in like

ricebag walking solo across all the way across western tibet : june 2004 : longest dusty yellow-hot days; sub-zero nights in my macpac one-man; home for caves along mountain walls; dry noodles and sleepless fits as yak herds thundered across moon-lit plains; a trillion stars and a lone soul; running, walking, hitching, stealing my way across this ancient landscape; illegal ricebag ... walking kilometres around chinese military checkpoints under cover of night; eating tsampa tsampa tsampa in tibetan tents; prostrating bhuddhist prayers for a world tomorrow tomorrow; walking as a pilgrim over mt kailash; walking lake manosarovar; breathing lungs, moving one foot, one step at a time; a little islandbaby made it all the way from lhasa to kashgar. alone. with a tent. a water filter. a swag of prayer flags. and lots and lots of good luck; very very much a dream come true; a total fucking adventure; crossing raging ice-melt rivers at midnight; climbing canyons; hiding underside metal boxes in tibetan trucks; stranded at the end of the world. Without a visa. Even I forget forget. The intensity. The exhaustion. The purity. The vastness. The pale blue-in-everything beauty. The utter isolation. A desert storm. An ice-capped road. The infinity. Even I forget that I did that. ricebag. me.

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And now the news we've been waiting for ...

It's official. Ricebag is in like. IN LIKE!! Do not even begin to underestimate how amazing that is. Shhhh ... he doesn't know yet how hard he is about to fall for me. My instincts tell me he also is in like, has like for ricebag ... and I am not going to let this one go without making him suffer for love first.

Yeah.

After Meg rang on Friday she gave me a real kick up the bum. And now I just feel so ready to shed this slump I've been in and look forward ... and the minute I do that (ie yesterday) something promising happens. Last night at an AIDS fundraiser party ... he is the one wearing the white belt.

I can't tell more because true love was thwarted all evening but but but I have my girls, The Sepik Girls, and they are my cheer squad and a little sumthin sumthin has just gotta be coming up.

I mean, Jesus. I woke up with a smile on my face this morning. How corny is that.

I always hate this beginning bit ... the sussing-out part. I just want to get to the first kiss. Then I'm ok; I know how to deal; I can navigate from there. It's the confidence thing. After the first kiss you know the liking is mutual. This before-bit ... it's ... a bit nerve-wrecking. Will he?? Won't he?? It only matters so much when I really-really am in like. If I am less-in-like, then with my winning "personality" and a few fluttering eyelashes, I can increase your little ricebag-like to a lotta ricebag-like ... there's just less for me to lose. But when I am in real-real-like, like right now, then I am somewhat lost. Somewhat paralysed. I could totally shine with absolutely every other living organism in the room, but when I get close to showing off ricebag-in-her-stunning-element to the object-of-ricebag's-affection, this stupid brain shuts down. Lord, how'd I ever get a boyfriend before??!!

At least I know. I have The Sepik Girls to remind me constantly - he'd be a bloody fool not to jump me! That and the fact that we are going to have a beautiful life and that we will make amazing looking mini-me's, keeps me forging ahead.

However, dear readers, please dont expect a hot tropical love affair any time soon (boo hoo). This is, after all, island manyana time and with ricebag her life is work and not much play. We shall see. We shall see. We shall just have to see.

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ALSO at the same 'do' last night, I met someone I did not know before but whose blog I've been following ... Larissa is an Australian Volunteer teaching at a high school in Port Moresby and you can catch more about her experience living and working in PNG on her blog BOMANA NIGHTS.

Gave her a bit of a shock in the Ladeeez (why do all the most vital communications always take place in the ladies toilets??!!) when I recognised her from her blog and gave my HEY and "outed" myself as ISLANDBABY.

Ms Bomana Nights is a totally gorgeous girl in real life. Just so you know.