Homeless with a Dream and a credit card
Day in the Forest 2018. It’s a fundraiser for the local sports club and it was really fun. Great music and easy beer and drinks. I danced and had such a blast. If you’re ever around for this event, do it. It’s small and local, but it’s better that way.
Drove out to Lake Ninan, a salt lake near Wongan Hills in the wheat belt of West Australia. A friend and I went down to the lake at night to catch a meteor shower. We ended up catching a lighting storm as well–it was amazing! Woke up in time to catch the sunrise. When I get a chance, I’ll download some edited versions.
Planning and budgeting my trip around Australia and New Zealand.
This is a map of NZ- south island.
On the bottom right sheet, I’m going with option #1 where I fly from Perth to Sydney, Sydney to Melbourne, and then Melbourne to Christchurch, NZ. Sounds backwards, but it’s the cheapest way to see the major Australian cities. Total: $391 + tax, food, + random so roughly $500-600. (I waited to buy my tickets till the next day. I got all three tickets for $300!! I could’ve gotten them for $285, but I wouldn’t had enough time in Sydney.) I plan on couch surfing so if that works out it’ll save my ass big time.
The bottom left sheet is my bus budget to get from Christchurch to Roxburgh where I can get random backpacker fruit picking jobs. If I work 40hrs/wk at an avg. Rate of $15-17/hr, I can plan to make $600-680NZD/wk. I can stay in one place and work or jump around, traveling between jobs. I plan on going down the island to the city of Bluff, closest city to Antarctica. Then up to Milford Sound where parts of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were filmed. From there back through to Queenstown, the adrenaline city of the world. The Queenstown up to Greymouth where I take the Tranzalpine train, the most beautiful train ride in the world, to Christchurch where I take the Coastal Pacific train to Blenheim and Picton, the winery part of NZ, also more job opportunities. Then in Picton take the Interislander ferry to North Island where I plan to take the Northern Explorer train from Wellington to Auckland. From Auckland I fly back to SFO. Well that’s the tentative dream plan, could take a couple weeks could take a few months. Regardless, I have to have faith and confidence and with that anything is possible.
Road on the back of a Triumph to Cunderdin, WA. On the way we stopped by the camera museum in Meckering. Went inside the Ettamagah bar, which is based on the Australian Sunday paper comic strip. Tried Victoria Bitter beer for the first time. The trip to Cunderdin goes through the wheat belt of West Australia so lots and lots of wheat and goats.
Visited Point Walter. Beautiful! Walked out on the sand bar and it was relaxing to see the changing hues of blue in the water. Australia is a great place to see the difference in texture from the bush to the ocean.
Went on a hike….I don’t know what the trail was called, but it was near the Darlington Vineyard in the hills of Perth.
Went to Lake Leschenaultia again for a picnic and a swim. Beautiful.
1950s-Come get your thalidomide! No morning sickness for you!….and don’t worry about losing your baby or deformities, at least we got rid of the morning sickness
1970s- buy USA made drugs, not that cheap Mexican shit. Get this cartel outta my turf; it’s a war–I mean, a war on drugs!
1980s-come get your oxy and xanax! Come get a fix for all your opioid needs!
1990s- we’ve got downers and now we’ve got plenty of uppers! Check out this Adderall and Ritalin! We even got scripts for your kids–A family friendly drug! We’re just making shit up now! You got a shaky leg, we got some shit for that!
2000s-Come get your flu vaccine! Got any year, any strain you want (but what I can’t tell you is that it’s all the same)! Get em while their hot! Get em before ya die, get em before you realize how fear mongaring works! Don’t worry about the side affects like autism; we didn’t do any research, why should you?!
Drug stores in Australia are called chemists. One Australian told me, “when I was in the U.S., it always confused me when you guys would say that you had to stop by the drug store and pick up snacks”. Chemist stores in Australia sell strictly pharmaceuticals, not ice cream and liquor like we do in the U.S. I found it funny and then laughed more when I understood the dirty truth of it. Yeah, drug stores sell drugs, the pharmaceutical companies push them and the government backs them, getting their lobbyist cut. Yeah, we have a drug cartel in our country and it doesn’t come from over the border. At least big business had the gall to call it what it is having gotten away with it for so long.
Went to Lake Leschenaultia. A very serene place, very quiet and just beautiful. I got the chance to walk around the lake, about a 3km walk. Very easy, flat trail.
Yes, I’m drinking again. I was sober for about 23 days. Not bad. Here I am, relaxing on the veranda with a glass of dry white that I picked out from Italia Vineyard in Swan Valley. I smell like mosquito spray and my skin is stained with grease and paint. I have wood chips in my hair, but the wine tastes so much better for it. Here’s to being done with the day!
I haven’t really talked a lot about my wwoofing experience. I knew I was supposed to learn a lot about farming and the like, but I ended learning more about Australian slang, different recipes, Australian immigration and politics, etc. I learned that Australia only recognizes two types of chili peppers: red and green. These two only come in fresh or pickled. Everything is a chutney! It was really difficult to make mole, a Mexican chili and chocolate dish. My wwoof host and I went to about 10 stores and found nothing, I had to settle for jars of chipotle in adobo sauce…I think it was too spicy for everyone! It’s been fun trading recipes; showing Australia how awesome Mexicans are one brown person at a time!
Most importantly, I’ve had the chance to reflect on my life and soul. I’ve had the time to recalibrate my senses and perceptions. For example, when I find people have a difference in politics or something, I don’t just get angry and argue that they’re not right; I actually find it interesting to see how a person could’ve gotten to that opinion. No one is right or wrong. Everyone has their reasons, it’s just having the patience to try and understand them.
I’ve also had a lot of time to reflect on my relationships with people. With my latest breakup, it was difficult to say the least. Can’t say that I’m over it, but I’m seeing it more clearly for what it was and is now. I’ve learned something about what to do and not to do for the next time, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.
Weird World of M.E. 