At 11am I landed in Launceston and was scooped by my new host, Taya. A 20 year old uni law&arts student, and resident of the Mullet Manor (the name of their place as advertised on the couch surfing page, as well as a crazing blurb on how they live in trash and dumpster dive). I was thrilled to get a positive and welcoming response from them. Taya picked me up and I was immediately impressed by the head of hair she managed to build up. The bottom bunch was long dreads, sometimes dyed blonde, but always with some sort of ornament being coloured thread, metal fixings, etc. The top and right side bunch was choppily cut and pretty short. The left bunch was buzz cut. Overall, quite a look.
We got to the Mullet Manor, an eclectically decorated home with a massive lounge room filled with musical instruments, a teeny kitchen [so small that the fridge was in the lounge room] and heaps of bicycles. Artwork went from maps to paintings of cats in glasses. The house was occupied by 4 people, though only 2 were actually on the lease apparently. In addition to Taya is April, another first year also in law&art who has some semblance of dreaded hair, a nosering and lipring. Oh yeah, while I'm at it, Taya has the coolest earring assortment. a golf tee and safety pin decorate one ear, and a green carabiner hangs on the other... also a nosering of course. Then there's Bonnie, who's an art major in her last year. No dreads, but both a septum ring and a nose ring, and then Isaac, a furniture design major who's looks don't quite fit the home's profile. The majority of the time I spent with him he was busy working on tiny models of chairs made out of cardboard-- really interesting designs, all supposed to be inspired by bridges.
In introductions I found out that this diving thing, which I had thought was just taking the piss on their profile page, was actually their way of life. They haven't gone food shopping in 3 years! (aside from milk occasionally and sometimes spices, because they're harder to dumpster) April made a great leek and potato soup for lunch, which I at with a toasted roll, all from their previous dive.
The weather was pretty shit so I didn't mind staying in for most of the day, hearing about their lives. I joined Taya and April for their 2 hour lecture in their aboriginal studies class. It was pretty dull and I mostly just doodled, but it was pretty weird to see what school is like here. The lecture hall was small and essentially all of uni was in one, not too good looking, area. There were heaps of middleaged people in the class as well. When we got back, we tried to lemonade that April had been making earlier, after proclaiming that life gave her lemons, so she must make lemonade (and by life gave her lemons, she meant that they had been stealing tons of lemons from the neighbor's lemon tree). It was not quite sweet enough, but I rather enjoyed it. I also learned that chop chop is home grown tobacco.
Apparently, 3 weeks ago Taya was asked if her band could play at a female empowerment musical event, to which she replied by saying she's not in a band. Since chat of making one had always existed, this prompted the rapid formation of Lordy Lordy, a 4 chick multiple instrument [way more than 4] eclectic group who successfully played last week and have another gig this Thursday in Hobart. Gracie, a friend of theirs, was the 4th member of the band, joining the three ladies of the Mullet Manor. I was thrilled to listen to them practice and see the process of them mostly writing a new song. Taya is mean at accordion and also broke out the flute. Bonnie was bass, Gracie the lead vocal and a guitar, and April was also on guitar and the bass drum [with her foot]. The roles of guitar/bass switched around though as someone had to be playing the stick with bottle caps nailed to it (either by stomping or rubbing with a cleaning brush). They had a surprisingly amazing sound and very catchy songs. The song they ended up working on writing today was about first world problems, and I reckon will be quite hilarious upon completion.I met a few of their other friends who had come around and was particularly intrigued listening to a 25 year old Tell me about her job running festivals and balancing uni, work, and caring for her 4 year old son, Levi. She found out she was having him the day before she turned 21!
Dinner that night was sausage curry with rice, also excellently prepared by April. After dinner though was the feast.
After hearing that I had never dumpster dived before, it was decided that we must go tonight. At a bit past 8 the 4 of us [Bonnie stayed home] went to 2 different supermarkets, go to their dumpsters, and rummaged for food wealth. I was blown by the idea and even more blown by the findings. It was unbelievable how much fresh, untouched, edible food we were able to get. Fruits (strawberries! blueberries! holy fruits I haven't had for months because they're so fucking expensive in NZ), milk, eggs, bacon, cheese (holy fancy cheese. wheels and wheels of different kinds of brie, sundried tomato cheddar, etc), veges, cake, bread... literally everything. The second supermarket even had their bins mostly sorted with a fruit/vege bin, dessert bin, etc. It was a crazy thing, but so reasonable after actually seeing how it gets done.
Breakfast was when it really hit me how fucking ridiculous it is to dive. When I think of people eating cheap it's always inclusive of ramen noodles. These people, people who eat free were feasting. Fancy bread with bacon and eggs for breakfast, topped off with grilled tomatoes, spinach, and a wedge of brie, with delicious gourmet coffee. As someone afraid of eggs, and having woken up quite a bit earlier, I had muesli, fresh blueberries, strawberries, and a banana with great greek yoghurt and tea. It's ridiculous, I reckon, and I hope I could some how bring aspects of this lifestyle to my existence. Today Taya is making fresh berry ice cream with found products of last night... cherry,blueberry, strawberry. Too bad I'm in an Internet cafe now, waiting for my bus to day 4&5, in Burnie!
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