I know it’s cliched to love the city you live in, bit I don’t think people give enough credit to Brisbane. I know it’s not a huge city with a lot of amazing things constantly going on but it’s beautiful and unique and I am proud to call it my home. It took my living in London and Europe for two and a half years to realise how much I love Brisbane too, before that I thought it was one of the most boring capital cities in the world, let alone Australia. But over the last couple of years it’s started to grow and become this interesting, vibrant city which always has something going on, even if you have to look a bit deeper to find what’s going on exactly.

Lately I’ve been trying to see more of Brisbane and have been shocked by how much I don’t know about the city I’ve lived in for over 15 years. Even just taking walks in areas I haven’t been before has opened my eyes! The other day I walked all the way from my work in Milton, through the city and along the riverside and was so impressed by how beautiful everything was as the sun went down. I had dinner at a restaurant I’ve never noticed before and discovered a walkway I never even knew existed that was just bustling with people at 7pm on a Tuesday evening.

Of course I write this two days before I go on a long-anticipated trip to Tokyo. Well Brisbane, as much as I will love the hell out of Tokyo, I will be happy to return to you afterwards!

This has honestly been a dreadful  week. Not just for me, but for a lot of people, particularly people very close to me. I don’t want to go into details, it’s all very complicated and going over it will probably only upset me more, but it’s just not been my week. I have to wonder if there’s some sort of supernatural or cosmic force behind this? In south-east Queensland we’ve had horrific weather and flooding, and have been declared a natural disaster zone for all the damage that’s been caused. Numerous friends of mine have had nothing but terrible luck and awful situations in their lives and it seems like everything is going to shit for a lot of people I know.

Personally I have been trying to combat the negativity in my life by just doing things for myself. I have been exercising relentlesly, because I feel so good after a hardcore workout and an extra dose of serotonin can’t be beat. I have also been taking my issues head on and trying to deal with them as they come, instead of bottling them up and feeling all the worse for it. It meant taking a  day off work to just chill out and work some things out, but it was necessary for my own well-being.

I can only hope this bad news week is almost over for everyone affected and things will start looking up soon. I wish I had advice for anyone else going through similar things to me, all I can suggest is taking on your problems as they arise and fix them as soon as possible, and not bottle them up or repress them. Hopefully you will pull through and be all that more stronger for it!

You will be dearly missed. I hope you found Pepe and are romping around in doggy heaven with him right now.

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