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Published: August 7th 2007
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Bonjour,sorry its been a long time since I updated but Ive finally dragged myself away from the Beach lifestyle and have decided to hit the road again with the patched up van.Me and him have had a bit of a fallout,he failed when I needed him most,so after a few words he isnt playing up again and all is back to normal.Id like to thank Locky and his girlfriend Carla,who looked after me and spent a fair few messy nights talking garbage and fighting each other on his kitchen floor.Thanks for putting up with me mate,will miss your cooking and especially your steaks.
Also need to say a little sorry to your neighbor whose house I inadvertently nearly burned down.This is a bit of a surreal story.Little Jim the staffy had managed to burrow his way out of the back yard and was found chasing cars up and down the road by Clair, Locky's very nice elderly neighbor.She locked him in her own yard and phoned Locky to tell him,who in turn phoned me asking to pick him up after kiting.At around six I went round and knocked on the door and Clair appeared and began to tell me
the story of how she found Jim and her theory as to how he had escaped.We stood on her porch for a few minutes nattering away when a toxic black smoke started pouring out from behind Clair.She started to panic and turned to go back in saying she had left some oil in a pan on the stove.I don't want to go into the ins and outs of what happened next but the words "if it wasn't for Grahame" and "hero" were used by the large group of neighbors who,after the Fire Brigade had arrived were gathered outside Clairs.I had a burnt hand but things could have been alot worse as when I got to the kitchen the underside of her cupboards were going well and she had no extinguisher in the kitchen.Who says you cant put a fat fire out with water from the tap.Fortunately she was insured and after the smoke had cleared and we got to see the damage she needed to be.I was gonna go round the next day and get a few snaps for the blog but Locky gave me a look and I thought better of it.Suffice to say the duties of a firefighter
don't take a two year career break and my ninja like reactions are as sharp as ever.
So it was back to a life in the van and amusing myself once the sun sets and there is no one to yap to.I drove north from the Sunshine coast not really sure where I was heading,although some kiter's had told me the spots I needed to stop off at along the way, so these were steering me.As the small towns disappeared in my rear view mirror and my shaky van ate up the tarmac I still wasn't sure where I was headed and thought of stopping and having some food and getting my map out but decided against it,thinking that if I saw a signpost for an interesting place id take it.One hour turned into a few and the mountains gradually faded away to be replaced by flat green fields of sugar cane.I remembered a friend telling me to stop at a place called Bundaberg,which had a great kiting spot called Elliot heads.The green signpost loomed up ahead stating that it was 100kms to go,and to be honest id had enough of flat nothingness.The van needed a rest and as
I pulled into Bundaberg I was transformed back to the 1960's with big wooden houses lining the streets and an atmosphere that reminded me of a western cattle ranch.I headed straight to the coast and Elliot heads as the afternoon was pretty windy and I hadn't been kiting for a few days.The beach was about 20kms outside of town and consisted of one shop a scoop of houses,a caravan park and thats about it,I loved it.After booking myself into the caravan park I headed straight to the beach with my gear and got chatting to one of the local kiter's who was really friendly and pointed out the dodgy areas to avoid and after a couple of hours I was ready to collapse into my van and sleep.Me being the trusting guy I am left my board outside the van thinking that the blue rinse club that surrounded me in their caravans wouldn't take it for a midnight joyride.I think you know where this story is going,in the morning evil Santa had been and instead of leaving a pressie my $600 dollar board was gone.
After much searching and evil eying dodgy looking people I resigned myself to
the fact that I was an idiot for leaving it outside and I now needed a new board.The guys at the beach lent me a spare one so I could still follow my goal to be world champ next year and not return to work again,I think they saw my potential and wanted to be mentioned in my memoirs.
I took the loss badly and was forever thinking that it was my fault,if only id done this or that and my board would still be with me today,but he is gone and I need to move on,and move on I did.I ordered a $900 dollar board custom made from a board builder in Cairns.
To finance this I decided to take the plunge,do what I hadn't done for eight months,work!For legal reasons the work I undertook did not pay a wage but accommodation and food was free,now I cant get in trouble from work for it!I now live in a small unit with eight others who at five thirty crawl out of bed ,don some warm clothes as its cold and go into the fields to pick spuds for eight hours.It seems like instead of working my way
up jobs im abseiling down from job to job,next year I might have two stars at Macdonald's!So that is my life now,seven days a week eight hours a day picking spuds on my hands and knees wind,rain or shine.However things are not all bad,the couple I work for are Polish and really nice and the people I work with make the time go quickly.The other bonus to this work is after three months the government grant you a second years working visa which is something that will come in very handy as its taken me so long this far and when I look at the map I have a hell of a way to go.So thats me,up to date.I hope everyone back home is tip top,have chatted to a few and thanks Dan Steer for leaving the message,was really nice to hear from you after all these years.Will leave it there and bid you farewell,next month I will be seeing alot of you as Im back in lovely England for Mike's and Rach's wedding.see you all soon.Big love.xxx
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