It’s that time for my yearly commentary about my little farm in Loksbergen
Eight weeks i was again living the dream. This time even the weather was living the dream. Exotic temperatures were displaying day after day.
At my arrival 5 pallets of concrete,sand and stones were waiting. It was time to pour some concrete. First there was a big clean up of wild flora and a few piles of broken stones that needed to be moved from one side to another.
My front garden, is getting to his end game. A Little bridge connects one side to the other side of the pond. All the little walkways in the front garden are now connected. The entrance of the parking to the garden has now an access of three big steps and only one garden wall still needs to be erected and its just a matter of decking stones and the little gravel stones on the path, and the front garden is completely finished. The only thing that would make the front garden look different every year is the grow of my fruit plants and other plants.
The back garden is still a long way of the finishing touch. And this year there was not much activity going on in the back garden . Except the plants , who are now getting a decent sizes. The only thing that changed was the start of a patio. The resting area in the back garden is been layed out, and the first brick walls has been erected.
All by all, i would say that the garden in my little farm is finished about around 70 %. So i’m quit happy and still in head of my schedule that i placed myself 5 years ago.
One big unexpected project of my holiday in the year of 2018 was the visual connection between my front garden and back garden , the back shed that was dividing my property in two different parts has been reduced to a wall of less then a metre. Now i’m able to see all the way to my back garden to see if Eve has decided to come along and to pick her favourite fruit.
The driveway is now closed to the public. From this day on I'm in my legally right to shoot people trespassing my property, except i’m in the wrong country to do so. The gate in the driveway is a reminder of all the things that were dogged out the dirt during my last summers.
The inside of the house is still a slowly process. Slowly , very slowly, the interior walls are getting treated. A few walls are rendered, but still i’m only on 40% of my schedule inside the house. So the next holiday time , definitely more energy and more money needs to be spend to get the inside going.
But 2018 is an important year. I’m half way of my serious drain of financial means. I’m not counting how many years i’m already paying a decent amount to the bank. but counting how many years i still have to work like a fool to keep the money flowing to the bank.
Again i was travelling back in time, i lost count how many times i travelled back and forward in time. But surprisingly the flight went without problems. even the luggage was were i had to picked it up on my arrival in Brussels. After two days of travelling i was back again on Belgian soil.
This time tradition was broken. my parents were waiting at the airport instead of my sis, to drive me to my little farm . But my my sister and godchild still decided to have a break in their centerparcs holiday and were waiting at the farm.for our arrival.
After a short reunion after a long time being away from home and family and a short dinner ,my sister, godchild and parents left to their own destinations to leave me in peace after the long flight around the world and to recuperate from jet lag in my own little farm.I had only one night, because the next day i was heading to centerparcs. My sister still had a few days in the parc, so i was heading that way to join her.I spend the following couple days enjoying the company of my sister and godchild, who in one year changed from a non verbal child to a child that can’t keep up with his own thoughts to keep us informed.
The holiday is already gone while i’m writing and following up on my blog , on urgent demand of my sister. If i look back , i think where did it go. I have been away for 8 weeks, but where are they. What happened with those weeks.I know that i worked at the farm, but it seems that that was the only thing i did, if i look back.
I remember a beach festival. a night out dancing with friends. I remember that i had a visitor for two weeks named Billy. An English bulldog. was coming to my farm to have a relaxed holiday. No stress around him, just moving from one place to lay down to the other one. Having a walk around the labyrinth of walkways in Euralia. It was great to have a four leg walking around the farm. I always loved dogs and having one now, even if it was only temporary, was a hint of the life i dream of. After Billy,s happy reunion with his family after two weeks Euralia parc, jumping in the family car without looking back and heading to his territory, i kept talking to the dog noticing he wasn’t around anymore. It was easier getting used to having a four legger around then not having one around.My sister and godchild spend several nights in Euralia parc , visiting Billy. and enjoying the heat in eve’s garden . Even my godchild was catching the building microbe and started to help putting a wall together.in the back garden .With a helping hand of parents, sister and godchild work at the little farm made some decent progress. It was the first time that i ever felt that the farm was getting closer to his end design.There is still a lot of work to do.but certain places were close to finish.
And suddenly that time was near again. A plane to catch. But i have to confess, this year was really hard to step on that plane , it becomes harder and harder going trough all those emotions over and over again, you would think it would go easier and easier after all those years of departures, but no. it doesn’t. The land of Oz is still a long way from home, and ten months is a serious time to bridge over.
Three days to go. Counting down the cold days. Now i remember why i always fly back in the summer to my little farm. I’m like a bird, just following the heat.
The last month the company is working at an install of four camps of 160 people. And all with a time limit. A hectic job.
One donga multiplied by 125. And a donga exist out of four rooms. So that ’s around 500 rooms, not included kitchen, offices, and recreation rooms. Yep, those camps have everything, even satellite and free netflix., pool table, fitness centre.
The last months there was no difference between the days. A Saturday was the same as a Tuesday and a Sunday was the same as a Thursday, or did i mixed it up here, i don’t know it anymore. A day was just a working day. One after the other one. A lot of repetitive work, a bracket has to be made for the air cons. to hold them in their place during the transport. But one donga needed 4 brackets, one individual A/C per room. so i’m not gonna calculate how many brackets i made and installed. i rather sooner forget that number. Hooks to hang the electrical wire on the outside of the building. But again multiplied by the amount of the donga’s.
And let’s talk about the shit that flows trough 4 camp of 160 people. A lot of shit boxes needed to be made.to keep the shit flowing trough the camp.Simply said, The shit flows to a box where a pump pushes it to a another bigger box and then to another container where it’s been recycled and filtered. I never had an idea how complicated it all is when i had a shit myself. The distance that shit travels before it ends up as waste is unbelievable . The shit science is nothing to laugh about.
Day after days just passes by , getting colder and colder, while in Europe a heat wave started. I was more worried about the drought in Europe , will my plants survive then about the efficiency of the shit boxes.
During all those hours i still had the change to upgrade from a little forklift to a bigger one. from this day on i’m capable of moving buildings around with a 7 ton forklift. My so well known forklift seems like a little kids toy now.
And slowly my departure day comes closer. My bag is already made. but there are still a few long days to go.
And finally that day arrived that i could step on that plane direction Euralia.
My dear diary,
It’s been a few months now since i wrote to you. That i informed you of my deepest and precious thoughts. It has been a time of adjustment. Getting used to my new work, mates, payslip and sleeping place.
There is been no time for creativity, i know , dear diary, no time is the most used excuse we use as we see fit. but i ll be honest with you. There is a certain emptiness in me. and i can’t find the leak. I tried different solutions to locate the drain. but with no success . A night out with work mates as a social gathering. ended in a way that i had to pay it of in three weeks time, don’t get me wrong , i was still sober , didn’t gamble. didn’t interfere with the wildlife. But the financial aspects of my present work don’t allow me much playground .
I don’t have much more fighting in me, just a habit to finish the game. , learned in my childhood in the professional world of tennis. The game can change every moment when you keep hitting the ball over the net.
So i keep working long hours, day after day, till my body demands a rest. and causing my hourly nap in a free day extending by three hours.The only creativity that took place in my brain, is my little farm far far away, a place where i live the way i dream of living. Being creative , making sculptures, cartoons and have close people visiting , a dog running around and my godchild making havoc around the place. I have my little farm now in a 3D-program on my running low on memory laptop. So dear Diary, my mind being overly busy at the early mornings and my only interest with the improvements of Euralia, was maybe a way to show me the leak. So i decided that it was that time again to move . The financial aspects of being in Australia weren't no longer interesting .My present work didn’t allow me any personal extras.then just paying those everlasting bills. A one way trip was coming my way.
Spending hours of calculating and noticing that my mathematics weren’t what they used to be., my earliest departure day could be around the end of July. Having looked in ,all scenario’s possible ,my decision was made. I would return to Loksbergen, just before my big 50, as my sister gently said. Save up that precious money for the flight and in case a job doesn’t pop up immediately.
I notified work i would be leaving at the end of July, before they send me to a few days bush. Remember the ranger with his two blue thumbs, that was the place where we would spend a few nights.Palm Valley, The shed i installed a year ago was still standing, so i suppose i could be happy that my welding skills are not to bad. This place is really magic, the track to get there is a one way sandy bush road,crossing dry riverbeds and leading all the way up in the hills. A few house are flanked by the tops of the surrounding hills. We had to install a donga, with patio and handrail.
All the duration of the bush trip , i had my swag outside, every night before my eyes shut down automatically i had the most spectacular view of the endless universe stretching out above me.Damned, i ‘m gonna miss this. The howling dingo’s at night, the shooting stars in the early morning.I really took notice of my surroundings, it was maybe the last time i’ll be able to experience the beauty of untouched nature.and wildlife.
Back to my little living place at the work yard, the next countdown started, i lost the amount of countdowns i already had in my life. Sixty-four days my calendar was showing. One of the days after, i checked my accounts, and i noticed a big difference. It seems they have given me a big pay rise. The next morning , the boss came to me , and verified what i noticed the night before. A pay rise and lower rent for my little donga. It changes everything again. It was not a rise of a few dollars.more, but a rise that changed all my plans again. Didn’t i say that i wouldn’t make any plans anymore in one of my last blogs. So one way ticket changed to a return ticket. One more year would make a big difference and the life that i wanna live closer.
But still, my dear diary, the call from Euralia gets louder and louder.
Amazing, you would think you would get used to 180 degree turns in life in a blink of an eye, but you don’t. Especially when they are not voluntary.
My career is over with Ross engineering. A Monday morning i wake up , looking forward to the last working week of the year and to a well earned week off between Xmas and old year. Meaning, sitting in a pool with my favourite drink. Do i have a pool? Yep , i do. I got the chance to house sitting for the coming three weeks. But after the toolbox meeting that Monday morning, i was called for a private meeting. They had to let me go , was there explanation. A fancy way to say you are fucking fired. The company is struggling with hard times, and the casual people are the first one on the black list they look for. They cost nothing to kick them out. And i was one of them. So my ten years of building up a career, reputation and a higher payslip are down to the drain. After wishing them a really fucking x-mas , i walked for the last time to the gate of a ten years life.
Straight to the pool, to re memorises what just happened. It was not that i was fired , but the realty that becomes dreams again that hurt the most. I just had a good plan for the next 5 years and had made peace with it.
Being threw away couldn’t come to me at a better time. X-mas and a invoice to insulate the farm far far away were coming my way. Finding a job in those happy times where a mayor priority. Luckily i was in a small outback time, and work is always available. The second place i went to would let me start in two weeks. The new place i would go to work to was NT-link, on the outer skirts of the town. One thing less to worry about. Xmas and old year just slowly went by. A swimming pool, three dogs . two lizards and a TV screen the size of a window and netflix made sure of that. 2018, a new start , a hike with the bike for 40 minutes to go to work, and back another 50 minutes after a work day in 43 degrees. But being cast away a few times in life you learn to deal with situations and hang on to the positive side of things. The ride with the bike was the first thing i had to try to cast away myself. Luckily i started working with a company specialised in demountables and they had a few empty ones in the yard. So two weeks after, i moved in one of them. 40 minutes where reduced to 45 seconds. One problem solved. The next problem would be a bit harder. Starting again at the bottom of the financial ladder is not a problem you solve overnight Financial plans , calculations where the only thing on my mind. The good thing about working at my previous work was the financial aspect, the dream to be able to finish my little farm from the other side of the globe. That financial luxury gone , i had to reconsider all my priorities.
And the magic 50 was coming nearby and surely i felt this in every bone in my body. My mind was able somehow to stop ageing when i was 29 , but i didnt’ found the trick to do the same with my body. Working around 60 a 70 hours a week in a heat wave around 40 degrees and above is not ideal to keep the body moving in a comfortable way. Not talking about the social aspects involved of those many hours and always being in a male environment. I ‘m starting to wonder how a woman looks like, and i will certainly not talk about how a woman would feel like, and the hope to be abducted by an alien ship full of desperate woman who’s world was abandoned by male species, is a dream i let go a few years back. Definitely the scale of existence changed that day i walked into that office on that Monday morning. Another good thing that happened during those festival times was, my farm was getting insulated on the outside, and daily i could follow up the progress of the work.Trying not to think about the invoice that would follow shortly afterwards. The house was completely protected against the harsh environment of the country side in the marginal triangle of Limburg.
I’m a few weeks further now in my new life, new job and new sleeping place but what i noticed was that my mind struggles with the peak of 50. Days seems to be longer and rest less, but in reality it was the way around. Painkillers were a must in my bush kit and the heat was taking me out more then it used to be. And the urge to settle down , having an easy 40 hour week, coming home and having a play with the dog, doing a little bit of garden work, having on occasion a night out in my favourite club, or a weekend seeing my godchild annoying his mother are feeling more and more like heaven to me. But i’m determent not to make any plans now, or to think to far ahead.
Who knows which news i will be receiving after another toolbox meeting .
Finally, a few days out bush. Away of the workshop and the 38 hours a week.Going bush is always a little bit like a holiday to me. Being somewhere else, even if it is a well visited community 300 clicks away and on a hill where my nightmare’s come from.
The famous track to the cross. We were send to prepare the top of the hill for a drilling team . The second part of the job was finally getting started. The base, a concrete block from 3.5 by 3.5 and 600 high with eight 6 metre deep steel rio bar right trough the hill, would hold the 20 metre high cross at his place. Our job was to bring up 4000 litre of water up to the hill and make up the foam and steel reinforcement for the concrete base. You have to imagine , the hill is situated in a remote area. Witch means if you stand on top of the hill 386 metre high and you make a full circle , the only thing you will see is the landscape and two endless straight roads disappearing in the horizon. There is no tap of running water nearby , or even something that resembles of some kind of civilisation. Only pure nature since the big bang.
The truck was loaded with our improvised mad max car and two pods of 1000 litre of water. Those two pods needed to be filled up by the nearest tap an hour away at a little settlement of ten houses. Our days existed about driving up and down our self made track and self modified car. Driving up empty pods, driving up containers of 20 litre water, driving up the steel for the reinforcement. if i think of the job, this one is definitely one of the scariest ones i ever have done. The room for error is really reduced to the minimal. And i know what i’m talking about after my Icarus flight at a certain point on the track. At the moment we are at the count of 35 trips up. from bottom to top , and down again, not counting half way trips and in between trips.
The drilling team arrived at the lay down area of the hill. 4023 litre of water and 541 kg of steel bars were waiting on top of the hill. There was first a reconnaissance drive up with the driver of the rigging platform . After an hour they came back down, no words were said. I think the driver was manoeuvring his machine on the track in his mind. Shaking his head and walking nervously around ,i exactly knew how he felt. I drove up the track several times already. After a nervous half hour , the decision was made, it was a no-go. the machine would have been on a suicide mission. Certain spots on the track were to steep, and some to narrow to drive up and down a machine that was slightly bigger then our car. But i have to confess , the first time you explore the track going up and down , it feels like you are in a slow motion roller coaster. We know the track by heart, we build it step by step , and we are grown into it. It’s like the workers of a sky tower, they start all at the bottom and work they way up. It’s very rare that new people are employed to aid the progress when the building is already half way up. Maybe the driver should have been there to when we lay down the first mesh on the track.
It was a disappointment , that moment. The engineer had to come up with another solution, or maybe other possibilities to achieve those 6 metre deep holes to hold the cross in place. Who knows when we were going to be back here, finally starting to put down the first construction elements of the big cross. But Jesus, they even put a 38 metre high Jesus on top of a hill hundred years ago, why couldn’t we put up a tiny little cross up a hill. After the drilling team went back to civilisation to do easier jobs, we spend a few days more, improving the well known difficulties of the track, having experienced exploding and flat tyres by sharp rocks and short branches, losing parts of the car by hitting the safety hand rail, we know exactly witch spots on the track needed modification. But i love being out there , doing a job like this. Working in a environment that always change. Watching curious creatures come to watch you . Wallabies , lizards , wild horses and eagles all interacting in the area. Nature that shows her beauty by letting thunderstorms passing by .
Yep, it was good to be out bush again, even if it was for a short trip.
Flying with a cold flu is not really pleasant. The days after my flight , my ears didn’t want to pop. I couldn’t hear the half of the things i normally hear, and this is already not much.
Being back in the little outback town, it was hard to get back to a working rhythm. The lay back time caused by broken ribs had made me lazy. It’s amazing how fast a body get used to a lay back life and much harder and longer to get back to an active working style.
But work in Alice has dropped down a lot. Just barely 38 hours a week , maybe it was good to have a slow start again, but after several weeks and no bush, there are a lot of hours left over in a week to fill in. The main reason i came back to this outback town was, i could work a lot of hours and improve my life style to a decadent one. But in this state my life style was reduced to the one of the gladiators living on water and bread. In my case more specific, spag bol and spag bol. The family town that i known for ten years now, has also not much to offer a 50-year young single man. All the places have been visited, and nightlife in this family town on my age is reduced to the weekly bingo night. The weight of a little farm carrying on your own becomes heavier and heavier bringing you in a mental state asking yourself , if it’s all worth, having a farm occupied by natural refugees , building a network of tunnels and others reproducing with no worries. I could be laying on a empty white beach under the palm tree’s seeing the sun going under, while writing another episode on my blog. It’s hard to identify yourself with the category of the people of ancient Rome who works whole there life trying to achieve that one goal. As you see , working less hours gives your brain also more time to work on different angles in life. It’s an amazing thing , a brain. A living entity , full of memories , thoughts, dreams, frustrations and go on and on. And if you give it a break , it just takes over and questions everything but doesn’t give answers.
Enough brain!Having exorcism my brain, i kept myself busy with my little objects. My 3d-printer was printing day and night. It was a good thing it didn’t had a brain, otherwise it would have definitely given up on me and laying on a beach. I managed to get a few more little fun objects for my private collection. Seventeen in total came to life now, shattered between Europe and Australia. Two slaves (female and male); see, hear and speak no evil; monkey; elephant; baby; joker; Adam and eve; naturist; cat woman; Hannibal; pumpkin; worm and diver. But it stays a private collection. My sales skills are nowhere to find and to reproduce the little objects in industrial ways is an investment that only the wealthy of ancient Rome could afford .
Even trying to follow up with my blog becomes a difficulty. Inspiration and creativity are nowhere to be found. There is not much to write about anyway. Tomorrow is the same day as yesterday, and yesterday is the same day as today.
This is just a yearly post with pictures. Something i decided to do last year since i left again to Australia. Just a little description what changed in euralia, so when i look back at my blog i see the yearly changes or progress of my little heaven.
So let’s start with the house. Inside the farm doesn’t really change much, maybe just certain furniture decide to move to another spot, certain rooms getting a temporally change of purpose. In a way , it’s fun to have the interior not finished, things can be moved , rooms can be transformed multiple times and ideas still can grow.The red robins in the driveway are having a happy life. They doubled their size and becoming more and more a wall of green and red leafs . The parking area is still a gathering place of rocks, stones, concrete and misfortuned bricks . Still waiting to be shipped away to an unknown destination .
The biggest change this year, is at the front garden. Almost has his definitive shape. The pond is ready , what makes the fish pretty happy. They don’t have to worry about predators or the coming frost. The fruit walk is finished , called like this because the path is occupied by all kinds of fruit plants. The front garden just needs some modifying and final touch. A little bridge over the pond , a waterfall and wooden deck still have to be made, but that’s it. Finally one place that will be finished in my ten years project. Even the plants in this area , are as they are to be.
The back garden is still in his early stage. Plants still need to grow , sheltering my two little grass zones. My nine trees are reduced to three trees. Three trees are already entangled with each other so they look like one tree. The ultimate goal will be that they all become one big statue of branches curled together , forming bridges over the path . A living sculpture providing the back garden with a cool shade area.
Eve is smiling, her fruit trees had their first fruit hanging on the few branches. Soon she will be able not only eating an apple , but also cherry’s and pears. How would that change the world. Soon i will be able to sit on a self made bench , extra magnifying glasses on my head and a walking stick next to me, watching eve enjoying the forbidden fruit of my garden.In the end , there was not much change between 2016 and 2017. But this was expected. Due financial means and being away, not much can change. The years that are following are just a time zone to leave the garden of eve slowly take their natural shape. It is a process of years to allow the green habitants to mature.
It was good to see Euralia and the family again. Ten months were gone and there is a lot that can change in ten months.
The fauna and flora of Euralia didn’t stop growing and certain creatures has found refuge in my little oasis of green. A hedgehog has made his own network of tunnels to escape when i came up driving the driveway. Birds made little houses under the roof. Fish had multiplied as rabbits. Yep, it was good to see there was life in the little farm in Loksbergen. But they had to learn to live with a new resident for the next eight weeks.
A lot was planned, but i noticed soon enough that broken ribs and bags of concrete don’t mix so well. There was not much i could do the first weeks , except walking around admiring the tunnel work of the hedgehog and seeing the fish reproduce. And of course netflixen, and enjoying a warm relax hot bad to gentle the painful ribs. A shame a female specie didn’t found my safe heaven while i was away. I definitely could use the company.
But as always time just crawls further. After a few weeks one bag of cement a day became two and then three, and soon i was working again at the plans i had for the farm. One of the ideas i had was to finish the pound, It was necessary , because at the rate the fish were multiplying, they would need some more space and depth to survive the cold and there natural predators. But still , my working rhythm was way below my normal speed.
Luckily , i had some visits of new exciting friends helping out the heavy work in the garden. . And a godchild who loved his new by himself chosen swimming pool. Swimming and playing in the water , that even made my own fish in their pond jealous. But still, my ribs were a pain in the ass. So many plans were made in the red outback , for the couple of weeks i would be in Euralia. And just one was slowly taking shape. But it is as it is.
Our yearly city trip was coming nearby. This year my sis and i were going to Rome. A city that talks to the imagination. Romans, gladiators, popes, nuns, Caligula, Caesar, hidden treasures and more. This time we didn’t need to go with carriage number two. A plane brought us to the airport of the ancient city. From there a formula one pilot with an abusing language , thinking he was driving a mini instead of a bus full of scary passengers brought us in a minimum of time to the centre through graffiti invested suburbs. We walked a detour of an half hour to reach our little hotel. I have to confess , that making detours in a city build on a hill is not really a good idea. But it was a charming hotel located next to an exciting club, but sadly , not having had the occasion to visit.
Rome, Oh Rome. Always do as the Romans do. But there were not many Romans to see. The centre was invaded by tourists , visiting all the ponds there were to visit. For every god , Greek or roman and who else knows, there was one, protected by officers who had invented an own language on there little whistle . Sometimes we wondered we had stepped back in time. More precisely , 1943, an occupied city in time of war. Armed military patrolling the mayor entrees and attractions of the inner city. But as the Romans do, we just sat on a terrace enjoying a cool beer in the heat of the day, hoping this day wouldn’t be the day they blow up fountain number 65.
But Rome did impressed me, especially ancient Rome.
The Colosseum , the playground of the riches and the men about to die. Thinking in the past, it had to be amazing, Rome, the metropolis where all roads lead to. A white shiny marbled town full of fresco's on top of the hill. Houses that look down the valley , with the roar of the fighting gladiators in the background. We could only imagine the riches brought here from around the world. But talking about the Colosseum , it’s something i will never forget. the grandeur situated in time, even if it was in his state of ancient Rome nowadays, it would have been nothing to compare to. A building that would have blinded you on a sunny day.
Imaging the gladiators in the middle of the arena surrounded by 80000 spectators . Even in present day , superstars don’t attract that many people. What would have been the thought of those men in the middle of the arena. Leaving there earthly life by the scream and roar of those 80000 viewers . “This is a good day to die”.
But thinking about it , life didn’t change that much in all those years. The riches still life a life of decadency and the poor work all there life to reach this goal to finally drop dead working. We still have our wars around the world trying to own the globe. People did’t change at all, we only changed our clothing and appearance. I wonder what ancient philosophers would write nowadays.
Time to be back in the present. Time to do some work in Euralia and to achieve that decadency, and hopefully before i drop dead. It was time to clean up , and getting the farm ready to hibernate and leave it into the hands of my previous occupants , who have been into hiding since i arrived. My plane to the other side of the globe was waiting.
After my short flight in empty space from ramp to rock, i soon had another flight coming up. I spend scaring days in the hospital , waiting if the doc’s would give me permission to fly again , but then for a trip of 16000 k’s. Ribs fractured and a collapsed long with air inside are not really the best circumstances to take a flight of this magnitude on. The only thing i could do those days in the hospital were trying to get my longs as quick as possible back in a their normal function. So i started to train. The stairs in the hospital were my play ground. Trying to walk up the stairs was never that hard, especially considering i’m a die hard on walking up a hill , multiple times a day , as part of my daily work out bush trying to create a track to the top of the hill. But i kept walking those damned stairs in the hospital, making several doc’s and nurses nervous.
But it helped, after a few days my long capacity was back to normal, as normal you could get for somebody who likes his rollies. The only thing i couldn’t get out of my longs was the extra air in it. And as we know pressure on high altitudes can give some troubles in a human body. So i had to wait, patiently till a few days before my departure if i could fly or not. I had a doc’s appointment a few days before my flight date.
Two days later , i was standing at the tiny airport in Alice, with the approval of the doc. I have to say , i was a bit anxious . Several flights were waiting a head of me, 38 hours of travelling without bed, shower, now i wished i had one of those cards with enough saving points on so i could upgrade to first class and have a bed in the plane. But a good thing a witch in ancient times discovered plants with calming effects. Nowadays something you can buy in every chemist without ending on a burning stake. Luckily i had those painkillers with me and off i went. I have to say , this was the hardest flight ever, and i did a few of them, i remember the Chinese airline one, all Chinese movies without subtitles, other flights, where the close transit are so close together , you end up just thinking the whole damned flight if you gonna make he connecting flight or not , because of a delay at the departure time at the starting point. The multiple times my luggage was nowhere to be found at the collecting area.
And this flight has become number one on my list. It all went smoothly , thanks to more then one painkiller, till i was somewhere above the ocean between Australia and India mainland. Suddenly our flight captain announces that we gonna make an emergency landing. Such a simple few words can make you jump up a little bit more in your not already comfortable seat. Are we hijacked , not uncommon in our present global community ? Are there problems with the plane, did they change the more expensive bolts that keep the plane together, for cheaper ones to keep the flight cost down in our global economical downfall ? Or are we beamed up by a higher intellectual aliens, preferable all females ( but that's my personal objective opinion of course, i reckon my female passengers are hoping they are being beamed up by Brad , Clooney, Depp or Banderas look a likes)?It’s a good thing our dear captain , didn’t wait to long to say the real reason we were diverted to another airport Colombo , Sri Lanka for the emergency landing. A few passengers became really ill during the flight, and there was no doc or medical treatment available at the moment to keep flying for another 7 hours and to maintain the safety and health of those passengers. So down we went, we spend a few hours sitting in the air plane on a airstrip in Colombo. And remember , we always try to make our long flights as short as possible to shorten the transit times as much we can. This time it was no different. I had three hours transit time in Dubai, and saw the minutes, hours ticking by at an airport in Sri Lanka with fractured ribs in the most perfect seats there are available.
So i think you can imagine what i did the next seven hours of flight when we departure again from Colombo. Landing in Dubai , i was already prepared to stay there , and wait till there was another flight to Brussels. But no, there was a hostess standing with one of those signs up in her hands, and it did had written my name on. So , i gladly and willingly went to see her, it’s not every day a beautiful woman chooses me out of a crowd of exhausting people. But sadly , she just tells me to run with her. Not even the time to have a chat. So i run trough the endless airport of Dubai chasing a short shirted air hostess. We arrived at the closing gates of the flight to Brussels. I didn’t even had the time to bring up my nicotine level in my body. Immediately boarding to Brussels airport. I don’t even know the name of my life saving angel who ran together with me trough crowed spaces as we were be chase by something evil.
Thanks to extra painkillers i managed to survive the next flight and landed without extra problems in Zaventem. The only thing was that my bag again didn’t emerge out of that luggage hole . I lost count how many times my luggage didn’t leave the airport at the same time as me. But i have to say, all those times my bag always found his way back to me.
Hanging in the air, just for probability a few seconds. The world around slows down, or your brain starts to have another time frame to work with.
One moment you pushing a post level attached with two tags on the ramp. The next moment you hanging in the air, post gone. You slowly see your way down, seeing the ground coming closer, especially that rock that was forming straight underneath. A big pointy rock that will haunt me in my nightmares. Doing a 180 degree turning my back to the rock ,i started to fear the worst. No matter how i tried , i couldn’t seem to do anything at my fall, couldn’t move my body to another direction, the bush of spinafix looks for the first time attractive to fall in. But no , the rock kept coming. The only thoughts i had , closing in to the rock were, please, not my spine, NOT my spine, NOT MY spine, NOT MY SPINE, …
then everything went really fast, time took another perspective, hit the rock rock hard by figure of speaking. Rolled to the side in the spinefix . First time in my life a damned spinefix didn’t bother me. The only thought i had was moving everything that’s movable at my body. Arms were moving, my legs were moving, fingers and neck. First peace of mind. Adrenaline was pumping trough my veins. But ‘damned ‘ did it hurt. Hard to catch a breath. Second worry, hope i didn’t broke any ribs or pierced my longs. Thanks to the help of my two workmates , i was more dragged then walked on the ramp again. I lay there for a while trying to catch my breath , but this didn’t happen. So there was just one solution, walking down the track and drive a 14 k’s on dirt to get to the first hospital. A community hospital full of female doctors and nurses. I was really to start thinking , this is my luckiest day in my life so far. First examination , looks positive, nothing broken or long piercing. But the safest way to proceed was having a x-ray or ultra sound. But being remote it’s another mission to find an X-ray or ultra sound. The closest nearby was 346 km away. So back on the road again. It was a good thing it was just 100 k’s of dirt and the rest bitumen. Thankfully they pumped a lot of painkillers in my blood, except morphine. My only chance to see what all the fuss is about morphine. The drive was still a bloody long one , counting the last k’s with the metre.
Arriving at the hospital, i was immediately taken care off. X-rays, ultra sounds, nurses, doctors and all female and super friendly. But the thing was , how better i get, the more the female company was changed by male doctors and nurses. So you can start asking yourself questions.But one night became two nights, and more tests were done. More x-rays , blood tests. I still had the working clothing on, and did’t had a shower since two days. I was starting to fit in with majority of the occupants of the hospital. But enough was enough , i was starting to smell myself. So i used all my charm that they would release me of the hospital, but it didn’t help, maybe if i had done it a day earlier , when i still had female nurses it would have work. The only thing that i achieved was getting a four hour escape from hospital, but at least it was a change to take a warm shower and jump, no , crawl in fresh washed shirt and short.
Updating my blog in a hospital room was not on my agenda in the last weeks that i had in Alice before i flew back to Europe for a couple of weeks.But rethinking every bit of it, i’m glad i ‘m doing it. I reckon this was a moment in my life ,that we call , the flip of a coin , or should i say the flip of a body. And happy the coin felt on the good side and still to be around.
But not for long, a few days later i was back on the road . Memory hill was calling. The track up the hill to the top had to be finished. A trip for at least two weeks, max three, because my flight date was getting closer and closer.
We started to feel as an expedition team for the Himalaya's. We had our donga in the community. A place to sleep, shower and cook. From there we go to “the lay down area”. A place to unload the truck. The materials are Mesh, handrail , and other different sizes of square hollow bar, round bar and least but most important our tool box. The next thing we unload is our bobcat, the digger we call it. A machine that goes against all gravity laws, but mostly because it’s driver. Trevor drives it up roads, rock, dirt, everything you can imagine, vertical, horizontal , diagonal. He does it all. The next thing is our car , we rented out of the movie “mad max”. A V6 , automatic gear box, low range, high range, modified bumpers, modified roof rack .
All packed with material, smoko and lunch boxes , the expedition starts. Trevor drives the digger, i’m on the steering wheel of our V6, we still trying to find a proper name to baptise this machine. The first break on the track is ‘Turn-around 1’, just a dirt area that’s made flat to turn around our vehicles 180 degree’s. Don’t get me wrong, The place is just big enough to turn the vehicles after three spins.In front of us , the steel track starts his way to “base camp 1”. The track is just big enough to get trough with one car, definitely a one way direction, and the possibilities to modify our mad max car while we driving up. Every inch the car becomes smaller, the less turns we have to make. There is also one turn-around on the way up. A platform build out of steel, round bar and mesh against the incline of memory Hill. A training session for the upper arms. The training is all about turning a non-power steering wheel on standing position with air pressure 25 in tyres on hard mesh steel . Making 8 times a full turn in both directions.. After this training sessions it is just another 10 metres on a incline of 45 degrees, and “base camp 1” is in sight.
The first camp up the hill is a flattened area, to have a rest , smoko and lunch. Base camp is completely set up with shade structure, barbie area, engel, solar panel to keep it going. This is momentarily the end stop of our mad max car. The track keeps going for another 500 metre on steel mesh before it goes over to a ramp to cover a high of 4 metre. After the ramp , “camp 2” is in process of development. Once the camp is finished the car can get up there and turn around to go back again saving us a lot of time coming down every time to base camp one to have lunch.Our team is up here now for a week. The ramp is finished and Trevor is digging his way up . The final stretch to the top. Almost a flat stretch , just a few rocks need to be moved to make a decent track. Camp 2 , almost done, almost flattened, almost a new place to have a spell and barbie. We still have a week , all the pressure is on Trevor, once he gets his digger at the top. We can pack up and go back to Alice. A few days more and fly to Europe. Checking out if my godchild still behaves.
It was gonna be a relaxing last week here, till i pushed a handrail post the wrong way. Everything slowed down and changed direction.
The time in the outback town existed about different things to do. A day job , a printing job and a daily fight against the cold.
Every morning that passes , i discovered a new clothing material to keep me warm on my bike. Yep, you read it right. I go with a bike to work. So you understand why sport was eliminated on my bucket list. The temperatures here in the warm sunny outback can reach a minus. A min 2 or even min 3. So it’s freaking cold with a short on a bike. I was to stubborn to buy long paints. I live in the hot warm dessert , no way i’m gonna have long paints. But i had to give in , "winter is coming", T-shirt, work shirt, jacket, beanie, rigger gloves, high viv vest. These are just a part of my wardrobe in the morning to survive the bike ride to work. The only problem was i had a bike ride back to the granny flat. Once the sun gets at the horizon and starts her way up. The temperature also starts to rise up. With the rising of the sun and temp, one by one , parts of my bike survival trip , where stripped of my body. But the crazy thing here is , the temp doesn't stop at a plus ten or eleven , no, it can go all the way to a warm 28 or even 30. So on the end of the working day there is a whole wardrobe laying next to you that has to go back on a bike to the granny, to start again doing the same ritual in the morning.
Doing my icy survival training in the morning, a day job, and the printing after. days just passes on, and my trip back to Euralia becomes closer and closer. Flight is organised, the date is fixed . 12 July i will be flying to Brussels , and will be able to see what a ten month gap does to a garden.The moment i had fixed my departure day. The speed at the working shop increased. A week in kings canyon was on the schedule .We had to install a new fence with gate, and a turn wheel to let people out but not in.The integrated installation had to be placed a few metres up front where the rim walk starts. A walk , I'm sure still is a fresh memory for my sis. Steps on a 45 and more degree angle. Steps who are not seems to end, all the way up to the rim. But from there on, is a beautiful walk in a moon landscape, descending to the garden of eve. One of my favourite places , but i reckon , in my case, everything with an association with eve will look beautiful for me.
The job went cruisy, dig holes, concrete, weld post and sheets and get out of there. We stayed at one of the ranger houses, a house with two bedrooms, kitchen and utilities. Nice place to stay, except every day there where contractors arriving to stay at the same house. So by the time we left there were contractors and swags spread everywhere . Outside, kitchen, laundry room, utility room. everything that could give a little bit of privacy and could be consider as a room was taken. It was a good thing there was no dog house. It would have definitely been taken by a contractor’s swag. The only problem we were starting to get was a contractor walking and creeping around and over swag’s to get an early coffee in the middle of the night.But as a law , no job is perfect. On the way back , we heard a strange noise coming from the passenger side. It looks like one of the plastic covers was not well attached. As a passenger i was looking at it, when in a few seconds , the whole side was ripped of by a rubber band that gave away from the tyre. Something that most experienced truckies never will experience in their life. A malfunction from the tyre, fabrication fault, a tyre fabricated on an early Monday or late Friday.So our trip was extended with a few hours, change the tyre and no short cut on the dirt track. We had to take long way around with bitumen road.
But as always , all roads lead to Alice.
Coming back from the three weeks of survival at the cross, i came back in the little town of Alice.
Suddenly , work drop back down . Instead of going for the usual 70 hours a week it just went down to 38. It resembles to the Australian dollar coming from 0.8 to 0.6 in a few years.
So i had to find things to do with my time. I still had another 32 hours to fill in. There were a few possibilities that i tried one by one. Sleeping was one of them, catching up with my body, but that didn’ last long. The end of this sleep trial came to end when i woke up at two , in the middle of the night and started to walk and creep in the middle of the night around the house.A second method was start drinking a bit more , but that didn’t last long too , after one night i had already enough from that trial, a imaginary joyride in the middle of the unit made sure of that.Another method was going out in the booming town in the middle of the dessert. But the inhabitants of that town made sure that i lost interest in that too. Going for a dance or drink and not to worry about your environment, is quit a problem. It’s a hunting ground in the true meaning of the word. Male predators who are fighting amongst them to become the supreme alpha. Female predators chasing each other to become the evil queen of Alice. And i’m not gonna talk about the chase between male - female. You definitely don’t want to know about that.Down to another one on my bucket list. Sport, naaahhh, was doing already enough body training during the day. Don’t want to become another muscles from a Belgian city.Eating, naaaahhh, to much dishes.After falling and standing up again, i found out i could buy a 3D-printer. That the prices of such a device where dropped a lot ,like everything else here, so i thought i ‘ll give it a try . It were anxious days, waiting till the printer would arrive. But it did. But to get the printer working i still had to work at the printer. Screws were loose, platform and extruders had to be placed at the correct height. Software had to be installed. So it took me another week to install the damned printer. But hé, i had enough spare time.
And yes, the first print sticked on the platform. And soon another and another. No time wasted as print-time. My first critters out of plastic came to life. And after a few days , i had a little collection of little funobjects. The worm, baby, joker, the slaves, diver and the speak, hear and see no evils all came to live. And still there are more joining the queue to be printed. Once a print is done, there is still a bit of work to do at the critter. A shame really, because if they would jump out the printer , straight to a finished product, it would have been an easy way to get my bank account growing. Of course if people would buy my critters, but now with all the hours of work to finish them, it becomes a product i can’t sell.
But anyway, there is more involved then having an idea , trying to bring it to the market and to make a living from it.
Just back from a twenty day spiritual road. And it’s already march. Six months further in my new Australian life.A twenty days trip trying to reach the top of the hill.
We are almost there , the top is at our reach. But also my physical state was at his top. I cursed myself building the track further and further away. Every day i had to walk up the hill and down the hill, but every day we made the track longer and longer. A 16 minutes walk up the hill became a struggling of 34 minutes walk torturing my poor muscles. Drilling post holes and building bridge constructions to reach the top . Opening the way for industrial evolution.
Thousand of years of untouched fauna and flora are waken up by the hammer drill shaken up the foundation of hill. Little lizards, spiders the size of a golf ball don’t know what ’s happening. Soon there will be a car driving up the track, and even maybe in a thousand year future people will gather around the holy place like they do at Rio. Little markets selling the cross in a miniature version. Hundreds of people doing the march to the cross as penance. The first house will be build and permanent residents are settling there. Or, maybe just in time, the track will be overgrown with weed and grass, a lonely statue standing on hill as a time marker , and future archaeologist will try to put a theory together who build that strange structure on the top of the hill in the middle of nowhere, maybe a lost civilisation, or a race out of space.
It has indeed something spiritual , the place. The name already has a spiritual meaning. “Memory hill” . What’s life then just a memory, a memory in a mind , true or false, created or experienced. How many times a day we think about memories.
Damned , twenty days bush on a hill is maybe not so a good idea for the mind. Enough of memories, and certainly walking every day up and down the hill. Soon i ‘ll have a industrial vehicle to drive up that hill. There is still a few metres left before there is a track up to the top, but the mountain is almost conquered and then the real work will start. Building a 20 metres cross and 3 metres wide.
Can’t wait to get started and to see what spiritual lights are gonna shine on me.
