to home. A lot of people asked about New Zealand and I always replied with "it's the best place in the world". Before I left I blogged about not forgetting your roots and I held true to that promise. I'll come and go from this place, but I will always call New Zealand home. 

Here's a few travel snaps of the best times with the best people

Cycling the suburbs of Perth

On a junk boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam (a beautiful place)

Melbourne reunion with my American contiki mates

This is just a sweet brag of the time I met Andy Grammer (this didn't happen overseas)