Simple Pleasures

Kelly Burns
3 min readOct 16, 2021

Learning how to be

La Peruse Beach, Sydney Australia. There is seafoam green water surrounding white rocks. It is the edge of the cliff.
La Perouse Beach, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Kelly Burns

I’m still finding my footing here in Australia.

I’ve fallen in love with the Western Corellas. Today I scratched a semi-trained Corella on the head. He seemed to know the word, “Scratch,” and leaned in closer to climb down to my hands from his perch for a relaxing pet on the head.

This is a photo of an Australian Kookaburra bird. The bird is black and white colored with spots on its side. They are known for making wild laughing sounds which resemble a chimpanzee.
(Laughing) Kookaburra, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Kelly Burns

I’ve seen (and heard) the wild and laughing Kookaburras in the yard nearby. I’ve been in the middle of a loud and violent thunderstorm with lightning.

I’ve marveled at the many Street Libraries in New South Wales and I am excited about the books I will soon explore.

This is a photo of a lavender colored Street Library in Sydney, Australia. There are many books inside and the idea is to take a book and leave a book.
Street Library, Sydney, Australia. Photo by Kelly Burns
This is a photo of another Street Library in Sydney, Australia. The box is small about 3 feet by 2 feet. It has multi colors on the outside and it is attractive. The colors are yellow, purple and green.
Street Library 2. Sydney, Australia. Photo by Kelly Burns

I’ve been successfully identified by random Australians as an American in passing for simply saying two words in an elevator:

“Are you from the states?” She asked me.

“Yes,” I replied.

I wonder. How can they tell?It seems I will never be able to give myself away. It will all be revealed once I open my mouth and speak.

Perhaps I will play a new game of being the silent one. This way, it will be assumed that I am not the outlier and I can blend in better.

I’ve managed to get quite a bit of running in. Since we have recently come out of a lockdown, there are more people out exercising. I look forward to my morning and afternoon runs.

I’ve applied for my Partner Visa and I am awaiting word from the Department of Home Affairs. The waiting makes me a little anxious as I cannot travel even if the borders open up soon, because I am on a visitor visa until December.

Sometimes at night, I toss and turn as I am worried about returning home to see my family in the states, and with the 23–30 processing time, I am not sure how long it will be until I see my family. This…

Kelly Burns

writer and sometimes singer/composer & painter. Italian-American. INFP. I write fiction and nonfiction. www.kellyburns.com