TravelStream™ news feed for member sammmiles on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sammmiles en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:40:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1220238180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1220238180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1220238180/tpod.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:40:27 -0400 Australian adventures

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Wel;come one and Welcome all to my 12th entry.

Life is an exceptional journey. Some love it, some hate it, most of get frustrated with it. Where as my moods do the old diving and leaping thing my fascination with this whole thing called life that we are caught up in is always there. Life fascinates me, it always has. For as long as I can remember I've always asked myself the question. What is all this about? How did life happen? How did it come about, what was before life?

Are they question that can ever be answered? Do I really care anymore?
Perhaps, perhaps not, whatever the case I'm sure to ask myself them many more times.

A question I have been pondering recently.
How can I, how can we maintain a positive attitude?
Perplexedly I have met a great number of people who see this as a dangerous thing. They actually believe that positivity is unhealthy and unrealistic. Strange but true. Indeed I myself took this on to come extent, in my early twenties when I can safely say I was behaving and thinking in q depressed fashion. Walking round with my neck bent and head low, thinking of all the pain and yukkiness of the world, thinking of all the pain and yukkiness inside my head. Did that create a pretty time for me, generally not, and
I can confidently state that during this period the times when I was happy, I was being physically active and playful, my mind was being creative and sparky.
As I was sat in my garden, feeling the firm wooden bench beneath me, a roughshod plank of wood balanced to support whoever would like to take up that opportunity, my feet were in the green grass and my eyes and mood were upturned as the blue sky opened above our heads. I sat there and thought. Ghandi he reamained positive, Nelson Mandela he reamained Positive, Martin Luther King he took a positive stance, and I asked myself the question how did they do it? The odds were heavily stacked against them, or so many argued, yet they kept their belief. There was one thing they all had in common, they all professed to believe in the essential good nature of man, and that it was always possible to reach this aspect of people and they would respond in a manner of Love and appreciation for all beings. Of course that is my summary of it, I'm sure they would have happenened to have phrased it very differently, and ever so eloquently.
I asked myself this question because I see my positive nature go up, making me high as a kite and full of fervour. Then it can go boom and crash down low so low, that I'm scum useless and dirty. All very dramatic.
How is it possible to remain positive, steadfast positivity.
Let me assert, I do not mean blind positivity, I don't mean calling a spade a diamond, or a kettle a bath, I don't mean calling shit a perfume, or piss amber nectar.
I guess alot of it comes down to belief. What you allow yourself to believe? What do you allow yourself to believe. Do you allow yourself to believe that we can live in a harmonious manner with each other and the planet.
Yes I do. Of course we can.
I'm not calling a spade a diamond. It' quite clear there are people running around killing each ohter, there are children who are stabbing each other, and they're are people poisioning the Earth on an incredibly grand scale.
However I still believe that it is possible for us to work together harmoniously. I beleive it with a passion and I am willing to investigate how that could be possible,
I am willing to learn about people who take steps towards trying to acheieve this, in finding communities and pocketas of people who live and work together harmoniously. And I am determined to find a way to be consistently loving and kind to myself. I beleive this is of extreme importance. Who am I helping when I beat myself up, when I mentally bash myself and shrewdly nit pick myself apart. Who am I helping? Who am I helping. Who does this help? Yes it is useful to isolate where we are going wrong, yes it is good to isolate the mistakes, and to feel the pain of such a mistake, but then, rather than stuffing my head into the ground, hinding my face behind my hair tucking my heart behind my shoulder blades wouldn't it be better to begin to take steps and actions to amend the situations that one sees.
I know that this can be such a challenge that even recognising our faults, whilst simultaneously feeeling the pain that having those things inside us or having done such actions can be too great for us to face....at times like these, people find, cigarettes, booze,,,,books..t.v anything to shut that dialogue out anything to close off the pain. I understand I have done it many many many times over. I've lived that for years. Did it help? Did it help? Did it F*** Occasionally it provided fun or amusement, entertainment or diversion, but sure enough those old chestnuts popped back up over and over again. And if we don't peel those chestnuts and take a good look at them, then we will never be able to eat them and digest them, or for that matter decide to throw it out becasue it's useless, it's gone hard and dead, the life has sucked itself out from it.
I'm back to being patient, and am going to skip the subject entirely. Change the subject and create something new.

When I first attended one of Chris Howards free Seminars a mammoth 38 hours packed into three days, I became extremely hungry to study NLP. I watched in fascination as he wove his stories and I could smell the hypnosis in the air, his consistent mentioning of Eriksonian methods intrigues me hugely. As I have mentioned before Kyle Davies was massively influenced by this guy Milton Erikson, and it was through four 1 hour chats with Kyle that I manged to take charge of my life again. It is my personal beleif that I still have some work to do to completely regain full health. Why? Becasue though I am able to support myself at the moment I still have dizzy speel, sensational headaches that appear when I am in particular peoples company. It's a right pain in the neck and I am determined to live a life free from this, feeling light and free, clear and bright, and when I don't it is simply becasue I have done a lot am I ready for a nap or a quiet chill. I have chosen to believe that NLP will help me in this journey. It is very clear to me, thaat I still spend a large amount of time listening to myself and others and myself engaging in self-sabotage, and indulging in the painful side of life and what could go wrong. I'm very good at listening to the pain. At times that is all I can see, I know I have to make a change only I can't see where that change is. It drives me up the wall. I can be involved in a situation that is casuing me pain for months and months and I put up with it, for various reasons, it is only whent hings hit a real cirses that I actually do something about it. Why do I wait so long?
Say for example one is in a relationship or a job that is damaging ones health, one knows it is making them unhappy, or that this person is stressing them out, but we love that person, or we are in the job that supports our loved ones and leaving either situation could either ruin our friendship with the loved one, or potentially damaged outr ability to economically support ourselves or our friends. I'm sure that sounds familiar, evn if you believe I'm being unclear and vague, which I am and I know this, and it's deliberate because I'm playing, becasue I like to play. Do you like to play? do you like to have fun and enjoy yourself. Do you think it is possible for a human to have fun and play at work. Is this possible? Now that is an interesting question isn't it? Could it be made into one?
I've recently been in very similar situations, currently I'm excited because I'm about to move. I can foresee arriving home and feeling light and free, I can feel the headache that I've been feeling for a couple of months ready to lift.

But that is another story and for other ears.

Through getting caught up in work I put my education on the back burner. My education has been stimulating me so much, giving me so much energy, and passion for living. I spent my time being a more active listener, listening to all the layers of sound in my environment. Layers, the Simpsons has many layers, may layers indeed, and can be viewed in many different ways. Like life can, we all view life in many different ways. One of the other things I was doing a lot was using my eyes with eagerness, tracing lines and curves, feeling colours, seeing clours, seeing textures, cupping my eyes between bursts of reading. speed reading which is awesome and works most effectively in a astate of expanded awareness. There is a huge difference between WORD for WORD SPEED READING and skimming or range reading.. There was a guy named Marco Donatelli. He was born in Italy, his parents were poor and as a boy he worked at the fruit market. Though the young lad couln't read he spent his time staring at the papers that were scattered all about the market. a Kind hearted book seller noticed this and offered the boy a job.
This lovely man taught Marco to read, and before Marco had grasped this skill he had memorised the comoplete layout of the store. He ebgun to be known for haing an exceptional memory. At one point some crafty chap left him a large manuscript for two weeks, a year later he came back and said "Look here mate I lost that manuscript and I really need the information that was in it, can you remember anything that was written there" Our remarkable Marco, then dictated word fro word and Punctuation by Punctuation mark. THE ENTIRE MANUSCRIPT. Throughout the rest of his life he continued to develop his reading art and up to the age of 83 he would set one or two books per night to memory, all of whioch he could recall with perfect ACCURACY. Mr Marco Donatelli is not the only man to have achieved this. Nor is he the only man with a skill that he continuously developed over the years/
I was recently at a Seminar and one of the favourite quote of the day was that Einstein said if you study one thing for 15 minutwes a day then you'll become a master at it, and if you study one thing for 15 minutes a day for 5 years you'll be a genius. I won't bother with quotations marks because it is probably wildy incorrect. You can guess the question then asked.
What would you study for fifteen minutes a day if you knew it would have a profound impact on your life? It would wouldn't it? It could make a huge difference couldn't it.
So yes before I got caught up in my current job, which has eased off now, I was studying the MIND and how a certain number of people believe that it works. Showing expamples of how it has worked in certain people.
During this period, NLP kept cropping up.
My news today is I have decided to do the training. In fact my traing has begun. For me this is hugely exciting, it has already had a huge impact on my life, and I can taste the wonderful learnings about to come. I'm over the moon that I am going to be learning some wonderful hpynosis techniques. I love language, I find languasge fascinating, and I already know that hypnosis is used hugely in everyday conversation. Have you ever felt like someone has put you in a trance, have you ever let some put you in a bit of a trance through listeneing or half listening to what there saying. Perhaps you know what I mean, and if you did know what I mean then you'd know what I mean wouldn't you, just a little bit, you might feel it just a little bit like the waves on the sea brushing the letters away like the sounds of the waves receding in your mind, receding and coming abck in and receding a bit, you might just be able to imaagine just a little bit that hypnotic language has been utiliased by yourself or your frineds before. Probably unwittingly but most certainly. Is that possible?
I'll be learing all sorts of fascinating things about language patterns, levels of abstraction, physiology, tone and timbre of voice, developing sensory acuity, that is learning to rapidly digest a lot more information about the other's physiology than I currently do. ooh it's going to be exciting!!

I'vve been thrown what I consider a lifeline, both with the opportunity to do the course and also with the opportuniy to extend my Visa. I'm off to visit an Organic farmer over the weekend, he's a lovely chap and I should be able to top up my seassonal work adequately enough to apply for a 12 month extension.
Why is this extension important to me? I made a promise to myself in england. I made it to myself before my mind realised what I had done. That decision was that I wouldn't return back to england until I knew I could sustain myself financially in a manner that far exceeded the economic life I was living and had lived up until then. I knew that this would mean different attitudes, new skills, and a willingness to grow and try new things out. Tied inextricably to this was that I would start using my skills in a much more active manner I even went so far as to say I would play a higher statu. I recognised how often I played low status, with my thoughts with other people, with my posture. I determined to make a change.
Have you ever climbed a mountain? You know when you think you can see the peak, only to get ot it and realise you have to go down someway again. Sometimes this happens over and over, and you realise, cracking hell I'm tired. Yup I've been through a few of those, but I'm determined, and I'm being persistent. Persistent in my learnings, and showing up,placing effort in.
Paradoxically one of my huge lessons is to learn to relax more, let things go more, being reminded to loosen that tight grip is actually beneficial.
I was at a seminar recently being run by a guy called Jacl Deloasa. He is creating a name for himself as the yougest Peak
Performace Caoch in australia. the guy was only 22 and he's a dude. One of the first things he said as he marched across the stage.
Forget Knowledge being POWER, he siad we all have the knowledge, we all know that to be healthy one has to eat less and exercise more, that to make money one has to save money, yet obesit is massive and constantly growing, Australia has the largest amount of people living in Debt. He stressed and stressed we have the knowledge but we're not using it. HIS ZEAL was about UTILISING information. taking ACTION.

I leave you with that as I take the ACTION to step out into the SUN, Wahoo it's the first day of spring. Soon I won't be able to see clouds as I breathe at night. Oh yes folks it has been CHILLY here, but once again it's set to warm up. I hope you have all managed to do something wonderful in your summer season

Wishing you well

Smiles
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1214291820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1214291820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1214291820/tpod.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:29:51 -0400 Australian adventures

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Hello Hello.

I believe it has been a couple of months I have been keeping myself a busy boy.
I have a short time allocated for today so I will be brief.

A couple of months ago I attended a Theta Practitioner course. On the final day I was gifted a Three week course called Intuitive Anatomy, which involved me being gifted the Advanced theta Practitioner course. I consider myself extremely lucky, the courses were astounding. www.thetamagic.com

That website will give you a very good overview of my experience. I will relate it in this log but not today.

After the Intuitive Anatomy course finished I then had the great fortune of being gifted three Life Coaching sessions. Once upon a time I laughed at the idea of life coaching, now however I have a different perspective. I found the sessions extremely useful for focusing myself, anhd set my first ever financial targets. They weren't massive but nevertheless they were my first, and that gave me a buzz.

This internet cafe is closing up.

So finally in this whirlwind ...

I created my own job position within a company called Organic Elements. the result being that it is very likely I will be in a position to be sponsored to stay for longer and finally earn my first decent salary.

I am very excited about my new role, it's both creative and practical, and will involve steering the course of the company. Wahoo.

Oh yes I've been studying bucket loads, getting up at 4 am.

I've started a 100 hour Ki For Health course. It's awesome.

Love you all.
Thank you to anyone who has written to me, apologies for not getting back to you yet. I will reply, but at the moment the structure of my life hasn't involved internet aaccess.

All the best to everyone.

Smiles
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1207202340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1207202340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1207202340/tpod.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:09:28 -0400 Australian adventures

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Sydney, Australia

Wowser. I got up real early, and left MAZE backpackers with one main intention in mind, find somewhere to have a good long walk near water. As soon as Dolly and I headed out the hostel that monday morning we spotted a camping shop so I asked the guy in the doorway, where he'd reccommend to go camping. He said Cronulla so I got me ass to the train Station and hopped on a train. This one was a double decker, different to Melbourne, and the fair was way cheaper. Cool bananas, an older gentleman took a liking to me and came and preched next to me. He started talking about VOICE DIALOGUE which I believed was invented by DRs Hal and Sidra Stone. It is to do with a psychology of selves within us that have their own personalities and pipe up all the time. he explained how if we can pinpoint these personalities then we can question them and probe them getting to the real issue behind their fuss, once we get to the real issue we can make a change. Wow I was thinking this is remarkably similar to what I've spent the weekend doing, changing the meaning attached to events that happened way back in the past, even memories that are in the unconscious, learning how to obtain new EMPOWERING learnings about the situation in a way that DEEPLY penetrates and CHANGES our physiology. Smashing stuff. So there Dolly and I were sitting next to this guy who had lovely birdlike eyes telling us something he was extremely passionate about, this is marvellous we thought, our attention fully given over to this man, noticing his complexion the way his hair grew out of his skin the shade of colouring he had, the shape of his body and features, it's a new exercise I've been getting captivated in. It's awesome and totally fascinating, instead of eyeing someone up and having the brain make a quick calculation of who and what that person is, this method allows you to continuously absorb information and for me what is truly wonderful about it is that I am really perceiving peoples human nature.
For example, Old, bent frame, sad person.... That's my very quick assumption because they are old , have their shoulders slumped and have downwards wrinkles on their face....now continuing to Observe. Hairs protrude prominently, eyes rapidly moving, head leaning towards what they're looking at, new information coming in, keen interest, propelled towards what they're looking at...

Try it yourself it's fun. Here's a few things to observe.

Skin colour. Light................Dark

Skin/Muscle tone Shiny................Not Shiny

Minute Facial/body
changes in
expression Tight................Relaxed

Breathing Rate Rapid................Slow
Location High.................Low
Qualities Shallow..............Deep

Lower lip size Lines................No lines

Eyes Focused..............Defocused
Pupils Dilated.......Not dilated

I'd be very interested in hearing peoples comments on this exercise. Try it on strangers on loved ones. I promise you you will experience the world in a different way, you may even find people are suddenly a lot more comfortable around you. I'd love to hear any stories.
For example I have found people really relaxing around me just by me expanding my awareness, by making observations, I think it has something to do with people love other people taking an interest in them. EVEN shy people it is just a matter of being unobtrusive. for those of you who would like to share it wold be wonderful to use the comment section on this entry so that others can read it too, alternatively you could use my facebook page and make a reference to my Cronulla entry. What I would love to see happen in this Travel Log is an exchange of ideas and information.
One of the great things about sharing observation is that we all come from a completely different perspective and what might seem insignificant to one person might give someone else a really interesting perspective.
For example some of you may be thinking well I do that all the time, I always look at people that way, yet here I am writing about discovering it and about how remarkable I have found it as a new way to perceive the world. My natural way in is to sense peoples feelings, I'm very acute at that, other people will be remarkably observant on an auditory level picking up and noting
Voice tone/pitch
Tempo/speed
Timbre/quality
Volume/loudness
Rhythm of speech

Maybe like me you are more sensitive to one or two types of observation. For example auditorally I'm very observant with Tone, Timbre and Volume.

So anyway I was on this train, just having come from a spectacular free Seminar, where we did a lot of work on re routing the subconscious mind to areas in life in which we wanted to head, and there I am on this train chatting to a guy who is wildly intersted in things that I'm passionate about, he was also talking about how we are always communicating massive amounts of information that our conscious mind isn't aware of. When he asked me what I was doing what my thing was and I talked about my Improdance course and what inpsired me about it he gave me all his attention and was hugely supportive. I explained that I am fascinated in the different ways we can perceive the world and how I'll be exploring these through, sight, sound, smell, touch and awareness, how in each workshop the group will look at one particular area and study it from different perspectives and see how these different ways of perceiving make them feel and influence the type of interaction that follows. It feels great to get the thumbs up from our elders.
He ended up giving me his business card and a document he had written on sound and we parted ways. Once in Cronulla I spotted a sign to a YHA which Dolly and I headed to, it felt really welcoming and such a pleasant change up to the manic MAZE which was a money making machine where the staff didn't see too happy or buzzed up about their work, just a way to earn a few dollars, which incidentally is a hugely different approach than one suggested by Chris Howard and many many others who all state that the first thing you need to do is FIND YOUR PASSION and follow it with everything you have got, so much that you would do it for nothing. that's the first step, according to those who believe in the laws or recipricocity.
So yes the YHA was gorgeous I had a wonderful walk reccommended to me, lol I say reccommended actually he reccommmended I catch a train so I'd be closer but I jumped at the idea of a 15km Coastal path walk. YES that was exactly what I wanted to do. I left my backpack there got the key to this hostel which was basically a shack with beds and a kitchen an enviro loo outdoors and a rainwater tank to provide water. It was situated up a bush track at the back of GARIE BEACH. Spot on. I had a good hour to wait for a Ferry to Bundeena, in that time I ate lunch over looking a quiet harbour and mapped out a letter I had determined to write.
Yum yum the walk was amazing. I love barefeet, I love the texture of the land, it really makes me feel like I'm being interactive and it gives me a buzz that I'm strengthening my body. A photo Album will be up shortly titled GARIE BEACH. Dolly and I were out in the elements she even dipped her hair in cold refreshing spring water that was gliding, gushing over the chalky, sandstone rocks. I jumped in the sea a few times, it was pretty wild that day. It's funny how when I was a boy I was brave brave when it came to the sea. I rememeber Ruth and I diving into a stormy sea next to Sennen beach, it was choppy as. NO FEAR. Now when I'm naked and alone I get a sense of fear and foreboding, opening the eyes really helps as does spending a while in the water but this day I had limited time to find my hostel before sunset. I ended up floundering around in the dark praying that I was heading the right way. The hostel was a big Comforting reward. I cooked a great hot meal and slept like a baby.
I woke up in the morning feeling awesome. Outside the hostel I could see the sand and the sea peeping through the bush. Awesome my heart was gushing with pleasure. I have recently been introduced to The Attitude Of Gratitude. I'd kind of heard of it but there's always a new angle to be had on something.
Here is what I was introduced to

Accept your gift
Say Thank You
And then Wildly Celebrate.

This wild celebration floods your physiology with endorphins. And heightened emotional states have a huge impact on our memory.

This attitude was introduced to me at the Breakthrough To Success Seminar where we had two thousand people wildly celebrating and shouting and whooping it felt pretty good, highly charged and automatically changed the energy of the people in the room, especially after you have to go and get something like ten or twenty double high fives and hugs.
Does that sound Scary or fun to you? I'll let you into a secret there were many challenging tasks over the weekend that felt great after having accomplished them. I bet each and every one of you can think of a challenging task that ended up rewarding you.
There is a difference between working out and breaking ones leg.

I had a deliriously delicious morning, a warm breakfast, a couple of pots of tea. shade from the sun, even a rope swing to play on. I wrote the letter that I had mapped out the day before, climbed a tree with soft soft bark, cleaned up the hostel and by noon I was heading back for my 15 k walk which must have ended up way further the amount of times I got lost. "DON"T STRAY FROM THE FOOTPATH" then only challenge to following that instruction was when you came to a place with five or so options and no signpost, then you would be heading down a very clear path with no Diversions and there'd be a sign telling you which way to go. Interesting.
I wore Sandals that day made it back five minutes before the last ferry, chatted to a couple of fishermen who were after squid. Got to have my first sighting of Squid and Whiting swimming about, the water was so clear. That night I chatted to an Italian guy Demian who got me really inspired to do a Scuba diving course. He had such a great way of describing the feeling of having new ways of perceiving the environment around him.
Had another great sleep, my body feels marvellous after having that work out, I ended up having to run most of the last ten km because I had got sidetracked in the special environment, when the fishermen told me it was the last ferry coming in I felt very glad I had run. My drive had been to get there before sunset so I Could see.
Yes Flew back to Melbourne....My New Buddy Jamie rang me up as soon as I was at the baggage Carousel he wanted to know what Action I had taken since the Seminar, we had a great chat, I felt very inspired by it. After the seminar in Melbourne I hadn't had any communication from my buddy but I really clicked with Jamie...he reminded me of Paul Sugar who I am going to write to. Yes so that call was wonderful I feel like a snowball picking up momentum ready to launch into the air and fly into an ocean of wonder.
Last night was my blindfold dancing night where we looked at the concept of Aloha, Living Unconditional Love. there you have it that's evidence that I've tipped right over the edge. Lol I can see myself reading this thinking that person has lost it, boy do I know what it's like to be a cynic.
It is perfectly ALOHA to discern what is and what is not appropriate for you in your life and to act upon this (which is very different from judging) www.tiddagirl.com If you'd like to read up on a bit of Hawaiian wisdoms then check out the Hawaiian Huna llink on that website. It was due to the first BTS seminar in Melbourne that led me to Mia Snows work, that and Araleena who mentioned it. It was the fact that she was influenced by Hawaiian stuff that got me going. Hawaii has popped up so much in the past few years, from authors I've been reading, workshops I looked at in bristol..felt the glow in my heart but didn't go to, I probably went and smoked a fag instead. time to Celebrate I'm 100% smoke free. Wahoo. Chris kept going on about Hawaii too he has worked within their shamanic tradition.

Thank you to all you folks who have made it this far. I'd welcome any comments. was it easy to read, are there other things you'd like to hear about. Oh and if you'd like to tell me it was fun and wacky then hey I can handle that!! If you got bored, well I don't expect you made it this far.

Books I've read since getting hear

Slowing down to the speed of love.
Developing Intuition (Shakti Gawain
The Dalai Lama's little book of wisdom.
Ki in daily Life (Koichi Tohei)
The Magicians Way.
Passions for Profit.

All of which I have found something wonderful.

A three word summary

Love thyself
Listen...act
Love..compassion ..Kindness
Plus Ki
Clear goals.
Action...Curiosity...Model
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Sydney, Australia

Up at 4 am for my taxi. My driver was a lovely guy called Loveleen. He was right near the beginning of a twelve hour shift, he does that twice a week. I arrived at Sydney early, and checked into my hostel which turned out to be huge. Like Massive I never knew there were backpacking places that big. Anyhow I soon headed out the door to check out where the Convention Centre was where I'd be spending 12-14 hours of the next two days and ten hours of the day after. It was a short lovely walk, through a few streets thronged with Asian shops and Asian folk over a big bridge across the grass, under trees, past the fountains which Dolly and I thought looked great. REally Vibrant area. Once I was comfortable with the location Dolly and I checked out Darling Harbour, we considered heading to the Botanical Gardens which meant having to trek across the city...and it was HOT. Luckily we realised that a good beach was near by so we headed back to the Hostel.
At which point I remembered to book my Theta Healing Course which starts tomorrow. so having done that and feeling great about it, feeling that it was absolutely the right thing to be doing I headed for Cogee beach which the guy at the reception had reccommended. Yum yum it was lovely. I swum, did a load of handstands, some ginga on the beach swum more, ran up and down the beach, did more stretching, more handstand stuff...great..I feel great..."HEY DOLLy lets go for a walk" "Yeh Sam that sounds great let's head to BONDI beach" Wahoo so we set off on this delicious coastal path, reminded me of Cornwall which has a coastline to rival anywhere in the world.
Some lovely running man took a picture of Dolly and I as we were admiring one of the many wonderful beaches, smelling the sea air, soaking up the blue blue of the ocean. We carried on walking and ended up seeing so many runners that barefooted Sam just had to join in so we jogged the last couple of km's to Bondi. After a tad more stretching we headed towards the bus stops...wherever they might be..when we spotted a skate park and there we went to watch. There were loads of little dudes flying high high into the air, twisting and turning on their boards, sometimes landing sometimes crashing. They were going for it and having a blast, must have watched them for nearly an hour. soaking up their excitement the adrenalin as I casually used the rail in front of me as a stretch aid. We headed off as the sun was setting and found the bus stop, only I was so pumped I couldn't stand still, we climbed up a tree....still restless...did a few handstands, my arms were a bit sore from the training earlier and the swimming so I decided to practice my rolls, a few buses went passed as I leapt and dived into rolls. flying forward, arching and jumping back twisting into a roll at the last moment, throwing myself over to the side towards a cartwheel but tucking into a roll. It was awesome. Oh yeah and pretending to be shoved hard,,forwards, backwards any way losing my balance flinging myself somewhere and then ... whoosh.. transforming that movement into a roll. Loved it got on the bus knackered went back cooked dinner and had an awesome sleep.
The weekend turned out to be Gastronomical. This time I'll keep it to myself though I may be tempted to drop a few stories in from time to time. . .For those of you knew to my Log or haven't read enough to know what I'm talking about I attended a Seminar one month ago that had an incredible impact in shifting my perceptions, what's more it propelled me into taking action on many levels. In fact that's the most important aspect. It's the difference from dreaming and achieving.
"There is nothing that has to be done. There is always action that can be taken" that's not a quote from the seminar it's taken from a book my friend lent me. In fact I even rehashed it into my own words. Why did I write it. The first is to appease the hippies, those that believe nothing needs to be done because we have everything we need. the second is for those who like to have fun and do more than sit under a tree or in a room with their eyes shut. I love sitting under trees in states of bliss, I also love meditating with my eyes shut AND I LOVE ACTION.
Photo Album coming soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1206491040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1206491040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1206491040/tpod.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:39:48 -0400 Australian adventures

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Bendigo, Australia

Hello Everybody.
A real quick entry. Grabbing myself another pin for my map.
I've just come back from Confest. http://www.confest.org.au/pages/
It's a wonderful festival which I also went to for New Years. At New Years I loafed about socializing, experiencing extreme heat, doing loads of art and swimming, this time round I joined in with the workshops. I ran three and attended four. It was great fun, the air was cooler and my head was fresher.
I had a lovely introduction to Feldenkrais and picked up a few things to explore. For instance how looking actively with the eyes can automatically enable your body to twist a great deal more whilst it still remains in a relaxed state. The exercise shows me how much the body likes a stimulus for it's movement. It's funny twisting the body for twisting sake goes only so far, but add on top of that REAL GENUINE curiosity to what is behind you and bingo the body becomes so obliging. That's one of the many things I picked up a few exercises on that will help me illustrate the point.
I also had a wonderful introduction to Theta Healing. I have to say it was quite astounding. Sophie Simon was the first person to mention it to me. I remember shortly before coming here picking up a book at hers and practicing my speed reading on it. The creator ...or discoverer of Theta healing managed to repair herself from Cancer, she has now been working for fifteen years sharing her techniques with others. When I did the Breakthrough To Success weekend, that was the free NLP seminar, I felt convinced that Chris Howard was using very similar techniques to what I had read about in Theta healing. After doing the workshop I am doubly convinced. Chris Howard is a man who has studied a tremendous amount of people in what he calls the self improvement world. Nauro Linguists like Anthony Robbins, Conversational Hypnosis invented by Milton Erikson, Hawaiian Shamanic journeying..in his own words he was a workshop junkey. His approach has been to pull what he believes has worked best together to create his own unique approach. That was marvellous to see because I have a very similar dream for THE FUSION PROJECT.
Anyhow yes the THETA workshop was so inspiring I am going to do a weekend course. I feel that it very much builds on the work I did through the help of Kyle with Mikkel therapy/Reverse therapy. To sum that work up it was listening and acting upon body signals in the present moment. The work helped enough to bring me to a semblance of financial freedom and to regain my physical energy. I knew in England that I had partially recovered but one could say I was still slightly de-pressed and overly anxious. I also knew that that meant my body was trying to draw my attention to something, it was letting me know I was unhappy with my present situation, only I was finding it tremendously hard to imagine any scenarios that would pull me out. Perhaps I should re-state that I was finding it hard to believe that any of the imaginings I had were possible for me. That involved talking myself out of a lot of good ideas. I could imagine things I wanted to do, and I did invest hope and time in those dreams but also a large part of me was imagining how impossible they would be for me to achieve. I did always like to remind myself that there are many people out there in this big wide world of ours who are doing loads of truly wonderful fantastic things and having a blast of a time.
A quick Re-Cap. I spent four hours of my time time with KYLE and it changed my life! Literally and no messing about. It changed my life and my ATTITUDE. I'd like to say that again it changed my ATTITUDE. I felt that it was important for me to re-iterate that my life was changed due to experiences that I had in just FOUR HOURS.
I would also like to add that all the life changing inspirational moments of my life happened over a very short period of time. Moments like looking in my daughters eyes just moments after she was born. Discoveries of the body through KI Aikido (the unbendable arm) or Drama exercises. Tricks of the voice like imagine shouting behind you instead of in front of you increases your projection humungously and saves the throat from being ripped apart. Standing at the top of the Grand Canyon...I could go on, but really mt point is that some of our greatest learnings are truly instantaneous and last us a lifetime. Give yourself a moment to think back on those powerful memories that are so strong within you....those moments of intense emotion...where you knew your life was changed for ever...you knew you had experienced something that would change your perception forever...perhaps it was your first kiss....your first swim...your first paycheck....your first child...as you flew up up high in a plane, perhaps you had just solve a puzzle...perhaps it happened as you gazed at a sunset....perhaps your conscious mind is still unsure, yet your unconscious mind knows, your unconscious mind recognises this immediately. As you let yourself travel back to those times let your memories indulge on the feelings you had in those moments...what colours were around you...the noises that were present in the air...how alive you felt....how incredible it felt to have those instantaneous learnings and recognise in yourself how those moments changed you for ever. Allow yourself to smile and perhaps even laugh at the wondrous memories....it only takes one special memory...you will recognise it for what it was a moment of instantaneous learning.
I also ran a couple of introductory sessions to my Improdance course and got some truly staggeringly good feedback. Afterwards my system kind of went into shock. I felt so humbled. Positive feedback can be quite overwhelming, I felt very touched. I think the most touching comments were about how SAFE participants had felt in the space. People said that they had attended lots of Worskhops at Confest and at other times in their life and it was rare to feel so SAFE. How Marvellous. There will be a few of you reading this who know how important that is for me, that participants feel truly SAFE. SAFE to explore UNCOMFORTABLENESS..in a manner that enables growth.
My Sensei was an advocate of expansion. In Ki AIkido (and many disciplines) there is talk of plus and minus Ki. Minus Ki simply means loss of Ki...Koichi Tohei talks of depression as a minus Ki state, he believes minus Ki makes you ill and that it is important to have plus Ki....
Pumpkin soup with cnuks of Parmesan Yummy. Owen Thomas turned me on to eating Parmesan in a very liberal manner, I had only ever had it grated, he ate it by the chunk, and boy it's good.
One woman liked the workshop so much that she wants me to go to Adelaide to run a Day Workshop and wanted to know how much I'd charge and how many people she would need to get to attend. That's great I'd love to go to Adelaide and check it out. IT's exactly how I dream of travelling...doing my lifes work as I see the world and meeting it's fascinating inhabitants, from Koalas to butterflies, bats to people, and having my finances increase along the way.
Oooh I also learnt a great handstand technique from a contortionist.
I'm off to Sydney tommorrow will be leaving at half four in the morning. Tonight I've got my blindfolded dance and Hawaiian Huna study, I've got to pack me bags do some fly posting eat some food....Phew it feels like a lotta stuff and my wee letter got carried away.
Yeah Dolly is coming with me to Sydney, she wanted to stay at home for Confest. She's been staying at home a lot looking after Irias collection. WE made a doll together and called her Funkydory. Photos will be on facebook in about a week. WE sent a lovely parcel off to Iria for her birthday on the 7th April. I'll write about that in my next post.
Hope you are all well. Dolly is celebrating, she's told me she's ready to get out and about more. That even dolls can feel like just staying at home, but now that Irias parcel is sent off she's happy with her role as caretaker but now she's ready to come party. She wants to come to my workshops too. How lovely is that!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412060/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:15:51 -0400 Australian adventures

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Apollo Bay, Australia

Hello Beautiful People.
What a treat to stay somewhere called Port Fairy, it was as cute as it sounds. I went there for a folk festival and worked on Peruvian stall. Beautiful Jewelery. I discovered I like selling pretty things to people. Working with colour. It's funny when I walk through a market if the stall owner so much as looks at me I run a mile. What a bore. I saw some of those folk too. But lots of people like a chat, and they like to hear what you think about this jumper or that jumper this earing or that earing. It was fun. Maybe next time I'll be able to stop and chat. I did do that in St Nicholas market at the Crystal stall because I was fascinated and I loved to ask him questions. He was a super keen geologist and had all sorts of interesting knowledge.
Life is super go go. It's a challenge to remember where I've got to with this thing. It's pretty late at night here...12 ish....that's good if I'm calling 12 late my sleeping patterns must be calming down.
I'm praticing my positive phrasing.....my first instinct was to write I can't remember....then I asked myself how could I say it another way. that would be more influences from my NLP weekend.

SO two sets of workshops designed. IMPRODANCE; 6 sessions looking at how sight, sound, smell, touch or awareness can lead you into a contact dance. In this case contact means connection with someone else, it has a much broader range than purely physical contact. I'm particularly looking forward to the smelling workshop, there is going to be some hilarious interaction going on..and some really weird movement inspired by pheremones. The final session will be a glorious Jam involving some very talented musicians. These workshops were inspired by the rigidity of style I've noticed in the contact world here in Melbourne. Technically fantastic....but theatrically a bit dull....Excuse me would you like to dance.....Hey In Bristol we just got on and jammed in and out of the flow with different people. That is what was so exciting about it...the freedom!! Anyhow that's a bit of a cheeky rant knowing nobody here will read it...Oooops I'm still cheeky and in respect to the dancers here they do flow beautifully and I will be going to some of there technical classes.

My other set of workshops is called Chakra 2 Chakra. a set of seven. Each workshop will explore one Chakra, through personal meditation, guided visualisation partner work involving a mix of eye contact and body contact, voice working with Lam, Vam Ram Yam Ham Aum and Hung (hoeun bit of a difficult one to spell phonetically)respectively ofr each Chakra, dance and voice in ones own space, then dance and voice as a group coming together for a final guided visualisation, with a touch of hypnotic script to allow the subconscious to make a good recording of the experience. That's the basic structure. The workshop space will be decked out with the corresponding colour(s) through cloth and or crystals, and corresponding scents.
My inspiration for this set of workshops is a couple of things. One is working with a woman called Nikki, who was a legend at Central School of Speech and Drama, she worked with sanskrit, eye contact and movements specifically to open up blocks in peoples aura. She was the only tutor at Central who pleased absolutely everyone in my Year. THE ONLY TUTOR by far!!! My other main influence is a lot of folk do meditations and stuff all on their own, maybe they've gone to a workshop but still they've done it on there own. At the end there will be questions like "How can I face the world now I'm so open?" People would get really spun out by the transition of their own inner journey and outside communication, that is why I want to give people the experience of having that inner journey AND experiencing communication with other folk. I'm really excited about it. Stefan one of my Yoga teachers who does a lot of gong work would always say "Well I recommend a cup of tea" then he'd chuckle to himself.

That's all for now I'm greedy to get another pin on my map. I just saw Demians and he has all these lines running around everywhere. Grrr.
Thanks to everyone who has replied it's great to feel the contact....sleepy Sam signing out.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1205412000/tpod.html Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:15:13 -0400 Australian adventures

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Port Fairy, Australia

Hello Beautiful People.
What a treat to stay somewhere called Port Fairy, it was as cute as it sounds. I went there for a folk festival and worked on Peruvian stall. Beautiful Jewelery. I discovered I like selling pretty things to people. Working with colour. It's funny when I walk through a market if the stall owner so much as looks at me I run a mile. What a bore. I saw some of those folk too. But lots of people like a chat, and they like to hear what you think about this jumper or that jumper this earing or that earing. It was fun. Maybe next time I'll be able to stop and chat. I did do that in St Nicholas market at the Crystal stall because I was fascinated and I loved to ask him questions. He was a super keen geologist and had all sorts of interesting knowledge.
Life is super go go. It's a challenge to remember where I've got to with this thing. It's pretty late at night here...12 ish....that's good if I'm calling 12 late my sleeping patterns must be calming down.
I'm praticing my positive phrasing.....my first instinct was to write I can't remember....then I asked myself how could I say it another way. that would be more influences from my NLP weekend.

SO two sets of workshops designed. IMPRODANCE; 6 sessions looking at how sight, sound, smell, touch or awareness can lead you into a contact dance. In this case contact means connection with someone else, it has a much broader range than purely physical contact. I'm particularly looking forward to the smelling workshop, there is going to be some hilarious interaction going on..and some really weird movement inspired by pheremones. The final session will be a glorious Jam involving some very talented musicians. These workshops were inspired by the rigidity of style I've noticed in the contact world here in Melbourne. Technically fantastic....but theatrically a bit dull....Excuse me would you like to dance.....Hey In Bristol we just got on and jammed in and out of the flow with different people. That is what was so exciting about it...the freedom!! Anyhow that's a bit of a cheeky rant knowing nobody here will read it...Oooops I'm still cheeky and in respect to the dancers here they do flow beautifully and I will be going to some of there technical classes.

My other set of workshops is called Chakra 2 Chakra. a set of seven. Each workshop will explore one Chakra, through personal meditation, guided visualisation partner work involving a mix of eye contact and body contact, voice working with Lam, Vam Ram Yam Ham Aum and Hung (hoeun bit of a difficult one to spell phonetically)respectively ofr each Chakra, dance and voice in ones own space, then dance and voice as a group coming together for a final guided visualisation, with a touch of hypnotic script to allow the subconscious to make a good recording of the experience. That's the basic structure. The workshop space will be decked out with the corresponding colour(s) through cloth and or crystals, and corresponding scents.
My inspiration for this set of workshops is a couple of things. One is working with a woman called Nikki, who was a legend at Central School of Speech and Drama, she worked with sanskrit, eye contact and movements pecifically to open up blocks in peoples aura. She was the only tutor at Central who pleased absolutely everyone in my Year. THE ONLY TUTOR by far!!! My other main influence is a lot of folk do meditations and stuff all on their own, maybe they've gone to a workshop but still they've done it on there own. At the end there will be questions like "How can I face the world now I'm so open?" People would get really spun out by the transition of their own inner journey and outside communication, that is why I want to give people the experience of having that inner journey AND experiencing communication with other folk. I'm really excited about it. Stefan one of my Yoga teachers who does a lot of gong work would always say "Well I recommend a cup of tea" then he'd chuckle to himself.

That's all for now I'm greedy to get another pin on my map. I just saw Demians and he has all these lines running around everywhere. Grrr.
Thanks to everyone who has replied it's great to feel the contact....sleepy Sam signing out.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1204190700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1204190700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1204190700/tpod.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 04:28:52 -0500 Australian adventures

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Apollo Bay, Australia

My my what a month!!!
Life has really begun to move.
I'm taking a break from work. It's my work!!! For me!!! Lovely!

First off hello everybody. I hope your all wonderfully well. I'm sitting here with stiff fingers..it's cold. Melbourne weather goes up and down. I thought that might cheer some of you up knowing that even though I'm larging it up on a massive continent with a huge desert I'm still cold. For those of you who love to hear that I'm having a wonderful time in the sun then just pretend it was a couple of days ago when I was sitting up a tree with a friend of mine Ohana...on that day a swift walk in the sun made me sweat.
I'll tell you what I'm taking a break from....designing a flyer. I keep starting it and then getting sidetracked..from booking a venue space to creating a whole new set of workshops. I figure if I share with you guys what I'm doing then the flyer will be easier to deal with. I've set a target to have 250 colour flyers in my hand by the 5th March a wednesday. In fact I'll have 800 colour flyers by wed thanks to a call I had this morning to a friend called Tritia. She has a friend who works for a publisher and I will get my bundle of flyers for free. I just have to email her my flyer by mon night so she gets it tues morning. Free Flyers that's lovely. I had her confirm it by calling her friend, I wanted confirmation first hand. Tritia did assure me that she could get it done because she has had other stuff printed off for her by this friend but I wanted my mind to know that if we emailed the stuff mon night then on Tue we could pick them up. I got the re-assurance I needed. the other option would have been using Demian and Luke's colour printer which they are buying on monday. I felt like I needed to know the exact route of events.
So what are the flyers for???
The flyer will start with The Fusion Project presents....
I will be offering a six week course looking at Contact Improvisation. Specifically exploring Character, Expression and Playfulness. Why? I've always had a streak in me that takes issue with form...form that holds rigidity that stops creativity. Technique in contact Dance is wonderful a truly wonderful thing. Technique in Capoeira is wonderful a truly wonderful thing. Technique in art is wonderful a truly wonderful thing. Technique in Web Design is wonderful truly a wonderful thing. Technique in Parenting is wonderful truly a wonderful thing. Hmmm Hmmm Hmmm
In Bristol my Capoeira group was very playful and when I went donw to London I experienced Objectivity (Technique) there were players who I found it a major challenge to get a smile off, any facial feedback at all. their mind was focused, they had their goals and that involved marking the best kicks possible and sometimes landing wonderfully worked out technical kicks or headbutts. That was great I learnt a lot. But I got a bit sad. I love to see smiles, smiles and laughter....the real ones from the heart. It's very easy to tell a social smile or a laugh that disguises altogether different feelings. I like the genuine ones that bubble out of the essence of character. For me it's an enriching experience.
Me I like to play, and that is what I have to offer folks. I will be looking at how to bring play into ones approach to Contact Dancing. I love technique...AND I also love personal interaction and personal character. In Capoeria we called it Axe (sounds like ash-ay) Energy or ginga, ginga is ones own personal dance....the ginga is your own expression filled with your Axe your energy.
The group will be exploring connecting with other people through sound, smell, touch, sight awareness and character. IT's going to be so much fun. I'm really looking forward to smell. Having the room full of people contacting first through smell I expect to see and have some really interesting dances through this. I expect most of you know that the main mode of communication is through the body. The main interaction is non-verbal even if the person has their entire focus on the spoken words, they are still ineracting hugely with each other, through posture through responses to pheremones through the energy in the eyes. I aim to explore these elements.
Sound is fairly rare in the contact world but it is around and I aim to encourage it...sighs, groans, laughter, even frustration maybe some one has had a hard day at work and what they really need to do before they have some fun is let out a bit of annoyance. then once that's passed through them they can have a giggle about it, and so can everyone else. We've all been annoyed.
Smell....it's an animal thing right???
Sight....sight as connection can either be through eye contact, or fixing on a part of their body (Which is kind of like a technique....I guess techniques are everywhere). then there is also a term in the contact world called Grazing. It basically just means watching watching the room. I would like to influence people to really have fun with it, become fascinated by what they're watching like a child who has to get close....who asks there parents to look, who copies, who's transfixed with curiosity. It's fun and it's a great way to learn. MAybe one has had a long hard day and turns up feeling a bit tired. Doesn't want to go home because that's boring but doesn't necessarily want someone crawling all over them. Well they can graze, let's remove the feelings of guilt or invasion and really encourage that insatiable curiosity.
I also want to explore peripheral vision which will be a huge part of awareness. this is learning to see everything that falls upon the lens of your eye. All that lovely data that with a pin hole camera gets picked up. Well we can do that too, it's just a matter of being aware of it. It's the type of vision hunters use because it's excellent at tracking or picking up movement. Right now as I type I can see my fingers move the trees sway outside the letters from on the screen, the tiles outside, grass, carpet. posters on wall etc....all without moving the eyes. We'll explore the usefulness of that for being aware of others around us. A useful tool when there are a lot of people moving about. Sounds a bit technical. Lol each time I run it just pops up in front of me. Luckily I said technique is a wonderful thing a truly wonderful thing. I guess it comes down to how we employ it with what spirit we engage with it.

It will be a six week course at Northcote Town Hall http://www.northcotetownhall.com.au You can follow the link to photo gallery and then Studio 1 and Studio 2 . I'll be running the first and last 2 workshops in studio one and the other 2 in studio 2. That's the plan. I have a tentative booking made. I just have to work out about insurance. I'll have to pop down there tomorrow because the link on their website for terms and conditions brings up the application form.
The workshops will run from the 17th April to the 22nd May. I've got several definite comers. I need four to cover my cost but am aiming for 18. More would be lovely and I believe achievable. My initial plan was to run it at the Scout hall on the 27th March just 50 yards from where I'm sitting but blessedly it was fully booked and I had to come up with something else. Why blessedly. Well...the Scout Hall is cheaper and closer...I obviously liked that but it's pretty dark and has Nylon carpets. Those of you who know me well know that I'm a real natural fibre boy. About an hour after I found that out a friend was over and we were having soup she mentioned the Northcote Town Hall and said it was really nice in there..wooden floors and not too pricey. She said she had done some amazing contact dance there before. (A snap shot to my inner world AMAZING!!! I gulped....That's a tall order to follow. Luckily I'm a tall chap!!) Richard Whitely eat your heart out. I wanted to start the workshops earlier but the rooms were all booked. So my first venture into being a facilitator and sharer of my knowledge in the contact dance world will be the DAY after I turn 31. Wahoo.

I've been up at dawn every day this week. When I got to australia I did that for the first couple of weeks, few weeks, then it piffered off, easy learning and stimulation began falling by the wayside......I even starting getting fuzzy heads UH OH...I'm hearing that Sharp Wah Wah sound you get in a horror movie...NOT THE FUZZY HEAD. It wasn't all the time but there were times it started creeping up. DANG DANG what is it I need to pay attention to.....what is it I need to change...oooh I had a few days .. spread out over time...a day here or there when I was so angry and frustrated I was getting these signals...remember the body signals...and I was searching ..searching for what I needed to do. Eventually I worked it out. THE FUSION PROJECT had to begin. It's my lifes work I must start it. Sod woofing for feck all. Yes great a few skills would have been gleaned, interesting people met along the way but as I read the handbook all I got mas one major headache.....a little voice peeped out the fusion project.......maybe there's some cool woofing place...look here's a lovely commune vibes sound great.....HEAD ache splitting.....the little voice at the back of the head THE F****ing FUSION PROJECT....that's what you fecking well ought to be doing. And so my dream was resurrected.

The Fusion Project is a banner for all sorts of work that I'll be doing.
Hence THE FUSION PROJECT presents ...

I just went to close the door it's k k k cold and staring up at me from the floor is a laptop which I can load pictures onto no problem. I discovered that this morning when Demian wanted some pictures I took yesterday of him setting up his first wind monitoring system for his and Luke's new Company Enhar, shortly to be Enhar Blue. He told me to log on to Amenala's computer (she's our latest new housemate, she's staying in the living room for a month or so) plug my camera in and hey presto it worked no problem whatsoever. I can't even open the e drive on this computer....I have no idea why. I even got technical assistance from one of the other housemates who has a mac....He's the one who tagged those photos of me. Even though he's technically pretty sorted he couldn't get it open either. Amenalas had a password and I got Sylph to type it in. Once I was done I switched it off even though the back of my head said I had no need to. But I figured I was busy at the moment and I'd save energy etc...Now I'm bleeding wishing I could use it. I'd have some photos up in a flash. Good news is Soon Very Soon I'll have a couple of albums on facebook. I hope you can all celebrate knowing that when it happens I've climbed a mountain. For some of you it might be a coloured line on the road that you skate over but for me it's been a mountain.

OH YES That's not the only set of workshops I have devised. This morning I discovered a set of sounds that I had been trying to recall. LAM VAM RAM YAM HAM OM (AUM) and HUNG (hueng). These sounds correspond to each of the major seven chakras starting from the bottom. I've decided to get over my shyness in talking about this stuff. I've been sensitive to the chakra system for years and years and at times I've shyed away from talking about it with other people because I didn't want to be percieved as a quack. If others were sensitive I'd hold the conversation but if they weren't I wouldn't bring it up. Severe negation of myself but hey I fell in love with that for a while, I couldn't possibly have got so ill if something wasn't seriously adrift. But now I'm taking steps to rectify that. I also used to think ..all these grandiose claims are made about what meditating on them can do but I know loads of people that do and they're just fluffy fluffs no more sorted than anyone of us. Yes well that's true...But I'm not interested in making grandiose claims I'm interested in the experience and learning through that experience. For me I get particular sensations when I focus on different Chakras. It doesn't always feel the same but generally I always feel something particularly my third eye. Just a slight focus on the middle of my forehead will make it throb. Indeed it's doing it's thing right now!!
So I was writing these things down with the Indian names of the Chakra they corresponded to...Muladhara...Swadhishtana...Manipura...Anahata...Vishudd ha....Ajna...Sahasrara. ... . I copied the names because they're beautiful, what wonderful sounds, I love sounds...Swadhishtana doesn't that roll round the mouth deliciously. Vishuddha....Glorious. As I was writing these down using my felt tip pens Red for Muladhara...orange for Swadhishtana etc Oh Ok for those who want to know it continues Yellow, Green (Pink) Blue Purple White. The hue and intensity of colour will variate with what book you read and sometimes the white is a very pale violet but that just TECHNICAL isn't it. Notice how the heart is Green and Pink... That's beacause green is the inverse of pink the same can be done with all the other colours....that's one for me to research. so there I am half way through writing a word at about nine this morning...after having done an hour of movement meditation stuff and eaten a bowl of porridge with rice, oats, apple, raisins, celery and garlic salt...I guess that sounds weird it was great, it had water rice milk and soya milk. Yes so there I was writing VISHU....DD when my memory pokes forth a reminder of NIKKY who I worked with at Central, she did a lot of work with sound and Sanskrit. Where we worked as individuals and in pairs and groups lots of eye contact and movement. I instantly decided that that is what I wanted to do.
I decided to do a series of seven Workshops one for each Chakra. I've often done classes and the work is really rushed....so we can explore them all. I decided I'd really like to spend some time focusing on them. I was about to say which one I'm most interested in but in fact it is all of them. However I am interesting in spending time with some that I find harder to access. As Nikky did I will do individual work and meditations...then I will do partner work...keeping the focus on that area of the body whilst holding eye contact or touching hands etc...feeling how the sensation is...asking questions like...Do you feel differently than when you walked in the room? than you did last week?
Sound will then start to be introduced and explored in pairs...alone, with a new partner, in a trio, movement and sound, gradually I'll bring the whole group together. And we'll fade the sound out softer ..softer ..softer. Thank you Chartwell for your huge inspiration on using this technique. Chartwell is of the Shona people (Southern Africa)he sings with the mbira and he spends fifteen twenty minutes fading out. So lovely.
I also want to decorate the space with the appropriate colour and use essential oils that correspond with each Chakra. Kia the girl that mentioned the Northcote Town Hall said she'd definitely come. She said "I've heard you making sounds I'm coming" Her eyes shone with passion. She sounded a lot more convincing than when she said she'd come to the contact dance workshops.

Tritia has just done a painting inspired by the chakra colours and I will use that as the Background for those flyers, as well as the workshops information including THE FUSION PROJECT presents Chakra I'll put Background art by Tritia and her contact details. I'm also giving her and her friend who works for the printer the course for free, providing they bring three people with them. I'm chasing a different space for these workshops. Danny's Warehouse. This guy has converted an old warehouse into a studio apartment with a huge front roomed all decked out with lovely floorboards. The space has been used a lot for Crystal meditation World peace meditations, Light meditations, the E.A.S.E program. I wish to do it there because I feel the resonance of the building will correspond to what I'm doing. I have felt strongly about the energy of building for a long time. I think it was extra highlighted when I went on my class 12 trip to Italy. I was 18 years old, we had worked on a number of songs that our teacher wanted us to give as a gift to the spaces rather than just go and gawp. At first I was nonplussed but after a few weeks of rehearsals they really started to sound quite exquisite. Finally we got to Italy and each church we were in demanded a different song. It was a mixture of the atmosphere and the acoustics. Anyhow I believe space has a memory to it. I'm convinced you've all walked into a room and felt a particular vibe immediately, well that is why I am choosing to do it there. And luckily the contact dance workshops, with my theme of playfulness etc is being planned for a performance and rehearsal space. Perfect.

This travel log is feeling like one big personal ramble. Me Me Me. Well you'll just have to write back to break that all up for me.

Photo Albums Coming.

Up and coming courses for me.

A communications workshop this sunday.

Contact technique classes to start the sunday afterwards. (See I do balance my play)Oh yes it had the dreaded word 'form' on it. Gosh!!

A 7 week course starting on wed 5th march on Shamanic Trance Dancing. From what I hear you do a guided meditation to set some intentions and then you blindfold yourself and dance your intentions. I've met two people who have done it and there eyes tell a big story. Aside from that it's real pulling power is that it comes from a Hawaiian tradition. The woman has been a dance teacher for years and then a lomi lomi masseur (more hawaiian stuff) as soon as she discovered this stuff she trained as a facilitator. Hawaii has been cropping up a lot in the past few years and whenever it does my body glows towards it. Well I've been making certain commitment to follow that glow. It's how I got out of my years of fatigue in the first place.
Wow I just did a double check on the Hawaiian stuff a website came up that wouldn't load either. It turns out I will be doing the last one on my Birthday the day before THE FUSION PROJECT presents. That's supercool. sounds like a great birthday treat. I've mentioned to several people that I've never had a birthday party...you know a big birthday party to celebrate oneself. When I was in my teens and early twenties it seemed like a terribly selfish and ridiculous thing to do..to celebrate oneself. I couldn't quite get my head round the idea. but for the past couple of years I've really wanted a party, thought about it a lot but ended up buckling out. Sometimes even spending a whole day with someone and they didn't even know it was my birthday. I did that with Laurie once. Silly me eh! Well I've been promised by several SHOCKED people that I'm having a party this year a party just for me. GASP ... For ME !!! Blimey. I aim to be able to embrace the opportunity wholeheartedly and have a wonderful time with many smiling laughing folk.

On tues night's I've been going to a Contact Dance Jam that will continue

Fingers crossed my classes will run on mon and thurs. Thurs is so nearly guaranteed!

I've also enlisted my housemate Sylph to share with me some of his knowledge. He lived trained and taught in a dojo in Sydney. Forgive me I can't remember the name. I should know what it is I have embarked to study. I do know it's Japanese. We had our fist class yesterday morning. It was great fun. Kind of old man style street defence like raising both hands to cup the head. do that quickly and notice how fast the elbows come up. As you do this again Imagine saying...or for those of you feeling playful say "please don't hurt me I'm just an old man/woman. Phew...then imagine taking a step straight towards them as you do this. That gave me a few giggles. My body wouldn't step towards Sylph but the action was fun. We got theatrical about it just as a boy was walking past the house on the way to school. We must have looked like a right pair.

My last weekend was thoroughly taken up with Breakthrough To Success a free NLP seminar that was entirely fascinating. Pennies were dropping by the Dozen. My my it had been a long time since I got so enthused about so many things. My brain was firing off ten to the dozen about action plans ...dreams ...plans....my imagination was fired up my enthusiasm for learning re-ignited, my commitment to teaching fortified. It's all been go go go since then. Research...planning...actions...Oh my Actions that was of huge importance. IT was stressed time and time again how dreams were great how fantastic visions were marvellous but that it was actions and commitment that got things done that got you to where you wanted to go. Visioning was a huge part of the process. Not just realistic vision though it was stressed that those are vitally important if you are to attain your goals and gain the confidence of the ability to make your goals happen. Visioning was also used to expand ones personal map. Chris kept on saying it's not the map it's the territory. Lots of people live in the map...they get the map confused with the territory. So huge wild and crazy visioning was used to help break out of our self imposed maps. Maps are great to help us get around. but a map won't tell us if a street is lined with trees or not and if it does cos it's a small map it wont show us what shape the leaves are and if it is a small map then it won't show us what we'll see if we keep going.
One thing that kept catching me was he mentioned Milton Eriksonian techniques over and over again. Chris mentioned a lotta lot of folk Quantum physicists, Newton Einstein Business Men, Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther King..... But let's stick with Milton Hyland Erikson 1901-1980. Well who else do you think had been important in my life and mentioned this guy a lot. Kyle Davies the man who I went to see in Cardiff that guided me through my own internal process that enabled me after four one hour sessions to completely have the reins of my life again. completely in the sense that I could once again hold down a full time job pay my rent get out to Spain etc. He mentioned Milton Eriksonian techniques a lot, he said they were a huge inspiration behind the creation of Reverse Therapy.

Love you all.

Oh yeah I learnt this little tidbit to. If you cut a holographic image in two you still get the whole image, you can do this over and over again. the image stays there, I believe eventually it loses it's clarity but hey ain't that cool. He did all sorts of explaining about the science behind that how it related to quantum physics and how it related to our memory our cells...

Love you all.

Dolly loves you too!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1202352720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1202352720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1202352720/tpod.html Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:32:27 -0500 Australian adventures

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Melbourne, Australia

Hello everyone.

The past couple of months have been crazy, particular the last month where the intensity of my experiences has left me reeling. I'm sat in my pad at Greensborough using Graces' computer. She's been away at her parents who live near her brother, Lifeon, who has just become a father of his fourth boy. They are a lovely family I spent my Christmas with them in the sun eating fish, drinking bubbly stuff, singing, playing my reco-reco along to two eukeleles. I have no idea how you spell it, it's a tiny little guitar things with four strings.

Yes so here I am in Greensborough in Australia. My head is a little bit swimming at the moment. I've come home to recoup and re-evaluate. I've very much spent my time going with the flow, saying yes to whatever is presented before me. A couple of big Festivals, a short road trip where I got some fantastic Koala shots. (My apologies I still have this real mental block when it comes to getting pictures off my camera on to a computer etc, I'm figuring I'll shove them all onto a disc cos I need to free up some memory) I've got a great recording of it eating. I climbed a tree and hung out with it for some twenty minutes. That was a bit naughty of me cos your meant to leave them alone but I couldn't help myself it was so lovely and cuddly, we held eye contact for ages and ages some ten minutes or so and it felt so soothing and comforting looking in the Koalas eyes. that memory will always retain a real depth to it. That was down the Great Ocean Road a place I plan to travel down again, perhaps soon because my trip was only a few days and never really hung out anywhere. . . . Shared meals, love interests, hanging out, visiting places, loads of tree climbing.

I met a wonderful woman over the New Year and we had a beautiful sharing. Lots of energy exchanges which some people would call healing. We kind of did the falling in love thing....the "your so beautiful and wonderful and the way we interact is incredible" which was superb. However intensities like that change and I'm not really in a space where a relationship is what I need to work on. What I need to work on is myself and my direction. I've had heaps of what people term healing, heaps and heaps and those of you who know me well will know that that will have dredged up a lot of stuff to do with my childhood and the community. It's been pretty full on!! Some of it great wonderful superb other parts make we want to scream shout cry. Much joy and much pain.

There is something I'd like to share with you. Over the past five to seven years I've had moments where my body goes into spontaneous spasms. In the beginning I managed to keep it at bay fairly easily, through the use of cigarettes, alcohol and occasionally the old mary Jane, or alternatively it was through running, Capoeira, cycling, theatre. When I got to Uni it became more persistent and I'd have to put more effort into keeping my hand, arm leg foot from twitching. Most commonly it was in Lectures and social situations. Social situations I put it down to nervousness and would drink or smoke more which seemed to do the trick My heart would stop entering some sort of panic mode and the shivers up my spine would cease. I used the booze and fags cos I found it preferable to experiencing these spasms of movement in public. You know when you get a real fright or shock and the spine tingles twitches maybe the body leaps of the ground, it was kinda like that. I didn't really know why it was happening and certainly didn't want to have to start explaining myself. so yes I utilized beer, fags....and Pool played a lot a that at Uni. Of course I couldn't do that in lectures. No you can't sit there with a pint taking notes...lol....I utilised another technique which worked pretty well. I dug my nails into my hand, if that was threatening not to work I used my legs or belly because I didn't want to leave marks that others would see. This pretty much worked and got me through lectures without my whole body spasmsing, occasionally I would forget and my whole body would jolt up off my seat my thighs crashing into the desk, arms would kind of flit in the air. Pretty weird stuff. Physically it didn't hurt at all, in fact it was very relaxing but I didn't want to be taken for a weirdo so I kept my mouth shut and employed what tactics I knew.

When I came back from Ghana, a bit of a physical wreck, couldn't study or anything barely get myself food and stuff, I had incidences where I was lying on my bed and for ten fifteen minutes at a time my whole body would be spasming, even thoughn I weas lying there horizontally 'out for the count' as it were.....my body was twitching like crazy...so vigorously that half the time my body would be off the bed entirely. Once again I'd like to mention that physically it was extremely comfortably and extremely relaxing even though it was unnerving, afterwards it felt like I'd had the best shake out in the world. Sounds would also erupt out of me and I was glad the house was empty. If I tried to stop the twitching.....my head would be lashed with pain, hard shooting pains smashing out from my brain to my skull...Like so Youch!!! it was better to twitch. Throughout the process of my fatigue this twitching carried on sometimes mild sometimes jolting my whole body off the bed. Generally I didn't talk to anyone about it. It was weird but it didn't feel dangerous..in fact it seemed friendly, but at the same time I wanted it to stop because I felt it wasn't normal.

I began to recognise that emotions were associated with it, it took years to hone in ...at first I just start getting the inkling that some stored memories were being released but I wasn't sure it seemed to occur for loads of different reasons. However over the past couple of months I am beginning to feel stronger and stronger that I have some stored memories that my mind has stuck behind a blank wall. I still have moments of shaking and spasming, now they generally happen when I'm extremely relaxed or tired...my body just kicks in and when I feel I have to stop it, (which most of the time I can) it hurts....mostly psychologically and emotionally. It it from those thoughts and feelings there texture and sensations, that my reasoning has honed in on events around the community as being some sort of trigger. This realisation has been shaping itself much more clearly over the last year or so (which is also approximately the timescale in which I have had enough strength to return to full time work). I get into states where I'm saying "no no no no no no" over and over again In states like that I cry a lot ...and if I stop crying I go back to twitching.....sometimes from the crying I want to scream and shout and basically go ballistic but with the exception of Buqi healing and a couple of other episodes I didn't, stopping myself from shouting and basically expressing some serious deep animal hurt via basically holding my breath for a ridiculously long time...over and over again..that would lead me back to the shaking.
Just recently a friend offered me some Kinesiology and ...wahoooooee the twitching started off.....the "no no no no" started going round in my mind...as though I was saying it to some one.....and then scenes from the community would kind of appear in my mind, I couldn't say they were clear...but they were there...and the more it occurs the more vivid they have began to appear. Basically scenes of violence towards myself or others. In the kinesiology session I started experiencing new words rattling round my head and blurting out my mouth..."get off me get off me get off me" in this crying little boys voice. simultaneously my arms were flying up in front of my face....

It was so emotionally painful....I felt on the edge of letting something go ...letting something out that I've felt for several years that I need to do in order move forward. This Kernel of stuff is most definitely linked to my reactional self-defensive modes, to my negative framing....to my cutting everything apart and my difficulties in maintaining a positive view about basically absolutely everything about me myself and others. I'm massively better now or I wouldn't have been able to crawl...drag ..fight...climb..leap out of the state I was in that some termed M.E some termed Chronic Fatigue without making some big headway on this. Nevertheless it's still there. It seems to me that it's a long stored habit of preparing myself for when everything goes wrong or when the smile turns into something much more malevolent. A habit I feel I no longer need but am finding hard to let go. I have to do more than psychologically recognise that I need to let it go....that that lens no longer serves me in a positive way. I have fully accepted that psychologically on a conscious rational level but nevertheless I'm still reacting from that space. Lovers become threatening..imposing.....hobbies become useless pointless..nothing seems to matter...I become wary of friends and family in quite extreme ways. panicking that they are going to shun me...It seems so absurd yet it happened and it happens still. I am fully fully convinced that all this behaviour is related to the twitching which is related to the crying which is related to this raw animal stuff which is related to my childhood. Over the years my emotions and psychological states in the twitching the near twitching and my relationships with others and the external world I have come to see that it's one and the same thing. My personal experiences gathered over the years show me that the eveidence is overwhelming in drawing these links. It's moved beyond a theory which is just another bundle of words and opinions in the ether of what might be but is built upon observations and recognitions that this is so.

Why has this come up in a travel log. Well you've all heard the saying that you can't escape from nothing from running away......or the saying that you can't learn anything travelling that you couldn't at home....Hmmm very incorrect quotes feel free to correct me......Anyhow Wherever you go...whatever you do....Whoever your with you can never get away from your own internal processes. They will come up....There is no doubt. Either they come up and get worked with and undergo a transformation or they get rammed back down. I know you'll all have skeletons that pop up that a) you don't want to except or b)are so painful, confusing, and bewildering that you concsiously push them away or c) your intuition tells you something so far fetched that you cant possibly accept it to be true.

We know several ways of ramming them away....WORK WORK WORK becoming work obsessed so one never has to listen to ones internal self....DRINK DRINK DRINK well we've all seen alcoholics spouting their issues whilst extremly drunk....SEX SEX SEX always needing somebody there to give the body a rush a wave of emotions and adrenalin that takes them away from listening to themselves. EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE Never sitting still and experiencing the emotions.....Feel free to throw your examples into a reply. As you can see none of the above is essentially a bad thing. Work is essential to provide us with food and housing transport and leisure. It gives us a sense of purpose and a satisfaction of accomplishment. Alcohol loosens the tongue, the constraint on emotions and thought and can bring a great dose of laughter to a group. How have I heard it termed as?..Oh yes a Social Lubricant. Sex well sex is beautiful...it creates a space of exceptionally wonderful and intimate sharing... and has the ability to enable conception which creates our future generations. So they are all marvellous but as with anything can be used to excess.

So what's my point? Well to start with my swimming head has disappeared. The process or writing which I intend to share has made me feel a lot lighter and it passes through my head that a few of you might have something useful triggered in yourself from reading this. It is also important for me to share. Partly to share with friends but also partly to share of myself and my personal experience because it is through others opening up and sharing their essence of experience that helps and inspires us. My humble opinion.
The experience of living, being alive and what that means is still a huge unknown to a gigantic amount of people. What is this life? Why are we leading it? If anything exists at all does it not follow that anything you could possibly conceive could occur too? I've never had much time for boxed in realities the idea that I or anyone should spend there life earning money having children, paying taxes and then die is laughable....That doesn't mean that one shouldn't earn money have a lovely house do altruistic work and have beautiful children ...it just means that there is so much more to this marvel of existence. Pretty obvious huh? Yet these are the golden goblets held up high by so very many of us.

I suppose I should make a conclusion. Loads of internal messy stuff has been bubbling up. I'm being given a great chance to work with it, the skills learnt over my lifetime are coalescing to help me in this process. I place a profound importance on this process in order for me to become a stronger and more wholesome being simultaneously for my own experience and my interaction with others and the planet. I truly believe the ability to love oneself is such a remarkable gift to the world. I have always been most inspired by those in who love shines outwards. sometimes it's just been in moments, perhaps from their work or their hobbies, perhaps through intellectual stimulation. For me there is nothing like the childlike enthusiasm that exhibits itself as a state of love for what one is doing. When I was in my teens this is what I wanted to be able to offer people, a glow that resonates and is picked up by others. It's a dream and a dream well worth having.

I'd love to hear stories from people, about dreams, cosy moments, family sharing, the glow from a child, the passion your work gave you, a picture of the seasons where you live. It will really make a difference and help me feel connected. Either post an entry on my blog or write to me personally sam.miles@gmail.com.

Oh yes something splendid and marvellous. My wrists have been mending themselves fantastically and I am beginning to be able to play on my hands again. Oh yes Joie de vivre. This body is ready for play and new ways of moving. My Ki for life exercises have been re-integrated as part of my daily life and they are constantly teaching me something new. Oh and I've clocked the 720 jump. Very Simple. If you can do a 360 you can do a seven twenty. Stand with one arm out to the side and the other bent at the elbow forearm going across the body, jump the 360 then whip your arms across your body so the bent arm is out and the straight arm is bent. Let me know if you succeed!! ?It's great fun and highly satisfying.
A friend was telling me of their dance teacher who was in his eighties who could still do a triple twist whilst showing no effort. This reminded me that is is all about technique, and gave me stimulation to attempt to work it out again. I quickly discovered that whipping the arms across just after you leap is fruitless, and so I decided to try it at the end of the jump. and hey presto it worked. I worked that out in October whilst I was out visiting my daughter. She was asleep having an afternoon nap and I was out on the Balcony. It made me smile over and over.

And!!! Let's not forget Dolly, she is having a wonderful time, she has been hanging out in the living room,watching social events seeing the room change about....virtually every week. She's met a couple of friends, a lovely boy wit golden blond hair and a red smile, he looks like a bright bubbly lad who grew up on a farm and along with him is a lovely pink pig so proud of her jacket who looks up adoringly at Dolly with her long long auburn hair. She's taken to wearing a feather in her hair, a habit the lads taken on to. They're communning with each other on a lovely soft woolen poncho (courtesy of a forgetful person at the St Werburghs City Farm Cafe, it was there for months until I decided it would be great company) So there they are perched in the living room adorned with crystals. Nice chunks of Rose Quartz and Danubrite, with broken Bismuth scattered around. It looks beautiful. She is ready for a road trip soon. She keeps whispering to me that she wants to make a book about the Great Ocean Road, which I think is a wonderful idea. It's funny last time she didn't want to come she told me that she was very happy having lovely dreams with her crystals and her new feather....and now she tells me she wants to write a book...it's a lucky thing I'd like to go there again. We have collected photos and notes for a small book about Tasmania. She had great fun there. She suggested that she could say one sentence for the child that conveys emotion and enthusiasm about the place and then I could throw in an interesting fact for the adults. We thought the book could be for 0-5 years. A hard book that a baby could chew on, but also something that could intrigue an older child, who might ask a question that the adult themselves would need to research, and to help this out we came up with the idea of putting some weblinks on the back page and if something drew the readers interest they could go and find out more about it. It could be Geographical, geological, related to flora and fauna, even social issues like logging,

I'll give you an example of a page..........in due time.

Thank you for reading....I've been thinking about my log for a while....not particularly wanting to sit in front of a computer screen. A couple of times I'd gone to log on and got a huge headache, something that in ReverseThereapy is called a signal, telling me something about my present situation and what I need to do. So I patiently waited for the right time. It has occurred to me many times that if I hadn't become so out of ease with myself then I wouldn't take things like that seriously, well I never used to I would have forced myself. It's pretty tough sometimes because I still get signals, as Kyle said I'll always get signals, only I don't always know how to respond to them. But the difference is , is that now I take them a lot more seriously again not as a theory but as something that has proven to be invaluable to my life and quite detrimental if I just go on ignoring it.
Thanks for your time in reading my rambles. I hope your able to navigate my somewhat random links and inconclusive thought patterns. It's somewhat a mirror of where I am, not everything makes perfect sense and at times I'm greatly confused but there are also many splendid moments where my love shines forth. Here's to moments where our love shines forth . Blessings on you all. I wouldn't be writing this blog or living my adventures as I am if it wasn't for each and everyone of you. And a special loveliness to all those who have children. It's always worth dreaming in a world of harmony and striving in our little ways to make it achievable. I feel blessed that the majority of people that I know hold this as an integral part of their life. It's beautiful and should give us all hope.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1198655340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1198655340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sammmiles/samintheoutback/1198655340/tpod.html Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:25:29 -0500 Australian adventures

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Hobart, Australia

Merry Christmas all...

And what a hot one it was. Champagne and sun yeh I'm coping alright.

I'm not actually in Tasmania now just wanted the maker on my map. Life is moving exceedingly fast and keeping up with this onl;ine thing is going to be a wee bit tricky so what I'm figuring is that I'm going to have to head off from doing the conventional timeline stories and just throw things in.

By the way Dolly loved Tasmania and we discovered she is very photogenic. I hope to get you those photos soon. In fact Tassy might just become a photo story. It was so exceedingly beautiful. Stunning lovely exquisite, boasting the cleanest air and water in the southern hemisphere it really was like going somewhere magical. sharing that journey with Grace Demain and his father Shahid was very special.

Let me tell you what I've just been doing, making strawberry Jam. It's all in pots cooling down. The other day I made plum jam from foraged plums, little tiny things they were and let me tell you it took a long time to get all the stones out. A long time...very Zen work. In the New Year I'll be off to the market with those. St Andrews market to be specific and while I'm mentioning St Andrews I'll just throw in that my mum lives in St Andrews in Bristol. Anyway this one is just outside Melbourne out in the forested hills. A total hippy things full of tarot readers, free faith healers, shiatsu, reflexology, organic and noin-organic produce homemade jewellery, essential oils and other bits and bobs ans last but not least the legendary chai tent. It's not the chai it's known for it's for it's social ambience because people will just hang there all day chatting or strumming some instrument or other.

Melbourne is a very musical place. Wonderful. My berimbau has started many conversations off. In many ways it has become a lover of mine, something I turn to in time of need and a faithful companion on exploration trips. I'm missing my caxixi at the moment, silly me left it at someones house about 30 km away. For those who don't know it's a rattle and the berimbau is empty without it. Without it one can play rhythms and get pretty groovy but the caxixi holds all the delicious subtleties and transcends the instrument to a completely new level. I may still struggle with other capoeristas because I don't know which rhythms go with what but on my own I've had more than a few years to develop a relationship with it and I love it.

I actually met a capoeirista from Rio de Janeiro a lovely tall slim Brazillian guy wuith medium length thin neat dreads. I was walking through Victoria night market with a plate full of food. Absolutely starving I was, you know when your brains fuzzy cos you need to eat and what do I hear...tch-chy doing ding tch-chy doiig ding...my body is heading there before my minds caught up. It didn't tale long for them to spot me and invite me to play. So in I go....hoping my wrist will be ok...but how was I to pass such a random game by. I played a lovely game with one guy and then the Brazilian dude handed his berimbau to someone and we had a lovely long game. It turned out he was a trainau from a student of Moraes. He had a lovely game of Angola, definitely some sly street style markings going on. I like capoeiristas who use there knees and elbows. Who can be very technical with their markings without being aggressive I thought we had a great rapport going and he seemed to enjoy himself. My legs felt it the next day...as did my wrist so I'll be holding back from training.

A few housey things.

I'm gonna be living with six others. Demian and grace. They're the couple who got married, she'll be studying Chinese medicine and he'll be doing wind energy solar energy and energy advice work. There is a guy called Luke, he also does wind and solar work and will be collaborating with Demian business wise. They already have a job sourcing stuff for Shahid who is a bit of a top Bloke. He's been working in rural areas of Pakistan setting up solar bits and bobs in small villages. Very inspiring. Then There's Michelle who is studying Kinesiology, she's out a lot and has a busy life. Luke and Michelle are both very good fire twirlers along with the last couple Sylph and Ohana. There both a little bit out of a bow,,,erm they like walking round Everywhere with barefeet..they do market stuff and I'll be joining them on that. Sylph trained some Japanese martial art for ages before leaving his Dojo to come to Melbourne cos he had a dream about it. Some time in the last couple of years he gave away everything he had and burnt all his id and stuff. Even burnt the clothes he was wearing leaving himself naked to all. As you can imagine he has a few fun stories to tell. Grace was coming over to England just when he was giving his money away and he bought her the flight. Ohana is a nifty thing with fire stuff and she also does contact juggling, she likes climbing trees which is great, I've been up a few with her and she is a social bunny.
So that's the people how about the place. IT's some forty km outside Melbournes big bungalow. We're in no way cramped. IT's right next to a river....it's a bit brown but it's a river all the same. Birds are constantly chatting away. We have possums in the garden, they're so cute. Plans for the house are as follows. Solar water heater. A greywater system, and Growing veg.

I'm tired of typing for now. Dolly and I will do our best to get some photos to you all soon. I hope your all well and enjoyed much warmth from friends and family over Christmas. Much love Smiles xx
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