THE STRANGE LONGING FOR DIRTY CLOTHING, OILY GLOVES AND HAVING YOUR HAIR MESSED UP BY WEARING A CAP FOR TEN HOURS OR MORE.

I was driving home from a show we did tonight with a glitter-heavy lid and lashes tickling my eyebrows, and as always when heading west to where we live I drove past the harbour. And I always give it  a look as I go by and think of the guys out there in between cars and trucks, next to the ship, loading and unchanging like I did for so many years.*

(This hello-I-am-having-a-show-soon pic from a few weeks back gets to illustrate the glitter heavy eyelid even though this here is on the ligther side sparkle-wise. But I have Disney-princess hair so there you go.)

Then I drove past a work team fixing the road in their yellow safety wear and Goddamit! every single time I see workwear I get this itch to throw my old bulky yellow reflector pants and steel cap boots - that both immediately changes the way I walk- on and head out among the trucks to get some black dirt on my jacket. In certain ways I really miss my harbour days! And in the same time I am happy not to be standing there in whatever weather it is at six in the morning, or at midnight either, for what it matters.

Me in the harbour a summer's day a long time ago.

I also remembered all those times fixing my make up and rolling my hair in our locker room and often getting the guys to, during the evening break, drive me to the venues our shows were held at. Once I had a week off went to a gig but realised I had forgotten one thing at home and was not by car so I was rather fucked but checking the time knowing it was between ships I called work and one of the guys came to pick me up and we went to get my missing showstuff. We did favours for each other all the time.

I haven't actually retired from the harbour totally; I am on an extended (unpaid) parental leave for one more year still. But even though having every third week off I don't really see how working from the afternoon to one a.m one week and from five-something a.m until the afternoon including 20+ work hours during that weekend could work for me anymore... and I never meant to stay there for as long as I did. As many others, I have an education in something totally different than what I worked with there (however working like I did was also good since it's healthy to work along other people than just creative and media, you get a different perspective...). And another and, even though I'm not exactly pulling in a fair monthly supervisor salary nowadays like before being back to being The Freelancer Of Many Things is going rather okay for now.
But we'll see what happens, never say never.

Btw I just noticed I had a whole album titled "harbour birds"with pictures of the birds in the harbour that could never quite capture what I had tried to, which often was that there were shitloads of birds in huge colonies around.

Hundreds and hundreds and they always gathered rather freakily at night and watched us.

*) 2001 to 2012 if you wondered.