DAY SIXTEEN: Doing

Many days in one. This morning I landed in Adelaide and enjoyed an afternoon of pottering around the vintage shops in the arcades and down the gorgeous river. An afternoon of working, split between a café and the comfortingly dystopian motel room.

It was a beautiful sunny day followed by an evening at a pub with a roaring open fire and eclectic open mic night. I was reliably informed by a local that it was the only place worth going out on a Monday night (thank you lonely planet for the suggestion). 

The same local asked me  "so what do young people think mental healthcare should be like?", and I realised this is not much clearer to me than it was 8 months ago. I think I mumbled that they wanted services to be opt-in, nice environments to be in and to have meaningful things to do. We talked about his return to performing music in mid-life (now guitar after playing violin at school) and how 'hobbies' doesn't really capture the importance of doing what we love. I said something jargony like the 'intrinsic therapeutic value of occupational engagement" and he explained 'its transcendental'.