Hello all
Im sorry to write a corporate email but i don't have time to do each individually.
Depending on how well you know me and how often we talk this may or may not come as a surprise to you.
any way i thought my news was big enough to warrant me writing at length about my latest adventure
As you know i do not consider myself a person who needs a great deal of stability in my life! haha
I flew from one adventure to the next most of my life and I must say the last 4 years at this house
running the bed and breakfast have been a great time of sanctuary and healing.
My life in my 20's sure did some damage and i have now been drug and alcohol free for 7 years in may!
yes i do mention it with annoying regularity but i am very proud of this fact. (the way some of your brag about your children!) (gski!)
It was not easy, in fact forged in fire and scarred upon my soul
I also managed to quit smoking cigarettes on Waitangi day 2007, so that's over a year now.
i won't say i never feel like a fag!
but i certainly never feel like a drink or even the tiniest puff or drug so i guess it only takes 5 years to be free !
I have a friend who is 17 years drug and alcohol free and I look up to her and look forward to the day I can be an inspiration to someone only a few years into it.
I have found a strength through conquering these addictions and now trust myself in a way i never thought i could. I have also found much peace and healing in the religion I was brought up in
You all know my mother has been a missionary for the last 15 years having made many trips to Ecuador almost immediately after we lost our father when my brother and i were teenagers.
( Speaking of Bro: engaged of 4 years now and any day were sure they'll be a baby even if not an actual wedding))
Mum has been In Ecuador for 4 years now and while she will be home for a year next march we all know shell be back
where she can do the most good: working for the aids foundation in Guayaquil.
I write because my newest change in circumstances will affect the way you communicate with me.
I am closing down the bed and breakfast.
The decision was based on my desire to follow a path that i have been drawn to for the last 18 months or so
i found myself in a position to be able to take an opportunity that fulfils this.
I have been becoming growingly resentful of my large and opulent home by the beach I have been resentful of the time television and the internet take from me
I know I cannot simply turn them off, my will power is not superhuman so i have chosen to take them out of my life
I finished my first book last year but feel it is only the preamble to the next two i have bubbling inside me.
I also am following a spiritual pull for solitude poverty and communion with God.
I really feel i have to take this next step and I am in the unique position to be able to do it!
If I did not, i would forever think of this as a missed opportunity.
So I am moving into a teepee in a clearing in native bush.
My friends live on the block also. Chris and Debbie and their daughter 9 yr year old Ruby.
There is no power out there.
I am very excited and have chosen a teepee because of the open fire inside .
I used to wait until my parents had gone to bed as a child and sneak out of my bed late at night not to secretly watch TV but to gaze into the dying embers of the fire.
I feel a parallel between the drama of my youth and the risk taking i did in my 20os amend this need to be
in an environment that's challenges me.
To simply survive being the days priority.
Instead of making sure my nachos are ready out the oven in time to eat them in front of the Simpson's!
I have heard many negative comments from people and Im sure you are also wondering a few things
I am beginning to see that the things people are most sceptical that I can handle are more a reflection of the issues thy would face if they were to take this step!
most people say how can you live with out TV but amusingly a very well dressed and affluent friend of mine asked in horror "You'll get your new timberland boots all muddy"!
( and yeah my pink suede timberland boots are GORGEOUS. see attached picture)
but she's right! no more pink suede boots
But of Course most commonly : How will you do with out TV / internet?
The answer is: i already resent TV so much that I cannot wait to be free of its pull!
A typical day starts well. I wake i read and i think and write and then i turn the TV on and all my creativity evaporates.
I was also unhappy with the surrounds of this house. It is too big to flash and the mod cons virtually eliminated my need to entertain myself. As a chef i had every gadget known to men.
I cant wait to cook on the open fire.
As chef knowledge is largely technical, it allows the formula to be bent to any kind off cooking
we have no fridge so i will have a different diet than usual.
I also look forward to eating the food that we grow out on the block.
Chris is a soil technician and herbalist.
It is now widely know that many people are malnourished ( even the fat ones) because the food we eat is gown in malnourished soils and with out good soil you have plant that contain very few nutrients
( for more info Google "Brix levels in soil")
And another common question is : wont you be cold?
The teepee is 20oz canvas imported from the USA
In Canada people live in these same tipis in the snow!
The open fire keeps you very warm and there is a liner inside providing 2 layers.
the poles go behind the inside layer and inside the outside layer
and water coming thru the hole in the roof runs down the poles behind the inner liner.
Trust me! the American Indians knew a good design when they saw it!
plus I lived in Dunedin for a year and it was 1 degree 24 hours a day for 3 months!
the coolest it gets up here is a 5 degree overnight low and that's in the dead of winter!
In Dunedin we just bundled up! i couldn't bend my arms but at least i was WARM HAHA ( that was a joke)
I still have a lot of woollies to wear but ill have my fire!
They say wood warms you twice Once when you chop it down and once when you burn it
that's would be true but I am the proud owner of a chain saw! so maybe not as bad as when i chopped wood in Dunedin!
we erected the teepee yesterday. we had a working bee and i have some fantastic friends up here,
now i have to throw a dinner party to thank them all
not to mention packing up this house has been a mammoth task,
but thanks also to my great friends who have helped so much.
We video taped the erection of the teepee.
I will finish the tape off tomorrow once we have finished the interior and Ill ask Daemon to put it on
www.youtube.com/it wont be there yet but ill ask him to call it "Erecting a teepee in New Zealand"
so if you want to see it going up just do a search for it on
www.youtube.com/The teepee is 5mtres by 5mts (18ft)
im not taking very much, some clothes, my cooking stuff and about 200 books.
I will still have my DJ job so Ill shower at the radio station mainly because the others will be shut in a tiny DJ booth with me and I think they'll demand it!
I will still continue my weekly MSN talks with Mum in Ecuador. So ill jump on Debbie's wireless broadband on the odd occasion.
( we have no power at the teepee but Debs has wireless broadband. but only a few hours a day because of power limits).
Any way i go play cricket in town on Thursdays so ill do my internet at a cafe in there.
I sit here at my computer on my last day online writing this email to you.
If you want to reply i can be reached at my hotmail address
to those of you whop use the cats pyjamas emails they are now directed to that hotmail any way
( thanks Daemon my webmaster)
but do use the hotmail
As always my text number is ;D and we have reception at the tipi at all times so feel free to text or call me.
However i am going to get back into letter writing, so if you send me your address Ill write you a snail mail letter!
yes i will!
I used to write so many letters when i was young ( mainly at my weekend job at the garden centre if i remember correctly) and i enjoyed it
Now i just write one email and change the dear "individual"
Here's an interesting fact.
I met my real dad last year and he lives on great barrier island and they survive with out mains power and do very well. He and I instantly clicked, i think he's awesome. I loved his lifestyle.
He works for the conservation industry and could accurately be described as a "wild man of the bush"
(he took me pig hinting and i got left behind so i took photos interesting mosses until he came back for me).
So i guess my real mum is some high achieving business woman and my dad is a wild man of the bush.
who am i.........?
Any way do keep in touch dear friends
love
Mel
Monday, 21 April 2008 3:30:31 p.m.