Time Out

There's a hill in the local park where you can sit and look across to the CBD (which is admittedly not very far away). But it's quiet up here, and you can watch the world go by. It doesn't matter if you just sit there and breathe, think, or contemplate your naval; it's a little pocket of space that seems to be overlooked by reality.

There's a bench on the hill, from where you can watch the dogs, the kids, the families, the wildlife and the joggers go by. Stretching out on the grass is invariably peaceful, but I save that until later in the afternoon, when people are going home - city folk apparently don't lie in the grass for the fun of it, and they tend to come and poke you with a stick to see if you're a dead body or just plain weird.

Eventually, the dogs and the joggers go home, and you can sit in the silence after dark and watch the city lights wink in the distance.

Of course, getting yourself back down the hill in the pitch black of night, without breaking a leg or bumping into a flasher, is the price you pay for a little serenity. :-)