Postcard From Lorne

God I am crap at this formatting thing. Nevertheless... We are in a place called Lorne right now. South coast of Victoria, and rather than head into our new city we are driving further down the coast because it's just so Goddamn pretty and we don't have jobs to start on Monday or pets to feed or anything. We do have jobs to find and a place to live to find and a pet to buy to feed to find, but reality can wait a few more days.

I am properly back into the outdoor, hippy-type thing. I was hooked on cold a few short weeks ago but am back into the baggy clothes, barefoot, sun-tanned lifestyle and can't imagine life being any different. Rainbow Serpent was amazing. Such a well organised party. I love camping, love the music, love the craziness of it all. It seriously needs to think about being a longer festival (four days just isn't enough), but I am grateful for it existing at all.

Bumped into friends from Adelaide who we haven't seen in years. We had lost numbers and email addresses and everything and randomly bumped into them at the markets. Partied a bit, lost them throughout the weekend, caught up on the dancefloor again, then as we were packing up to leave at the end of the party realised that the flag pole marker at the campsite next to ours that we had been using as a guide home was theirs; they had been camping next to us all weekend.

The party was excellent. So many Sydney friends... I had the 4am horrors for the first time about leaving Sydney. 4am is great to party through or sleep through, but when you wake and think it's a terrible hour, and it goes on for hours. At the core of my being I am quiet ad solitary and not very good with people, but these past few years I have amazing friends and I am leaving so many of them. Some were at the party, others were not. At 4am, I missed them all and really wasn't sure why I was leaving Sydney.

And I really missed a couple of friends who weren't there. They know who they are. Really missed them. I hope you felt the love.

There was much laughter though. A favourite moment was when the husband of a friend told The Dreaded One that he had spent the weekend trying to connect with me but it didn't seem to be working. The Dreaded One told him, "What you have to understand about Lee is that he wanders around living inside a bubble, but once you get inside that bubble he's quite nice and quite funny." He said he was going to perservere and get inside the bubble. He didn't need to persevere. I took notice and he is indeed a lovely guy and I hope we are friends. That was my favourite conversation about me that I wasn't there to hear. I like that The Dreaded One said that. She could just as eaily said that I am a wanker and to not bother.

We've made friends from Melbourne who we are seeing next weekend. Friends of friends, it's all about the friends.

Lorne... cute little beachside town. We pulled up outside a hotel, whipped out the lappy and booked a hotel online because it was cheaper to do it that way rather than walk in and make a booking. I fucking love technology.

Friends rocked up to our nice hotel with our stunning view overlooking the beach in three campervans. It was a few more people than we were expecting but cool, friends of friends are friends. It doesn't always work out that way but this time it did. I would welcome these crusty, manky doofers into my home anywhere as much as I welcomed them into my hotel room. Cool people, new friends. We ate and drank and celebrated a birthday on Australia Day. I even sang that fucking birthday song. It was all very cool.

Now the place is empty except for music and cockatoo screech. I am listening to more Goddamned Posford because he is that good. I have just chatted to kid sister in San Francisco for almost an hour and there are unicorns and angels down in the street... okay, life is almost that good.

Tomorrow we head down the coast to The 12 Apostles and Port Campbell, possibly to meet up with our new German friends, hopefully drink some wine and swim under a waterfall, and at some point contemplate the future.

The photos above? Some (not nearly all) dear friends, and me and my new funky arsed hat with its funky arsed feathers. Fun times.

New People

Oh funny. I accidentally came across this post from many months ago. The irony of me actually wondering if I should have met this online person in real life. And the irony of that tone of... it's kind of like I had accepted that that one meeting was going to be it and that I'm glad that at least it went well. I really thought I wouldn't be seeing her again and was so grateful that we got on in real life as well as we did online. Almost a year later and we've hung out many, many times in spite of the distance between us. Just made me laugh to think that after she went I really thought, that was that then. We'll be hanging out at another multi-day dance festival in just over a week and celebrating our birthdays together (her, I and The Dreaded One are in the same few days).

Same thing with this post, while I'm indulging in a little nostalgia. It now seems ludicrous that I actually wondered if this "new person" and I would stay in contact, given the many adventures like this one we've had since.

New Psycle, New Year, New Pants

Hello and welcome to 2010. Wonder what this year will be like. For me, it's already off to a better start than the last couple of years.

Christmas day was fun. Had a couple of friends around for turkey, wine and nonsense. The day is a bit of a blur now but it was a lot of fun. The moment I remember most clearly was when I decided that it would be an awesome idea to light the entire box of sparklers at once rather than going through the packet one at a time. I was half joking when I made the suggestion but a friend, Lizzie, whipped her lighter out so damn fast I knew there was no going back. I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I got was a hand-held solar flare. It was blindingly bright and really quite hot. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to take the sparklers out onto the balcony. Unfortunately our inflatable wading pool is also out on the balcony... was out on the balcony.

We managed to get a late night soak in the pool before it completely deflated. The Dreaded One was a bit pissed that not only did I break the pool but I also used up all the sparklers in a nanosecond AND she didn't even see it all happen.

Anyway, much merriment was had with the last of our guests leaving at about 5am. It was then that we realised how loud the music had been. Boxing Day was very sleepy.

Filled in the next few days hanging out with my spiritual kid sister. Had lots of laughs, played tennis and a fun game called Connect 4. I think I've got the tennis bug again... except that both of us got pretty sunburned and my knee is doing weird things, which could be a result of stomping at the New Year's dooof or when I took a pretty hard fall on the rocks on the dry river bed.

Ah, the doof. The directions I printed out were next to useless but we found our way there anyway. We've been to the site twice before but it was stilll difficult to remember details. We were greeted at one of the inner gates by the owner of the property who knew the rain was going to make the roads tricky when leaving and had spent all day laying hay in the muddier sections. He was covered in mud and gave the car a glance (family station wagon and not the 4 wheel drive we should have been driving) and said, "You're all totally fuckin' mad. I hope in fuckin'rains and yers get stuck her for a fuckin' week. Look at me, eh? Covered in shit... looks like I've been sleepin'with the fuckin' pigs, eh?" Lloyd is actually a really nice guy (who believes his property is inhabited by yetis and frequently visited by UFOs).

There were a lot of good friends at the party. The music leading up to midnight was pretty diabolical - a puffed up MC and dub step and drum n bass... yes yes my loathing of both styles of music is well acknowledged but it wasn't just me. The dancefloor was devoid of energy with a handful of stragglers wandering around wondering what the hell was going on. The MC was probably fine and in another time and place with another crowd the music might have gone down well but it was not what this particular crowd wanted. Proof was when they did the countdown to midnight and the psytrance came on the dancefloor was instantly rammed and jumping. Insto-energy. Suddenly, musically, everyone was having a great time.

Oh - back track a few hours. After setting up our tents by the river I sat down with my friend from Chicago. We met accidentally online and here were, somehow, sitting in the Australian bush having a beer. I just never thought it would happen. Hadn't considered it a possibility. I said words to that effect and it was a nice moment. Then a couple of dogs came thundering by over the moon with happiness at being dogs. It set me off on an imaginary dialogue about dogs being given the opportunity of being any other creatures but they just wanted to be dogs. DOGS! Ann later said she could hear my friend's resulting laughter off in the bush... a nice moment made nicer with laughter. (The dog thing willl be the subject of a Grumpy column, I feel).

Dancing in light rain all weekend. Various levels of intoxication. Couple of moments of drama that weren't needed but were unavoidable. Many hugs and a lingering appreciation of having good friends close by, friends who don't think twice about hugging you and voicing their feelings for you at random moments.

I had two wardobe malfunctions - I ripped the arse out of two pairs of pants in exactly the same place. Excellent work. Especially given that on one occasion I was going commando. Apologies to the beautiful warm and fuzzy friends who saw my fuzzy arse cheek.

The drive out was an hilarious adventure. Come back later for that one.

Meantime, hope you've had as good a start to the year as I have. Counting down the days to Rainbow Serpent. Hope 2010 is a good one.

The Hotness The Hotness

Three friends I like. They're pretty hot, huh?

Reminded me of a stupid anecdote another friend who is not so hot (sorry Nick) told me.

He was snoozing back at his campsite when a mate came back and woke him up with these words: "Dude. Dude! The hotness here! The hotness."

And passed out.

For the rest of Rainbow 'The Hotness The Hotness' was on high rotation, in various forms. Like, if I was hungry? "The hungriness the hungriness."

Or when we used our pumpy shower thing in our melted esky ice, "The coldwetness the coldwetness.'

The tentness the tentness.

The messiness the messiness.

The doofness the doofness.

Really, a lot of fun. There was a lot of hotness.

Rainbow Serpent 2009

Back at Rainbow. These are The New People we met at Dragon Dreaming. They are fun.
This is a very funny friend with a fluffy bike. His name is Marty Bear. No, I'm not kidding. Very funny chap.
Some wonderful dancefloor freaks.
I don't know why The Dreaded One looks so concerned in this shot... she's in a hammock with a drink at a doof... life couldn't be better, really.
I don't know what I'm doing here. My Lawrence Of Rainbow impersonation?

We All Live In A Bogged Submarine

It's not uncommon when doofing to come across someone who has bogged their vehicle in the mud. You have to strop and give them a hand. But it is a little bit odd when the bogged vehicle is a submarine. I mean, have you seen the size of those things? And how in the fuck do you get a submarine bogged? What the hell kind of drugs are people on that they think they can drive a submarine to a bush party? And where can I get some of those drugs because the tripped out bastards almost made it.
Mind you, I don't appear to be helping the unboggingness of the submarine so much as just going, "Whoa... check this out. I'm on the deck of a bogged submarine in the middle of a park in country New South Wales. Quite cool."

Exodus & Rainbow Serpent '09 Road Trip

After covering 4,000 kilometres over three weeks and through three states, taking in two four day dance festivals, we're back. I think that qualifies as a road trip.

I don't know where to start, really. We really packed a lot in. So many laughs, so much dancing with friends, so many wonderful doof freaks. Heading out of Rainbow it was hilarious to call into the first service station and the place was swamped with doofers. The woman behind the counter looked like she didn't know what the hell was going on or why her very normal service station was suddenly inundated with so many strange people.

And I saw penguins at the Melbourne Aquarium. I like penguins.

Anyway, lots to tell, lots of photos to post, but later. I'm a bit shagged right now.

How have you been?