You can never feel lost

Four years ago, after a particularly testing series of events in Perth, I decided to run away for a while. Feeling like I had lost myself, the only logical solution was to lose myself some more – in the Queensland outback.

After months of travelling deeper and deeper into isolation – through cane fields and empty pastures and rainforests and ghost towns – I found myself in Surfers Paradise. At the time I couldn’t think of a worst place to live. All of the pollution, run-down theme parks, doped-out surfers and silicone-boobed bimbos. And yet, for all of its hyperreal ugliness, the Gold Coast gave me everything that I needed – serenity, clarity and… inspiration.

But, most importantly, the Gold Coast gave me Dominique.

A week after arriving, I moved in with Adam – the quintessential ‘Paradise’ bloke: architect, surfer and commodore enthusiast. As the rental section of Paradise News had brought us together, I had low expectations of us becoming friends. To my surprise, within a week of sharing abode, I discovered that Adam was not only the sort of guy who would put the toilet seat down, he was also deep-thinking, honest and kind.

It made sense, then, that his girlfriend at the time, Dominique, would be equally wonderful. Dom and I would spend hours on Adam’s balcony, talking about our lives, loves, hopes, dreams and sporadic nicotine habits. I stayed with Adam for no longer than 4 months yet, in that time, I felt like Dominique was one of my closest friends.

Sadly, after I moved back to Perth, we didn’t keep in touch. We both had busy lives and lazy email practices, but somehow I knew that we would cross paths again. The last place I imagined this path to be was London…

Four years later, Dom and I work within 2 streets of one another, continue to share sneaky cigarettes and long conversations, and have as much to talk about as ever. I don’t care what anyone says, sometimes running away does help to solve your problems. With friends like Dom, you can never feel lost.