Some wordy words are forthcoming I promise.
In the meantime have to get this out of the way. It has been clogging me up.
https://soundcloud.com/deckhand/troubadour
For the xenials you can download it here.
Hopefully some good old fashioned writing will follow.
I have lots to to discuss.
I feel obligated to write a little about some negative feedback that has come our Families way about Anna trying to support our Family selling products on Facebook.
We are married. Our Wedding Vows whilst owing a lot to childhood Science Fiction/Fantasy do talk about us supporting each other where we can.
We are in a unique situation. I am not home for six months of the year. I earn good money but we still have to budget each month and there is not much left after our mortgage, food, utilities, things for our child and dog and maintaining our house. We moved to Europe for 5 months this year. Anna’s business helped us stay on the road and we were very frugal.
We run a BNB, I would wager 85% of the profits of this go back into turning our property into a eco friendly part of the world. We have our own chickens, we are planting trees. We want to install solar panels. I have grand plans for our utilising our river. Pyramids don’t come cheap.
I am pretty confident Anna’s first product Juice Plus was the reason we got pregnant after many years of trying. That is our experience. Not some *facts* you read on the internet.
Anna now sells cosmetics and wellness products from a company called NuSkin.
The most successful is the viral whitening toothpaste, after using it for six months my teeth are whiter than they have ever been. I have also been using the Galvanic spa. I have suffered from what I like to call wheat aids which makes my skin and scalp break out with flakey dry skin since the age of 30. NuSkin products are scientifically proven more so than the gunk you buy in pharmacies. After six months of using the Galvanic spa my skin is incredibly smooth. I can even get away with eating a bit of gluten now and again. This is my evidence. I am firm believer in Gnosis. Knowledge from self experience.
I also provide A LOT of quality/funny and thought inspiring content on facebook. Me supporting my Wife is my way of monetising this content. If a service is free on internet. You are the product. You might as well try to get something back, tastefully of course.
If you have not realised. The world is changing quickly. I saw this beautiful quote today.
““I have read somewhere of an old Chinese curse: ‘May you be born in an interesting time!’ This is a VERY interesting time: there are no models for ANYTHING that is going on. It is a period of free fall into the future, and each has to make his or her own way. The old models are not working; the new have not yet appeared. In fact, it is we who are even now shaping the new in the shaping of our interesting lives. And that is the whole sense (in mythological terms) of the present challenge: we are the ‘ancestors’ of an age to come, the unwitting generators of its supporting myths,the mythic models that will inspire its lives.”
Joseph Campbell, Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (Copyright © 2013 Joseph Campbell Foundation), p.xiv”
So the next time you get angry about seeing someone trying to support their Family on Facebook. Just take a big breath and say nothing. Especially if you have received money for a service you advertised on Facebook………..
“Silence is sometimes the best answer.” – Dalai Lama
If you are interested in whiter teeth or better skin. Send Anna an email she will be happy to help.
No body told me creative time would such a precious commodity being a parent 😀
I have had some time to make a mix for our many little road trips we have planned as we head south from the Northern most part of our our European tour.
Enjoy it.
Last year I smugly wrote a list of hard earned tips in a valiant effort to engender happy and safe travel for the less frequent flyer. Little did I know I would soon be turning the world upside down for my immediate family. Following is 40 hours of calamity. And some tips.
Dario turned five months old on our day of departure. New Zealand was in the first stage of a biblical flood. We were due to depart at 5:45pm but knowing a little bit about cancelled flights out of Kerikeri we made a call at lunch time to try and get on an earlier flight. If the earlier flight was cancelled we would be able to make our connecting flight by hopping on a four hour bus ride. We would not have this option if the later flight was cancelled.
The bus ride went pretty smoothly but this extra four hours of travel probably broke us all towards the end. When we got to the international terminal we unloaded 12 pieces of luggage and set about checking in. Some sweet talking was required here as I did not have my usual Seaman luggage allowance. It was towards the end we realised we were missing the lucky 13th piece of luggage. Dario’s suitcase. Knowing the bus had to drop passengers off at the Domestic terminal I offered to run after the bus.
Personally I find running a positively futile and unrewarding pass time. Have you ever seen a runner smiling? Given my recent river injury, running to the terminal was probably the best and worst thing I could have done. After almost dying from a heart attack I made it to the terminal and located the bus, only to find it empty. The nice people at Air New Zealand had our bag inside. Sweating and swearing I calmly dragged the bag back to the international terminal and we completed checking in. Travel tip one. When travelling with over 80 kilos of luggage and a family have a luggage muster list which you can count up to before leaving any luggage assembly point. Include the baby in this list and your partner.
Marvelling at the speed and efficiency of New Zealand security screening I managed to leave my Traktor S8 and passports with security. So many plastic trays we filled. We discovered quite a cool parent lounge which is off towards the Airline lounges on the same floor as security. It has private rooms and a small rubberised pen for toddler containment. After a nappy change(not my own) we recovered the Traktor and passports and we were soon on what was the longest flight in the world(last year). Auckland to Dubai.
Dario had a bit of trouble during take off. The A380 accelerated a bit faster than our Citroen and we started rising a lot faster than his jolly jumper. He was soon crying and it took a while for him to settle into a sleep. He did sleep for his usual amount which turned out to be his last proper sleep of the whole 41 hour journey. I slept as I always do on planes, Anna not so much. Upon arising for breakfast service I realised that my bout of running had rendered my flight swollen feet practically useless. Travel Tip two. Avoid running at all costs on the day of departure.
Discussing infant flights with a few colleagues it sounds like Flight attendants are very well trained in placating and making a fuss of babies. We can vouch for this. Dario made many friends on board planes.
Upon reaching Dubai we were soon struck with the gravity of the trip we had undertaken. The best way to deal with gravity was to put Dario in a complementary push chair.
My ankles had swollen with the flight and I felt disturbing sensations in my feet. I soon realised this was from my run of the ages after the bus in Auckland.
Emirates ground staff kindly gave us first class tags so we could clear security through the priority lane. The X-Ray screening technology is so sophisticated you do not need to remove any liquids/laptops/batteries from your luggage. Are you reading this TSA?
After a cocktail and breakfast stop we were soon on our way to Spain. Dario struggled again with take off and a nice lady in our seat block befriended him. She was soon babysitting him and I am convinced would have quite happily taken him home with her if something had befallen us.
It is here I must give mention to one of our more worth while purchases. A backpack/front pack baby carrier thing. Without it the priority passenger would not have slept at all after the first night. The bassinet was too bright and we were situated near a toilet so he found it too hard to fall asleep in.
Spanish passport control was a formality. Baggage claim took a little longer than we expected but this because we had a car seat and push chair. These travel on a special carousel with artwork and commercial goods.
Now, my law of long distance travel is the last bit is always the worst. We had a four hour lay over in Barcelona. Our little jet setter had only been cat napping since our First leg to Dubai and was a bit over the whole exercise. We set ourselves up in a courtesy lounge, I highly recommend this also if travelling with a baby, Anna could feed him in a nice quiet corner and we fortified ourselves the best we could without missing our last flight.
The last leg was an ordeal. We sat on the runway for a bit too long. We were soon all sweating, screaming and suffering the uncomfortable imagined withering gazes of other passengers. A little longer and we took off. Screaming gave way to snoring and 45 minutes we landed in Palma.
Our taxi driver was a bit put off by our amount of luggage. He was probably more put off by our Englishness. I blame this firmly on the four hour layover in Barcelona. Free Gin is not going to drink itself. After some negotiating and showing him how he could fit us all in his car we were soon off to our new home. More about that soon.
Forty hours of travelling complete.
Travel Tips
Have a muster list for passengers
Have a muster list for luggage
Avoid Running at all costs
Have a baby carrier front/back thing
Use pay lounges where possible
The last leg will be the worst
A baby can be a VIP pass
Fly to Spain
15 years ago during a Summer Solstice Psy-Trance party in Parakai. I noticed upon the dance floor a foreign body. An outcast from K-Road. Being of completely whole(some) mind and body I thought to myself I would like to make her acquaintance. The following easter in a story not fit for Facebook I got to meet Anna Sangster. We ventured off to the UK in 2004. We married on the 24th of February 2007. We sold our house and conquered South East Asia in 2008. We almost went broke finding work at sea in 2009. Had a few tough years before things came good in 2015 and in 2016 Master Dario came into our lives. This year we will move to Europe for research purposes. I would not be entirely surprised if we make it into space at some point. All we need to do is write it down.
Thank you Anna for being the best possible partner and foil to this increasingly eccentric sabre.
xx
Thanks to a concerted working/party bee we now have a injury free path down to our river boundary.
Think of this as a teaser trailer.
Excuse the fingers. I didn’t want to break something again.
Thanks to the Bees!
So at the start of last year we devised a plan to see Europe together in 2016. Using my time honoured ratherlargeadventure image scratching technique I drew up this. Labelling a few high and lowlights.
We then started planning and scheming in detail and promptly fell pregnant with Dario.
Fast forward a year. The Sun is beating down in our Star Sign and the updated Family Edition is taking place.
You see back in 2011, I visited Palma. Fell in love and promptly declared I could see myself living there.
The opportunity has arisen for us to do this for a few months all together. This is a wonderful not so chance happance. I have been running a parallel life for the last 6 years and it is time for Anna to see the best parts of it.
Somewhat both unconsciously but fastidiously I have neglected to see any of Palma other than the city, airport and an outlet mall. This will allow us to get the full, fresh experience.
After Palma I have some extramural education to attend to in Newcastle.
We will then make our way to Sweden for the 3 best days of the year. Mid Sommar. I will dance like a frog in SWEDEN. I will see my pet Viking. I think I have written about this
From here I think we will have to go to Legoland in Denmark. Essential training for Master Dario.
It is then off to Berlin for fabulousness and to visit Prague in warm weather. Another thing I wrote about.
From here thing get a bit more flowy. Italy has to be done. It was our saviour all those years ago.
Barcelona and London have been a big part of my life away.
I think Portugal and Croatia both offer new stories so a coin will be flipped at some point.
There are a few details to be worked through but my star sign wiseley told me on Friday not to worry about hows, whys and any details until Mercury makes an appearance.
Just worry about the WHAT.
We live in a generously sized house. When we bought the market was quite depressed and we got a good deal. Northland is not an economic power house so if you have a good job you can do quite well. We brought our house with very little to do inside and plenty to do outside. A blank slate if you will and this is where the fun begins.
I am convinced Northland is not an economic power house because of these simple business type things. When you start looking for help and quotes for work you discover.
People have phone numbers they do not answer.
People have Voicemail they do not check.
People have email addresses they do not check.
People give quotes over the phone and then do not honour them.
Exhibit A.
We have quite rough concrete outside. Not baby or child friendly. Crappy dance floor as well for that matter. We were told by a knowledgeable chap to measure the area we wanted smoothed out and get a quote from a concrete grinder.
We did this and we were quoted $10 a square meter.
The tradesperson then came to visit us and the quote ballooned out to $15 a square meter as a starting rate. This could go up to $20-30 a square meter depending on how smooth we wanted it.
We got a lot of supplementary information about this.
Diamond teeth costs.
Hand edging.
Concrete sealant
Sun spot activity.
A load of bullshit really.
We are pretty convinced he saw the size of our house and decided to try and rip us off.
Not discouraged we decided to do the job ourselves. The tradesperson did make the error of showing me how the job was done selling his elaborate tale.
It is not that dissimilar to using a teak scrubber which I am forever repairing…..
At some point in the last eight years I have become somewhat handy. This first inkling of this was about 4 years ago at Anna’s 30th birthday. Our deck outside in the place we were renting started to sprout high heel related holes. I found some plywood/hammer and some painting hanging nails and started nailing ply to the deck to sort it out. I don’t think my Parents have recovered. The deck is still there.
So armed with some youtube videos and a bit of spare time we decided to grind the concrete ourselves.
Concrete grinders cost about 3k to buy so we found one locally that we could rent. It turns out it is the only concrete grinder within 80kms that can be rented. I got it home and started grinding.
Side story. Anna likes to call me half job on the account that I quite often get bored with jobs and find more meaningful jobs to do halfway through boring jobs. I like to think this is more of an internal energy budgeting system. After I have expended what I think is the right amount of energy I need to be topped up with more creative endeavours. Like blog writing for example.
So it was quite hilarious when the said concrete grinder stopped working exactly halfway through my grinding….. To be fair I got as angry as I have got since I got home. I took the grinder back to the hire place told them what I thought was wrong with it like any good deckhand (it is electrical)
I then told the hire place I would fix it myself.
Fast forward a week and some spare parts later the grinder was ready to roll again and grind it did.
We now have a very smooth outside. Because of my repairs to the grinder the grinder did not cost anything to hire.
Some advice for first time concrete grinders.
Use the grinder is a clockwise motion from right left. Small circles that you can easily touch on subsequent runs.
Use a water blaster or hose to make the surface very wet before grinding.
Wet your windows and outside paneling before and after grinding so as to get rid of any excess concrete dust.
Wear some footwear. Exposed concrete will dry your feet out just like teak will.
Don’t set the grinder down running for any length of time.
If you are in Northland be prepared to repair any tools you hire so you can get the entire job finished.
Do not be afraid to DIY especially if the only show in town is trying to rip you off. It’s only a concrete grinder after all :D.
Following up my last mix was always going to be a bit difficult but here we are.
As the Sun set the last day of my 30’s I recorded this.
It channels the energy of the Leopard and maybe the first half of my life.
Leopards are interesting beasts to google image search. From my very cursory glance looking for a suitable photo. 50% of the time they hang out in trees looking magnificent. 10% of the time they are hunting. 30% of the time they look menacing. 20% of the time they have dopey expressions. Not a bad statistical break down.
It is a wee bit mangey in parts. Like a Leopard who stayed out a bit too long hunting magnificently after falling out of his tree menacingly and now looks a bit dopey.
Mangey is just another word for authentic, nae?
A birthday present from me.
WARNING has a Piranha Tail.