Isabella is the protagonist. She is an international model, avid gardener and self confessed social capitalist. Let her take you on a tour of the Granite Belt in Queensland, Australia. She will also share some of her deepest thoughts, her own spiritual and personal insights and a wonderfully funny outlook on living well, living the moment and accepting her past.
At first she was afraid. She was terrified. Isabella realised that no matter what happened to her, wherever life took her, whoever she fell in love with, whatever she ate, whatever she wore, whoever she hung around, she was forever going to channel Gloria Gaynor’s “I will Survive”. There was no hiding the fact that in Isabella’s mind, disco was still very much alive. If only she could control her spontaneous disco dancing when out in public. Don’t even get her started on the BeeGees.
Contemplation on the veranda – so much to do, so little time. Even her armed friend was enjoying the reflective mood circling in the air. It wasn’t until Isabella revealed her frustration at waiting for the front loader to complete it’s cycle that the tranquility was so abruptly broken. Yes, the front loader saved water, washed better and so neatly enabled bench space in her laundry, but for goodness sake – hurry the f*@^ up.
Isabella was not the most flexible person in the world. When she decided to re-start her yoga practices at the local community centre, she thought it would be a great idea to have a muscle relaxant (or two) to fast track her body into the necessary warm-up mode. Everything was working wonders until she contorted herself into downward dog. It was only a matter of time before the muscle relaxant combined with her irritable bowel and weak pelvic floor muscles forced her into a loud and stinky humiliation. Isabella ran to the loo only to spend the rest of the session hidden behind the public toilet block where the wild yellow daisies grew. Needless to say, the relaxant did not feature at the next class. Nameste.
The day was over and the only thing to do was drink some wine. I say some because this was in fact the third bottle of the afternoon. Having somewhat of a drinking issue, at least Isabella chose the best wine to share amongst friends. All that was left to do was to serve up the baguettes she made earlier with a lovely ripe blue cheese. Oh yeah – life is tough on the Granite Belt.
Always one to help, Isabella thought it would be a good idea to aerate the compost bin. She had a secret love affair with compost – sometimes a little too hot, sometimes a little too wet. No matter what, she knew all she had to do was let the compost take time to breathe and she would be most satisfied. As would the tomatoes she planted.
The path seemed innocuous. Isabella had walked this area a million times before today but for some reason she hesitated, turned around and headed home. She later had heard that a man and woman had gone missing not that far from that resting place earlier that morning. They were found the next day – they weren’t lost – they just decided to go find a cafe on the other side of the ridge. Phew.
Denying her hippie beginnings was a futile battle now that the coreopsis were in full bloom. Isabella quite happily tiptoed through the flowers knowing that whilst her allergies would cripple her frolicking, there was nothing more gorgeous as fields and fields of yellow daisies as far as the eyes could see. In the words of her niece – ‘it is like all of my dreams have come true’. Antihistamines helped Isabella enjoy the dreamy haze that is coreopsis season.
Not being one to climb trees, Isabella thought it would be hilarious to perch herself in the branches to do a spot of bird watching. She commented later that she wished that she had camouflaged herself as each time a blue wren came close, it stared her in the eyes for a second, only to fly away as if it had never been. Note to self…. camouflage is key.
It was a day like no other. Isabella had spent the morning mowing the lawn only to discover that she never had enough petrol to finish that last square meter of grass. So instead of getting more petrol, she meditated under her favourite granite boulder. Grass will keep growing – it is the way of the world… for now.
She really didn’t want cereal for breakfast but Isabella knew that she had to keep herself in shape as another photo shoot was looming. Thank God for the double shot long black. It was going to be hard to convince her tummy that the oatmeal was really the desired crispy potato rosti, poached egg and ‘crack a tooth on the rind’ smokey bacon. Hollandaise sauce on the side was stretching her imagination a little too much this time.
On the Granite Belt 