sydney journals :: january 2010
Following on from my blimey, my London journals, and strewth, my original Australian travel blog, I'm back in Sydney. Far out!
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Wednesday, January 20 2010, 21:00
The future has landed
I remember thinking when I was at school that in the year 2000 I would be 22 - and that would be a frighteningly old age, a time I couldn't even begin to imagine because I didn't know what 22 year olds did. My world was all lessons and tv and homework and books and Star Trek. Obviously when 2000 came around, I was effortlessly doing just what 22 year olds did (well, 21 since I wasn't 22 until July). There was a fair amount of reflection involved when the big 3-0 drew near, but I can honestly say that I had never given any thought about the year 2010 until it happened. I'll be 32 this year and, effortlessly doing what 32 year olds do. I think.
Ten whole years have passed since we gave up partying like it was 1999 and danced to The Real Slim Shady, Spinning Around, Toca's Miracle (er... I wonder if that's going to be trotted out every ten years?)... Britney still had all her innocence and her hair and Billie Piper was still trying to sing instead of playing a winsome sidekick to Doctor Who. Google was still a baby, no-one had even dreamed of Facebook, and the world was eagerly anticipating the release of Internet Explorer 6. I had my first mobile phone, a motorola brick, which I infrequently used from my cold little room at the end of our house in Swansea, where I lived with Fran, Rick, Nick, Christian, and Anthony while I finished off my Classics degree. That was the year Tony Blair had another baby, the wobbling Millennium Bridge had to close, Madonna married Guy Ritchie, George Bush stole the election, and the Queen Mum (gor bless yer, marm) celebrated her 100th birthday.
That was the year that I left education and looked into a future of having a proper job, paying taxes, repaying my student loans, and generally doing the same thing from 9-5 every day for the rest of my life. It seems a million years ago that Al and I were perched on the wall of Lambeth Palace, deafened by the wall of sound generated by the millennium fireworks on the Thames. Since then, I've lived half a planet away, moved back, and moved back again. I've travelled on five continents (two to go!), I'm onto my tenth proper job, and somewhere along the way I've met at least 611 people who I thought were nice enough to add on Facebook. I met someone who was instantly dazzled by my good looks and charm, who dazzled me in return and somehow found the patience to put up with all my bad habits for the last four years (as well as give me some new ones).
In short, a lot has changed. And all in ten years - a whole third of my life (although I'm still watching Star Trek). Back in 2000, I remember wondering how we all managed without a mobile phone. Last July, I wondered how I ever managed without my iPhone. I wonder what I won't be able to live without when I'm 42 [falls off chair at the very thought]. Probably botox.
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