Well.. I make it sound dramatic, when it's not really anything of great importance. But we just sold our old car.

It'd been sitting on our front lawn procrastinating for well over a month, battery dead, grass growing wild around it.

We had initially thought we might possibly keep it and use it for the rougher journeys, but we realised, and rightly so, that we are not a 2 car family, and for the little needs we have (stocking up on fruit at the markets each week), we really couldn't justify have an extra set of wheels sitting around.

For a while also, we thought we may have to pay someone to come and remove the thing. Here in Queensland, cars are more expensive than other states, but surprisingly getting rid of old cars, is not a simple issue. In other places the wreckers will pay you for them, but not here.. here you have to pay them to take them off your hand.

Fortunately for our little car, it managed to find a new home. We sold it for $50 to some couple who live on 300 acres, that'll use it for purely driving around on their property. $50 was basically given away, especially as it likely had more than that in petrol in the tank.. But it at least us saved us paying $80 for a wreckers to come and scrap it, and at least, too, it will see out the rest of it's life on a farm until it finally dies of whatever it's destiny prescribes..

So yesterday they came and picked it up.. drove it off on it's own steam.. and left the lawn looking bare and forlorn.

I think for Květa especially, the car holds a lot of memories. She had it before I arrived on the scene, and it had really been a Godsend for her, suddenly making shopping and getting around so much easier.

So it's gone now.. End of an Era..

Stuff happening here.. besides the gardening and slow progress book writing, the rainy season seams to be sort of happening now too, making our little garden sprout more than ever, with pawpaws reaching new heights, passion fruit vines spreading out, pumpkin and watermelon plants going wild, and new fruit trees sprouting up from the compost. It's a good time of year.

Kveta and I went down to Rene Beresfords memorial last sunday (8 days ago!). He was the guy that was the major figurehead behind that 1990's fruitarian network movement. Producing a quarterly fruitarian newsletter for roughly one decade..

Rene Beresford Memorial (23/12-1928 - 24/10-2010)

It was held on the northern end of trinity beach, and roughly 15 people or so turned up including Zalan, who flew up from Victoria for the occasion, and locals Eddie, Christine, and Robert Lockhart.. Plus some other faces we may had seen in passing, but never actually met, so we made some new friends too.

Joining us also, were Kairos and Lindsay, who are a couple of young fruit centered americans over here on an adventure. They were staying with Harley and Freelee down near Brisbane someplace, visited Anne too, and are now hanging out in our neck of the woods. Actually, yesterday we picked them up from fruitopia where they've been sort of wwoofing this past week or 2, and they're spending their last days up here at our place.

Lindsay & Kairos are delightful company, and they and I have been for some great little nature outings exploring some local creeks and waterfalls.


Kairos and Lindsay out for a walk

There are some truly spectacular walks not too far from where we live, and plenty of accompanying natural waters..


Kairos taking a shower

We stopped at this place for a swim for a while.. truly breathtaking view:


great swimming hole
- you've gotta be adventurous to find this one!

Life's good.
hugs,
mango.

Yeah.. I'm enthused and writing again! It's taken me a while to get started, but these last few weeks I have resurrected my book, and it has once more undergone a major transformation and morphed into something different again..

I've decided to focus more on my own life now.. it being so entwined with the philosophical thoughts I otherwise harbor and which will also feature in the book..

I generally sit and write for a couple of hours each morning.. Which perhaps sounds like I'm speeding through it, but isn't actually the case.. Much of the time is always spent rereading through stuff I've already written and rearranging things, adding stuff that I've forgotten, and taking brief notes of things I need to get down..

I no longer have any idea how many pages I've written, as I'm using a straight forward text editor to get my thoughts down, which just shows me one great big long page..

Once I'm done with a first draft, whenever that'll be, I'll cut and paste it all into a word processor, and start formatting it as I read through and decide what to and what not to include.. I would guess though that I'm pushing a 150 pages or so..

I think you'll find the book interesting, even if it is me saying so.. my life has been incredibly complicated, with all manner of bizarre and unusual occurances that I'm hoping will both enthrall and entertain.. from my daring escape of military conscription, to a year spent in the australian bush.. but, oh my, i'm giving the plot away.. Not to worry, that's just a tiny snippet..

Otherwise, Kveta and I are enjoying our lives, swimming regularly in the Barron river, eating plenty of fruit, and occasionally visiting Fruitopia where often interesting wwoofers pass through..

More another when..
Mango.

It's my 49th Birthday today.. We've just gotten back from the Tolga market..

After leaving the market, we noticed that the car was just turning over to 400,000 kilometers, so we pulled over to take a picure..

400,000 kilometers

The car's a 1990 (or '91 ?) white toyota camry station wagon.. Kveta bought it a couple of years before I arrived on the scene, and it's served us mightily well so far... seeing us safely relocated from sydney to the tropics, plus supplied with fruit regularly..

The markets, see, are held in a different town each weekend.. dependent on which weekend of the month it is.. the 1st sunday of the month it's in Tolga, just less than 30kms away.. The 2nd saturday of each month it's in Mareeba, our home town. the 3rd Saturday, it's in Malanda, probably 50kms away, the 4th, it's in Yungaburra, about the same distance as Malanda, and the 5th Saturday (if there is one), it's back in Mareeba again..

Black sapote/chocolate pudding fruit, from a local
Papua new Guinean womans garden..

The month just gone was pretty unusual in that there were 5 saturdays, and the 1st of this month, today, happens to also be the 1st sunday.. thus, we've just had 2 markets one after each other, and next weekend, no market at all.. unless we go to the atherton market on the coming saturday (a market we generally skip as it's not as good as the others)..

Anyhow, we've found that the markets are pretty much one of the better ways to stock up on food for the week. They're also a way to meet and get to know local growers.. We already have contact details of a couple of families that grow local fruits spray free, and have been welcomed to get out and visit them and buy directly from their land.. Something we've been lazy about doing as the markets normally see us reasonably well stocked for the week..

Our kitchen stocked up with fruit.. (Also, not visible, Avos,
cucumbers, black sapote, pumpkin, passion fruit & more

This morning, at Tolga, we were given a box of pawpaw for free, which is the main reason we drove out there, as we had already been to the mareeba markets yesterday and were otherwise wellstocked..

In our little garden at the moment, we are still regularly eating our home grown tomatoes, and visited frequently by a little local couple of birds.. One woman we know called them "little willy wagtails", but we're not exactly sure what species they belong to.. they like to sit nearby and watch us, and I'm sure sometimes they play a game to see just how close they might get to us without actually touching.. Swooping down and nearly landing on our feet our head, but then flitting off elsewhere, and when we sit down, they come and sit quietly and watch us..

Local little willy wagtail watching me garden

Here's another photo with Kveta holding up a bowl of freshly picked tomatoes to one of our little friend who's probably not that impressed with them, as they seem to prefer fluttering little insects..

Wagtail watching kveta with bowl of tomatoes

Yesterday I was calling him from the house.. trying to mimic their song, and from somewhere out back, one of them was answering my call.. kveta was in the kitchen laughing about it..

Once I'd stopped calling, one of them came around to the front of the house, sat on the window sill, sang really loud and cheerfully, and then flew off..

Kveta with fresh picked tomatoes

On another less cheerful note.. we had a short interview with our bank manager during the week.. We wanted to find out what the chances were that we might be able to somehow borrow money to buy ourselves our much desired piece of paradise.. To be honest, I think we naively entered the bank optimistically thinking that we would at least be able to borrow a couple of hundred thousand, possibly more ..

It turned out that in their eyes, our financial situation and incomes are too low for them to be able to lend us any money.. So the bubble, that was one potential escape route to our future home and garden was burst..

A good place for a swim - at Fruitopia - click to enlarge

We left the bank pretty saddened, but still optimistic that somehow or another the universe will manifest for us a corner of the earth that's rural and next to water with privacy, for much desired naturism practise, and space for untethered fruit tree planting.. Some place with a nice swimming hole, like the one pictured both above and below:

me at the fruitopia swimming hole a couple of days ago..

Last Tuesday, Květa flew back into Cairns again.

I figured as her flight landing wasn't scheduled until 18:50, I'd head into Cairns earlier and find a durian or 2 for us to share on her arrival.. However, I guess that just wasn't meant to be, as although I tried 5 or 6 different places, all of them were out of stock.. Bit of a let down as I'd really been looking forward to a durian again, - that creamy sweet deliciousness..

I did, however, manage to score some really yummy longan fruits to share..


Fruitopia Swimming Hole
Anyhow, time on my hands still, I'd also prearranged to meet Venant.. He's this raw vegan guy we met at fruitopia after that 80/10/10 gathering that Harley and Freelee organized in December last year (ended shortly before our arrival in the tropics)..

Venant's also famous worldwide for his role in decapitating Xena.. Yep.. He's the Samurai Ninja that finally beheaded the iconic warrior princess, appearing in the last 2 episodes of the long running TV show.. I have to confess that I've actually seen an episode once or twice, although only coincidently as it was never a show I was in to..

So we met up around 17:30, and spent an hour or so together chatting. He's currently doing a juice thing, and I think he said it was his 14th day on just juices on that day we met.. He's a great balanced guy with his wits about him, and delightful company.. a pleasure meeting up with him again.

He made me a delicious fresh apple juice, and soon afterwards I was headed on to the airport..

I must have got there at roughly the same time as Květas plane landed.. around 18:50, and by 18:55 I was in the airport lounge waiting to meet and great her..

We had our trusty little mobile phones with us that spend most of their times turned off or discharged, but this time were both battery loaded and on.. She rang me within minutes of me getting in to the airport to let me know that she would be last to leave the plane because they'd be pushing her in a wheel chair..

Anyhow, we were soon in each others arms again, after her too long sojourn elsewhere, (zlobila jsi mně K! - byla jsi pryč  aš moc dlouho!).

We weren't able to leave the airport immediately as Květa had her own wheelchair with her as luggage that we had to first wait for and pick up. But it didn't take long really, and we were soon in the trusty car driving back up the range toward our temporary stepping stone home in Mareeba..

Munching on longans on the way up and both feeling glad to be homeward bound..


Photo taken an hour before driving down to Cairns to pick up Květa

Květa was, and still is feeling a little run down from all her travelling, and her sleeping pattern isn't full back to normal yet, but will no doubt soon be, and I'm sure she'll be updating her own blog again sooner or later.. Letting you all know what she's been up to..

We were at Mareeba Markets together yesterday and fully stacked up with fruit for the coming week..

Papaya, pineapple, tomatoe, cucumber, pumpkin (yes, we haven't done this much before, but we really like them fresh juiced together with tomatoes!), oranges, rockmelon and the infamous chocolate pudding fruit(!).. yum!

Hugs to all,
mango.

Less than a week now until Kveta gets back here.. She's been gone far too long.

Meanwhile I've been hanging out here, visiting Fruitopia twice a week for a bath in the creek.. I find the water there so much more appealing than our "on tap" water which is sadly mightily chlorinated and smells like a swimming pool..

I'm sure that it must have an effect on the stuff we're growing in the garden, although to be honest, I'm not able to notice that effect.. The cucumbers we've grown are simply delicious..

I've been watching some Derren Brown videos recently..

That guy is simply soo good at whatever it is he's doing.. If you don't know him, he's this English stage performer who works his own brand of mind reading, hypnotic, magic tricks.. I think he really has an ability to get inside the mind of others, including the audience..

He claims to have no psychic powers what-so-ever, and everything is slight of hand, cold reading, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), PWA (Perception Without Awareness), hypnotism, mentalism and showmanship. I think I've a rough understanding of some of what he does, but other things he manages to pull off I have absolutely no idea about..

In the show I just watched, he manages to get some elderly lady who doesn't play poker, to go up against 5 of the countries top poker players..

Before she does this, she spends a little over a week with Derren, where he trains her for the event.. The result.. she manages to nearly come first out 6 contestants.. Well, she came 2nd, but only because an unlucky card was dealt at the end.. Experts seemed to think that she would have absolutely no chance against the guys she was up against..

In a similar show I've seen previously, he manages in 1 single week to teach this girl to play the piano at such a level that at the end of the week she plays in front of a live audience, at a very high level.. Her training was all done without her even touching the piano once before hand.. Now explain that one!

hugs,
mango.

On saturday, just passed, I went to the Malanda market and stocked up on food for the week.

Pineapples, custard apples, papaya, mandarins, tomatoes, persimmons, cucumbers and avos..

I already had a box of oranges back at home, enough to last me the rest of this week, at least, but somehow I felt like I wanted more..

So driving back through Atherton, I stopped off at Woolworths to check out if they had anything appealing...

One sad and lonely little durian caught my eye, and some juicy looking medjool dates.. I can never resist eating a date while browsing the fresh produce, but don't normally buy any, but for a change, I bought a handful, together with the lonesome durian..

The durian was devoured before I'd even got back to base.. First one I'd had for quite a while now.. well.. at least a month say.. (for those of you curious, I'm on me tod at the moment.. Kveta is away visiting friends and family)..

Anyhow, today, having still the taste of that durian in my mouth, I felt like more.. So I drove back out to Atherton for 2nds.. actually 3rds too.. I bought 2 medium sized ones..

But what a let down! Saturday's one was reasonable, not the best, but satisfying and appealing enough for me to want more, but today's were frankly very disappointing.. watery and flavourless.

Woolies durian are generally pretty crappy up this ways.. They're frozen in Thailand and shipped to Sydney where they arrive reasonably fresh.. but then they have to get them up from Sydney to this neck of the woods, a good 3 or 4 day journey..

And there-in lies the problem.. instead of keeping them frozen for the journey, they are just refrigerated, so by the time they get here, they are all thawed out and past their peek..

I kind of knew that already, and had told Kveta in the past that I don't want any more of them, but, you know how it is when you feel you want something, and saturday's one must have been a freak that was actually flavoursome and good enough for me to return for more..

So.. no more woolies durian for me thanks.. I should save the durian money for a trip to the philipines instead,, or back to Thailand again..

absolutely delicious custard apples though!!

peace,
mango.

A short while ago, i posted to facebook the intro to the fruitarian documentary made by Emile with the help of David..

I think they did a great job with that by the way, and I'm still looking forward to seeing the finished version of which Emile finished recently (he aired it to a an audience of a couple of hundred or so, and the general feeling was it went down well, sparking the curiousity of many toward fruitarianism..)..

- the video above isn't the video I'm talking about, by the way.. that can be seen here:

Fruitarian Doco Intro

anyhow.. like i said, i posted the video onto facebook.. I've had an account since sometime last year, but generally don't go there, as quite frankly it confuses the bijeebers out of me.. I signed up predominantly to hook up with some old friends, and maybe view their photos or videos, and just generally keep in touch.. Certainly, I looked up a fair few old faces I once knew quite well, people that I'm guessing without facebook I'd probably never have heard from again.. So there was a certain degree of success there..

So then, that video got posted, and suddenly my inbox was inundated with friend requests.. I ummed and aahd a fair bit about them.. Only few of the people I'd heard of, and the rest friends of friends, and even some complete strangers..

this morning i was messing around on facebook again, and made the very rash decision to just befriend everybody.. so i just clicked on each "make friends" button, one after the other.. about 30 or so in all..

and now i've done that, i'm feeling strangely deeply saddened by the fact.. like i betrayed myself, because i really just wanted to have people i personally "know", like, having met them in the flesh, as friends, and now i've just gone and forsaken my ploy, and got heaps of new friends i don't know.

i'm almost feeling a little like canceling my facebook account as it doesn't exactly bring more joy into my life..

i think i'll just abandon it for a while, and stick to my blogs, that's enough for me.. i feel i don't want to get too involved in much internetwise.. i feel pretty much done with the whole forum thing, and debating my opinion everywhere.. it's like, i feel quite committed and certain of the path i've chosen, and have no doubts that 100% fruitarianism is the right thing for me to be doing right now..

i'm going outside for some sunshine..

hugs,
mango..
ps hope you enjoy the video i posted here too.. made me laugh as i found myself relating well to it's content..