Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming

I suppose I just like to title these blog posts according to what I think might catch someone's eye.  There is no relevance what-so-ever, but I just had the song stuck in my head the last 20 min or so...

Today, I'll write about my time at Rae's on Wategos.  Today was my last day, and incidentally my first day in over 2 weeks!  There hasn't been anyone staying in the hotel recently, so staffing levels have been on the decline; something I can relate to from season's end and beginning managing a golf operation.  With Dave to arrive on Saturday and holidaying for 10 days or so, I thought it would be silly to stay on.  Especially since I'm planning on exploring culture outside of Byron when Dave makes his way back to The States. 

This is Dave Weingarten in all of his glory!  This picture was taken at Rock Bottom last year when we slept on Fountain Square over night to get our Opening Day tix.  I think the hilarity of the night was enough for Dave to take a lil care of me last year when I was in a wheelchair on that freezing night.  Dave will do just about anything sometimes to be active.  Sometimes these are known as "Davetivities."  This guy is all about extreme adventure; so I'm looking forward to rocking out and maybe helping Ol' Davey meet a few Aussie chicas!

 The next few pics are of Room 5 at Rae's.  They all have "people names" since there are only 7 rooms.  But I only know the room #'s.

Here is the entrance, which is just off the pool, no beach view here, but it's a 2 story room and very unique.

 Smaller bathroom, surrounded with mirror, glass and tile... LOTS to wipe down! (yes, that's a rain shower)

 Above are the views down to the pool.  The picture on the right is the view I had when Elle Macpherson was laying out by the pool one day.  Still good lookin' after all these years. 

View from the stairs in room #5; those doors go out to the pool.

 Room 6, on the first floor and the worst of all of the rooms.  It's very nice, but no view and just bedroom and larger bathroom. (yes, I rolled those towels on the bed)

 

 This is smallest room, Room 3.  Although the smallest, it has a beach view and is actually quite charming!  This bed is definitaly a toughy to make; the matress is too big for the bed.

 Usually these open shutters look out to Wategos Beach.

 This is the gigantic Room 2.  There are two bedrooms in this $1,200/night suite.  This one takes super long to clean being as it's so big. 

 Also...

This room attracts families and messy rich people. 

Above left, the usual setup of soaps, towels, etc.  Above Right, one of my favorite beds to make.

Room 1... The largest single bedroom room.  This has a pool view and a beach view, two verandas, dinette, hot tub and lots of space.

 The usual setup for coffees, teas, wine glasses, etc.

I know it's just a lot of pictures this go around.  Next time I'll highlight the trip to White's Beach with some other Factory goers.

So I've been a hotel cleaner, a night helper and a garbage man here in OZ... My mother kindly reminded me of the old BS addage...

Bob Simminger "If you're going to be a garbage man, be the best damned garbage man there is."

(that got me through a few days)  It wasn't the work as a garbage man that was crap, it was that you're doing the work all alone and there aren't any customers/guests to take care of!  Night helper at reception is much better since I get to talk to all kinds of new people coming to The Arts Factory as well as all my friends here are all around to hang while I'm at reception working.

Surfed at "The Pass" the other day... and a lil beard update!

Alrighty, enough for this time.  So in the words of Marty Brenneman... "So long everybody"

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