Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

From there I have lunch and have the rest of the day to myself, reading, thinking, listening to music, cooking, wasting my time with Sudoku and going online, struggling with this slow ass computer and connection that I’m on and wonder why I even bother.

Later I do my night time animal feed, namely the owl which gets a dead baby chicken, the two ringtail possums and one badger possum that all get a mix of food that I chop up for them and finish it all off with again feeding the kangaroos.

So that’s basically my day. There was one point where it has been over a week since I’ve been to town and about 4-5 days since I last saw or talked to another human being. That solitude was broken when some people came by to see gallery/cafe, which is closed and has signs all over the closed and locked gate saying just that. I came and greeted them and told them everything was closed thinking they came from the other way, not passing the main gate with all the signs and just going to the private drive-way. They said they saw the signs but… and just sort of trailed off. Well if you saw the signs and they said closed and the gate was locked, you’d imagine that the place was closed, right? Right. Of course I was my nice polite self and didn’t say any of that but I was thinking it. Anyways, they were the first people that I had seen and talked to in about 4 days and after they left I turned to Willow and said, “Holly shit Willow, that was the first person I’ve seen and talked to in like 4 days,” and Willow looked up at me and said, “Damn, that’s a long time.” Yep, going insane. I also sing to the animals, which sounds even more insane. I’m usually listening to my Mp3 player and quite often start yelling and singing at the top of my lungs to whatever animal is nearby, which is usually Willow. Well on the plus side of all this insanity and solitude I get to think about what I want to do and where I want to go next on my Australia chapter of my travels.

New Experiences
My thoughts have been playing lately with the notion that I could easily leave Australia right now and look back at it all with great, fond memories and with a feeling that I accomplished what I came for. Yeah there’s still lots that I haven’t seen but there is lots that I have and most importantly, lots that I’ve experienced and it seems that seeing things isn’t really the reason why I’m here. No I wouldn’t go back to Canada (ha), I’m not ready for that but instead move onto a different country for a different experience and perspective on the world and me. So in saying all that I realize that I just need to change things up a bit down here. As of Janurary 20th, when I started my stay at Maslin House, to when Kate gets back on June 8th, I’ll have been wwoofing for 125 days out of 137,that’s about 4 months and change. I figure that I’ve gotten about as much as I can out of it so it’s time to move on and get myself a real job and try life in the city for a while. I’d say the majority of backpackers down here land themselves into a city like Melbourne or Sydney, find themselves a job in their trade/profession or get themselves a joe-job and live life in a different place for a while. I used to think that there was no point to this but I now see it, and many things for that matter, in a different light. I figure why be a hypocrite and bitch about people not giving wwoofing a chance but then turn around and not give what they do a chance. Looking back to my last two stays, I realize that I walked into both of them with knowing pretty much what to expect and what it would be like. I had no fears, a large comfort zone and no anxieties as to what I was getting myself into like I did when I first went to Maslin and then to Kate’s. That pretty much says it for me that it’s time to move on and try something different. While I was thinking about going to a large city, having to find a job, a place to live and all that other crap and that feeling of anxiety, the fear of the unknown hit me again like when I first left home and was on my own for the first time not having a clue how this little chapter in my life would turn out and I must say it felt great.The last 6 months have flown by while travelling but at the same time when I look back to even January, when I got to Adelaide, it feels like that was like 10 years ago. Time has flown by for sure but so much stuff has occurred in that time span that it makes it feel like it’s been an even longer length then it actually has.

Speaking of new Experiences
Well I did think that my house sitting stay would bring a whole new level of boring to my travels, if that’s at all possible, and blog but there is hope. I’m actually adding this part on the last minute before I publish it but today I had an interesting new experience in which I was privy to watching 3 sheep killed and slaughtered. It was pretty dam interesting I must say and I’m very glad that I was there to watch how the entire process was done. It was William’s sheep and it was done by Kate’s friend, Jess’s boyfriend Donovan. The animal was put down quickly, cleanly and humanely; a bullet to the back of the head and then it’s throat slit open. Some people might find this all morbid that I would be interested and would want to see all this but I don’t think so. I can understand people being very squeamish and not want to see something like this but it was then pointed out to me how sad that really is. Really, the whole process is very natural, yes natural. Raising you’re own animal, taking care of it and then finally killing and slaughtering it for you’re own consumption, it doesn’t get much more natural than that. We’ve been doing it for thousands of years but the sad thing is, is how far removed we have become from all of it that we can’t stomach or stand to see the whole process, let alone be part of it.

Oilers
Holly dipody-do Batman, Hell has officially frozen over and the Edmonton Oilers are going to the Stanley Cup finals. There’s irony for you, I follow them and stick behind them for years and years watching in agony as they lose great players, barely make the playoffs only to lose out in the first round or miss the playoffs on the last game of the season and the one time in all these years that I leave home to a place where ice hockey basically doesn’t exist or has any recognition, they make it to the finals. Screw you Oilers. I’m going to be honest and say it but I hope, I hope that they DON’T win the cup. Yeah, that’s right, you heard me, I hope the DON’T win it. Why? Because I’m not there dam it Now if they do win it all, everyone and I mean everyone reserves the right to rub it in that I wasn’t there to see it, smell it and experience it. It’s only fair I think. I would do the exact same thing if the situation was reversed. Stupid Oilers.

Uncle Mike
Recently my Great Uncle Michael Sribney passed away. I hadn’t seen him in years but every time he came out to visit I really enjoyed his company. He was a really nice smart guy, a former professor at Kingston University if I’m not mistaken and was just a treat to be around. He was only 82, which by some people’s standards is old but he always seemed a lot younger and full of life, at least from when I last visited with him. Age has been on my mind lately and how it’s a poor place holder for the how old someone really is, if that makes any sense. Like as far as I’m concerned my grandfather, who’s 80 and grandmother, who just turned 78, are younger than some of the 28 year-olds that I know. They’re active, constantly out doing things, have an active life in the community and simply put ,78 and 80 years young. If either of them died right now, I think it would be more tragic than if some of the 28 year-olds that I know died.

House-sitting for strangers
I think some people might think that it’s very odd and completely bizarre that I’m house sitting for people that are pretty much strangers, people that I’ve known for only a couple months and that the mindset here in Australia must be completely different then that back home. Well you have to realize that the person, Kate that I’m house sitting for has been taking in backpackers and travellers for about 3 years now and at one time was one herself, which is how she found her way onto the island. She’s had, and pretty much any other wwoofing host like her have taken in up to a hundred people in their course of being a wwoof host. Like myself many of these hosts, in fact I’m sure I could say all of them, have had only really great and amazing experiences over the years with wwoofing and the bad experiences have been minor and nothing to dissuade them. So I guess what I’m getting at is that no, things and people’s mindsets down here aren’t completely different on a whole, just these people that take in travels and backpackers and in fact there is wwoofing in Canada too so I’m sure you could easily find people with the same mindset towards travellers and taking people in.

Blog Problems
If you haven’t noticed and I’m sure you haven’t but I’ve had to take part of one of my posts due to a complaint. The post I speak of was of my tenure at a certain bed and breakfast, in which a conference was held. Lone behold, if you put something up on the internet someone has a chance of reading it and someone did. Needless to say the people that I wrote about found my little entry, complained and gave threats of legal action due to using pictures of them and using their names so I took down the entry. Now some of you would say that I’m a wuss and am copping out, that they really can’t due much because it is my own opinion, my pictures and it’s the internet. I agree with all these points and would normally say screw them but there is a third party, the owner/operator of the B&B who shall remain nameless, who has asked me to take it down simply because it could potentially hurt him and his business, It’s this reason and this reason alone that I’ve taken it down. At first I just took the entire post down but now I’ve edited it and put the nasty stuff on a different private thread for my eyes only while keeping the good happy stuff up.

Friends
I’ve been looking at myself and my close friends lives lately and how we’ve all gone completely in our own directions. It’s all good and I’m happy as shit for all of them but it seems odd just how our lives have gone in these different directions comparing how parallel they were at one time. I and a lot of my friends that I grew up with, went through some pretty interesting times in life together and because of that you’d think that our lives and directions those lives are heading would be on somewhat of a simular course but it’s actually quite contrary. One guy’s making movie props in Vancouver, another running the family business and another is in a solid trade, pretty crazy. All of them, have something great going on in their lives and are working on some cool stuff.

Australia – Standard and Quality of Living
At one point I thought that Australia and Australians in general had a bit lower standard of living then we do in Canada but in turn their quality of living was a lot higher. I was talking to Janet during my stay in Warburton about this theory and she put it into a different perspective, which was that people in Aus aren’t as caught up with the acquisition of items and things, namely clutter. There’s definitely not as large of a mindless consumerism mindset that has entrapped Canada, and even more so the US and yeah it is there but not on as grand of a scale something that I think we all need to take a closer look at. I used to ask myself before buying something, “If I were to buy this, I would have to work X hours. Is X hours of my day and life worth this item?” In most instances I found the answer to be no.

Cooking with Troy
I’ve been doing lots of cooking lately as I’ve got plenty of time to spare. I’ve discovered a couple little things in regards to cooking to make your dishes just that much better, most notably the art of using and making stock, vegetable stock to be exact. In the past when cooking soups, stews, curries, stir-fry’s and roasts I’ve always used either plain water, those little stock cubes or the liquid stuff that you can buy but I realize now how poor they really are compared to making your own. Now you think that it’s a pain in the ass to make your own stock but it’s really not. What you do is save all the vegetable peelings that you have left over from your prep work; onion and garlic ends/skins, potato/carrot skins, celery leaves, cauliflower leaves, pepper membranes/stems/seeds, zucchini ends and even apple and pear cores. Put them into a container in the fridge until you have a fair bit, throw it into a pot with enough water to cover it all, bring it to a boil and then drop it down to a simmer and cover it letting it simmer for like an hour plus. It’ll probably taste a little odd and smell a little weird but what it will do for your dishes is amazing plus each stock can be quite different than the last depending on what you throw in there. Store it in the fridge and next time you’re cooking a roast or a stir-fry, use that instead of just plain water or the cubes. Another great stock to use is water left over from cooking veggies like when you boil potatoes or steam broccoli. Keep that liquid and use it for you’re cooking, hell use that for the water you boil your left over peelings in. I remember my grandmother telling me that she would use the water that she cooked her potatoes in for making these amazing little dinner buns that she makes. Man I could go for 1 or like 10 of those right now.While I was gone, Torran caught a shark and I’d say it’s a dam good fish(?) to eat. To me it seems like a cross between a white fish (trout) and a red/pink fish (salmon), regardless it’s dam good and I’ve found a wicked curry recipe that goes all to well with it. Another amazing recipe that I’ve been munching away on is eggplant lasagne. It’s basically lasagne but with steamed sliced eggplant instead of noodles. You can also use zucchini too or go completely insane and use both. It’s definitely a lot healthier than using pasta and way tastier.

Public Kissing to be banned in Indonesia
That’s the headlines that are currently on the news. I guess a slew of people showed up for a rally in Indonesia, I assume Jakarta, to back a proposed anti-pornography bill that included banning kissing in public. Now how the media reported it was simple, “Muslims hold mass rally to ban kissing,” leaving you pretty much thinking something along the lines of, “those crazy Muslims, they’re all nuts and way too uptight and just plain wrong,” right or wrong is besides the point, the point is how it was presented. Why they had to label the group of people in the first place is completely pointless and stupid. All it does is create more of a divide and helps to further the growing misconceptionsbetween the two between cultures and peoples, which if you have been living under a rock lately isn’t getting any smaller. Second of all, from what I gather, the majority of the bill is based around trying to get rid of pornography and tackle the growing sex trade that is ruining millions of people’s lives in that country, but no mention of that was given, that doesn’t sell new papers or get you to stay up an extra half an hour, watching commercials so you can see the 10 o’clock report on it. Finally, maybe banning kissing in public places isn’t such a bad idea. Yeah a simple kiss is harmless but I’m talking about when people are all over each other in a public place and it makes you want to throw-up and to top it off it always seems to be a in a restaurant which makes it even worse.

Other things I miss
– Kids in the Hall – Great show and pure Canadiana
– Canadian/American TV in general – Yeah that probably sounds insane and most people are probably scoffing at that saying how bad TV is in North America. I myself hated TV back home too and hardly watched it but compared to Australian TV, North American TV is like fricken master piece theatre. If you took those really annoying, horribly produced and just plain old bad radio commercials, with they’re jingles that some would consider a sin and put it on TV you would get Australian television.

Readings
I finished reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and now I’m back onto Reading Lolita in Tehran, with full intentions of finishing it this time around before I pick anything else up. I’ve read 3 books since I bought Reading Lolita back in February and I’ve got another sitting on the side lines waiting to be read but I’m going to finish it before I move on. Anyways, Pride and Prejudice. Dam good book that I really enjoyed. It’s as classic an English classic is going to get or so I was told by Eric out in Warburton and it’s actually referred to quite a bit in Reading Lolita. I’d give it 5 out of 5 for sure and recommend it to anyone. I thought it would be a “chick” book but it’s not, it’s just good literature. I’ve just about got Reading Lolita done now and albeit it’s taken me a long time to finish it, it is a really good book. After that I plan to read the book of all books, next to the bible that is and ironically very intertwined to it, The Davinci Code. I had pretty much vowed never to read this book simply because of all the hype, exposure and general hoopla that surrounds it. Plus I felt so much more pretentious, cultured and well read for reading books like P&P and Sidhartha in the hostels while most other backpackers were reading The Davinci Code or Harry Potter but my sister sent me a copy in the last package that I got from home so I figure that I’ll break down and read it and read it with an open mind too. The best part about it all, is now I have 3 really good books that are in great condition that I can sell at a book exchange and buy a new one that I really want.

Animals
I’m not too big on seeing animals most of the time. Going out and paying money to look at seals or penguins really doesn’t interest me that much and there’s so much wild life around here that the sight of a kangaroo, possum or wallaby is this side of mundane but there is the exceptions. I went to town the other day and when we were on our way back we passed by one of the animals that I hadn’t seen yet out here; a koala bear. There’s lots of them out here and there’s even a program in effect to control their numbers but I had yet to see a living one (the dead ones on the side of the road don’t count). I was just telling William, Kate’s friend who I went to town with that I had to see one and sure enough on our way home we pass by one merrily walking along the side of the road looking for another tree to chomp on. We stopped and got out and I got to get right up to it and could have petted it but it looked a little disgruntled. Will said that you can usually pet them and gave this one a bit of a pat on the head but he really didn’t like it too much and gave a bit of a growl, which was my sign to keep my hands to myself. Regardless it was dam cool to get that close up to one. They are really cool looking little animals and I was, and still am when I think about it, rather excited that I got to see one that close up.

Big Black Pigs
I’m sure no one is interested in this and I guess if anything it’s more or less just something for myself but a list of all the animals that were at Eastwind Rare Breeds farm out near Macclesfield.
Large Black – pig
Angora – goat
Highland – cattle
Anglo-Nubian – goat
Toggenburg – goat
Saanen – goat
Speckled Sussex – chicken
Croad Langshan – chicken
Aylesbury – duck
Muscovy – duck
Pilgrim – goose
Dawson Down – sheep

Well that’s it for the time being. Not too much exciting things happening in my travels right now, although I am rather pumped about my vegetable stock discovery, I swear food is just that much better now. I THINK and I emphasize that, that my next move and destination is Sydney. I was thinking Brisbane but have decided against it as that’s where I’ll probably be visiting when my family comes down here plus I’d like to try this whole living and working in the big city in a more cosmopolitan city and I haven’t hear too many grand thing’s about Brisbane. Of course, that’s my plan this week, next week could be different the way I’ve been going. That said, I’ll probably just buy a bus ticket or find a ride up to Sydney and just take it from there, taking is as it comes.

Safe Travels

Troy