PLAIN SAILING (Pittwater, Australia)

We didn't come out to just swan about and enjoy the sunshine and the family's famously kind hospitality. We both want to make some progress with professional and artistic aspirations. Tricky this creative professional lark though.

Obviously we’re busting a gut to land some work - I’ve managed to recut my showreel, Neko made me a website, we've sent out a tonne of emails to contacts here, I've had a couple of interviews for local jobs....and now?…and now I'm off sailing, then it's to the clubhouse for drinks, then Joel and I have a tennis match! Well, it's all about networking darling.

Really, I was allowed to become part of the crew on a 40 foot racing yacht, competing against the likes of 'Wild Oats', Australia's premiere racing team. It's nuts! With my reputation for sinking boats (Motorboat with Jean Phillippe, Queensland 1995, Katamaran with my brother Jesse, Jervis Bay 2001), I can only assume they were duped by my piratey Bristol heritage and my willingness to sport a beard and stripes. I'm working on my limp.

So far, I have a couple of days a week tutoring on a media course at a local college, and I'm scheduled to shoot a music video next month. The rest of the time, it's all 'tacking and spritzers'! This freelance thing is turning out to be plain sailing.

UNDERGROUND OPERA (Wellington Caves near Dubbo, Australia)

So we're in The Outback...ish. It's Valentine's Day.

Now the landlocked regions of Australia are absolutely stunning - but there's not a lot happening. Where do you plan a romantic night out where it's all mozzies and sheep stations? Let's go to the high street milk bar and look at the local rag to see what's going on: country fair, shearing competition, hot rod rally, 'Pie and dance', nope nope nope nope. We chance upon a rare droplet of sophistication in the cultural desert that is the Australian heartlands: 'Opera in the Caves'.



We call for availability and lo and behold, talk with the actual opera company owner, a one man operation with a troop of the finest troubadours and some cool lighting. As it happens, when he's not running Opera events, he's a miner...everything from digging for gold and gems in Aussies new mining boom, to digging a harbour tunnel in Sydney. We asked about the event and enquired if we could see some pics online. He said his online photos were scant and that he hoped to get more tonight only his photographer had bailed. Well mercy me! Next thing you know, I'M booked to be the stand in photographer, and we land free tickets. Ker-ching!! A damp dark back row seat and some fat lasses wailing in Italian. Now that's what I call a real gem of a romantic night out.

My sweet Valentine...Neko 'Billy no mates'

Miner Bruce has that 1950's dappa talkshow host look. Love it!

Thank you Bruce Edwards www.operainthecaves.com.au

HAPPY CAMPERS (Murray River, South Australia)

Wayne Dermody seeks out quiet places to sit, sun, and fish alongside the thousand of miles of rivers in Australia’s Outback. We met him at the quiet and remote Cadell campsite on the Murray River. He served in Vietnam, came back and joined the police force, and wished he'd stayed on rather than leaving to odd-job around Oz. He had a girlfriend with four kids for six years. He finally left simply saying "I'm gonna split." She said "righto." Only then, did he learn to drive at age 50, and off he went on the road.

 

Wayne goes to occasional Vietnam vet reunions, keeps a collie called Shaggy and lives a simple life out of his Ute (Utility Vehicle / Truck). Everything he needs is right there. He’s on route to a reunion now. Along with his sister, these guys are the only people he keeps up with. To earn a few more bucks for the road, he will soon return to his work digs on a sheep station in Western Australia. He feels like his time is running out to keep doing physical labour as he gets old and out of breath. Wayne smokes 40 roll ups a day.

For Wayne, it’s never too late to start traveling, but it may be too late to stop.