THANK YOU! OZ & deadly snakes...

Thank You!

No, you won’t here the lyrics to a 90’s classic from Alanis Morissette.  But, the sentiment of the words ‘Thank You’ can resonate just the same.

Thank you for reading my blog while I’m on this adventure.

Thank you for encouraging me to just DO instead of THINKING about doing.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you to all of the wonderful smiling people that I’ve met here in OZ!

I won’t lie; the theme here has come from a book that I’m only a few chapters into so far.  “365 Thank Yous” is written by John Kralik, a middle-aged lawyer who has seemed to turn things around by understanding what he is really grateful for.  Only 4 chapters in and it seems to be quite the page-turner.  That being said… I’m reading!  So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice!

Since my last blog, I’ve really just been living and saying goodbye to people who have grown to be good friends.  The rain over the last several weeks has really put a damper on the ‘Paradise’ motif of Byron Bay.  Sooooo…. Now the season is dying down and the hotel does not seem to be booking up quite as quickly as it has been.  I’ll be on call for the rest of the week, but not scheduled to work any cleaning shifts since there is a lack of patrons.  It’s a good thing I went to Woolworth’s and bought some PB&J because it’s time to conserve funds again, before Dave arrives in a 1-½ week’s time or so. 

Thank You Elisha, for teaching me your vegetarian ways!  Elisha, one of the beautiful Canadians we had here at The Art’s Factory took it as a small project to feed me and teach me a little bit about how some good veggies can go a long way in a meal.  She isn’t one of those meat hating, angry vegetarians; it was just the way she grew up.  At any rate, she fed me well, and I never got to return the favor, as my veggie skills aren’t quite up to par. ;)

I was able to snag some photos of some recent meals “I’ve had the pleasure to of known.”  I know, I know… You’re saying, “Jim, you’re 26 friggin’ years old and you don’t know how to eat?”  Well, I do know how to eat; it’s just putting it together that remains the issue.  I’m getting better I promise!  It is truly amazing what kinds of meals you will find when you’re eating with people from all over the world!

Elisha left the other day in pursuit of Luminate Music Festival in New Zealand.  There have been many departures as of late, and most of them are headed for NZ to Luminate.  (Pictured... Me, Elisha & Johnny)

Thank You Ami & Oran, for teaching me just a wee bit of Hebrew.  ‘Team Israel,’ as they were so affectionately called was here for about 4 weeks and they are two of the most fun guys I’ve ever met.  Always having smiles on their faces and always waking up everyday for morning surf.  They both play guitar, which was nice when hanging around Ashley’s “Veranda” (as Ami called it so many times).  Remembering names is often trouble around here, as people come and go so quickly.  Ami naturally gave me the nick name Jim Beam; and yelled it loud and proud anytime I was in sight.  What a great spirit, and both of them are absolute blasts to hang out with.

Thank You Ashley, for these fresh sunflower seeds!  I walked passed her tent a couple days before she left for Luminate and was greeted with some fresh seeds, which were AWESOME!  Thank you for posing for the picture, now lets bag ‘em, tag ‘em and make some $!  I kid, I kid.  Ashley’s veranda has been a great meeting place for anyone and everyone to hang out whether she’s there or not; so a big thank you to her generosity.  As mentioned in earlier blogs, Ash is a certified masseuse and yoga instructor; I’ll try to continue to attend Yoga class and maybe a message before I leave.

Thank you Janek, for playing guitar with me when I’m so far behind everyone else in camp.  Janek is from Germany, but speaks as if he’s been in the states for years.  People around here are from such a wide variety of backgrounds that their English speaking skills can vary greatly.  I take a little bit of pleasure out of helping a friend learn a new vocab word or explaining a meaning of what someone else is saying in context.  Recently, Karlitos mentioned how we use the word “Sick” in so many different ways that sometimes he gets lost in the conversation.  Ex. Are you sick?  DUDE, that’s sick!  Ohhhhh man, that’s just sick.  That being said, Janek was always around to play guitar and lend a smile.  He didn’t say a whole lot, but when he did, I felt like it was something worth hearing.  Janek played guitar with Katia these last few weeks as they “busked” in town.  Busking is basically pan handling in the streets of town.  It’s kind of the equivalent to what we see with the drummers outside the Reds and Bengals games, but people can actually make decent money doing it around here.

Janek and Katia are headed south and will try to busk their way to Melbourne, where I believe Katia is from.  She plays the sax, which is much different than most buskers playing guitar or drums.  I met Katia here at The Arts Factory, but she also worked at Sundive for Giac and Julie, while she was here in town.  She has many dives under her belt (no pun intended), and always expressed her enjoyment for working at Sundive.  I believe Katia is just 19, and is taking advantage of exploring at such a young age; cheers!

Also pictured is an “evening picnic” that happens every twice in a while.  This one happened to be celebrating Jeff and Pia’s birthdays.  A sort of “pot luck” event, I brought some carrots, banana chips and an assortment of grapes.  We had plenty to eat, and what great company!

Thank you spiders and unidentifiable insects.  You continue to amaze me with the types of marks you leave on my porcelain skin.  This was a good one to wake up with about a week ago; it’s about gone now.  I really don’t worry about bites, but there are some doozies around here.  I will say that the biggest spider’s I’ve seen so far are the Huntsman’s, and they’re harmless.  Also pictured is a King Toad, I think.  This was a pretty good-sized one that showed up at The Café here in the hostel.  

This is what it has looked like over the passed couple of weeks!

Thank You Ryan, for providing the campsite with so much awesome drumming since I’ve been here.  Ryan is from Canada and has been here at The Arts Factory for the past 10 months or so I think.  He drummed during all of the talent shows and also some gigs at Buddha Bar next door with other musicians.  He’s going to Sydney for a couple of days before his flight leaves to go back home… I don’t think he was quite ready to leave, and figure him to be traveling much more after being home.

Thank you Malou, for being in such great spirits all of the time!  Malou is from Denmark and was supposed to leave for Luminate yesterday; unfortunately she wasn’t able to board the plane because she didn’t have a return ticket to OZ.  She’ll try again today with a return ticket she purchased and hitchhike from the airport to the festival once she’s in NZ.  

Random Art time!  This young gentleman from Japan was just sitting in the Café as we got back from the quarry.  He was painting some of the most beautiful images, most all coming from his imagination.  Pictured is one of the paintings he’s been working on the last few days!  Way to go Arts Factory for being so artistic, ehhhh?

The rock quarry we went to yesterday.  Just a couple miles outside of town, this quarry provides some pretty high rock jumping.  After assessing the pros and cons of jumping from the highest spot I determined that the next level down was more my speed.  Joe, Hugh and Celeste all jumped from the highest point and have reaped a little pain today; I’m quite happy that I enjoyed the experience but also was realistic on what kind of traveler insurance I have!!!  This jump may have been about ¾ of the jump off the bridge at Norris Lake in TN.  The only thing that really concerns me here is trying to jump out far enough that you are sure there are no rocks below the water!

Thank You Michelle, for teaching me to crochet!  Michelle, from Seattle, has been making yarn hats for many friends in the hostel.  They’ve turned out really well, and it seems like something to do when your aren’t doing anything.  You can sit, have a conversation with someone, and be creating at the same time!  Michelle is a Math major from University of Washington and won’t be done traveling for a little while now.  What a great spirit, and nice to have another American around to share some US culture and/or understand some crazy expressions we seem to use.

Thank You Gulami!!!!!  WOW, what a great person to have met.  Gulami is probably already back in Holland by now; where he’s planned to play music for the next 7 months with many other musician friends he knows.  He has lived in Holland before, so nothing new to this world traveler.  But, as Gulami always said… “I started traveling late, you all are very lucky to be traveling at your young age!”  I have a pretty good feeling that I’ll run into Gulami somewhere down the road.  

IT'S ALIIIIIVE, and so am I

Ok, so the computer battery seems to be alright for the time being.  I did nothing but wait a week and plug it back in, so hopefully the Aussie Gods are smiling on me.  You'd think that I'd have a lot to say since my last blog, but things are kind of business as usual around here.   Because it's hard to go through various events that have happened, I'll use this post to show some of the pictures that I've captured and tell you about them.

I'm not sure if I've posted my living quarters yet; but here it is.  I moved to a better location with a tarp over my space.  I paid $40 for the new real estate, which included a tent, the prime space, and a tarp.  Thus, I moved my tent under the tarp in addition to the tent that came with the space.  I've got one tent for storage and the other for a bedroom.  The tarps are a necessity around here as they prevent the tents from getting too worn down with extra protection against the elements. (works great)

This is the view from Ashley's (Philly) tent back up the trail to the Jungle Hut (communal eating area) and the kitchen.  Ashley has so graciously made her tent and front porch a communal area to hang out even when she isn't present.  The closest tent on the right used to be Steve's, but he's passed it on to Sarah (Tasmania) when he left for NZ.

A picture I snapped while Gulami was playing his instrument on his front porch.  As I said before, Gulami is an outstanding musician.  He says he started traveling late in life, as he's 37 years old but doesn't look a day over 30.  He plays the Sarod, and does it amazingly!  Gulami will be leaving in the next month or two to go to Holland to play with some of his musician friends and live there for a while before heading back to Turkey where his daughter (13) lives.  I'll never forget Gulami, what a great person!

This was another image I captured on Steve's last night here.  A beautiful sunset, although it sets over land to the left, it creates gorgeous colours over the ocean sky!

Sally (UK) found this awesome flower just off the beach on Steve's last day.  The flower had inverted itself and was such a cool oddity.

Sally has since headed to Melbourne for 3 months to work a more legitimate job and hopefully live in a shared house of sorts.  Sally is quiet, but always thinking about different life questions on the big scale.  It was great to be around to chat about her thoughts like... "What's your biggest wonder?"

In March some of the girls from The Arts Factory will caravan down the coast picking her up in Melbourne on the way to Perth.  I'm sure it will be quite the trip traveling 5K kilometers!

Nixon, a darling girl from Germany is leaving tomorrow and ending her 3 month journey Down Under.  She's originally from Slovakia and moved to Germany as a child.  She's looking forward to reuniting with the love of her life, and is hoping to have a 1 year honeymoon all around the world when the time comes.  Nixon teaches Poi workshops here at The Factory.  Poi is a performance art that involves fire balls on the end of chains, or racquet ball sized balls inside of elongated socks.  It's quite impressive when seen live.  I'll get to the immense mount of fire twirling and fire poi in a future blog!

YESSSSSSS...
It's Skyline Time!  So I gathered together friends for a taste of Cincinnati.  My beautiful and understanding girlfriend, Erin, so graciously sent me four cans of Skyline in my Xmas care package!!!! I know that I should ration the 4 cans sparingly, but I couldn't help myself as soon as I opened it I knew what I was having for dinner.  OK, so there were a few modifications I had to make since the Aussies don't have ALL of the necessary ingredients.  1)Because Libby was so kind, we used organic cheese from a farm in Nimbin.  So we were keeping it local while also eating Cincinnati Chili! 2)Australians don't know what oyster crackers are.  Thus I used Ritz crackers (the cheaper store brand, obviously)
All in all though, it was AMAZING.  The finished product is in the picture on the left.  Pictured right is (above) Libby (UK), and (below) Rene (CAN) taking time out of Libby dreading Rene's hair to enjoy some Skyline Time.  You know how people either LOVE or HATE Cincinnati Chili?  Well, the verdict is... THEY LOVE IT!!!  So it turned out that I can make 4 helpings out of 1 can of chili.  It's so great that I was able to share some food and a piece of home with some of my friends here in Byron Bay.  Sharing is such a part of the culture at The Arts Factory; it's great when people area always willing to help their fellow person.

Last, but not least, I had to post the picture of my reaction after reading the email that told me THE Dave Weingarten will be visiting in the middle of February!!!  As Flinn said at the beginning of the trip, people will often say "oh great, now I've got a reason to visit Australia" but never happens.  Dave is doing it!  As one of my best friends in the world, I think its absolutely awesome that he would make the adventure and experience some of the things and meeting some of the people I've been seeing since I've been here.  I know he'll have a great time and I'm pumped at the opportunity for us to go on some mini-adventures/missions while he's here.
BTW - I'm glad everyone is having a mild winter in Cincy, not to say that I'm glad you all aren't getting some dominating snow; but I'd miss it more if there was some serious snow!  hmm, makes me think I need an extended trip to Colorado, Montana or the likes before too long?

I hope this has updated some people on what the happenings are.  I have decided that I would like to put family, friends, and fun as more of a priority in my everyday life when I get back... I think that I have done that for the most part in my life, but it seems that work work work is so much more valued in the states than anywhere else.  We can get bye on very little, as long as we have friends, family and love!

in the words of Dr. Wiz, ta ta

jrs

Stand by...

The ol' computer is down for the time being. No worries though, we'll be back up and running in no time.

This is my buddy Steve,he's been at the arts factory for 4 months or so I believe. He's from California just north of LA. An all around good guy just cruisin for good times in different places. He's already been a bit through holland and Europe, Sydney and a few other places in Australia before ending his trip in Byron. His 1 year visa is up and he's headed over to new Zealand to see what they've got goin on there. It was great to meet Steve since I've been here at the factory!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!

OK!  So I think some pretty exciting things have been happening.  Yesterday, I leisurely woke up around 6:30 or 7 and had some breakfast at the café here in The Arts Factory.  Johnny, the chef is a 28 year old Canadian and part time comedian if you ask me.  He’s a pretty funny guy, which makes for good times when he’s working and same just hanging out around The Factory.  I had a wonderful egg and bacon sandwich; which is actually ham and egg, they don’t have bacon strips like we know them in The States.  (I say “The States” because when people ask where your from, and they don’t just presume you’re from Canada, they’ll know if you say that.  The line I’ve been giving lately to the obvious foreigners is “The States, you know, the united ones.”  I’ve had a few laughs with that, which is something!  Anyway, I was walking back to my tent when Tamar, a Scottish girl who also works in the café tracked me down.  She said she had been looking for me because her cousin is moving out of his tent space and she knew that I was in the market for a bigger tent or different space.  So her cousin has the same size tent as me, maybe even slightly smaller but with a foam bed inside.  The “property” is huge, she said the cost was $50 but she’d take $40.  I told her it’s a deal, $40 and I get a shady property, with a giant tarp already installed over the space.  Now I’ve set up my tent and the other tent side by side for two rooms plus I have a little room to the side of them to set up a little patio of sorts if I want.  It’s not a mansion tent, but I’m movin up in the world, and this will give me a place to sleep and a place to stash stuff/chill in the other tent.

            Flash to this morning, I went up to the front desk just like I do every morning that I don’t have to work and asked if there were any jobs today.  Craig, a 40ish Aussie who’s parents used to own The Factory years ago appeared as if he might have something!  (When Craig’s parents sold The Arts Factory to Nomads, a backpacker company, there was a caveat that he have a job for life at The Factory)  Craig looked in his book and asked me if I had any other skills besides golf, to which my response was that I was working at Rae’s cleaning rooms but the only thing I’ve ever done is about every job at a golf course.  Lets be honest though, it doesn’t take a whole lot to do some of these cleaning and/or fix it jobs around here.  He asked if I’d be willing to drive the “Bus to Town” on some nights from 10pm-4am.  I jumped at that one since it’s a really easy job!  Plus it won’t interfere with my job at Rae’s.  Today, he’s got me started in about an hour (10am) painting a few walls on the inside of the lodge.  So that’ll get me going and into the system which is great.  You get one night stay for every 1.5 hours worked.  Hopefully I can get a few nights a week driving the van and that will take care of my accommodation!  Then I can keep working only 3 days/week at Rae’s and live pretty well.  Hopefully this day continues to get better, as for now, I’m headed up to get a large breakfast in celebration of all of this good news.  I will more than likely post this with additional comments later in the day… ta ta

 Main Beach the other night, beautiful sky!

OK, Crazy Jim's visual update on the beard and hair... It may be about 2 more months before the hair is as long as it was fresh year of college before Davey cut it!

Sweet spider crawling on a drum on Ashley's tent porch!  He was so fast, he scurried away before we knew it.

 My view from inside my new setup, i'll get a picture of my actual setup on the next blog.

Tent 1 is the chill room... Oh yea, I bought a guitar so I could continue the practice I've been trying to do for 6 years now!  Everyone says if you want to learn a skill, this is the place to do it... plus, so many people play guitar and music on the campgrounds!

Living in a tent & some Christmas times

Hey, so 818 page views so far!  I dunno, think it's kinda cool...

It's been 6 days, and they seem to just fly by.  I think blog posts go by the wayside because getting on the Internet is a special occasion around here.  I know I know, I should write the blog offline!  So since moving into Tent City, I've made a few more friends and learned a little bit more about some of the people that I already know.  Three people are now gone and moved on to bigger and better things; we sent off Asha and Jessie today, who are headed towards Sidney and will stop off wherever on the way.  Asha is from Chi-town and has been hobbling around Tent City on crutches since I met her.  Jessie is from Portugal and speaks English fluently; both great gals.

I still don't have any kind of mat to put down in my tent.  So as far as living conditions, things are still the same.  I have however bought $14 worth of food.  I'm interested to see how long I can go without buying food at a restaurant before I go back to the store.  I bought noodles and rice to be complimented 5 cans of tuna for $4.  The tuna is of all different flavors and I also have some sweet chili sauce to compliment the tuna/rice or tuna/noodles.  I just need to start being more conscious of my depleting cash flow until i get my first paycheck from Rae's.  I'm also still inquiring daily at reception about "work for accommodation" and I've also applied for a pay job here at The Factory.  The pay job that I'd be rocking out would be 10 hours/week for the accommodation and the other 20hrs to be paid $17/hr or so... not too bad for working on the same property that you live!

So Christmas happened; just like it did when I was in Florida several years ago, somewhat uneventful.  Although this time I had the Cavazzini Gang to spend with friends!  Christmas Eve, which many of the Germans believed to be Christmas was a blast.  The hostel put on a huge party; it was $20 for all you can eat and they seemed to have an endless supply of champagne ta boot!  Great food prepared by a catering company, and I had the chance to meet a few more people; including a German kid that reminded me of Tim Tebow.  There was live music and even a few of the kids from the hostel got up and jammed; it was pretty cool.  I forget what time the night ended, but I went to my tent and passed the F out.  Woke up Christmas morning and heard about some epic waves at Main Beach.  So, before I walked to Giac and Julie's I walked to Main Beach and sat down to watch the badass surfers for a little while.  It was amazing, I had never seen the water so high!  The waves were super big too, were talking 20+ feet for some of them.

I arrived at the Cavazzini's mid-morning and we headed out for a walk on a beach down the road, the waves still awesome.  I met Giac's parents and they were great, especially his mother's cooking.  Seems like anytime I'm over there, it's a ridiculous meal.  I had some more shellfish and continue to be just fine.  We had Christmas evening unwrapping presents, which I was surprised and happy to have a few too.  I had a bunch of knickknack stuff that Flinn undoubtedly picked up at the camping store.  There was definitely a theme to my gifts, and it was welcomed since I need all the help I can get in Tent City!  It reminded me of my own Mother; she has a tendency to give gifts in themes or sets.  I was surely thinking all of Christmas day that I'll never have the kind of Christmas I truly know to be a "Simminger Christmas" again.  Whether we were at "the old house" (Asbury Hills Dr. on the other side of Beechmont) or the Lancelot house, the story was always the same.  Patrick and I would... wait, scratch that.  I would wake up first and go run into Pat's room and wake him up.  As a small kid, I'd jump around and wake him up quite abruptly.  As I got older I realised that it was more advantageous to slowly wake him up.  Either way, we couldn't go downstairs to see the presents because Santa had put out the Wine Table bar stools blocking the stairs.  C'mon Santa, don't you know we're ready to see our mounds and mounds of presents?  (there were definitely a few years in there where we didn't see a whole lot of carpet in the family room)  We had to first go in a crack Dad's fingers to wake him up; a skill that I crafted and relieved Patty Boy of his duties at some point.  (just like mowing the lawn of course)  Anyway, once we got the go ahead, we went downstairs and put on some coffee for Father; one the few days that he has a cup.  Usually, we were able to get the folks to come downstairs by 10:30; although it seemed much later because the anticipation was killing us!  Throw the breakfast casserole's in the oven and now it's present opening time... That's my real Christmas morning in a nutshell; good thing we managed to take a decent amount of pictures over the years.
Oh well...

Oh yea, I skyped with my fam on the 23rd.  It was pretty cool to see them all at once doing the same thing I know them to do every year.  My cousin Johnny and his wife Jamie were in town with their two kids.  Johnny wasn't terribly enthralled with the beard; says he's a clean shaving kind of guy.  I think he realises I'm off my rocker anyway.  Danny and Dold were also present, as were Jeff and Becca.  Speaking of Jeff, I've currently got headphones on without any music while I type this.  A little trick I picked up in Hoboken.  And if I mouth the words I'm typing, it just looks like I'm singing along with the track.  The skype was cool though, but after a couple minutes it seemed like they didn't really care and it was like I was just hanging out with Dold at the kitchen table.

Took my first shower in the hostel yesterday.  Yeaaaaa, it had been a while but whatever, is what it is.  Have I mentioned that you can turn off each outlet individually in OZ?  It's really cool, and I bet it saves a ton of energy just stopping the flow of electricity into the outlet... those are just some oddball things

PEACE & LOVE

The Arts Factory - My new home

Well, I'm quite sorry that it's been a few days since the last update.  It seemed like this week has just flown by at epic speeds.  The weekend was lovely, and I'm pretty sure that I spent it either surfing or walking about town.  I would say that I started the week for my first day of work on Monday.  Lorianne, one of the hotel managers and who I have come to find out is also the owner's girlfriend, had called me Sunday morning to tell me that I was to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the first two weeks.  The first day of work I arrived at Raes about 10 minutes to 11am and was put right to work following around Gabby, a wonderful lady who is a vet in the biz.  I began to learn the routines that they follow and the correct way to get things just right in the rooms.  Every room is different, and at $600/night they have the expectation of being top notch.  Would I pay $600?  Of course not, I've definitely stayed in nicer places than this.  I think the name and owner have a lot to do with its reputation.  At any rate, the day went until about 5pm and I will say that the lower back got absolutely killed.  It was a little better on day 2 & 3 getting used to bending over and whatnot; but still some hard labor by my standards!

On day 2, I worked with Casey; a cool chick from New Jersey close to the Hoboken area.  It's a good thing I had visited my cousin Becca a few months ago; because at least I had an idea of where she was coming from.  She had commented only an hour into our work that it was nice to talk to an American where she can use "inches" as a reference point and other idiosyncrasies that us Americans do differently than the rest of the world.  We chatted and worked, and she was able to give me the ins and outs from a 20-something point of view.  It was actually quite funny at one point, she got so excited when we went into one room that had left plenty of croissants and toast uneaten.  She snagged a croissant right up and stuffed it with the quickness.  I had to snicker at her a little bit, but she smirked back and said it's one benefit to cleaning other people's shit!  That being said, she was able to get into her story a bit more while we worked the rest of the day and afterwords for a couple brewskies that were left over in a room as well!  Casey had moved with her family to Hong Kong after she graduated from University of Boulder.  She's backpacked around China, Japan, Thailand and oh yea, she's a Phish Head.  For those not in the know, it's similar to a Dead Head but they follow around the band Phish.  She's been to over 50 Phish shows and has even taken breaks in her backpacking adventures to fly back to NYC for a few Madison Square Garden shows in the past.  So I was getting her jist, and we talked more only for me to find out that she's been living in a tent for 3 or 4 months!  I won't lie, my jaw kinda dropped.  But as she explained it more, it actually sounded not too shabby.  I told her that I was in need of a place to live very shortly, as Giac and Julie's house was quite full and Giac's cousin was to arrive on Wednesday; thus I'd need to vacate the room and find accommodation.  I am so thankful that they were able to let me stay with them for 2 full weeks while I got my feet firmly placed on the ground!  We went from work back to The Arts Factory, the hostel where she was staying and had met so many friends during her time there.  I was there on talent show Tuesday; so there were a few acts that were amazingly impressive.  Many of which can be seen on YouTube if you click here...  I met a few of her friends who were living only a few tents over and hung out on their "porch" for a little while.  There are big tents, little tents, tall tents and short tents; it's actually quite amazing.  A little Tent City, with separate little nooks here and there; very reminiscent of "Occupy Wall Street."  The main difference here is that Arts Factory people are just occupying life and nature somewhat off the grid.  After spending the evening there meeting quite a few people, I had pretty much made up my mind that this may have been what I was looking for the whole time.  It combines my thirst to live off bare minimums and puts me in a situation where I meet new people and do new things constantly.

Flash to Wednesday... I left work with Casey and we stopped by Giac and Julie's to pick up my stuff.  That was all she wrote; I had my backpack with the essentials and left one other bag at the house determined to just check in at the Arts Factory and see what happens.  The campgrounds were full, so I checked into a dorm room where there were 5 bunk beds and at least 3 or 4 different countries represented in the room.  (the German names seem to be the hardest so far)  The dorms are $31/night, so I was hoping that I'd be able to find a campsite in the next few days.  To live on the campgrounds it's only $17/night, but if you do odd jobs around the hostel they will deduct from your rent and could give you free accommodation for 10hrs of work per week.  Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!  I hung out with a few of Casey's friends last night, without her, so that was actually even better since she'll be leaving to go on a "festival run" for a while then maybe off to Thailand; she isn't sure.  But introducing myself and making new friends and acquaintances will be of the utmost importance when moving into Tent City.

I woke up today and went to Ashley's yoga class.  Ashley is from Philly and has been living at the Arts Factory for 6 months or so.  She is a licenced message therapist and yoga instructor ta boot.  I think she's 24 or so and seems to be a pretty cool hippie chick.  This was my first yoga class EVER!  I must say that it was very challenging and fun too.  It lasted almost an hour and was grueling to say the least.  It was free but donations are accepted; I used my 1st timers special to slip out without donating. (don't judge me)  After finishing yoga I went up to the front desk of the hostel to check to see if there were camp ground openings and there were.  Jasper, a kid born and raised here in Byron told me to just pitch the tent in the spot and come back and let him know so he can give me a # block to set by my tent.  It's been a fairly hot day, maybe even up to 80; and I still have no idea what that is in Celsius.  I was setting up my tent, when the neighbor in a half tent/half camper introduced herself.  I forget her name already, but she's moving out so no worries.  She mentioned that I may not be in a legal tent space, but I explained that it seemed that Jasper said it would be fine.  She didn't care too much, but went on to introduce me to her boyfriend Duncan.  She was from England and has been here for about a year, it seemed like Duncan was from Canada and had been here a bit longer.  (There are tons of Canadians here, and I've been accused of being one a half dozen times)  I was invited to their porch for some tea, and had a chat with the two of them and their friends Achilles and Jake; a couple of Aussies.

After tea I finished up pitching my tent, thinking about my buddy Dave all the while doing it.  There are certain times when I reminisce in my head about people and things back home... Cue In My Life by The Beatles.  Anyway, I put the tent up and through my things in and realised that it may take some getting used to, or at least an air mattress.  Some of these people have some tent mansions that they've grown over the months and months staying here.  I've just got a little studio tent.  I'm pretty much set up and here I am typing this right now.  That being said, let me fill you in on some other events of the week that I missed.

I tried shellfish for the first time in 15 years!  For some reason it seemed that I developed an allergy to shellfish when I was 10 or 11 years old.  I remember it specifically the first time because it was the Crosstown Shootout night and we were at my Aunt's old house "Castle Gray Skull."  The other night Julie and I thought, better now than never; and she and Gwen whipped up ANOTHER fantastic meal.  Take a look at the pictures to prove it

I've gone surfing a couple more times and did alright.  If I do want to get good, I will definitely need to go a few times a week; it's basically just like golf, especially in the group instruction that I had for two days.  Oh yea, speaking of golf... I also bought a very cool terry cloth bucket hat that reminded me of one of the veteran Golf Pros that I work with back home.  It's blue, not white like his, but it keeps the sun out of my face on my walk to work!

Real quick on some people I've met.  Gulami, is a Turkish dude who spent part of his youth in France plays a wicked instrument that is very closely related to the sitar.  It reminds me of George Harrison each time he plays; it's actually very beautiful.  Gulami played music for the entire yoga session this morning, it was like having a live soundtrack which was great!  I'll try to profile one or two people that I meet for each blog so that you can somewhat experience these amazing people with great stories.  Click here if you would like to hear a little bit of Sitar that sounds very similar to what Jermani was playing last night and this morning!!!

That's all folks!  Once again please post if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Jim Bob

Friday 16/12/11 in the Hinterlands of NSW

I woke up Friday morning quite refreshed; as has been the case every night since being here.  Having a complete day to kind of do whatever, I thought it would be nice to head a little more inland and explore the Nimbin and Tweed Shire region.  I was able to grab one of the last seats on the "Happy Coach," which is a bus that leaves Byron Bay and heads to Killen Falls, passes through a small town on the way to Nimbin, NSW.

Killen falls was somewhat lackluster but it was a good stop to make on the way and it gave me a chance to talk to a few of the other kids on the tour.  The age of the 35 people on the bus must have ranged from 18-30, maybe older since everyone looks young around here.  While at Killen I talked with a girl about my age who was on the last leg of her journey in Australia.  Nichola is from South Hampton, England and she had been in Sydney working as a waitress for the last 3 months or so where before she had traveled from Perth and Melbourne as well.  She was quiet, but very nice and we talked about Australia and the reasons we both had decided to come here.  As she travels up the coast, She'll end up hopping over to New Zealand before heading back to the UK.  She was previously in hospitality since being out of school, did quite well at it but will see if she likes anything different when she gets home.


We left Killen falls and road for another 25 minutes or so before we stopped at what I would call a rest stop, or road house.  There was a Christmas/souvenir shop as well as a pub/restaurant that both have a very brown old wooden look to them.  The barkeep was quite nice serving most of the bus' riders (glass) bottled coke's while we used the restrooms and hung out in the small beer garden.  I took the opportunity to get myself a Tooheys Old and a roast beef sandwich.  The much needed lunch was nice and I ate while four or five of us just talked about where we were from and where we had been so far in OZ.  Laura, from Holland was a sales rep and party planner of sorts.  She's been traveling Australia for 3 months or so and has another month left before she'll return.  Although she says that she can resume her old job if she wants, she'll be looking around for more lucrative sales jobs even in Western Australia where mining is a huge industry.

We hopped back on the Happy Coach where Taylor, our driver informed us that we had about 30 minutes until we arrived in Nimbin.  Taylor is a classic hippie chick, probably in her late 30's or early 40's just happy to be showing us newbies around.  I was the last one on the bus, and sat down next to a guy (Chris) who is an American/Englishman hybrid.  He was born in San Diego to English parents and lived there till he was 7.  They moved back to England once before coming back to the states when he was to attend high school.  He stayed through high school and moved back to England for university, didn't like it so he's finishing university down here at University of Queensland in Brisbane.  He's just on a school break and is off on a mini-adventure while he's got the time and money.  (told me he works 3 small jobs while in school up in Brisbane)  Brisbane is known to be one of the most costly cities in the world.  As we chit chatted back and forth we were both in awe of how beautiful the countryside was.  It was awesome to see the rock formations and all of the green as we passed by farms and over hills into green pastures.  Chris said it reminded him a lot of England/Scotland area; I thought it was like driving through the beaten paths of Kentucky.

We arrived in Nimbin, where it appeared to be somewhat run-down; just as Julie had described.  Nimbin was originally a town of timber cutters and farmers that grew to be known as a dairy village through the middle of the 20th century.  Nimbin's culture changed dramatically in 1973 when the "Australian Student's Union" decided to hold the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin Valley.  As I understand it, the festival was your standard hippie festival celebrating an 'alternative' lifestyle experience for hippies and drop-outs from all over Australia.  Most of the festival's visitors returned to cities and regular lives, but a small number of them remained happy with what they had found in Nimbin.  The city then became the unofficial capital for the alternative lifestyle and environmental movement.

I wish I could say that the town still had the magic as described in the Nimbin Museum which was located in the center of town.  The ideology and streetscapes had the kind of feel that you would expect; but for the most part the people there seemed to survive off of the tourists that come in and out daily.  I met a few nice volunteers that worked in a few of the shops, which sold a variety of souvenirs, cannabis themed everything, and an idea of peace.  I was actually impressed when I saw the fire house down the street "Nimbin Volunteer Brigade."  So maybe this town did have the right idea?  Naa, the big problem I saw, was that if the tourists left, they'd have no income coming into the town.  I saw a few old school hippies out working on some sort of art & crafts, but I also ran into several "alternative lifestyle salesmen" who weren't much older than myself offering the tourists pretty much anything under the sun.  Of course me being, well me, I had at least get a little bit of a 411 from one of the guys "peddling" that seemed to be about my age.  There were now cameras installed on the streets, which if anything else makes the place even more dirty.  But I did strike up a mini conversation and asked him if he was from around here, in which he responded that he was from Nimbin; although he didn't look it with his short hair and bball jersey.  Since it seemed there was so much competition on the streets I asked him if everyone was competing or if everyone just donated to a big pool at the end of the day.  Being in this town of peace and love, I thought there may have been a small chance that was the case...  Of course not, he kinda begrudgingly said there was competition; but it seemed to me that there were maybe small groups or teams that worked together.  At any rate, it was pretty skeevy and not a real live and love atmosphere that one would hope for.  It made me wonder what the kids are like that grow up there.  I saw plenty of long haired pre-teens at the skate park and walking around town, some coming in to one of the shops after school while I was getting a coffee.  Imagine what a kid who grows up in Nimbin thinks of a place like Mayberry or the conservative bible belt of the States?  Talk about some culture shock when meet the people of the world who think THEY'RE the weird ones!

The ride back was once again extremely beautiful countryside.  It seemed that everyone was tired from the day and the bus was pretty quiet aside from the tunes coming from the mix cd that Taylor had brought for the ride.  We heard a large variety of music, and definitely more of the classic rock tunes that I'm used to; which was nice.  I apologise for not getting any pictures of the countryside, it was hard to do where I was sitting on the bus to get any good ones!

I got dropped off at the dive shop where Giac and a few of the other Sundive guys were hanging out at the end of their day sharing some brewkies.  We headed back to the house where we cleaned up and headed out to Wategos beach for a little BBQ.  Once again, even packed as a picnic, the dinner was outstanding.  We started with some cheese and crackers, while we continually realised we had forgotten the meat at home.  It was pretty funny, because we then realised we had forgotten something else at the house as well!  Giac and Dell went back to the house which was only 5 min drive away each time.  We had salad as well as Italian and Roo sausage with all the fixings of a good meal.  Dinner time at a good hour means bed at a good hour as well!  I got to sleep around 10:30 which seemed quite late down here, as usual... Thus, another good night sleep.