Australia and the Patriots

Hello All.

January 23, 2012 (Sydney Airport)

Time is flying and holy small world I am in Australia!

Firstly, congratulations to the New England Patriots. Sounds like I missed an amazing game over the Raven's. I am currently drooling over the highlights. There is not much NFL news in this hemisphere but it would be interesting to see a Giants vs. Patriots rematch in February.  Though I would much rather see my childhood favorite 49-ers up against the Brady-Bunch.

Where am I currently?  After a whirlwind 2 days of travel which included a scenic train ride, a night at random house with some very gracious Kiwi's, and two plane rides into Australia I am still making my way to Ballina  where I have a three week Wwoof lined up at the Australian Permaculture Research Institute.  I have a basic understanding of permaculture but this is where the concept all started. I am excited to learn from some of the best and I am hoping to glean some insights into the application of permaculture design and local farming into more urban settings.  Healthy food, produced locally and on a big scale for high density areas will be an important aspect in the development of modern cities/communities. Roof top gardens, urban farms and yada-yada.   I am new to these musings but I am excited to see what the next three weeks have in store. There are some pretty passionate local conscience people at this farm (known by some as hippies) but I think they make some pretty valid points about the future of our Earth's eco-system, food supply, and our costs of living.  A lot of which can be made for the better by smarter, more local based initiatives.

Some tales from the journey......I was hosted by an awesome Bellingham, WA couple two nights ago, Dawn and Hudson Dobb.  They just immigrated to New Zealand and are making a new life for themselves in Nelson.  Among the many good conversations we had ranging from Activism to Bonaroo, the evolution of slang came up as well.   We noted the linguistic change of the phrase "I am UP for it" to the more contemporary version of "I am down for that" or "I am down" for short.   Hudson seemed to think the switch happened somewhere in the mid 80's.  What do you think reader?  And, why?
 
The phrase was probably used by people who associated themselves with Boy Scout troop leader enthusiasm - What do you think Scotty my boy! Are you UP for a hike today?  And was subsequently phased out by the way too cool Disco-tech goers -who changed it to the more dead pan; I am down version we know today.  People were too informed during the 80's to be "UP" for anything, the world was getting smaller and being "UP" for anything seems to imply sUPrise. We may not be UP anymore but are we really down?  Down to Earth?  I think not.

Lastly, I must say that I did not feel too nostalgic leaving New Zealand It would have been nice to have a bit more time there as there is so much to explore.   I would love to get back some day - motorbike trip anyone?

Signing off.  Thanks for reading.

Scott the Wwoofer host and Natalie the German Wwoofer  enjoying some travel pictures. 

Spent one night here with my Canadian friends.  A Rainbow Valley house in a settlement outside of Takaka - stunning!

Dominique the German Wwoofer making some brick fired pizza - yum!