Lindy Hop in Lancelin

I made it back to Lancelin safe and sound. Work at the Tavern is the same, casual and fun.
The sand is still white, the sea, still crystal blue and I feel at home (well, as much as I can this far away from Canada).

Lindy in Lancelin
Photo by Trevor Hutchinson

So I was thinking to myself one day, "Gee, it's too bad there is no lindy in lancelin, there is a perfectly good community hall right there". And then it hit me like a sack of potatoes ; why not bring lindy hop to Lancelin? So I did.

For the Perth swing dancers, it was a weekend getaway from the city, filled with sun, sand, beers at the tav, a dip in the pool (at the backpackers hostel where they all stayed), good friends and great dancing.
The hall is fairly small, but it was just perfect for us. Car loads of dancers flowed into the small town throughout saturday afternoon, some hit the beach, some went off roading at the dunes, but we all congregated at the hall for dinner together. There was a feast, there was laughter, and then of course, there was dancing.
I did advertise the event to the town, and even promised a beginner lesson! Unfortunately, not one local showed up. Later on that night a few trickled in to see what was going on, but it was not well supported by the townsfolk.
Fortunately, it was very well supported by the Perth swing scene! There were 25 of us dancing the night away, some from as far as Sweden and Canada!

Around midnight, I looked around the room to see my dancing friends, having a ball, feeling totally relaxed to be away from home and I knew it was a success. But then, out of nowhere, a band began to play! Jessie G and her two Phat Cats they called themselves, and they played one heck of a saucy latenight blues set, with no mics, and absolutely no preparation. It was marvelous.

It sounds like Lindy Hop in Lancelin will be a repeat event, with or without the Canadian organizer, and I couldn't be happier.

Feeling Spontaneous

Melbourne part 2

Things that are great about Melbourne
-Market-

-Bicycles-> everyone has one, everyone rides them everywhere. I had one, it was called the 'intimidator' It got me to work at back, and for that, it was loved. To really fit it, you need a crumpler as well, but I wasn't quite that dedicated to the Melbourne image.

-Live Music-> There is great music to be found all over the city, I focused my energy on one particular variety of course. One of my favorites being Virus, who play weekly at a glamorous hole-in-the-wall called Alchemy ( their water glasses are beakers and there are medieval chemistry books lying around on Victorian couches). But there were other great musics events, like Swing in the Park and of course

-Lindy Hop-> The hep cats in this scene really know how to swing it. I think I learned more in 2 months of light social dancing than I have in 2 years of intense workshopping. They are super fun and super awesome.

-Food-> I'm not all that adventurous an eater , and I'm fairly inexperienced when it comes to ethnic foods, but Melbourne is an excellent place to change all of that. My buddies Kieran and Loz definitely got me into the spirit of good asian food and introduced me to a whole new world of dishes to try. mmmmm....

-The Australian Open-> have you ever sat down to watch a game of world class tennis in the scorching summer sun? I highly recommend it, but wear a hat! I put sunscreen on 4 times that day and still got burnt. But it was worth it to watch the Williams sisters play doubles against (and by that I mean demolish) 2 lesser known Australian girls, the crowd went nuts! We also had seats to the epically long and well matched match between James Blake and Juan Del Potro. Again, a very lively crowd and we were sooo close you could practically feel the sweat. I have a whole new appreciation for tennis.

After all this fun, I started to get the itch to get back on the open road, change locations and what not, but I still needed work. Then, through a strange string of events; speaking with my roomate back in Lancelin, finding out they needed barmaids, wanting to attend a big swing event in perth and generally loving Western Australia, I decided to go back. I left my job Friday night, had goodbye drinks with friends saturday night, and booked a flight and flew out sunday.
Have you ever booked a flight and flown in the same day? Again, this is something I highly recommend. AND, on the flight, I saw some lighting but from a whole new perspective!

This all happened at the end of January. I was having so much fun basking in the joy of my spontaneous act, I didn't feel the need to tell anyone, or write about it. Most of the Perth swing dancers didn't even find out I was back until I showed up to a dance one thursday night in February.
That's one other reason I came back, I just felt right at home in Lancelin but especially in the Perth lindy scene. Which is probably why I decided to host a Swing event here, but more on that later.

Christmas in Geelong

I was having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year, but just in the nick of time, with a little shopping, gift wrapping and a gingerbread latte it felt like Christmas. Also, I found my first Australian Christmas song, White Wine in the Sun, and I just love it!

I spent Christmas eve through boxing day down in Geelong (just south of Melbourne) with some lindy hopper friends, Kieran, Loz and Elise. They and their families were so good to me and I really enjoyed their Australian Christmas experience.

Some Aussie traditions include:
-more deserts than you can handle
-bocce in the garden
-visits to the beach
-afternoon naps between meals
-beach cricket

Although technically I have played the game, I still have no idea how to play cricket. The instructions I got were “hit the ball and run”. In any case, it was good fun.

I do miss home a lot this time of year; the cottage, the snow, Mom’s cooking. But I will just have to look forward to next year!

Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne a few weeks ago and have finally started to settle in. When I first arrived there was a big lindy hop weekend and since then I’ve stayed with a few very generous dancers and had a lovely time.

This week I moved into a house down in St Kilda just off the beach, with a bunch of other backpackers. I share a room but it’s a nice big house and everyone has jobs on slightly different schedules so there is plenty of space. I also managed to get a bike which makes getting to my job quick and easy!
Well, one of my jobs.

One is at a pub over in Port Melbourne, which is about a 20 minute bike ride along the beach. It gets super busy on the weekends but the staff are friendly and this week I get to learn how to make cocktails!
I’m still working on finding a good day job. I just quit one and it felt sooooo good. If you’ve never stormed out on an employer, I highly recommend trying it. It was a hoity toity restaurant where the owners yell at everyone and micromanage until you just can’t take it anymore. And it was far away from where I am living, so now I’m looking for a restaurant in the neighbourhood.

Now that I’ve sort of got the work, housing and bike thing figured out, my next to do is to get a social life! I’ve got a few good friends around the city, some lindy hoppers, some backpackers that I’ve met along the way, but I was so busy trying to get life organized that I forgot about fun!

Speaking of which, it’s a balmy 39 degrees today and even the city buses were warning us yesterday to carry water and keep the blinds down if there is no air conditioning! Such thoughtful public transit personnel. So now I need to decide whether to hit the beach or find a nice air-conditioned museum to spend my afternoon in.

Christmas is a little different down here. For one, it’s hot. And there is no snow. Also, I have only seen one house with Christmas lights and there aren’t nearly enough tacky decorations in the shop windows. But maybe that’s just because I’m not living in suburbia. It is nice to see everyone so relaxed around Christmas time, as opposed to being cold, stuck in traffic, and generally stressed about the holiday season.
So I’ll be sending warm beachy thoughts to you, Merry Christmas!

Road Trip

Roadtrip!

Sunday November 15th, Marie from France, Murph (Jon Murphy) from Ireland and I, headed out to pick up our van and drive across the southern coast of Australia from Perth to Melbourne. (see map)

The van that we affectionately named Bruce (like the Shark from 'Finding Nemo') cost us $5 /day because we did it as a relocation, a favour to the rental company. It was a tight fit for 3 people, I think it was intended for 2 adults and 1 child, but we made it work. The back had a sink, fridge and all the necessary cooking equipment, and 2 beds that fold out.

We camped mostly at free camp areas along side the road with nothing more than a few trees and a toilet. Once in a while we treated ourselves to a caravan site with showers and electricity to recharge the ipods and what not.

For my birthday (day 2) we where right on the Nullarbor, the desert that covers the middle of the country. We celebrated with beer and cookies.

There are so few other cars on the roads that you know just about everyone you end up camping next to and everyone you pass waves, like we were all part of an elite club. We saw heaps of signs telling us to watch out for kangaroos on the road, and we did see plenty, but none that were alive. I’m pretty sure we are the only people to cross the Nullarbor without seeing a single (live) Kangaroo! We did see an emu family, some lizards and lots of eagles.

We passed through lots of nothingness, including the longest stretch of straight road in Australia (146km) but there were a few interesting towns. Balladonia, for example, where the American satellite ‘skylab’ crashed into the desert, the Western Australia/Southern Australia border and Port Augusta which was a balmy 45 degrees! One night we found a campsite actually in the centre of a small town called Mallala. We were camped at the sports ground and were woken up early by bright pink, very noisy birds called Gallahs.

We arrived in Adelaide on day 5, but since it was soooo stinkin’ hot we decided to head down to Victor Harbour just south of there to play on the beach. We went for a swim in the southern ocean and asked the people next to us if there were sharks. They said there are, even some sightings that week, and big ones too, like tiger sharks. But what are you gonna do, not go in the water when it’s nearing 50 degrees outside? So we stayed in the very shallow parks and made sure there were always people further out than us. There is a loud alarm that goes off if the patrol sees any danger. Everyone survived.
Then we went and saw penguins in the middle of an awesome sunset thunder storm!

The next day we dropped off Murph in Adelaide, and found a German guy who wanted to get to Melbourne. The next car, Igor, was much more spacious for the driving but much slower and a little fussy. It had one tent on top of the roof and one regular one to set up on the ground. The drive to Melbourne was so much different than the first part of the trip. There were towns everywhere, we never had to use the second gas tank and it was much greener.

The great ocean road is very deserving of it’s name. We weren’t sure what all the fuss was about at first, but then we turned a corner and saw the ocean, and the cliffs, and the 12 apostles, an it was magnificent. We camped at Mt Gambier, on an old volcano that now has 3 craters, one called blue lake (check out the photos). Later that day we pulled over to take a walk to see Pelicans, but right on the footpath we ran into a Kangaroo! He was quiet but definitely alive!

The second part of the great ocean road was windy and right close to the water and passed through heaps of little surfing and vacation towns build right into the green rolling mountains. And we saw a Koala in a tree!

Driving on the left isn’t so bad, and my standard driving went very well in fact. The last part of the trip had lots of fun hills and corners and more towns so I got lots of good practice in then. I still wouldn’t drive a manual in a city like Melbourne but I feel very accomplished having learned an important life skill. I still prefer being the navigator and being in charge of the maps!