Invalides

Napoleon's tomb, in Les Invalides on the Seine in Paris stands a compensatory 21 metres high from its base of marble to the top of the golden sarcophagus.

The big screen at Melbourne's IMAX theatre is coincidentally the exact same height.

The above is bullshit. I will not fact check it. IMAX Melbourne is showing the Beyoncé movie instead of Napoleon on the two days I'm in this town and this is the final insult that my plans for an enjoyable holiday will endure. Like the French's enemies in the first years of the nineteenth century, I surrender. I'll make the best of whatever days are left of this road trip and I'll look forward to Monday and returning to work on hopefully the first day I haven't felt like shit all month.

I have enjoyed a good run of holidays leading up to this one, so I can't feel too aggrieved. PNW, 2022 Road Trip, and Europe 2023 included no sickness or other dramas. I appreciate the privilege I have to even take a holiday. But this trip has undoubtedly felt like a cascade of drama. Sickness, missing catch ups with family, driving and sleeping only. After commenting that I would get injured just by attending a CrossFit competition I then slipped on some mud by the beach and pissed off my wrist again. No, this holiday is a dead holiday and I have been a ghost on it. Lying in bed at 8:30pm instead of drinking beer and watching the lightning over the ocean. Haunting historic Goulburn instead of quality time with nieces and nephews. Sunny days covered by sheeting rain. Not writing journal entries. Not seeing the sun set. Delicious food and coffee tainted by the ubiquity of infectious mucus. I am glad I at least recovered my sinuses in time to spend time with Steve on Monday, and get in a couple of hikes. Vanessa has not been so fortunate. It has not been fun. I would rather have been working.

Gough's Bay this morning.

And yet, there still opportunities to make the best of what is left. I'm sitting at Riverland now as the sun lights up the Yarra and the DJ plays my funeral song - hopefully not an omen, but a reminder that it doesn't matter how big your tomb or how high resolution your biopic is, it's better to be on holiday than to be dead.

And I got to see this bird.

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