Getting Down and Out in Double Bay - New Year, New Life

Photos by Cecilia and passers-by, 2nd week of January, 2012

I heard Double Bay is a desireable area, so I thought I'd go and live there for a bit. 

At the Marina. Yeah, I got a bit skinny over Christmas.
You are quite welcome to cook me dinner. 

Down the road from my friend's house is a marina, where I take my strolls, and meet other vagabonds from all around the world. 

They live, eat and sleep in tiny, tiny cabins for weeks, but have a vast view of the sea, horizons all around. 

Its 180º opposite of life in a McMansion, or even a real mansion, where your house is vast, but you may be confined to an office to pay for it all.  

Some of these boats even had weenie balcony gardens, little cheerful pots. How precious this scrap of soil would seem, if you were weeks without it.

"Land Ahoy". Thats how they greet their pot plants each morning. 

Double Bay streetscape, 10 minutes from Sydney's city center. 

2011 was my year of being reclusive,  so for 2012 Im going to have a go at being out and about. 

Here is the result:

First night
We had a nice dinner, my laptop and I, with rain pattering on the awnings, the air fresh and electic.
When I got a whining neighbour, I moved table and fished out my earplugs.

We may not all like each other, but there are plenty of tricks that allow us to share the same world.

Next Night

The food at Mrs. Sippy is almost as good as my own cooking, delicate and classy. 

Hey, maybe we just have similar tastes.

The lady beside me took my photo when she had her smoko. 

Then her companion invited us (my laptop and I) over to join them. 

Nice!

It turned out she wasn't Kylie Minoge, but an Executive's assistant.
She's just about to start running work-life balance events, and needs some good Permaculture.
A woman with keen insticts.
He's not a film star either, but a Dubai Lawer. I wonder if his office needs a self-watering indoor edible garden?
I like this town.

Next Night
The fellow who took this photo had helped me with parking, the day I moved in, and recognized me.  He was chivalrous then, and interesting now - he has his own T.V. show, imagine that.
I could look it up on Google as we chatted, and show my lovely permaculture too.
Share surplus ideas, get them out there too.

I like dinner with technology, and yes, I do like this town.

After that?
The next night I knew my Permaculture heros were coming to town, to teach a Design Course. John Champagne. Janet Millington. I tried to track them down, but they don't seem keen on mobile phones.

Dinner alone.

And then?
I'm going to get in my car and follow them, see if I can help out on the course.
I hear there is no wireless in that part of the Hawksbury region.
No phones, no email, no googling people as you meet them.

But great expectations for another good week, in my year of getting out there.
Acording to one of the great minds of our time, 99% of success is just turning up.