Treasure Hunt

Miranda Kerr, the Australian Goddess whose very wise words in her beautiful book Treasure Yourself, inspired me to take this town as an opportunity instead of a disaster in my life. 7:44 am and I was awake, I curled in bed and watched Coco Avant Chanel - in French. As I don't speak French, I didn't understand the movie until half way through it I had the brilliant idea to put English subtitles and by doing so, I restarted the whole movie. Ironically, something so small like subtitles made me realise that the movie was completely different than what I thought it was and made me think, maybe I am living my life without subtitles. It annoyed me to think that we - society - were purposely ignorant when considering other's set of ideologies, this fear to be different shut people's belief set and basically chucked them out of the window. Thus, my treasure hunt begun - a short walk to the local mall to find a notebook.


Currently being in a small country town, I opted for a casual, comfortable and plain outfit - however, my choice made me feel more like an outcast. Being a fan of heavy smoky eye makeup, today, I faced my fears and lightened my daily excess of eye makeup (honestly, not the best choice of photos, however, the difference is noticeable.). Annoyed at my foundation, as I spent over AU$150 on my M.A.C makeup and it doesn't sit right on my skin, I grabbed my gorgeous 7 dollar sun glasses, my bright orange handbag and left in the pursue of happiness - a cheap 80 cents or less notebook.

As I am not a fan of casual attire, I had no choice other than dig up an old skirt from my suitcase. This gorgeous 'maxi' skirt cost me $40 dollars from Suprè last year (AU$20,00 from a gift card, AU$13,00 in coins and AU$7,00 borrowed from a friend), it is made of 100% polyester and it is a very nice and casual skirt that would go with any shirts. Personally, I am a fan of either plain and elegant or chic and elegant, so I chose my old AU$7 Suprè singlet which its 95% cotton and 5% spandex is very dirty right now. Finally, to tie my look together as I felt too plain, I chose an exquisite necklace which I do not recall where I bought it from or its price.

My shoe choice however, took me a little longer as I had a small problem on my foot. A few nights ago, in a desperate attempt to cheer myself up, I decided to give myself a pedicure, unfortunately, my laziness only let me paint one toe nail out of ten - I felt like I had a fungi infection on my big toe nail and had to be quarantined. Putting my pride aside after numerous hopeless efforts to take off my nail polish, I left the house with one thing on my mind - explore this new intriguing town to the best of my ability.

After walking in circles and being lost a couple of times, I finally found the local mall which to my dismay was only down the road from the place I am at. Sadly, being lost made me realise that people actually live in this city, they make a living out of this place, and unlike me who will go back to my beautiful town in a few weeks time, they are stuck in this place. It saddened me to see how things were slowly falling apart in this community - I literally felt like I was in a ghost town, a one-hundred and something degree ghost town. There were hardly any street shops opened, and the ones that were, were in need of some serious renovation. Everywhere I looked, graffiti seemed to be part of the local community. And the people may you ask, seemed to lack personal hygiene as their clothes were dirty, their hands were black and the trail of rotting flash left me speechless. I understand that this being the country side of Australia, not many people would care about their appearance, however, I never imagined let alone experienced to see a whole mall lack the essential needs of any human being in the 21st century.

Confused, melancholic and honestly, striving to leave the sad sight in front of me, I walked into a newsagent and asked for the November issue of American Vogue (AU$7,95), their customer service shocked me as the place I come from shop owners and employees take customer service seriously. I couldn't understand why people were so bitter if this has been their reality ever since they were born. As I kept walking, I joyfully spotted The Coffee Club sign and rushed into the store, after ordering one of their cold drinks I sat down and patiently waited for my name to be called out - for my surprise, the lady brung it to my table. I felt like I was back at home, apart from the fact that I was 150 km away from the Coast, however, at that moment I didn't care.

Being at home now, still lacking the notebook I left my house for, I wonder why these people lack small things like personal hygiene and even happiness. This population of people kilometres away from the city lacked proper help from the local government, the buildings, streets and local shops ruined due to the normal process of ageing and me, a tourist was left with a distressed first impression of a city which once was full of joy.

xoxo,
Issa.