United States trip

20 years ago I left the US. I promised myself, as a teenager that I would never step foot into that country again.

My experience living in the US for 5 years were less than savoury. So you can understand as a young, impressionable kid, a few bad experiences can make you think that the entire place is awful.

Fast forward 20 years and I decided that it was time to head back there for a visit. The reasons are many, but mostly because of my re-uniting my with two cousins, and thought about all the time. I use to think the usual things like "I wonder where they are now?" and "I wonder what they're doing these days?"

But I'll get to my cousins in a second. For now, I'm going to go through the trip in chronological order of happenings. And I tell ya, there are some happenings.

Surprisingly, our taxi in Sydney arrived on time. It got us to the airport on time and we made the flight without busting an o-ring. We had so much free time at the airport that my wife window shopped. Something we seldom experience due to late taxis.

So, there we were, going through our usual security checks when the guard pulls me up. This happens every single time I travel. This time was no surprise, being no different and I got another opportunity to memorise the bomb threat/inspection/interrogation/internal inspection disclaimer letter I have to read each time I enter an airport. Either I look like a terrorist or my face is actually up somewhere in all the airports of the world stating that I am a suspect.

The guard confided that this was random, but I knew otherwise, they're all out to get me. :p

Finally, we were on the plane. We got our seats and waited to taxi, then my favourite part, taking off. I love the acceleration and the power. It is the best part of air travel. Taking off and landing are the highlights, and looking out into the ocean and seeing a boat is another highlight. I love flying.

Nothing much happened on the plane. It was a usual plane ride like no other. The guy sitting next to us was partially blind, however towards the end of the flight we got talking and he was returning to LA which is where he is from. He spent a few months in Australia with friends and family.

We landed at LAX and took our time getting to the connecting flight to New York mainly because we decided to book a later connecting flight because of the last time I was at LAX, it took 2 hours to get out of there. Plus, since I have my suspicions that I'm blacklisted for security interrogation across the globe and that can take anywhere between 5 minutes to 5 hours, our flight connecting to JFK Airport, New York was about 5 hours away after we landed at LAX. Time to relax, nap, enjoy a book, eat, watch other people do the same thing, and finally we still had hours to go :(

We sat around, ate nasty airport food because, we sadly found out that LAX has dismal food choices unless you love Burger King and Starbucks. We've been a bit spoilt with Sydney Aiport, it's like a shopping centre that happens to have planes drop by every few minutes.

We finally boarded American Airlines and noticed that the flight attendants were twice to three times older than the pretty ones on V-Australia. Sadly, one of the nice things about flying is checking out the hot stewardesses. V-Australia (Virgin Airlines) makes an effort to hire young, cute girls. It seems that AA couldn't give a rats about how their flight attendants look. One stewardesses arse was so big that it bumped into everyone on the way up and down the isle. The "Free Wi-Fi" on the AA flight also didn't work. But these are nitpicks. I'm not pointing out bad points, just telling a story.

We finally landed at JFK and got our bags. Got outside and caught a big yellow taxi cab into New York City. It was nice that the long taxi trip from JFK to NYC had a set fee of $45 regardless of traffic. We arrived at our hotel and absolutely loved the service at the front desk, it was midnight, we had been flying for 18 hours, not including the 5 hour wait at LAX for the connecting flight.

We loved the room we had. It was neat and small. Just how we like it. We didn't splurge on a hotel because we only needed a clean bed and a warm shower. We didn't care for room service, we didn't need awesome views because we'd be out in the views rather than looking at them from inside our hotel room.

New York City was cold. I don't mean metaphorically. It had apparently snowed the day before. We didn't believe it because everyone was talking about Spring. But it was cold which we later on found out was because it had snowed a few hundred kilometres up the road, closer to Canada. Our first night wasn't anything special since we arrived there at midnight. We literally got out the hotel, turned a corner and were on to Broadway and were immediately greeted with Time Square. My wife picked the hotel on purpose. It was close to where she really wanted to be... Broadway. She likes theatre and went to see a show later the following day.

Time Square was incredible. So much going on. Lights, buildings, traffic and people. I stood right in the middle, did a slow 360 degree turn and took it all in. Then I commented, "Look at the consumption". I must say, I am going to debunk a few myths and things I remember from my youth living in LA.

Myth 1: We didn't see any typically "fat Americans" in NY. In fact, my wife and I were the fatties.
Myth 2: New York is fast paced. WRONG. All my wife and I did was walk everywhere. Even with our tired, cold, wet feet we were usually ducking left and right between crowds who were dawdling along. At first I thought they were tourists like us. But their accent gave it away. They were New Yorkers for sure.
Myth 3: NY is jammed full of people. WRONG. Which part? We walked all the way to the Staten Island Ferry and the crowds were no different than walking through the centre of Sydney on any given day. It's just that New York City is probably about 40 times larger than the Sydney city area.
Myth 4: New Yorkers are not nice people. Rubbish! Everyone in NY was approachable. I got spoken to and I spoke to people, and everything was cool. A woman at Burger King order a Big Mac by mistake, and we all laughed about it. I recall, if such a thing happened in LA and I laughed along, I'd probably be told off at best. NY had great people there.
Myth 5: You can't go wrong with food in New York. Wanna bet? My wife and I are use to healthy eating. We buy our food directly from farmers. We don't deep fry everything. But the best food we found was either a typical New York style pizza or a hot dog from a street vendor. The servings of food were mammoth. It was definitely quantity over quality.

The only time something went wrong in NY was with our Metro cards that we bought to catch the subway, which is incredible in itself because unlike Sydney's public transport system. The subway works. But I'll get to that in a second. The station master we spoke to so we could make heads and tails of the subway system ripped us off. We asked for a ticket with enough credit on it to last 3-4 trips. We took two trips on the subway and the third time the tickets didn't work. When we checked the tickets, there was $5.50 and each trip cost $2.25. But with $10 on the cards, we expected a few more than 2 trips. When I inquired about it to the station master at the next station, he just let us through the side door. The following time we used the tickets again, and the machine said we only had a $1.70 on it. Not even sure how that's possible. But the cards were broken and we were let in the gate again.

We figured since we had more "credit" up our sleeve, credit we had in fact paid for, we'd play dumb the next time we used the subway. We didn't feel it was theft because we had actually paid for our trips, so we used this tactic righteously. On our way back from Brooklyn, the same thing happened and we coaxed the station master to let us through the door. He actually checked the tickets and it said that my wives ticket was used 7 times and mine only 4. But we'd both used our own tickets equally. So when I told him that the tickets should still let us through then we should be let through. So the door opened and off we went again.

Brooklyn was the first and only place we went to off Manhattan island. We crammed so much into one place that we didn't get to see any other part of NY. And maybe one day we'll go back again and try the rest of the place. But for now, we saw what we saw. However, next time we will take a trip to Brooklyn again, and also see the Bronx, Jersey and so on.

We went to the top of the Empire State Building. We went to Radio City, Rockefeller Plaza to the top of the Rock. We went to Grand Central Station. We went to Macy's. Bloomingdales, Union Square was great with all the artists and street vendors on a Sunday. We went to see the Statue of Liberty and we went through Wall Street, where I saw this plaque.

The other issue I had which wasn't with New York, but American telephone companies was that none of them could sell me a pre-paid SIM card with credit for phone calls, texts and data. I had my iPhone with me and planned on using it to email and keep in touch. Sadly, due to neither telco supporting my predicament, I was left without a phone, but Time Square had free wifi. So at 1am I was standing in the snow, checking email, messaging cousins, customers, etc.

The myth about food was a shame. However, I have to say that we didn't get to venture into Chinatown or Little Italy. But what we did have wasn't great. Breakfast at The Roxy was so greasy that we both felt ill. Lunch was just as bad. Dinner was quantity over quality. My wife wasn't happy with her meal at all while I enjoyed mine, it was a lot and it was seasoned to the brink. A few other places were much the same. Awful food, too much of it and over priced. We didn't expect to spend $100 a meal on what would have cost half as much in Australia with half as much food, but twice as nice. I was surprised and disappointed because I was expecting awesome food there but got mediocre and broke the bank.

My wife was dubious about the pizza places. But I finally coaxed her to try one and she loved it. That's why we went to Brooklyn. We tried to find this pizza place her friend from work suggested. We didn't find it, and that trip to Brooklyn was our last day there. In fact, we cut it so close that we had to leave the place right after eating the pizza, get on the train, back to the hotel, quickly check out, and cab it to LaGuardia to get our flight to Fort Worth, Dallas Texas. Ye-hawww!

Texas was the first stop of my family reunion. Seing my cousin Raz. His sister followed in LA, but more on that later. Raz was waiting for me at the airport. But having had issues with my phone, I didn't get back to him to let him know when I planned on landing there. Luckily he's a smart bugger and went online to see what flights were coming into Ft. Worth, Dallas TX from NY that day. He picked the right plane and caught me just as I walked out into the street. Perfect!

Seeing my cousin was surreal. The last time I saw him he was just out of high school. I was still in primary school. This was going to be a family catch up. Texas wasn't going to be a tourist leg of our trip across the U.S. And while I'm sure there may have been some tours ready for us to book in, I just wanted to spend time with my cousin.

The plan was to relax, spend time with him, even if it meant going to work with him. He owns a great car workshop called Top Gun and he's doing well. If you're in that area and need your car looked at, tell Raz that his cousin Steve sent ya.

I did in fact go into the workshop for a few days. I got my hands dirty with a quad bike in the back that was being worked on recently and we got her started. But she was running hot. I cleaned the carburettor jets out and made some adjustments. We got her going again.

One morning my cousin left his car at home and went into work with his business partner, John. I knew John from back when I hung out with my cousin. But I couldn't remember him very well though. He remembered me. But the more time I spent with them two, the more I remembered. They were two fun guys. And we went out to a few places around Texas that were pretty cool.

We ate this massive appetiser dish we all shared and made us full. We didn't need our mains, but we ate them anyway. We were about to explode. The waitress was nice too. She was definitely working it that evening and I left my cousins phone number on the receipt I signed next to my credit card signature.

The area we ate at was very much a younger crowd area in what appeared to be a hang out for university students. Either way, the food was good, the drinks were good and the service was good. In fact, I also want to make a point that despite how good or poor quality the food was, we felt that the service we received was always top notch. Every waiter and waitress most definitely earned their tips and we weren't shy about it because my wife and I appreciate service... even if the food wasn't to our usual standards.

On our last night in Texas, we went out to this barn cross steakhouse where everything was BIG. It really lived up to the Texas adage of everything being bigger in Texas. It was HUGE.

The other thing that stood out in Texas was the people. Every single person I met was friendly. I thought New Yorkers were approachable. I could say "G'Day" to a Texan and it was like we were best friends. Travis, who I met at the workshop ended up hanging out with me all day and we talked about everything.

Texas was great. I think I could live there. It was warm, dry and the crime rate is low because everyone has a gun, and if you're on my property, I can shoot you with it, no questions asked. In Australia, if I shoot a trespasser, I'll ened up in prison for murder if they die. If they live, they can sue me. And I'm somehow the criminal. I think I like Texas.

A couple of the locals who came in and out of the workshop said I fit right in, though all I have to do is talk slower and say "Y'all." And Ye-Haw! I'm a Texan. Hahahaha.

We left Texas, not the way we planned. I imagined hiring a car and driving to Monument Valley. I wanted to pass by The Grand Canyon and eventually heading into LA to see my other cousin. Sadly, hiring a car wasn't possible. Nothing was available.

So I looked at flights, screwing the idea of seeing The Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. But I'm use to flying from one side of Australia to the other for around $150. And even cheaper if you get in at the last minute. Not so in the U.S. The closer to the date, the prices increase. Even if the seats are empty, they were more expensive. Like $600 a ticket. I wasn't paying that.

So while thinking about things, all of a sudden I remembered Greyhound. Sadly, I remembered Amtrak when I had already booked our non-refundable Greyhound tickets. But I was assured via the Greyhound website that they have new busses, with free wifi and comfy seats.

But what I discovered was that Greyhounds website was a lot like a McDonald's menu. The meals all look good. But when you get your tray and sit down to open the packaging, you realise you just paid a few dollars for a lump of sustenance that might as well be blended and drip fed into your body to save you the visual emptiness of total disappointment as you unwrap your luke warm burger.

I was tempted to jump off the bus when I saw the sign that said "75 Miles - Marfa" and somehow hitching a ride to Terlingua.

Sadly, that didn't happen, but the 34 hours of Greyhound bussing about across the United States, we finally made our way into LA. And we were so pleased, but we were also filthy. We felt dirty. I've been camping in the middle of summer and not felt as dirty as this.

But apart from being crammed into a small chair with next to no padding and little adjustability. The Greyhound was an experience you couldn't replicate. The characters we met on board. The places I got to see cannot be seen flying.

Having said that, I should have remembered Amtrak. Because the trip would have taken just as long but with added comfort and the ability to eat while still moving. Greyhound should be avoided at all cost. It is truly a filthy ride.

However, once we arrived in LA, the sun was out, it was warm and the air was filled with smog. Good old LA. Nothing has changed in the 20 years since I've seen you.

Delays, absence and a return to the disliked

What am I talking about?

A lot of things in this long awaited post.

A short update on the music school:
Things are going really well. The Christmas rush paid off and I have a few more students enrolled in courses learning how to play the guitar. Since Christmas, more students have enrolled. A couple of kids who are absolutely brilliant on guitar. If they keep up the same pace of learning, they will have completed the entire course in about 18 months.

I now have a front desk at the entry of the school, which makes things look professional. As a bonus all the materials used were recycled. The bench top was my old desk from the IT business. The structure's support is from offcuts of various pieces of wood. I may have to purchase a large sheet of ply or masonite, or something thin and flexible to put on the front (facade) of the front desk to make it appear like a solid bench and I can paint it and put my logo on there.

I really love that I was able to get 90% of the bits and pieces using materials I already had. Photos will be posted once I complete the desk with the sheet as a facade.

Still on music, I have been gigging around with various bands and acts. However, I am dropping two of them as they appear to be heading nowhere. One act I have been performing in has been great. We made it to some of the nicest venues in Sydney. However, to continue the trend, and keep getting paid gigs, I suggested we record some of the songs. This needs to be done so we have something to put on MySpace, and all those other music websites. We haven't been getting much paid stuff because there's nothing to show the venues as a suggestion of what style of music we play.

The other thing was that we don't have merchandise such as CD's and stuff. Which I was hoping to have at this stage. At our last gig, at the high class venue I mentioned above, we were asked if we had our CD's and merchandise, we could get it displayed over there... at the merch table. When my partner in crime said "We don't have anything" The look on the organisers and other performers faces basically confirmed what I was thinking.... amateurs.

Not that I care what others think about me, but it's music, in a big town. We don't get many chances to make an impression. And that impression we left was pretty ordinary.

The main thing is that I have organised for us to record many times, and each time my partner in crime has always been keen. Then finally, when we were ready to go he cancelled, or he organised a friend to record us, which turned out to be pretty average. To say the sound was horrible is an understatement.

So I'm just fed up with the farting around and know what I want. So I'll be dropping that act because I like a good plan, and we don't have one. When I make one, they change for the worse. I feel as though I am wasting my time.

Another act I've only been performing with for a short time is much the same. However, they invited me to perform with them, invited me to a number of gigs to perform along side them but despite the fact that they said they had an agent, and were signed, the gigs I have performed at have been without pay.

Now, I don't mind doing a free gig. I've done hundreds of them, and I still do. I use them as a "LIVE" rehearsal. In fact one of the bands I'm in do exactly this. Mostly because it's cooler and playing a gig for free costs less than rehearsing at a studio and having to pay for the studio time.

But doing free gigs when you've been promised payment isn't really nice. So, I'm ditching that too.

This will free up a little bit of time for me. The wife will be happy. However, after I made the decision I received a phone call asking for me to fill in to play bass in a band. It's a one off gig in June. The money is excellent, as it is typically for a covers band in Sydney. Then after I agreed and got off the phone, another person called me asking if I would like to join another band to play bass. I had a listen to their music and agreed. Then another band called me within the hour asking if I could fill in for their bassist who had to go away right when they were about to head into the studio to record their new album.

Yay! Paid gigs!

Now, the big news. The biggest news for the year.....

My wife and I were planning on an overseas trip to China. Her brother had plans to go to Hong Kong and then to China. We were going to tag along. I had no real keen interest in China, but I thought it'll be a good experience.

Then, a few weeks ago, my brother-in-law cancelled. He can't make it due to unforeseen circumstances. Since we were going because he was, we had our holidays in our personal calendars. I said "Screw it". We're still going on holidays. However, and this is the big news.... I'm heading to the United State.

Friends who read this blog will say "WTF?".

And I know that most of my subscribed readers are from the US. So when I say this, it is of no offense or discrimination. But the reason why my friends will say "WTF?" is because they know of my opinion of the 5 years I spent in the US.

Sadly, as a child and a teen growing up in the US gave me an unsavoury impression. Having been shot at on multiple occasions. Having been stabbed in the arm and threatened of my life on many occasions, I had quite a happy exit from the US. Heading back to Australia was an escape. Sadly, where I went to school, I was a minority. And during the L.A Riots, I was considered racist for being the wrong colour in the wrong neighbourhood. This gave me a terrible opinion of the states. However, as all stories, there is hypocrisy. For every person that tried to bully me, kill me, steal my money, bash the shit out of me. threaten me with a knife, a gun, a weapon of any tiny. I met at least 10 good people.

However, because of the amount of trauma I experienced as a fairly young kid, I only ever remembered the bad stuff and I grew up hating the US in total. I ignored all the good people I had met. And I only ever dwelled on the bad. And perhaps it was rightful. But at the end of the day, speaking poorly of anyone only makes you look bad, and the truth is, the US wasn't all that bad.

So, when I head back to the United States, 20 years after fleeing, I am expecting to see a different country. A country that's changed, and through different eyes. I am hoping to see nothing of what I grew up with.

I do have genuine reasons for heading back. To see how much has changed. To see if my feelings were deluded due to some unfortunate experiences, to see my cousins whom I recently reunited with over Facebook.

I am really looking forward to seeing my cousins. I haven't seen them in over 22 years. Our trip will start from Sydney, and we'll be flying into LAX. However, we will be jumping straight back on a domestic flight and heading to New York. There we will be tourists. I don't know anyone there.

After a few days of NYC, we will catch a flight to Texas where one of my cousins lives. He's right up on the Northern tip.

From there we are thinking of hiring a car and driving it to LA where we will see my other cousin. She has a camping trip organised for the time we will be there. They do this trip every year, and this year we're tagging along. Camping in the US. The last time I did that was when I went to Bakersfield, CA. It was the first time I ever went camping. It was the first time I went fishing. It was the first time I slipped on the muddy banks of the river and slid into the water, yelling at the top of my lungs "Faaaaark" with my friends and his dad all letting out a laugh.

I'm much better at camping these days. Usually the one who chops the wood, starts the fire, keeps it going, makes sure everyone is fed, making sure the tent is up and secure. Anyway, you get the idea.

After a long weekend of camping in the Mojave desert, we'll be heading back to LA and catching a flight the next day, back home to Australia.

Seeing as I'll be in Texas, and probably hiring a car or something. I'm wondering if I should drop in on The Field Lab. And while I'm in the neighbourhood, drop in on anyone else that is happy to say hello, have a drink and move on our way.

I can't wait.

Stagg Chili - Careful, it burns

Camping is fun. I do it at least twice a year. There's two trips I take, one around March and another around November. I won't go on much about the one I take in November because it's a bit of a secret 60's surf spot and the locals will kill me if I spread the word. So how do I know about it? My friend was a local. We went there for years before he died.

Today I'm going to talk about a camping spot I discovered many years ago by accident from an idiot bike riding friend. He's not an idiot because he rode bikes, he's just an idiot. We'll call him Bill. I'm using his real name to throw you off into thinking that's his false name to protect his identity, betting on the fact that people are too suspicious these days.

Anyway, the camping destination is Sofala, located about 40 km's North of Bathurst, home of the great annual racing event where Holden vs Ford in a battle to conquer "The Mountain". It's a lovely, hilly track that's actually got people living on the side lines. The track, even though it's a dedicated track and not a street that's been converted to a track once a year, it is a public road and you are allowed to drive on it any time you please. Watch out for the under cover cop who has a nice, fast car to catch you. Imagine the day you land that job. Being a cop and driving around the track all day. I'd get fired the next day for speeding, and probably letting anyone else on the track have a go at it too. "Hey, it's a race track!"

So, Sofala. How did I find out about it? One day my friends who I use to ride with said "Lets go camping one day soon." And I said, organise it and I'll be there.

The plan was to ride to Bathurst, and that's about it. I brought a tent, a sleeping bag, some basic food, a knife, a small saw and a torch (that's a flashlight for you United Stations fans). My friends brought nothing with them besides a backpack full of clothes. We arrived in Bathurst and I turned to my friend and ask "Right, we're here. Now what?" He shrugged, "I duno". I rolled my eyes, told them to go get food from the grocery shop across the road and come back here in 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I went to the information kiosk to ask about places to camp that are friendly to bikers. The rather fetching country bumpkin (read: hot farmers daughter) said "You can go around here to camp, but it's a caravan park and they charge you, or you can travel 40 km's North to a place called Sofala, where a lot of it is private property, but you are allowed to camp anywhere along the river. Blink and you'll miss it, so stay alert."

We'll take it!

So I took the map, and when my mates got back, I said "Follow me".

Sofala is a small town. When we first arrived there was a sign at the entry into town which told you what Sofala was about. In its hey day there were over 28,000 people. Which is a heck of a lot in a town this size. Every inch of the river had been mined for gold during the Gold Rush. The sign now says there's about 12 people living in town, although in 2006 there were 200+ people there. A lot of them frequent the pub. The general store closed down about 5 years ago when the old lady who ran it died. It's now been fenced off. A new take-away shop is open which serves Fish 'n Chips, burgers, and so on. The pub is still there and recovered nicely from the floods in 1986 where the back half got washed away.

I love Sofala because every time I enter that pub the regulars don't snarl at you because you're not a local. They greet you as if you're their mate and they just haven't seen you in a while. I struck up a conversation with one of them a couple of days ago. We did the getting to know you, then complaining about city problems, living in suburbia, and him complaining about country life, but still sticking it in that his lifestyle is better than mine.

My mates and I arrived at about 2:00 pm and decided to start setting up the tent, get the table out, and have a beer. We then harvested some wood just for the night and scouted out bigger trees that had fallen to drag back to the campsite for chopping up and sawing tomorrow.

The fire was lit for the evening and we cooked up some food. One of my mates stuck a can of Stagg Chili directly on the fire and I said "That's going to explode. I've seen Mythbusters and cans explode. This will explode."

They all assured me it was okay..... lies. They had no idea.

Then BOOOOOOM! Sure enough, the can exploded. Though, it exploded all over my mates face and clothes. Stagg Chili everwhere. Boiling hot. Chili hot. And a large chunk of chili and meat stuck to his forehead, which ended up burning his skin so badly that it started to bleed. He was in the direct firing line of this can. His face was burning from the heat of the chili and the temperature of the chili. We all laughed. Now he has a scar on his forehead.

He was validated the following day when he took the hot plate off the fire with a shovel, then 5 seconds later, grabbed it with his hand. Left a nice red mark on his fingers. He is a bit green when it comes to camping though, and each year I've taken him he slowly learns something new. I think this years lessons were about hot things. Last year's lesson was about knives.

Besides having to babysit with the cooking and told-you-so's. I enjoyed myself. I got a bit of a laugh at someone else's misfortune. Which I'm not happy with myself about, but one can't help but feel some humour enter my body when watching someone who calls their daughter clumsy as anything, "Don't know where she gets it from" and continuously hurts themselves almost while saying it. It's hilarious. Well, I find it humorous.

I did most of the cooking again, mostly because I wanted to eat while all the food was hot, not wait for one thing to cook then wait for the next thing to cook and the first thing I cooked getting cold. So I blazed through breakfast, lunch and dinner so we all ate at the same time, and all the food was hot, and cooked right.

Camping was great. Entertaining. Relaxing. And I can't wait to do it all again next year just to see what my mate hurts himself with this time.

The future might be the past

I recently read a great blog post from over Texas way of a person I catch up with via this great medium. Their blog in called Off Grid Terlingua and their entry, much like most of mine, was posted from an idea that stemmed from someone's comments, or some one else's blog. Or just daily experiences and thoughts.

Rather than put my lengthy reply and thoughts down on his blog, I don't want my long winded replies to take over and be longer than the actual blog entry itself. Hahaha. I thought it would be better posted here so the small but dedicated audience I do have can have a read and see what I think. So here's my reply;

It's great that your daughter is thinking about such things. I was once down in the dumps after my bike accident and the economy here in Australia wasn't great. When I couldn't find work, I made excuses to move to another country. But my mother stopped me by saying "When you get there you'll still be you."

No matter where you go, you will end up the same. You must change for everything around you to change.

A great quote I have always lived by but only discovered who said it a couple of years ago is "Be the change you want to see in the world"

On the survival front, you just don't know do you? I'm not sure about the US, but here in Australia we have compulsory superannuation funds that we put a percentage of money into from our wages and salary which basically goes towards our retirement fund. With the economy where it's at now, a lot of people lost their money and are about to retire with nothing.

Your barter idea is great. I love barter. I often trade some IT support for some plumbing work. I recently got an entire new toilet system put in and the old one was there for 60 years, so it was stubborn to come out. The plumber that I used was one who uses me to make sure his PC's are running fine. We exchanged skills, and as much as I love it when there's no money involved, food is another thing. I grow my own chillies, tomatoes, lettuce. Next year I'm trying out corn. I'd love to head over to the farmers market I go to every Saturday and exchange my food for theirs.

You're right, it isn't intruding, it's banking. They'll eventually look out for you one day. But in a modern world, everyone seems to think that if you help you obviously want something in return. Even when you reassure them, they have this doubt. I know this because my friends tell me that when someone helps them, they are suspicious. I tell them to get over themselves, there are still people out there that help and do it for free.

Sorry for the really long reply. One question I have though, it what's the attitude for off-gridders? Are you guys considered hippies or something? Scum of the Earth because you don't have the same possessions as others? Or something like that?

I hope not, but I did live in the US for a while and one thing I didn't like was how people love to categorise you and put you in a basket because you're a certain way. We're all a certain way, we're all human. And this was one reason I came back to Australia. I grew tired of being eccentric, off tangent and being told that I'm something I'm not based on their assumptions only because of the way I look or the way I dress, or the way I talk, or the way I do things.

I guess the thing here is acceptance. Accepting that we're all different. Accepting that my IT services which mean nothing to me, are worth their weight in computer parts to the plumber. And his services are priceless to me (well, at least $400). But I have helped him out for nothing and he helped me out for nothing. It isn't the value of the product or service we compared, but the value of how it will make our life easier, you can't put a dollar figure on that.

Recently, I went to a concert, it was over 2 days and in a part of Sydney I like because it is populated with weirdos. Why is this a good thing? Because they don't discriminate. Anyway, across the road from the area where this 2 day music festival was held was a small food co-op. Now, I'm not sure how it works. I believe you pay a membership fee and come to get whatever food you need. You might need more, you might need less, but everyone pays the same, because we all need the food equally. The produce is brought in from local farmers, so there is the least amount of transport involved. And the entire place is run as a not-for-profit. I loved the concept. I loved that everyone was treated the same. I loved that it was 2 minutes away from our Sydney city where tall sky scrapers and offices where suit wearing humans make more money in a year than both my wife and I combined will ever see.

But what happens to them when something like what happened in the US effects us here? What happens if you just lost billions of dollars? I tell you what, the people like me living off some of my land, helping my neighbour get their mail or bring their garbage bins in will continue to live on like we always did. And the more off the grid you go, the less likely you are to be affected.

I once went camping to a spot I go to once a year. A small country town in the middle of New South Whales. The town has a population of about 12 people. They have their usual setup like most rural towns in Australia. A pub, a general store, a hot food shop that sells fish and chips, burgers, etc.

Once in the pub, we were all drinking and talking to the locals and there was a blackout due to a massive storm just over the mountains (The Great Dividing Ranges), one guy was so drunk he didn't even realise there was a black out and kept talking. When one other guy started to swear at the juke box because he just pumped $10 into it, picked his songs and when the black out was over and power was restored 10 seconds later, his songs were gone and so was his $10. One guy I was speaking to say that this was his first blackout he experienced in 10 years. I said "don't get much power shortages out this way?" he said "no, my house runs purely off solar and wind"

And that was my start of my passion for living off the grid. Not so much for the services going on you, the reliance on them. If we rely on them too much, you won't know what to do when they're gone. Then you will truly be living in the past.