Weird

I tell you what’s weird : looking outside and seeing built up concrete and render . Seeing tall palm trees . Seeing clouds . Seeing darkness , bleak , forboding , drizzle , wet roads , puddles . I tell you what’s weird ; standing in front of the fire at 830 in the morning , undressing , warming up my wetsuit . I tell you what’s weird ; walking out of our apartment in a wetsuit with board under arm . Wrong even , you look at your reflection in car windows , try to keep the head down and ignore passing cars with their headlights and wipers on . I could be anywhere , could be the back streets of Richmond or Abbotsford . When it’s grey like this , California becomes grimy inner Melbourne . Drivers look at you in fascination . Is he really walking through the streets to the beach to go surfing in this weather ?Crazy ….. repeat that last sentence in your best American accent . Now you’re getting it . I tell you , I love this weather . It becomes a ghost town , introspective , fucking real . I tell you what’s weird ; seeing yourself in shopfront windows as you approach the pier . The silver grey hair , the paunch , the old man trying to stay young in a young mans get up . That’s not weird that’s depressing . I tell you what’s weird ; seeing the strand and pier avenue deserted I tell you what’s weird ; surfing down at the pier , not Mornington Pier on a big north westerly in freezing August but Hermosa pier in California . One of those piers with the long legs that you see on Baywatch or any one of those crass 80s and 90s American dramas . I tell you what’s weird ; seeing good waves . That is weird ! Afterwards , you walk back to the apartment , still dark , quiet , empty . What to do ? Look up footy scores and news , check out the cricket , hunt through Facebook . Keep busy . Now that is weird . We’ve been here 11 months , it’s taken a lifetime , but everyday I wake and realise that I’m in LA ………. it still feels weird .