Verandah Days in Bellingen

Just back from weekend in beautiful Bellingen, between 3-4 hours drive south of Byron Bay.

4.5 hours there and 3.5 hours back to be specific.
Reasons for variable times include renegade police officers on power-trips, Queenslanders and Learner drivers.

Can proudly say that am getting more and more confident behind wheel. No longer shaking, sweating and hyperventilating for extended periods of time. Parts of driving-experience, in fact, is becoming automated. As one would expect with the extra experience.

For instance, one dude was tailgating me (have defined tailgating in previous post) and proceeded to make illegal and hazardous overtake on the inside lane in between two roundabouts.
Immediately following this incident found self - without having made concious decision to that effect - pressing foot down hard on accelerator; coming within one metre of the offending vehicle (now in front of me), all the while laughing like madwoman and shouting "How do you like that, huh, how do you like it when I'm up your ......" etcetera.

Once again going to meditate on importance of remaining calm in the face of adversity.

Spent day and a half in Bellingen with auntie Mia, preparing and consuming banana-bread, pizza, pancakes, cinnamon rolls and so on. Behaved like what I have come to term a "junk-vegetarian." Is lovely to be one every once in a while.

Yet, important to recognise that vegetarians and vegans who promote high-carb diets (because this is the most healthy diet long-term) are surprisingly not referring to those particular foods (refined flour and sugar). Similarly, would not advise vegetarians to replace meat (an animal protein) with dairy (another animal protein). Could go on for hours, but will give it a rest for today.

Have loads of lovely Bellingen-pictures that have promised auntie Mia to upload, enjoy:

View from auntie Mia's residence

Pizza, the cornerstone of any high-carb diet

Bellingen River Festival

"Verandah Days" - poem heard at poetry reading, also Mia's description of life in Bellingen.

Beach Day and Post-Secret-Style Confession

In great Byron Bay tradition had lovely sunny weather and 25 degrees yesterday - with today slightly more on the dramatic side with storms and so on.
Oh well! Cannot have one without the other when living in subtropical rainforest.

Main Beach, yesterday morning:

And the lifesaver-flags are out...

(must all be sure to swim between flags like good citizens, there is great safety in knowing two guys in swimsuits keeping stern eye on efforts to hold bikini-bottoms in place with one hand and bikini-top in place with the other (with varying results) whilst at the same time looking relaxed and summery)

Am planning to create list of characteristics and general oddities about myself (in Post-Secret style) for blog, thought would begin today with something recently pondered, namely:

I feel 110% percent happier when the sun is shining, can go from feeling very depressed to loving everything and being convinced life is awesome purely due to weather patterns. Also, am afraid this makes me very shallow.

Discuss!

If you are unaware of Post Secret - there is a book which is very cute, and also a website: www.postsecret.com

The day after the night before

Bit hungover to be perfectly honest.

Have matured greatly in the last few years - am proud to announce that at the suggestion of tequila shots, I said NO! Ha!
Am responsible adult! In place of tequila I may have suggested a bottle of champagne... But still.

Have eaten the following already:
1. Peanut-butter and banana toast
2. Raspberry and Chocolate muffin
3. Three gigantic mugs of coffee
4. Several glasses of water with electrolytes (as hubby does not permit Coke in house)

Oh look, it is lunch-time!

Milestone in Life

Have reached a new and upsetting milestone in life.

Coincidentally, hubby and I reached this milestone at exactly the same time - on Friday evening. We were watching a movie (not relevant to story, but was a 2012 doco). Had consumed some wine. Everything fine. Then, suddenly - we are BOTH asleep. Sitting on separate lounges, heads tilted to one side, noses up in air - dead to the world.

Have always maintained (was saying to mother as recently as June just gone) that I would never ever be in the sort of marriage where both parties fall asleep in front of telly in evening. Have always been puzzled by phenomenon of people who are able to sleep on lounges and other more or less public places; and have always been quietly confident that this would never be me.

Upon discovering that we had both been sleeping, we silently turned telly off and proceeded to bed. Thought perhaps whole sorry incident would go away if not spoken about.

Come Saturday night. Went to a bar to see a gig, doors-opening supposed to be 8pm. Said and done, at 7.45pm we arrive. At around quarter past nine we finally realise that doors will not open any time soon, and gig probably will not be over until midnight.
Sitting at pub sharing a beer. Saying to selves that clearly not our fault that they advertise 8pm but mean, like, 10pm! Clearly not our fault that cannot drink any more as doing yoga in morning. Is not that we are old. Convinced selves that this incident in NO WAY related to previous evenings sleep-incident.

Finished our beer and went home.

This afternoon am heading to the Beachie (Beach Hotel, Byron Bay). Will let you know how it goes.

Beachie

Mazes and Nets (still at war?)

Realise storyline about bush-turkey starting to take on obsessive proportions.

Nevertheless, must share latest move in war.
You see, I do not believe we can have won so easily. No. Something is up. The bush-turkey is present somewhere around the house, awaiting the right time to make its move.
Therefore, is vital that we do not slack off, that we do not assume danger has past.

These are my latest tactics:

1.

Figured bush-turkey way too stupid to navigate its way through maze of bricks.
Was wrong. Saw it casually strolling through a number of times, eyeing off veggie-patch; most likely thinking something along lines of "Oh look - more material for the nest that I have temporarily taken a break from building, which I will resume building at my earliest convenience."

(Incidentally - my mind's bush-turkey always has a British accent. Curious.)


2.

Decided, on recommendation from organic-seedling-dude from farmers markets, to place net over garden. Easy enough?

Hubby and I just undertook this task - joyfully and with great ease, effortlessly cutting net to size and arranging it on bamboo poles, etcetera - all the while telling each other how lovely life is and how much we love each other.

Yeah - and pigs fly.

Eventually the bloody-stupid-net-thing was up, sort of.

We seem to have... a couple of gaps. Hopefully (fingers AND toes crossed) bush-turkey too stupid to notice gaps.

Hubby and I are now calming selves with nice soothing glass (read: bottle) of red wine.

Q&A Blog Awards Lista

En sån har jag aldrig fyllt i men blev otroligt smickrad över att nämnas på en annan blogg (enderadagen.blogspot.com), så fyller genast i den!


1. VARFÖR BÖRJADE DU BLOGGA?
I begynnelsen, 2007 tror jag att det var, startades bloggen när jag och pojkvännen (numera maken) skulle flytta från Sydney till London och vara i Europa i ett par år. Tanken var att vänner och familj i Australien (och Sverige också om de ville) skulle kunna följa oss. Därför valde jag att blogga på engelska.
Sen blev facebook väldigt populärt ungefär samtidigt - det visade sig dessutom att om man jobbar i London så jobbar man cirka 60-70 timmar i veckan och har därmed inte tid att sitta och blogga så mycket - facebook var snabbare och smidigare.
Bloggen återupplivades nyligen då jag nu har återhämtat mig från karriären, gift mig, och flyttat ut på landet - för att se om livet kan vara fridfullt och om jag faktiskt kan försörja mig på att skriva. Fortsatte med engelskan eftersom större delen av vännerna och familjen är antingen australiensare eller kanadensare. Alla svenskar är dessutom kanonbra på engelska!


2. VILKA BLOGGAR FÖLJER DU?
Jag bygger upp min lista, har de jag nu följer listade till höger. Jag är framförallt intresserad av att läsa om svenskar som bor utomlands.


3. FAVORITFÄRG?
Svart.
Filosofiskt dilemma: Är svart en färg?


4. FAVORITFILM?
Ingen aning nu för tiden men det brukade vara "Happiness" och möjligen "Magnolia."


5. VILKA LÄNDER DRÖMMER DU OM ATT BESÖKA?
Alla! Näst blir det nog rundtur-Asien.


BONUSFRÅGA: Vad saknar ni allra mest med Sverige, och vad skulle vara allra svårast att lämna om ni flyttade från Australien?
Jag saknar att det är ljust så himla sent på sommaren, att det faktiskt är DAGSLJUS nästan dygnet runt! Inser att detta gäller endast ett par månader om året och jag saknar absolut inte mörkret resten av tiden. Om jag flyttade... jag vet inte vad jag skulle sakna. Människorna. Attityden. Jag själv får en helt annan energi här än jag någonsin får på andra sidan ekvatorn. Vet faktiskt inte vad det beror på.

---

Sen att dela ut denna award till andra bloggare och ställa en fråga...
Lina - http://linasdag.blogspot.com
Johanna - http://jiaozi.davidkarlsson.se
Johanna - http://smugglosmurf.blogg.se

Jag kan bara komma på tre stycken som jag tror läser min blogg än så länge!

Bonusfråga: Om pengar inte var något problem - var skulle ni bo?


PS: Som ni säkert märker så är jag tekniskt obegåvad och har ingen aning om hur man skapar länkar och annat. Jag har dock listat ut hur man skriver i kursiv text. Det var faktiskt mycket enkelt.
Det hjälper inte att laptopen vet att jag sitter här och allmänt strejkar och är långsam. Maken är trött på att komma in på kontoret varje gång jag ropar att det är fel på datorn - det är det enligt honom aldrig, det är alltså MIG det är fel på.

Veggie patch, Take 2

Meanwhile, bush-turkey probably hiding in shrub - plotting and planning evil deeds...

It better not try anything.

Vegetarianism and wildlife conservation aside, any bush-turkey that finds itself within one metre of my veggie-garden, WILL hang.

Hopefully seedlings will not pick up on negative energy from previous seedlings that recently had their lives cut short by giant claws.

CSG Rally, Sunday

Last Sunday we participated in Anti-CSG rally right here in Byron Bay. Thousands of people walked onto Lawson Street and laid down in portrayal of death as result of consuming water laced with poison.
They had protests in several places around Australia.

Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is one of the most important issues we should worry about at the moment.

Unfortunately society in general has learnt to frown on activism; on people who rally and protest. Lazily taking the low-road and assuming that little-old-me cannot make a difference anyway, so why bother. And the ever popular "They wouldn't do it if it wasn't safe."

Really? Who are "they"?



"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

Dog Pictures (home again!)

Arrived home yesterday after dog-sitting finished.
Obviously, have been home a couple of times in the interim to fight ongoing war against bush-turkey. Seems we may have already won. Hubby says it's atleast 3-1 in our favour. They have simply run out of material.

Ironically, hubby has had two Wildlife Rescue missions. Both regarding injured and distressed bush-turkeys. One is in house as we speak. Mentioned the possibility of it... meeting with an accident... Not to worry, hubby is protecting it with own life if necessary.

Dog-Duo Snaps!!:

All About George

Garden, couple of weeks ago:

Garden, yesterday:

George's Nest, yesterday:

Conclusion: George-1, Household-1.

Both parties are eagerly anticipating the opposing sides next move. They may have won a battle, but we shall win the war.

Did a little googling regarding unfortunate situation of having nesting bush-turkeys in backyard.
Outlook is, to say the least, bleak. Many accounts hold true that once the turkeys have decided on a site for their nest, they are very one-track minded. Nothing will deter them.
Say you ruin the nest and put plastic tarps over the site (which is what have done) they simply say to themselves - “Oh well, nothing but a minor setback, we will just resume building on top of tarps!”

Hubby and I were discussing possible thought-patterns and emotions of bush-turkeys last night over dinner. Do they feel angry that you have messed with the nest, or sad, impatient..? Eventually reached conclusion that they most likely do not: Bush-turkeys may be the ultimate example of a being that lives entirely in the “now,” much like zen monks do. Meaning, they do not get bogged down in fruitless negativity – they do not think about effort and time wasted.

Therefore, trying to ruin a bush-turkey nest is entirely in accordance with hippie-lifestyle. We are just giving them more opportunities to practise “being present in the moment.”

I am also getting some well needed practise in “being present in the moment.”
Breathe in and feel your belly rise, breathe out and feel your belly sink, carry the heavy bucket across the yard, breathe in, tip the soil and leaves and other assorted rubbish out in the reserve, breathe out, refrain from breaking a bush-turkey's neck, breathe in, repeat...

Got war-strategy tip from organic-seedling-dude at Mullum Markets... Plant a foreign egg (like a chicken egg) on the nest-site... Bush-turkey will hate that, and might decide site thereby unattractive to females and move on.

Intuitively, have also placed a few lemons on nest-site. What animal likes lemons?

Riding Lesson and War Declaration

Lots has happened.

Firstly, dog-sitting going well – both dogs seem very happy and content. Why wouldn't they be – everything we do is based around them. Healthy lesson for hubby and I – having dogs is full-time work. At the same time, they are very giving. Love, love, love and affection. Sometimes they smell funny.

Yesterday got to venture out on little daytrip further up the coast (Commodore is dream to drive compared to “dog-car” which I am driving dogs around in; hubby not a fan of manual cars - Nor am I, but thought I would look cool in two-door four wheel drive - of course, I do).
Louise gave me little horse-riding session – was terribly rusty in saddle, horse kept stopping and refusing to move etcetera. Seemed strange to be so sore and sweaty based on mostly standing still.
But was still great, because as always say: Everyday you touch a horse is a good day. Is another one of my sayings (you know, like “a free coffee is a free coffee”).

Now over to today's rant.

This morning before dogs-beach-walk, hubby went to check on house; water gardens and so on. Only to find that pack of nest-building bush-turkeys have totally destroyed entire veggie patch. They have done a very thorough job. Not a bok choy left. Expensive magical soil all over ground...

Both went over to house after walk, with dog-duo, to assess damage and hopefully deter bush-turkeys with help of dogs.

Dogs, however, turned out to be peaceful creatures not in the least bit interested in barking at pile of leaves – instead they slept for a while on the verandah whilst hubby and I carried entire bloody nest, bucketful by bucketful, away from the property and spread it elsewhere.

Take back all previous comments that we like them, and want to allow the nesting and raising of chicks.
That was before they ruined veggie patch and destroyed each and every seedling. Now, it's war. It's revenge.

Do not care if it looks bad to seek revenge on a bird. IT started it!

It's on. War.

Rural Dog-Sitting!

We're dog-sitting.

Only 20 minutes drive from central Byron Bay, yet feel as though in middle of outback – in perfectly rural setting – can actually see a cow from where am writing at dining table. Screen doors closed to keep snakes out; is early in morning but am guessing it's around 24 degrees out there.

There is no internet.
(Blog updated later at internet cafe)

NO INTERNET! Palpable feelings of light panic.

Then realise this is good. Brought trusty laptop anyway. Going to make great start on novel.* Nothing to distract me. Not sure where radio is. Obviously will not watch telly in middle of day, what will the dogs think.

Went through usual mad rush in morning (Sunday) to get organised for what feels almost like a weeks holiday. Because going away to rural setting, not being home, and all that.

Commodore packed to the max. Bird, bird's accessories, yoga stuff, a million towels just in case (you never know when you might need a couple of clean towels), clothes for warm weather, clothes for cold weather, bikini, pyjamas and FOOD. Packed up entire fridge. Would under no circumstances like to run out of food.

Have two strange obsessive-compulsive behaviours that hubby reckons must have inherited from Mother:

One -
Am terrified of running out of food. Always ensure am stocked up, in case world economy collapses I know we will be alright for a couple of weeks.

Two -
Am terrified of running out of toilet-paper. Always have been. Mother let me grow up thinking it was normal to keep entire cupboards full of supermarket mega-packs of toilet-rolls. This led to a few conflicts whilst hubby and I were still in share-house situations. Imagine it, toilet-paper was not a priority for anybody else but me – would discover once again down to last roll (between five people) and have absolute mental breakdown until someone packed themselves off to the shops if it was their turn. Amazingly, they would mostly return with a four-pack. A FOUR-pack. Enough for a day in my books.

Sorry, didn't mean to go off on tangent about toilet-paper.

The dogs are very depressed at the moment (Sunday).
Owner has just left. Dogs remaining close by door just in case Owner returns unexpectedly. Top Dog experiencing certain stomach troubles as result of stress caused by Owner's departure. But I have been very kind and given Top Dog a shower. Three times.

Hubby, of course, has very important Wires course about baby-birds to attend – so he will return later when dogs are settled and everything back to normal.
Men. You can count on them in times of need.

For the purposes of giving dogs the best and safest of care – we have divided them between us. Decision about who watches who was made by me, based on personality-type analysis.
When out on beach or other walks, I will be responsible for Top Dog. Top Dog is calm, contemplative and will do what asked (like myself). Hubby will be responsible for Young Dog - which is wild, impulsive and will do what she feels like doing (like hubby).

Cannot name dogs, need to protect their identity.

*Regarding novel: It seems to me I have been meaning to write one all my life. Yet, opportunity presents itself – and cannot even come up with vague storyline. Definitely not something based on own life.

A Middle-Eastern Feast and the Meaning of Technical Difficulties

Last night we found ourselves at social gathering with yoga-crew.
Lots of "the yogis" have just completed a 30-day challenge. Hubby and I did not participate in challenge, as we knew we were going to be in Sydney for five days, so lazily figured we would not be able to make up for it. To make up for a missed day one would have had to do something called "a double." As in TWO classes in one day. Of Bikram yoga. At the mere thought of this, decided there was no way this could be done.

Except the very first person we greeted started off conversation by mentioning that he joined challenge six days in. He had to make up for six missed days.
After this hubby and I felt a bit like impostors. Quickly drank couple of glasses of red wine to fit in better. Did not notice whether everyone was drinking wine, or if they stuck with mineral water?

Bit tired today. Two glasses of red wine is slightly on heavy side these days.
Actually felt totally hungover this morning. As usual, refused to get out of bed until hubby made me coffee. Was not enough however. Walked down to nearest cafe to purchase soy-flat-white.

Then made middle-eastern brunch to cheer selves up:

Very proud of hummus. Hubby proud of his "Foul Mudammas." That is actual name of bean-dish. Very tasty in spite of name.

Also spent an hour or so on phone to girlfriend in WA (Western Australia).
Phone is worst phone in entire universe. Of course, it is old. Have never so much as held an iPhone. Let alone an iPhone 4S. Cannot understand point of them.

Also think the iPad is a stupid idea.

This could be a result of constant complications in my relationship to all and any techical / electrical equipment - which tends to spontaneously break down in my presence.
Is proven scientific fact that certain people have this effect on, for example, computers.
A daily occurrence in this household is me screaming angrily at laptop for freezing, shutting down, not obeying direct orders and so on - only to perform in superior fashion as soon as hubby enters room.
It works in reverse too. Hubby will be using computer, everything hunky dory. Enter Anna. Computer immediately suffers severe hissy-fit and must be nursed back to life whilst atleast two metres away from me...

Light-bulbs always blow up around me as well.

Odd. Wonder if all these are indications that I am psychic?

Breaking News: Nest in Garden

In a previous post it was hinted (by me) that bush-turkeys do what they do (mostly scratching) for no reason and serving no purpose to anyone. Must hereby withdraw this statement. As it turns out, their actions are very deliberate. Atleast this time of year. Nest-building time of year.

Garden, ten minutes ago:

Bush-turkey surveying progress on the right hand side of picture, at top end of nest:

This may appear to be nothing but a hot compost. Hubby briefly tried to pretend that it, indeed, was a compost heap - since he lives here he practically built it himself.

For the purposes of the blog, however, am going to remain as close to the truth as possible. Where this enormous heap of leaves now lies, there used to be nothing but a small flower bed. Covered in weeds of course, but still.

You see, have googled this. Am now something of an expert on the breeding habits of bush-turkeys. They build gigantic nests exactly like the one pictured above and place the eggs underneath it so that they (the eggs) can be in constant temperature of 30-33 degrees. Building these skyscrapers of the bird-world obviously takes some time, so breeding season goes from around now - until December.

Then we should start to hear the pitter-patter of little claws, should we be so lucky.

We are letting this activity continue as garden is, well, a "work in progress" anyway. To put it kindly.
May as well let the bush-turkeys do all the hard work in terms of clearing and gathering leaves - so it will be easier for us to convert garden into heavenly Bali-inspired retreat as soon as we can get to it. Sometime in the next five years.

Meanwhile, let the bush-turkeys raise their chicks! Who cares! Not us! We are animal lovers and on road to becoming qualified hippies.

KOALA!!!

Had an amazing day! It's not every day you come home and find a koala chilling in your backyard.

Koala..!