Da Beech

Today I bothered Liam into letting me use his psychology printing fund during the day, and then decided that my day seemed long enough as it was. Twas entirely too filled with annoying work and being called "the American" in my Chem class.

After minimal convincing we decided to forego the rest of our day's plans [which meant me skipping psych] and head to the beach. We stopped in an art store on the way, which holy shit art supplies are expensive here, and then went to the very windy, mildly cold Tomahawk beach. I drew the landscape, quite shittily, as he wandered around with my camera taking pictures of, well, mostly of seagulls. 

After we went to this pak'n'save which I had heard so much about and we bought way more than necessary [as per usual]. It wasn't quite the Costco that I was hoping it would be, but cheap and exciting nonetheless. With a menu set for the week, all is ready to go. Last week the 'new food' was mussels, and this week we will try pies I reckon... and maybe hummus too if we can manage to turn sesame seeds into sesame paste.

Copland for a Fopland

So contrary to my parent's warning, which was somewhat along the lines of "Daddy and I don't think you should go hiking while you're in New Zealand.... not to say you're too retarded to do it, but we think you'll definitely hurt yourself," I attempted the Copland track this weekend.

Their worries weren't far off, though I think the problem was more in the fact that there was no prior discussion of tramp-ability before leaving. I'll explain.

So, Friday night we left Dunedz and headed towards Mt. Cook... and then towards Lake Tekapo... and then finally decided that we were actually going to go further west to the Copland track to go to hotsprings. Past Lake Hawea we were stopped in our tracks by a rock-avalanche that led to road closures. We set up camp at a great spot [it said no camping, but it was perfect] and tucked away for the night. Early in the morning we made it past the rocky road fall and were off on our own little manifest destiny.

The second we entered the track what I alluded to before became apparent. Though I was making time [in the sense that it took me 4 hours to travel the distance that the sign said would take 4 hours to get to], the people I went with were racing to the end... a concept I just couldn't manage during my first tramp since my pre-teen years. My overly cautious nature pushed me back, and reluctantly Kevin stayed with me for the rest of the tramp. We got the majority of the way to the hotsprings, but it was rapidly getting dark, and the sky started to spit down on us. Though I'm upset I didn't make it to the hotsprings, we probably made the right choice by turning back for another hour and a half to go to an earlier hut.

So, they have these huts set up [that you're supposed to pay for] where you can just rest your head for the night. There are usually cots and basic amenities. It's pretty sweet.

Also in our trek we encountered crazy massive bridges that only one person could use at a time. I found them pretty terrifying, but exhilarating enough to enjoy the experience.

Night turned into morning and we started to head back, with the reaslisation that the hotsprings crew would have had no idea what happened to us. We went early, as to not miss them, but then were left sitting by the carpark for 5 hours. I thought deeply, drew crazily, and was demolished by sandflies [Sandfly: n. evil fucking creature that takes the place of mosquitos during the day. They will come in swarms, and surround you as if you're a piece of rotting meat or a disregarded lolly. With no intent but mal-intent they will bite you leaving the most uncomfortably itchy redspots, preventing sleep for at least the next week. One has told me toothpaste cures the itchies].

On our way home we stopped in Wanaka for fish and chips, wrapping up an interesting weekend to say the least. Not sure I'm going to tramp ever again.

oh. I also had my first ever peanut butter and jelly sandwich on this trip. Not bad. would eat again.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt

So, last week was art week on campus, which means shit to people that aren't stalking Facebook pages and uni websites, like I am. Not too sure what was going on for the majority of the week, but my interest was vested in Wednesday's activities. There was a 'badge-making' booth in the library building, which I obviously went to, and obviously made two quite offensive and awkward buttons… to be worn for the rest of that day. Whilst wandering I also encountered a man who was selling books that he had been publishing on his own. By books, I mean they're the cardboard outside of books that he's found, filled with a massive sheet of paper he's printed some bizarre 'poem' on, and then hand letterpressed a title. I bought three of them - one was a geek prayer, one a recounting of bizarre diets, and the last about hydrosliding whilst on LSD. good reads.

Wednesday night was an art crawl, called White Night. As a huge fan of First Friday, I had to go. Liam, Cmac and I went gallery to gallery, sometimes enjoying free drinks, sometimes entertaining bizarre company, but pretty consistently enjoying the evening's artistic offerings. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Blue Oyster were my favorite with their eclectic collections. We also had a delicious japanese dinner, complete with Sapporo and Sake, somehow [thank you again] sponsored by Cmac. 

One gallery we were in had many pictures, printed and taken by the man who ran the gallery. We got into a good chat about the unsuspecting subject in the picture, and whether or not he would ever know his being hung up in a Dunedin art gallery. 

Another had a lot of things that looked breakable. not my thang.

One had these weird jellyfish like tentacles hanging off of the wall that moved around slowly and creepily. This was the place that also served white russians out of a weird tupperware container. Good, but something…

The Dunedin Art Gallery had a weird room that played with the idea of negative space by having paintings that had fallen off the wall. They also had another exhibit that used sound to create visuals, which we probably could've sat in for at least an hour longer. Another thing that struck my fancy was this room that had projectors on all the walls each showing the same thing from a different view point.

Another was closed, even though the pamphlet said it'd be open. A creepy staircase later, and many doorbell rings on top, we left them alone. 

That is all. 

Oh, and there was a phone booth. Requisite tourist photo taken. It was shaped like an octagon, and we were in the octagon. had to happen.

ALLBLACKS

So, Thursday night turned into one of much dress up, as a three-some party called for groups of three. Though I was largely pushing to go as a three piece suit, the final call was made as being the bacon part of a BLT. Funny night, filled with a three-part tequila shot, 3 generations of pokemon, and tons of other ridiculous, and often hard to make-out dress ups.

Saturday though has been the day I've been looking forward to for far too long. Rugby!

All Blacks vs Springboks: New Zealand vs South Africa

The whole day was a day of drinking, with a keg arriving in my courtyard at 9am. Though I had to make my requisite trip to the farmer's market first, I was able to join in on the fun in the early afternoon. My neighbor's car, which had been purchased for only a few hundred dollars and, as one might expect, shat out almost immediately after its purchase, became the target of abuse. It was clear that they could not gain anything from it, and throwing it out would be the only solution.... but not before destroying it for entertainment's sake. I played doctor with a first aid kit as all the people kicking through windows, and ultimately flipping the car [and flipping it back, and then forward and back again], found themselves bleeding.

After all those shenanigans I went out, with Cmac and James... armed with a blow up couch, heading to watch the naked rugby charity game. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into, going to it and all, but there's no doubt that it is a naked rugby game.

As the evening came nearer, we made our migration to the stadium, ready to watch some rugby. I haphazardly eye-liner-ed my face in the bathroom to get the kind of face paint I wanted, and after buying painfully overpriced beers, headed to the seats. There's no bad seat in the stadium, and there was no lack of energy. The environment was buzzing, and though I was busy talking my face off for most of it [sorry James] and still not positive on how rugby works, the game and All Blacks win was epic.

After the game I made my way to Kevin's flat for more hanging, but my night ended early after an extremely exhausting day... Though it didn't end before a trip to Mackers to finally try the Lamb burger. Surprisingly good.... it didn't even look like it was from a fast-food place. I also had another chance of trying egg because of this experience, though the memory is hazy.

Going Greek & a Trip to the Movies

On Monday, after much fighting, whining and moaning, my desire to cook greek food for dinner was finally allowed, and Liam and I had a massive feed of lamb souvlaki (with homemade yoghurt sauce) and hoe made falafels. Falafel is surprisingly easy and reasonable to make, though our 2 inch high pot holding 2 inches of oil, with balls of chickpeas being pelted at it, started a small fire. One it was out, we were able to get on, with no injury to speak of.

Then Tuesday...

After winning two tickets to see the Expendables 2 (some OUSA contest where you had to send in your best Chuck Norris joke) I was off, stuffed with Velvet Burger and surrounded by 2 giant children… After spending heaps of $2 coins in the outside-theater arcade, we went in. I got to my seat, which holy shit, the seats are assigned here… like, your ticket says what seat you're to be seated at, and tried to pull it down… I tried to pull it down so hard that I almost fell off of it. Apparently the chairs here are just chairs… you don't have to rotate the seat down to its seat-able position. 

Leg room. I had more leg room than I'd ever had… it was like a first-class airplane experience. In fact, too much space. I didn't know where to put my feet. Another difference was the 'upholder' which of them was really just a paddle like extension of the arm rest, so not only could it hold your jumbo raspberry coke, but it was also a great table for the maltaseers and mixed M&Ms. So, Mixed M&Ms. imagine, you didn't have to make the choice of regular, peanut filled, or crispy (which is a whole story of its own because we don't have these delicious tokens of chocolatey goodness anymore in the states), but could instead buy a bag that was the perfect combination of all of them. Well, here you can.

Anyway, the movie was surprisingly good and the whole movie theater experience was fancier than any other theater I had been in prior.

A Possum, the Alphabet and the Catlins

On wednesday, i was visited finally by Jacob.. all the way from Auckland. Though largely consumed by homeork, Wednesday night meant a barbecue for y neighbor's birthday. We made homemade veggie burgers as well as homemade buns, and precariously grilled the ready-to-fall-apart patties on the barbecue. incredible success. Post our feed, I finally played part in the stupidity of 'possum,' which essentially involves sneaking into the botanic gardens (through a fence) and spending a considerable amount of time hanging in a tree. twas fun, got moderately lost, survived the various physical challenges, and only left with a few bruises from the event. 

Thursday night there was an ABC party next door, which  would indicate anything but clothes. Wrapped in Newspaper, we ventured onwards. Jacob was wearing undies and a water bottle case as extra coverage. Overall, too much person was seen that night, though that vision was then replaced by one of Cmac smashing an old laptop over his head, and then proceeding to rip it to bits all over the flat.

 Friday was a day in the beautiful sunshine of Dunedin, followed by a night of horrific winds in the Catlins (Purakaunui Bay). We had been planning on going, but getting everything together took far longer than predicted, and we were only off as the time neared 5pm. The drive was short, and soon enough we set up camp on a beautiful hill by the beach, where it seemed as there there was absolutely no available firewood. We ran through what firewood we did have, and cooked sausages and past on the barbecue. In terms of preparedness, Cmac and campbell pulled through, with more supplies for comfortable camping than I had ever experienced. Twas a fun evening, followed by a night involving a tent, slapping me in the face, with the force of the wind. Campbell's tent ripped, but not before the poles broke mid sleep, and he managed to rebuild the tent with the use of ropes carefully placed and tied to the van, and a center pole made of bike pump and various other findings to hold the middle up. Morning came with bacon, pancakes, and trips on the mini-motorbike. The weather was beautiful, but the mosquitos were not stopping. I'm still really itchy. To my distaste, we then traveled to jack's blowhole on our way out, which was a hike to get to, but ended up being pretty cool.

That night was one of massive exhaustion, in preparation for a hellish sunday of work. 

Tasmania Day 8

Homeward bound!

My flight from Hobart -> Sydney was pretty bland-- finally started reading Bossypants (the Tina Fey autobiography), and sat next to a really nice red headed lady. On the way out of the plane, we all were stopped because some chick fell down the stairs onto the tarmac. I don't think she got hurt, so laughs are in order. We reversed and went through the other side of the plane.

Once I got to Sydney, I had a ton of time so I stayed in the domestic terminal and got food to eat. Bridget had recommended Sumo Salad, so I tried to find it. She was right. it was delicious.

I then decided it was time to actually exit and then re check-in, which was really annoying because there was a bus you had to pay for and take to get to the other terminal.

After waiting on the wrong line and trying to check in at the wrong airport (embarrassing) I found Kevin. We talked about our weeks briefly but were mostly consumed with checking in. When trying to go through security, the three bottles of bubbles that I had bought in a store in Burnie caused some trouble. The guy picked them up out of my basket and asked what they were... well, it went on like this

Man: what are these?
Me: bubbles....
Man: uh well, I don't know if we can let you take these in....
 *goes off to coworker to whisper about them*
 ......something something dangerous something something.....
Chick behind me: dangerous? bubbles? *laugh*
Man: yeah, we'll have to see....

rest of my stuff goes through, and at the other end I noticed that my little basket (containing the bubbles) was set aside... more conflict.

Man: yeah, I don't think we can let you take these in because there's no ingredient list, no size, and they're not for human use.
Me: *laugh* umm I'm pretty sure there is a size... I bought them because I knew they were less than 100mL
Man: where? *holding the package far away from me*
Me: *tries to look at the package*
Man: *holds package close*
Me: uhhh I think at the bottom of the bottles' labels maybe?
Man: ah. you were lucky this time.. I see you're a true child at heart. Enjoy your bubbles and flight.

There was an article about NZ ciders in the in flight magazine also. real funny.

Our next weird interaction was when Kevin decided he wanted to get another 50 cent piece before leaving Australia (the coins are dodecagons and really cool) so we went up to the Lonely Planet store and asked the first worker there. Lo and behold we found a man who LOVES coins.. He emptied half the register just to show us all the editions of the coins that existed and ended up replacing all of Kevin's coins with different ones. Weird.

The flight was filled with reading the book, and not sleeping. There was a 2 year old in front of me who was swinging on the seats the whole time. super annoying.

In the airport though we met a girl who's also on exchange at Otago, and ended up spending our loopy 6 hours in christchurch airport with her, with Kevin and I nearly missing our bus back to Dunedin.

After a very long day, home.

Tasmania Day 7

So at noon, my bus rived at Hobart and after a lot of being lost and asking a million questions to a million people, finally finding a German exchange student to be most helpful. I made it to the oval football field at UTas. As I approached, I heard my name being called... weird.... I don't know anyone here. I turned around to see Mullet Manor residents in Hobart from their gig the night before and in preparation for an action on Monday (Sunday night they set up a tree sit and stay there all night so when workers come in the morning to cut them down, they'll be there preventing it). We chatted briefly and then I found a spot to sit and watch Paul play in the footie game : engineers vs. law students.

Apparently Eng won, but I was far to confused and delved in conversation with a girl on the frisbee team standing by me. I heard American words escape her mouth and struck up conversation. Colorado made and studying at UTas for the semester, we chatted about travel and whatnot. After, I went to the uni book store and purchased an extremely overpriced soft hoodie that says UTas (it's UPenn colors, so multipurpose, etc....).

Then, we went back to 'home,' which my god, was nice to step into again. It felt like a proper home base and made my trip really come full circle. Paul and I snacked on tea and biscuits, including a mince fruit pie (new for me (pretty average, ha)) while chatting about the week past.

At 5 we left to go to the bubble tea place for tea, dinner and the hope to see Anthony who owns it [met him last week]. Apparently we missed him by 5 minutes, but a soy burger and lychee-yoghurt green bubble tea with tapioca pearls mostly made up for the loss, even if Paul was teasing me about  my pronunciation of Lychee (lie-chee vs. lee-chee).

We walked to uni where they were having a "barrel," which is some sort of beer/alcoholic party on campus. Twas fun and I hung out with a bunch of Paul's friends what I met the week before. Beers were $2.50, which was sweet.

Jesus, the other couch surfer staying at the Dickenson's, a 30 year old from Madrid had also arrived around he time of our arrival and we got to meet and hang out with him. I tried to practice Spanish with him, but rapidly realized that I'm pretty shit at it now.

I got much more filled explanations of cricket and rugby form Tim, and as far as I can tell, rugby is like football, but you throw it backwards. dumb.

We got home not too late and the whole family was up, so we got on and chatted (trying to hide my drunkenness). I slept well but was up at 7:10 to prepare for our trip to the Salamanca Market, which was a massive Saturday market in Hobart. It was awesome. I bought this ridiculously tacky black jumper with animals on it and "australia" printed all over.

I also got kangaroo buttons that were laser cut from tassie wood. There was so much fresh produce and great smells there. We wandered around Salamanca square after and listened to a band (10 year old bassists, 11 year old guitarist and vocals, and 12 year old drummer). They were really good. Bridget and I also went to a few shops, like a really funny pink faerie shop.

On our way back to the car we were passing the floating fish and chip shop, and I asked what "flake" was, to which I Bridget and Paul replied, "shark." Now, maybe I'm wrong, and shark is something everyone can get in the states, but to my knowledge, you can not, so i had to try it. Twas fried, in he expected fish and chips way, but I quite liked it. Not very fishy, though not too overly flavorful either.

Then it was off the the airport, and I left with "see you in America!"s.

New words:

• Bogan - white trash
• stubby holder - coozy

Tasmania Day 6 - Night

Bus to Devonport was really funny. The bus driver used to live in San Fran and was so excited when i opened my mouth. Though heaps of people were waiting to get on, he asked me a million questions. At the drop off point (last stop) we also chatted for a while about the NY transportation system. I love such excited of people especially when the topic of conversation was how he used to use the JFK expressway even though the clearance was a bit too low for the height of his coach bus.

As I waited for bus 2 I went to a liquor store and walked around. They call them bottle shops here, or slang, bottle. Anoter weird slant I heard was that people call lunch dinner and dinner tea.

I felt pretty bad staying somewhere for 12 hours, eating their dinner, showering in their shower, sleeping in their bed, and then disappearing in he morning, but Chris picked me up from the bus stop and took me back to his really nice home in Devonport. It was only 1.5 km away, but we were chatty the whole way. He's 45, married to Gill (with a G!) and has 2 sons - Sam and Alex. Alex is 12 and we spoke briefly but he was both shy and engulfed in video games. Sam is 18 and just started at the air force, So I didn't get to meet him.

Dinner was some cheesy noodle casserole thing, salad (such good salad... it had been too long, man) and white wine. Pleasantly fed. Chris is a prosecutor and really into cycling-- re races quite often and is always riding. Gills a hairdresser. We watched a lot of the Paralympics whilst chatting about travels and pets (they have 1 dog and 1 bird but threw as another dog and 2 more birds that they were looking after. The birds were just walking around, which was pretty funny, and I even got the scare pleasure of having one walk up my leg. Weird fucking feeling...).

We also watched a bunch of 'Mrs. Brown's Boys' which holyshit was funny. Lowbrow, British comedy filmed in front of a live audience. It was great.

I slept well and had a shower in the morning that was 42 degrees Celsius. Their hot water worked in a way that you'd pick a temperature first and then that was how hot your shower was.



After brief goodbyes I bought a lamington at Mackers (delicious... I've been meaning to have one since I saw Mary and Max anyhow) and found the bus. Back to Hobart for the last bit, returning to Paul, Bridget and Family.

Tasmania Day 6

So, I also learned that Ken was in a terrible car accident in Sydney a few years ago that put him, paralyzed, in the hospital for two years, and unable to walk for another year after that. Now he's always on painkillers, but you honestly wouldn't be able to tell. Also, I learned that Joseph, the 7 year old who I swear is brilliant, was completely shut off when he arrived... no laughs,smiles, cries, talks, nothing. It's amazing how the environment was welcoming enough to get him out of such a shell.

I had been curious for a bit about how Lizzy made money, and Peter explained to me that a lot of her horse work is about training endurance horses, which she sells. Also, taking in Foster kids comes with heaps of money -- more than you necessarily need to take care of them. Interesting. I suppose though that constantly having WWOOFers also helps, since they're essentially free labor, disguised as people spending time doing something new, people needing a 2nd year visa, and small families coming for the experience and their small daughters' need to see horses.

I also learned that Shota was a hairdresser by trade and got a trim/styling this morning as a result. The hilariously dead  bits on the bottom of my hear fare finally gone now. HE only cut off what was necessary and it was the most gentle hair experience i've ever had.

Once I went in, I gave Annalise a very long (and probably torturous for her) piano lesson. We went through all of her books, and then I tried to teach her the pink panther song which mostly led to me writing really shit sheet music for her to use.

After I was to help Caden with reading, but he was uninterested and ran away, so I did math with Annalise. Apparently in hoe schooling they never do sciences, and seemingly not much math either... I taught her long division and a bunch of pattern finding techniques. Lunch was ham toasties and some ramen noodles. I learned a bunch about Shota's girlfriend whilst eating. It's unbelievable how little he has been able to speak with there throughout these past 10 months of his traveling, but even more amazing how they left. Apparently she was with friends and lost a bet or dared to say hi to some guy. It was Shota. She is a masseuse. I suggested they open an epic spa, but I don't think it translated well. He's pretty good at english and Kohei's also getting there (they've only been learning for 10 months!). Peter said he's only recently begun thinking and dreaming in english (instead of Dutch, though eh also speaks French German Italian and Portuguese).

After lunch I did the dishes (again, holy dishes) and then swept their dirty fucking massive van.

At 4 it was off to the bus station (me), library (Kohei and Shota (Peter stayed back because there were only 12 seats)(for internet)) and irish dance (kiddies). Goodbyes were cute and I got a massive group picture first. Weird place, but overall a good experience. Now off for my weirdly short stay in devonport!

Actually, I forgot one thing. I learned a lot about hair during my haircut.

• My right side is shorter than the left because I play with it more
• When hair is wet, the cuticles are bent, so it's way easier to damage
• Thou Shall not sleep with wet hair nor brush wet hair

Tasmania Day 5

I woke up to roosters before 5am. Holy roosters, but all in all very comfy night. I reiterate, electric blankets, awesome. The day started off with rain on rain on rain. I went to the WWOOFer cabin for toast, nutella and apples. The day actually ended up being pretty emotionally difficult and thought provoking, but I'll explain. So, at wish, I went to the house to see what I was to be doing. Since the outdoor gardening work was a. not necessarily desirable, and b. possibly not possible due to the rain, Lizzy said she'd figure it out, but for he time being it would be nice to help Caden and Joseph read.

I was with them for 2.5 hours, still not finished with one short book, mostly because I'm relatively certain Caden is dyslexic. Joseph was a surpassingly able reader for 7, but I felt terrible struggling with Caden. I was first blaming it on homeschooling, but after a bit noticed a lot of the mistakes would suggest dyslexia. I don't really know what to do since Lizzy and home rules seem pretty static.

After that, I gave Annalise a piano lesson for 30 minutes. She's really pretty good, and I just helped with counting and technique, which made a huge difference. Then, I went to the cabin for lunch, armed with a massive homemade loaf of bread and apples. After realizing that the tomato, piece of cheese and carrot I took out of the fridge were not provided by Lizzy but actually purchased by Kohei and Shota, I felt terrible and the questions started. I was curious firstly about what they were given (some bread, some spreads (not the nutella), cheap tea, cheap coffee, and apples, when they had). I couldn't imagine living off of only that, especially wen dinner is another mass produced item for them. We also had chats about how weird it is that Ken and Lizzy sit in another room whilst eating the same foods. I was told about a medieval room they have which would fit everyone easily, though is rarely used. Apparently the kids only sometimes have friends over, but it's usually only for birthdays, and ten then, there's a cake and present, but no real giving of the present (sounds unimportant, i know, but like, imagine a birthday without singing?)

The whole day it seemed like homeschooling wasn't actually happening, which kind of bothered me. (Joseph was home sick; he's usually at school) I was pretty reflective/depressed at how weird it was here after lunch and went back in to do heaps of dishes. I met Ken at this point (finally). He seems pretty cool, and was born in Arkansas. Other than that, I didn't learn much.

Post dishes I sat down with Jabus, Caden and Joseph and asked if they had art supplies, because it occurred to me that out of school it's possible they get no art exposure. All there was was some paper and a few broken crayons (this makes these people sound like hobos; not the case. it's a lovely home, just no art shits). I explained to them the game where you draw a picture and pass it to someone else and they have to turn it into something different. Though the rules were seldom followed, it was a ton of fun and got them all focussed and creative. Annalise joined in at a point too.

Lizzy asked me if I wanted to cook anything for dinner and I told her I'd bake a dessert if I could, so I spent a few minutes and picked a chocolate cupcake recipe. As I was getting everything together I n noticed Pearl and Tristan had wandered in and asked to watch, since they had cooking in school and loved it. I told them they couldn't' watch because they'd be too busy helping me. With my new found sous chefs, cupcakes [heaps] were made and we all got chocolate sick before dinner.

I learned a lot about them whilst baking as well. Pearl (and her brothers) see their father occasionally and have had horrible experiences (could showers, bad treatment) in other foster homes. Peter and I were chatting about this later and he told me that all he knew was that the father had some sort of health condition that limited him. Tristan speaks with his dad every Monday and has also had bad experiences, but that's all I pulled out of them. Everyone seems happy though where they are now, and it's such a crazy concept to me. When I asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, as well as working for a specific animal saving organization Pearl told me she wanted to be a mother, which surprised me even more. The rest of the cupcake making fun was in my saying tomato differently than they do ad learning that when things get expensive, they say prices are dear.

After cupcakes I had a shower and came out to see Tristan just starting HP6. We chatted a bit about that and then spaghetti and meat bits, some fries, and a bit of lettuce made for dinner. Dessert was a success and I joined in with some shitty reality TV programs. Oh! but not before I saw a massive zucchini in the kitchen and got a house tour from pearl. Then back to the WWOOFer cabin for more yarns (and tea).

More facts gained:

• Peter
• used to drink 25 cups of coffee each 
• son had a coke problem and he got him to stop after 72 hours straight talking to him
• daughter (photographer) was prescribed drugs by a shrink but after giving her a joit, she's been better than ever before
• ran a crazy underground parties
• 24 year old girlfriend, but it's been difficult to keep it while he's so out of touch
• lost all money, but never been happier
• Shota
• hair dresser (i'm getting a haircut tomorrow!)
• street dancer- danced in sydney opera house
• here for his 2nd year visa