King George of Britton – The Blogging

A few general updates, hmm..whats happened since I last wrote?! It doesn’t feel like much. The weather here is ideal. Its sunny, warm during the day, cool at night and frustratingly too good. I wished I was out exploring everyday.

I booked my flights to Nepal and back. I am leaving Nov 13th and return Nov 29th or something. The nervousness is there but it I am excited. I haven’t really started looking into all the things there are to see and do. I think the only real requirement I have is seeing the Himalayas. But now that I have the flights booked, a bit more of time will be spent researching options. I will have used all my vacation this year!! Ironically I get way more vacation days here and I don’t have enough. Back home I had less and used less. I won’t be making that mistake again.

There isn’t actually that much to write about. This past weekend I took a trip to Melbourne. I have been wanting to visit for awhile but never got around to actually doing it. A friend of mine, who I met at one of the meet ups and we’ve done some hiking together and house-boating together, invited me a long and so I booked flights and went. It was a gorgeous drive. I haven’t done many scenic drives, like for the sake of a scenic drive. But this one was pretty fantastic.

While out, my ex bosses boss, whom I was pretty close with back in the US, is an Aussie women, actually one of the senior execs at the company, owns a house and farm near the Great Ocean Road in Victoria so we drove the long way and went and said hello. She is retiring at the end of the year. It was great to see her.

As far as the rest of my life, work has been reasonable. In fact not much worth mentioning even, which I think is a good thing. Work is work. I am meeting with another professional mentor as well. I did the mentor thing back home and found it to be extremely useful. There are a lot of professional issues and general guidance that is helpful to talk through with someone outside of the company. We’ve met twice but so far she has provided some great advice and thought processes. We usually just meet once a month over lunch. Its not much but still a great opportunity to assess and refocus on a few of my goals.

I have been going on a number of dates again, but still don’t feel like I have met or connected with anyone one, which is fine I guess. Obviously, I’ll let you know if something exciting happens. Or maybe I won’t. I will probably leave you in the dark for awhile…seems to be what I have done in the past. No, but I will be more open about that stuff, but really, there isn’t much of anything to report on that front. Everyone has been very nice though.

Okay, here a few pics.

This was from a hike a while back. More waterfalls. I quite enjoy them.

Hard to see but in the middle of the courtyard is the snake.

Within 24 hours there were two snakes at my office. One outside in the courtyard. Its hard to see but that is a 6 foot King Brown snake – one of the most dangerous in the world. They had to call a snake wrangler to come get it. The snake wrangler was shaking afterwards because it tried coming after him. Then the very next morning a tree snake was in the light fixture above someone’s desk. Needless to say after the previous day, it freaked a lot of people out. It was literally, right above their desk.

I think taken picture of food is kind of dumb but I did it anyway. This is my Sat and Sun breakfasts lately.

I went to a Wallabies rugby game vs. South Africa. Which is a big deal here. It would be like seeing the US basketball team play. The Wallabies are the national rugby team.  Except the Wallabies got beat pretty bad.

Street art in Melbourne. Its a pretty clean city and they have a number of dedicated streets and alley-ways dedicated to street art. They have become part of the cities iconic appeal.

I found a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed fitting to hold it up.

I swear we weren’t trying to look like we were trying to look cool. The picture just came out with us looking like we were trying to look cool….kinda funny actually. Like, looking cool is cool if you don’t look like you’re trying to look cool. But if you look like you’re trying to look cool, its not cool. Got it kids? There really isn’t a lesson here. Posing always makes me realize why I hate posing. Its posing. Okay this is going nowhere.

This is Chris Trotter and her mini-donkies.

You can’t tell from this picture because there is no reference but this horse is like 9 feet tall. Ridiculous and massive. A bit scary up close actually.

Baby clydesdale. 

The llamas were hilarious. And they didn’t spit on me, which I appreciated.

Alrighty ole mighty, I am back to blogging. Okay, I am sure it will be pretty sporadic but not as bad as it has been lately. Obviously going back to Utah took a lot of time and was a solid distraction – a much needed distraction. It cost a freaking fortune to get home. I was kind of grumpy about that part and feeling like it had only been a year and I should have travelled somewhere else. But I am really glad I came home. Seeing Scotty’s wedding was really special, meeting Izzy, spending time with everyone, particularly the nieces and Nathan was really awesome for me. Being at the cabin, just around the family, seeing Erica, the 24th of July, seeing the Grandparents, were all very centering experiences, very pure. It had a great affect on me and has helped me re-shift my focus.

When I was home I met with a number of different friends and important people to me. I met with a financial adviser to get my finances back in order. I ate familiar food and stared in awe at the Wasatch Mountains, almost frustrated there wasn’t snow in them. The move out here has been mind-cracking, personality expanding. It has also been exhausting and stressful.  It was necessary to reset and realign. Since I have been back in Brisbane, I have felt more calm and rejuvenated. I hope to maintain and build off that energy into this next year here.

I had forgotten how distant and removed I was from my people, my places. Moving to Australia really put me out of my comfort zone. Thats why I did it, to get out of my comfort zone, to expand, experience and learn and grow. That familiarity and comfort of home helped.

I have only really been back in Brisbane a week. This weekend I went out to a friend’s birthday party. See bow tie pic below. This morning I went hiking in a nearby national park and went to 6 or 7 pretty amazing waterfalls. I may have to go back during the wet season though to get the full effect.

Oh, and below are the links to the family Harlem Shake and rope swing event. I have had so many people comment or mention that video to me. Apparently people think our family is fun and outgoing; little do they know.

Since I have been back…

….in no particular order

House/pet sitting – kinda wished I would have turned this opportunity down. Its a drag.

The plant is up and running!!

Getting my feet back under me from the recent work whirlwind, have a date tonight;  dinner, conversation, and a show.

Working out again; usually strength 2 times a week, running once and yoga once, thats the idea anyway but its a fight to make that happen. A fight I tell ya!

Music – lately my musical leanings have been all over the place. I usually start heavy and strong and end light. Morning driving to work = metal or gangster rap (sorry Mother). Hard, loud and angry – I love it. Pre-lunch – 90’s music; Pearl Jam, Nirvana, stuff I grew up with. After lunch; Hip hop, Reggae, Folk or Soul; think Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, or Otis Redding. Drive home = usually somber or emotive, maybe Radiohead, Vast, or Portishead. At night; classical piano and then ambient before bed. Saturday’s may see a mix of electronic thrown in as well. I have said this before and will say it again music is brilliant.  Find music. Listen to it often. Then find some more.

Back to volunteering – missed the last two weeks (one concert and one work).

Got two massages because the stress for work was wreaking havoc on my neck and I was getting all sorts of tension headaches. Dang, if I were rich I would ask for two things, a massage every week and a personal omelette chef. Thats all. Cars and houses and things are pointless, but massages and omelets = heaven. Okay not quite but sorta.

I am getting excited to come home. I am looking forward to our Ebert version of the Harlem shake. See ya soon.

I realize my punctation in this post is wretched, but I don’t feel like changing it.

When Mom and Dad were here we celebrated Mother’s Day and Dad’s Birthday. Now, this post will celebrate the opposite.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

It really was so good to have you in town….would have been great if we could have stayed in Cairns for another week, eh?!

I don’t really have many photos to add this week. To be honest, it hasn’t been very adventurous lately, well not in the traditional sense. I have been hammered with work. I have been trying to think of the right analogy; some line or story to highlight how its been lately. I think the photo animation below about sums it up.

Work has been kicking my trash. The plant that is supposed to be our big deal, the one I keep talking about, has been down for 6 weeks. How can you manage a supply chain with no supply? You can’t. You simply divide up what you do have and give everyone less than they want. It creates an environment where no one is happy. I get to play the fun role of being the center of it all since its my product line and I am the supply manager…..does make me grateful I am not the plant manager. I know there isn’t much context for that 6 weeks for you about what that means. I guess all I can say is that it has made work life very uncomfortable. Balance is a big thing for me. I seek balance in all that I do. I am very aware of when I am out of balance in one way or another. The trip to Cairns was very balancing, very grounding. That trip, diving on the reef, was a huge high. I guess I am being brought back down to earth, at times though, it feels more like being buried alive.

Funny how life works through contrasts. Since I have been back I have been head down, hands dirty, and working long hours. Last weekend was a long holiday weekend and I worked through the entire thing, morning till night. The plant finally got up and running this week. We were all feeling anxious, exhausted, and relieved. We got some bad news today they are still struggling and its come down again. My point is, that balance isn’t perfect balance all the time. It ebbs and flows. But I can tell at this pace, at this pressure, it isn’t sustainable.

I hope this isn’t perceived as complaining. Its not. I have a great job and this is a great experience. I am simply commenting on the contrasts between beautiful Australia, the beaches, the diving, the exploration and the brutality of work. To circle back to Father’s Day, Dad I don’t know how you did it. I mentioned this to you and Mom when you were in town. How you managed your own business, church callings, and 6 bratty kids is beyond me. I get to go home to quiet and try to unwind from it all my way. Even this weekend has been stolen from me. I have simply been too tired to get out and have fun. Seriously, I have been relaxing and recovering this weekend, not fixing sprinklers and fences and staying up waiting for idiotic teenagers to come home (not that you had anything to worry about – were only playing Uno and reading the scriptures all those late nights). Major kudos.

I don’t know how you managed. You have earned the highest form of respect from me. I love you Dad. I love you Mom. Happy Father’s Day and Happy Mother’s Day to two of the most selfless and hardest working people on earth. I can’t keep up. Its your example of hard work and the put-your-head-down-and-just-deal-with-it-the-best-you-can mentality that is getting me through this period at work. Thank you. But don’t you even think you will get away without an embarrassing photo.

You are celebrated for all your hard work raising the obnoxious bunch that we are. But you are also celebrated for all the fun times you have provided, even if those fun times meant more work for you. They were all much appreciated – even the ones that weren’t appreciated at the time.

I have had a busy month. Did I even share pics from my house boating trip? I don’t think I can even remember all the fun little details of everything that has happened since the last time I wrote. Work has been a mess, but I have been able to do a lot of fun things outside of work. Having Mom and Dad in town was so nice. I was really hoping this would be a good trip for them. It was a long trip, a big commitment, and honestly the weather out here the past few months has not been spectacular. I was hoping they would see cool animals, have good weather, experience a bit of Australia, and enjoy the reef. Plus they also had the Webster’s with them so if the trip wasn’t awesome, it wouldn’t have been awesome for all four of them. I will let them speak for themselves but seeing their faces after snorkeling put me at ease. It was so fun to hear Mom and Dad yelling back and forth while they were out snorkeling. Oh, and Mom got yelled at by the crew of the boat one day for not coming in when she was supposed to come in. Ha…I took that as another sign they were enjoying themselves.

There are so many little details that have happened. But for now this may be a media post.

I drove my car into a ditch and had it rocking on two tires.

A few random pics from my weekend house-boating trip (I stole some off Facebook).

This photo is sufficiently awkward.

I did actually catch a fish.

Sunsets are ridiculous. I hate them. They are too peaceful. Its a mismatch from reality.

We went to a rugby game. Except after watching the game, then comparing this version of rugby to the other version of rugby, we decided we like the other version better. Ask Dad, he’ll tell you. It was still fun, especially watching Mom’s face cringe every time they tackled each other.

The birds here are so beautiful, and nice too.

Nearly every night after being out late in early, rowdy card games were played. It was really quite fun actually.

It was fun having the Websters as well; that way I could be asked awkward questions by four people rather than two (my lawyers advised me to inform you that was a joke). It genuinely was a fun dynamic!

Ha! Put your sunglasses on, Mom’s legs are comin’ at ya!  Sorry Mother, I had to post this one.

Dad really wanted me to show them how I surf don’t drown. I decided to give it a go and lo and behold, I actually stood up. It still doesn’t resemble surfing but I finally stood up and was stable on that thing, even if it was only for 8 seconds. If that thing were a bull I’d have a belt buckle big enough fer fryin eggs on.

We went up to this great little town called Karunda. Basically nothing matters about that day except for the Venom museum. Ask Mom about it. Honestly, I think we are pretty happy to have walked away with our lives. I think we were one bite away from being the subjects of a based-on-a-true story horror movie. She loved it there. But the views on the way up and back down were excellent.

I don’t have a picture of the bats. But they have these bats here, flying foxes, I think I have mentioned them before. Anyway, I was hoping we would see some of them and luckily one night, about the time this picture was taken actually, they came out by the thousands, like hundreds of thousands! It was amazing to watch.

I did take some actual photos underwater with the GoPro but I didn’t like them so I screenshot moments from the video. Pretty much watch the video instead.

This was just after Mom and Dad finished there renegade snorkeling. They battled poisonous jellyfish and crocodiles.

This video horribly under-delivers on how spectacular the experience was. Go easy on me, it was my real first dive, and filming underwater was tricky as I had a hard time concentrating on filming because I was too distracted looking around myself. If you get bored, you can play bingo. First person to spot the turtle, shark, eel, nemo, barracuda and ray wins. Okay, go!

Crap, I also have a few short crocodile videos to post. Maybe next week.

Before I get to scuba. Its bit late for this comment, but can I just say that last week, like the week with the Boston bombings and the plant explosion in Texas, was one of the more dramatic news weeks I remember in a while. I mean, in a bad way, it was pretty thrilling. Its not a good thing. But during the Boston news unfolding, the way modern news is, the instantaneous feedback and story telling, is exciting. The Boston thing in particular. I have resorted to Twitter for much of my news. The interesting thing about Twitter is that you start, or well I start at the oldest refreshed feeds, usually in like 4-6 hour windows. So as I scroll up through the feeds I get bits and pieces of news, like its actually unfolding in front me. And sometimes it actually is. Its raw and real. That is how I watched the Boston man hunt unfold. It was crazy, while it was happening, people were posting videos and pictures of cops with guns on their streets, at that very moment! Someone even posted a video of the actual shoot-out and I was watching it within minutes of it happening. Later feeds then gave details about one dead, still hunting the other. It was nuts! I am bit sick to admit it was exciting….something is wrong about that.

The thing that worries me even more, is that I don’t play video games and it was sad and sick but exciting to watch, for a culture that thrives on video game violence, this thing was like the real thing, in their streets. I actually think the way it has played out, glorified it and it may encourage future sensational events like this. I mean they were throwing homemade grenades at the police right there in the neighborhoods!  I don’t blame video games for anything but I do fear that kids these days that are neglected, depressed, and completely hopeless sometimes see this as their only way to get attention and glory. Its frightening really. People in Australia just look at the US like its completely nuts!

Watching the news from another country provides such a unique perspective. Honestly, the US perception is wild, dangerous, cut throat. I mean, it isn’t that. But it is as well. I wasn’t able to see that so clearly from the inside. Its fascinating, and kind of sick. I mean every day we hear some crazy environmental disaster, a plant explosion, a gun fight, a terrorist attack, a nuclear threat. With claims of being “the greatest country in the world,” and I am not sure what standards anybody comes to that conclusion anymore, are we in denial about our own country?  I mean, I only ask that because how can we change anything if we are constantly defending something as “the best system.” To change it means to admit it isn’t really the best. I have always found that to be very ironic.  On the other hand, I think the US is at the forefront of  the social media movement and leads the pack regarding technology and how its used, for better or worse. The US seems like a giant science experiment. Lets see what happens when EVERYTHING is goes public, exposed, and instant. I think its a bit unfair but other countries aren’t quite so willing to expose themselves and so the US news is so accessible and easy to watch. It gets a lot of air play. If it didn’t have so many tragic elements it would be deeply fascinating; I guess it is fascinating. I kind of feel like, the perception from over here, is that the rest of the world is watching one giant macro reality TV show, fascinated and entertained by the cleverness, the self destruction, the madness of it all. How can you not watch?! Seriously, it feels that way a bit. “Oh the silly US, they just had another mass shooting, how crazy. And they’re wanting to arm more people! This ought to be fun to watch” That is not far from the actual tone.

Okay, wow, that was not scuba!  Yeah so I am now dive certified!  Okay, so my thoughts on it are, that it was anxiety inducing to a degree that I underestimated. It caught me off guard how uncomfortable I was underwater. But you need to do it.

The week before I had to do 8-12 hours of e-learning to pass all the tests and material. I also underestimated how long it would take and found myself cramming on lessons that literally could mean life or death underwater. It was fine though, I passed.

The first day, I got up early for a 7 am start at the dive center. All was good, we headed out for the public pool. We went over all the gear, how to set it up, inspect it, all that stuff. Overwhelming moment #1, there is TONS of gear and apparatuses. Its a lot to have actually on your body and a lot to think about if something doesn’t go right. But before putting it all on we had to do 4 laps in an olympic pool, with no gear, just to see if we could swim. Overwhelming moment #2, I can’t swim. I mean, I can obviously swim, but I don’t swim well. I knew this but had that point driven into my brain, well my shoulders. I was exhausted from that. I don’t use those muscles. I don’t know how to breath and I usually just sink…..glad to get that behind me.

We then geared up and started doing some surface stuff, breathing tests, swimming with fins, adjusting the mask, putting the pack on with the buoyancy control stuff, the air, the weights, etc. That was fine; lots of gear but fine. Then we went underwater, easy enough. At first I was fine, I could breath, it was exciting, I was at the bottom of the pool. We had planned to be down there for maybe 15 min. After about 2 min, I freaked. My body panicked. Its not natural being under water, with your nose plugged. My instinct took over and my heart started pounding, I got nauseous, and almost passed out. I was seconds away from saying, “screw it, this isn’t for me.” But I sat on the bottom and waited it out. It eventually passed but it was still really uncomfortable for me. Most of the test were like, what happens if you lose your breathing regulator and it gets stuck behind you and you can’t find it? You kind of panic when you can’t find that thing. There are little techniques for stuff like that. Its actually really really helpful to go over it all. We practiced what happens if our air runs out. They actually turned off our air. I mostly did all those just fine.

Then we had to take our masks off and put them back on, which of course they are filled with water. But once I got my mask off I couldn’t breathe without breathing through my nose, so I was choking a little bit. I panicked again. I couldn’t get my mask on and had to sit and hold my nose with my eyes closed (contacts). I had to calm down, and concentrate on not breathing in my nose, which isn’t something I ever thought about before but its such a strong instinct, that is what I wanted to do underwater. But I did finally figure it out. It only took four times longer than everyone else. I am sure I looked silly holding my nose, eyes closed not doing anything. I was seconds away from just swimming to the surface. I also didn’t know your mask could easily be emptied of water, underwater. I really went in so blind with what it would actually entail.

On to the ocean. We get there, I am exhausted and feeling really uncomfortable about it; thinking this may not be for me. We get in the water, go down, and visibility is like 3-5 feet and super murky at best for that 3-5 feet. I freaked. It was so disorienting. I was horrified. It actually really scared me. I consumed 20-30% more oxygen than everyone else; I think because my breathing rate was so rapid. I didn’t like it. I was so happy to go home. It was a LONG day, like 14 hour day.

I didn’t want to go the next day. Seriously, I had no more interest. But I couldn’t pay for it, take all the tests, and not finish. But I was convinced I didn’t want to do it. We go out the second day to the ocean again and we had 3-4 dives scheduled, some just exploring dives and some tests of the stuff we did in the pool. I was so nervous about taking my mask off in the ocean.

But the water was much more clear the second day, I was more comfortable in the process and the gear. I wasn’t perfectly comfortable but once we went down I knew what to expect and was fine. I started having fun with it. We did the tests and I had no problems. I still didn’t like taking my mask off and putting it back on and clearing it but it wasn’t a big deal. Then we went for some cool dives and saw fish and a huge sea turtle. It was unbelievable. At one point we were all waiting for something, and I just sat down cross-legged on the ocean floor looking up at the bubbles and the light filtering down through the water. It was unreal! Right then, I was like, this can be done, its exhilarating, fun and I am feeling and seeing things I have never experienced. Its bizarre, being underwater. The feeling is not natural and you have to get used to it. But it is also probably the closest thing to flying (or dreaming), and it is a totally different world down there. Going from the surface to underwater is like entering through a nerd portal of another dimension. Its awesome. If you can tolerate the terror of the instinctive panic, I think Ebert’s should try scuba diving. I can’t wait to go dive in the reef. I am really hoping my GoPro will work and get some of the experience of it. Fingers crossed!

I don’t have any photos or videos from the certification class because I thought dealing with a camera would have been too much. So here is the one photo I took to commemorate the class. Its our breathing regulators hanging from the wall after we cleaned them.

The other photo is of me playing a musical chair, or bench rather. You had to hit them really hard to make it sound nice. I hope the people at the botanical garden liked my song. Today is a holiday and that is what I went and did with some friends today. Back to work tomorrow, which is a Friday. Seriously, having a Thursday holiday is lame….make it the Friday.

The last one was an early morning sunrise. The sunrises here are so vivid. There is about 5 min of intense orange light that fills my entire apartment. I love it.

This was a bit of a hectic week with work.

I was supposed to fly up to Moranbah for work on Wednesday night. Everything was fine till we boarded the plane, we sat on the runway for an hour or so to learn there were mechanical issues with the plane. So they put us on a bus and drove us to another plane, only to sit on that one for another hour to learn that the plane had mechanical issues. Oh and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because the last flight that tried to land in Moranbah couldn’t due to weather.

They rescheduled me for a flight early the next morning, which I of course got up for ever so diligently. They wouldn’t let us down 3 times? I get to the airport, we board and take off with no issue and I would make our meetings on time. This is where the turbulence comes in. It was turbulent. I don’t get sick that easy but this one was pushing it a little. We get to Moranbah, or over Moranbah I should say, descend, drop the landing gear, all while swaying pretty badly, then abruptly pull up. We couldn’t land – pilots couldn’t see enough of the runway. We turned around back through all the turbulent air and went back to Brisbane. Okay fine, not that big of a deal. My only observation is that when your body thinks it will be okay to pee soon, then that opportunity gets taken away, its not pleasant. But finally we got out of the turbulent air and there was a bit of a mid flight toilet rush, but alas pee safety was found. Our landing in Brisbane wasn’t great either, we bounced pretty hard and had to re-land. New pilot?

I then proceeded to wait in line for an hour or even a bit more to tell them I don’t need a new flight, I just will need my luggage. No problem, on to baggage claim. “Wait 20 min and we’ll have it right to you.” No luggage. A few others from the flight got their bags, but a few of us were a no go. Back to the counter. “Oh, I know right where your luggage is Mr. Ebert, its in Moranbah.”  Apparently, my luggage missed the flight and got sent on the next flight, which could land (better pilots!?). “We’ll deliver it this evening.”

Nope.

I did finally get my luggage, it was just MIA for a few days.

None of it was even that big of a deal, just a little adventurous hassle. But of all the random things I saw Tracy Morgan at the airport. If you don’t know who he is, he is a comedian most known for his role on 30 Rock, if you don’t know what 30 Rock is, then, well, it doesn’t matter anyway. It was such a random day and then seeing him at the airport just added to the strangeness.

These are my flight sanity goods.

I took a picture of Tracy Morgan. I don’t believe in doing that sort of thing, but I did.

This weekend was decent. The weather finally let up and I went hiking to Mount Tibrogargan. It was so fun. The hike was more of a steep scramble to the top. But I decided I am now old because rather than running to the top with all recklessness, I sort of thought about, what if I fell? And it slowed me down. When did this start happening? But it was fun.

This first picture, I didn’t take. But it shows you what we hiked.

Easter weekend is a two day holiday. We got Good Friday off and then today (Monday). It’s been SO nice to have a long holiday. Quite a while back Cristina and I bought tickets to the Byron Bay Bluesfest, a huge annual music festival about two hours south of Brisbane. Byron Bay is a beautiful area with gorgeous beaches. Its also a bit of a hippy enclave. Tickets were quite pricey and could be purchased in 1, 3, or 5 day allotments. We purchased a 3 day ticket, which was still more than I’d like to admit.

We were originally thinking about camping but her bosses in-laws own a house on an apple orchard just a few km’s south, maybe 15 min or so. There were busses from their little town to the festival, just outside of Bryon Bay, so we obviously went that route. Free place to stay and easy transport are hard to argue with. I was a bit worried it would be a pain or we would be intruding. But my expectations were far exceeded. I love when that happens.

Upon arrival on Friday I think they were a bit skeptical of us; someone’s bosses in-laws seems a bit of a stretch and they appeared apprehensive of  us, these music festival going types. He was from Zimbabwe, she was from the UK. We were just looking for a place to crash, be quite and leave but they went over and above to make us feel welcome in their home. The house was beautiful with great views out over the little valley and over their orchard, surprisingly ideal. They showed us our rooms and explained how to get into town for the busses. We had a bit of lunch (a great little pizza place on the beach) and then off to the bus stop.

First up was Glen Hansard. I don’t expect you to know who he is but if you do, and you have a chance to see him live, do it! The festival is called a blues festival but honestly there wasn’t much blues, at least most of the headliners weren’t too bluesy. But there were some pretty big legends that headlined the festival. I am not usually a star struck person, I actually think being star struck is dumb. But seeing some of these musicians, even being quite old, I felt like I was paying homage to the greats. It was brilliant to see them perform. I never ever thought I would see Santana live or Robert Plant or even Iggy Pop. It wasn’t with Led Zepplin but it still was Robert Plant. I was thrilled.

There is probably too much to actually say about it all. I don’t have the patience to type all the interesting little details. Santana is a legendary guitarist who will go down as one of the greatest of all time. You hear his music, yeah its amazing. Seeing him live?! It blew my mind. Experiencing a genius of their craft, live and in person is well worth the hassle, the money, the experience. Robert Plant wasn’t a blown away type experience like Santana was but it was amazing to see and listen to him live; actually probably more impressive but in a different way.

There was also an artist there named Rodriguez. He isn’t famous, or wasn’t. In fact there was a documentary about him that just won the Academy Award for this year’s best documentary. I won’t explain the story. But he was there and he played. Again, just the experience of seeing and hearing him play live is special. I didn’t know who he even was when I had purchased the tickets. After watching the documentary and then seeing his performance, it made it all the more interesting. The documentary is called “Searching for Sugarman” in case you’re curious….such a fascinating story. It was really cool to see him live.

The other aspect of the festival was rain. Its renowned for downpours. And this year didn’t disappoint. It P-O-U-R-E-D on Friday. Except I didn’t get wet. Everyone else got soaked, even Cristina got soaked. I kid you not, every time we went to switch stages, which were under massive circus tents, it stopped raining for 5 min, just enough time. This was a completely useless miracle, but hey, I was fine with that one. I stayed dry. Although day 3 it rained all day and we decided not to go.

Another fluke thing, the city we were staying in had no bus line back, well the line was like 200-400 people, a few busses worth, not that much time to work through. The line for the other bus into Byron Bay, where most people were staying, probably a half a mile long with 8,000 people in it. I felt like a terrible person walking past all those soaking wet cold people at 12:30 a.m. just to hop right into our tiny little line. Oh, and the second we got on the bus, downpour…..all just a fluke but very lucky the city we stayed in was just a small town and not many people went there. We had no idea, it just worked out that way. The only negative is I forgot to pack underwear so its a good thing I am home now otherwise I might have been pushing my luck with the welcome…and actually another reason I am grateful it didn’t rain…3 days in wet underwear wouldn’t have been fun. Note to self, pack light, but pack undies, they are important.

The couple we were staying with, David and Sarah, had some family over, Cristina’s boss and his wife and some friends. We decided to have breakfast with them and then stay for lunch, which was a fantastic lamb roast and other delicious foods. We pretty much sat out on their back deck and talked all day just watching the rain. It actually felt really good, very relaxing.

So we basically had 2 days of great music, long days fighting crowds, but great days, and then at night had a wonderful place to stay, warm breakfast every morning and beautiful views, and a nice easter meal. It just sort of worked out. I was expecting lines and lines and crowds, and being soaked and muddy, and sleeping on a floor with spiders. Nope, fantastic.

Below are some photos. I will try to add a couple sloppy videos later. By the way, Paul Simon was tonight, I am a little disappointed we missed him but oh well.

Full line up

Day 1

Day 2

Crappy photo of Glen Hansard

Weird things I was expecting to see more of – There wasn’t as much weirdness as I might have hoped.

We ate like buffoons….seriously, I was expecting to eat dirt for three days. We did a bit better than that.

View down into the orchard

This spider was enormous. It probably eats little children….and Volkswagons. Its web was 4 feet wide. First pic shows you the web. Second pic shows you the spider. They are fascinating. I think they take down the web and put it back up every night in the same place. If you were walking around without lights you’d walk through a million of these….truly frightening.

There hasn’t been any specific adventures; just bits and pieces. Things here are really good and fortunately I have been able to stay busy with work, some social stuff, and a trip to the beach and some hiking.

I guess I have been trying to date a little. I have been out a few times with a Vietnamese girl, well actually she is Australian but of Vietnamese background. Her name is Hanh. I am not sure if its a long term thing; I don’t totally feel ready to date, or maybe its not right, or who knows. But she is a great girl and if nothing else, I hope we can be great friends…..sorry I don’t have any pics. Although we did go paddle boarding last weekend along the river, which was really fun. I think one of the reasons I never felt comfortable talking about my dating experiences in the past was that, when dating someone, especially early on, people tend to excited or there is some kind of anticipation or pressure. But dating is very much a game of timing, compatibilities lining up, you just don’t know till you try. And false starts are more common than hits, its just part of dating. So normally I would just not say anything until I knew it was substantial. I don’t mind mentioning it more frequently now but just because I have been on a few dates, its still a giant who knows from there. Right now, the way I feel about it, I would imagine it takes me a few years to feel ready again to make substantive commitments; thats my current thinking anyway.  But I do feel grateful to have met some great people.

There is an absolute blazing thunderstorm going on outside right now, with some spectacular lightning. Its a bit distracting…….and thrilling. Lightning is cool.

And for a few photos:

Good food is good – in case you didn’t already know.

When I went out on a site visit a few weeks ago, I came across this truck; notice the mud-flaps. It kinda made me smile to see it out here. Back when I first started working for Dyno Nobel I was working with a few of the operations people on a project for bringing these trucks to Australia. Dyno owns the company that manufactures them, and in Australia they hadn’t been using them so there was a cost savings for bringing them over. I hadn’t been involved for a while, but it was great to see this was one of the first trucks of a number that will be here. One of the engineers from Salt Lake was there and we chatted for a bit. This is one of the trucks that blends and pumps that explosives into the holes before blasting; its a pretty specialized piece of technology as you could imagine.

Around the city I have seen some huge spiders with HUGE spider webs. One was so large it went from a guard rail on the side of the road up to the telephone wires; just massive webs. You can’t really get a feel for the size of these things but here are a few photos.

This was a snake someone spotted at work, right in one of the courtyards; except, I don’t think this is a poisonous one.

This weekend I went hiking around one of the national parks with Raj and Cristina. I took a few photos but I should have taken my good camera. I love hiking around the rainforest type environment – the smell, the sounds, the scenery. Its such a new feel to hiking. I love it.