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Captains Blog...

Stardate May 16th 2013
It started with a Saturday morning setup at Alexandra park, Greenlane (not my favourite thing) 4 hours to lug all my stuff into the elevator and  up to the second floor then set it all up looking lovely. Next step, change my mindset and spend the next 7 hours as the smiley inspirational helpful person, some pretty good numbers of you came thru the door to keep me chatting to somebody for much of the day. Then it was time to close up the shop and head to Grafton for our Auckland Kiwiburners decompression party, a full on night of watching great belly dancers, listing to lovely music, fire dancing and chatting to my fellow burners. A big thank you to all that came along and created a great night, I headed for home not long after midnight because I was due back on my stall in the morning. Sunday was mothers day and plenty of them came along to the show, I sold lots of crystal hearts for some reason, lol. Then once the show finished another couple of hours to pack it all up and then lug it back down the lift and load it into then van.... next weekend is more of the same in Whangarei (just no elevator to fight for)

Stardate April 29th 2013
I decided to take the long way down to Whakatane so I could visit some op shops I had not been to for a while and the universe was smiling on me with several lovely ball gowns for my Kiwiburn Costume corner and an excellent childs buggy for my next mobile Kiwiburn art work....
The mind body spirit expo in Ohope over the weekend was quieter than ever and as a result I have no wish to return there in the off season like this despite the lovely people in the area.
I had no reason to return to Auckland so I carried on down to Taupo to visit Toni and family (and do some more op shopping) before getting into Palmerston North. Here I caught up with many of the MUFC crew and had some fun with them at one of their club nights.
Over the weekend we expo in the convention centre was ok but not as good as has been in the past and a part of me is wondering how to improve it for all of us.
After the show I headed for home, the next morning was beautiful and so I stopped at my favourite hot water fall in Taupo for a soak, and on my return to the van found a lovely pair of Swedish ladies in the car park, we chatted about crystals and travels, one of the girls asked me to write in her magical travel book and when they were not expecting it I got out a couple of lovely Ponamu necklaces to gift to them, I still love the buzz I get from doing these unexpected acts of giving, half an hour I found them again at the supermarket... lol.

Stardate April 16th 2013
The Kiwiburn Executive organising committee decided that we needed to gather and talk, it was not a meeting and nothing was to be voted on. So Friday found me collecting several of the others and taking them over to Waiheke Island where our fellow burner Hidive was letting us take over his amazing place "The Domes". It was great to be back with some of my burner family, we did lots of talking and even more listening about lots of stuff, first how 2013 went, what worked and what didn't, then what we could do to both improve our listening to participants and improve the 2014 experience for everybody (including hard working volunteers). The biggest thing we found we need is MORE VOLUNTEERS to help us is a host of ways, so please put your hand up and offer to do a shift in one of our many amazing teams. We also realised that we need to do a better job of telling you the participants the important stuff without overloading you, as a result new signage will appear all over the paddock when we all return home next year.
By mid Sunday afternoon we had covered all the items on our big white board of topics so I headed over to Palm beach to join some of the locals in their drum circle, these guys had a great spot at the bottom of the cliff and had added a marquee for shade, spare seats and drums and a bag of percussion, Col and I represented the Auckland drum crew. If was a great afternoon of drum beats and dancing, our friend Frenchie did some hooping for us and it was real magick. Afterwards we headed back to Richards place for dinner and a chat..... I recommend these Waiheke Island drum circles to everybody.

Stardate April 3rd 2013
MEF.... need I say more ?..... I guess I should.... how about Magick Earth Festival ?..... for those who don't know I organise several gatherings each year for assorted pagans, Easter is our biggest gathering with people from around the country coming to join our community. As always there is a mix of old and new faces, a mixture of old workshops (like wand making, and men's discussion group) being repeated and new workshops and discussions happening. The evenings always begin with a yummy community dinner then an interesting Ritual which I use as an opportunity to encourage different people to organise and conduct our Ritual. As the night wears on various people partake in networking, drumming in the Teepee, chanting, fire spinning etc depending on their mood. At midnight some of us make the short walk to the cross roads to pay our respects to Hecate, and keep the local rumors about a gathering of witches alive. At the end of the long weekend it is always sad to have to pack up our special world, hug our goodbyes and head back to the default world till the next excuse for a gathering. 

Stardate March 25th 2013
Saturday morning I was part of a small Neighborhood fair in Oraki before heading down to Hamilton for a night of drumming with the locals in the university grounds by the lake, it was a great night and we all had a great time. The next morning I headed down to Rotorua to check out a new venue for MEF at lake Okataina, it is a beautiful camp with lovely dorms and a great kitchen, I will be talking with our Easter participants about when they would like to try the venue. Then is was on to Tauraga to spend an evening with our fire and drum crew there, while wandering the beach I found the first of the drummers (they left their hall due to noise issues) and we soon had some serious drumming happening, later once it got dark some people left and others arrived to take their place including some who happened to be passing and came to join the fun, about 9.30 the rain came down so we packed it up and when the rain stopped we loaded the cars and headed for home, thanks to all those who came and drummed and danced with us.

Stardate March 20th 2013
Womad marks the end of the summer festivals tour, (it starts just after Christmas at Prana) I do 3 days work before the festival setting up gates and trellis to make the place look good to earn my free ticket & T-shirt, there are lovely people involved in creating the event and amazing artists from around the world bring their passion and music for us to listen and dance to. This is world music at it's best happening on up to 4 stages at any one time and by just trusting the universe to guide me to the right place I always find new music styles and artists that feed my musical soul. This year The Melbourne Ska Orchestra became my new #1, as usual I was up front and centre when they came on the stage rockin it with a big brass sound and plenty of percussion (those two choices are always going to get me going). As always I found a bunch of my Fire and Musical family here also enjoying themselves, at one point on Saturday morning I was laying the van  when I heard the sound of drums in the distance, as always this needed further investigation.... within 100 meters I found a bunch of our Auckland drum family jamming with some locals, needless to say I headed back and grabbed my Djembie and a seat and joined them, the unexpected is part of what makes Womad so special.

Stardate March 11th 2013
Last year I heard about Sundaise but could not get there, this time the universe gave me more time, so I jumped in the van and headed down on Friday, within minutes of arriving at the camp ground I found members of my festival family joining me. This summer has been a stream of amazing festivals flowing the length of the country and this one had plenty of special moments, my favourite was dancing to Shona Lang on Sunday afternoon, ok so everybody else was just sitting around listening but I find that so hard to do and I believe dancing to good music shows honor to the musician.

Stardate March 4th 2013
For various reasons I had not made it to Papakura for quite some time but this time other events lines up better and so I was able to attend, the RSA got pretty hot and stuffy during the day and the air con did not seem to be making much progress solving the problem. Some lovely customers attended the show but not as many as I would like to make it a worthwhile day, perhaps the previous Pukekohe show a couple of weeks ago was part of the problem.

Stardate Feb 27th 2013
Tuesday night was out latest Moonfest and I was not the only person looking forward for the chance to have a dance and play drums with like minded folk. A bunch of friends from south Auckland showed up and had a great time as first time drummers. A number of good drummers including Chewy showed up and soon got some good beats thumping so I could have a play with some new and updated fire toys. My new fire flag managed to burn my arm a bit and the cold water then lavender oil I put on it helped the healing as well as ensuring that I smelled nice for the ladies... lol.

Stardate Feb 25th 2013
The New Spirit festival moved from the North Shore stadium to the smaller Waitakere stadium this year and it was not surprising that we seemed to lose customers in the move, I guess for some north and eastern people it is a bit further to go. The organiser changed things so both days were free entry to the expo but $25 for a wristband to attend any of the workshops, this certainly helped to smooth out the Sunday trading as we were not just limited to customers for the 10 minutes between workshops. We will not be the only stall holder thinking hard before we decide if we will be returning in 2014 as it is an expensive show for us to do.

Stardate Feb 18th 2013
So after a long summer of going to festivals and having fun it was time to get back to doing some shows to earn some money, first up it was the Pukekohe town hall, after getting set up on friday night we headed back to Kat's place for a family meal & gathering of the adopted clan. Saturday dawned all to quickly and I headed back to the hall to complete setting up my stall, a present days trading (trying not to fall asleep during the quieter moments and it was back to Kats for a full on family gathering, yeah for loving spiritual families, and a special ritual for Taryn, lots of talking over a glass before trying to fall asleep in my seat so time to head for my bad in the van. Sunday was another not exactly rushed off my feet kind of day but we did make some money to help off set all the hard work.

Stardate Feb 7th 2013
After packing up at Kiwiburn it was jump in the van and head south for Luminate, I stopped at Picton and collected some friends and a heap of gear so the whole back of the van and the roof rack was full so that many of our friends could hitch much lighter. One the way we kept seeing various friends as we stopped for food etc. I was invited to join a heap of our juggling family in their camp and soon got my encampment setup and went for a wander. Tribal zone is my home away from home, lots of drums to play with and the lovely hippys there are friendly and welcoming. The Tribal inhabitants also go to a lot of effort to make the zone look lovely and be filled with loving energy, one day I will find a place up here in the north island where I can create some of that atmosphere and energy.  The hot sunny weather continued until the Monday morning when we woke to rain and we had to wait most of the day before it cleared, Tuesday morning the rain returned accompanied by an ice cold wind, I decided that I would give up and head back to the north island and home.

Stardate Jan 29th 2013
 Kiwiburn.... this year was bigger and better than ever before.... with the help of some friends our Burner hostel "The home for Wayward Girls and Boys" was very successful at providing numerous travelers with a kitchen and lounge area, we also expanded into providing tents and bedding for a few friends. My "Costume Rental Corner" did a roaring trade in amazing costumes (most items were a 2 hug charge) and by Saturday night our only spare frock was too small for our customers. The Hug Deli was back to spread the hugs with the help of some of our special staff (including several kids). There was more Art than ever all across the paddock, my ATM machine was back with a new paint job and new functions, including more water to squirt you. My Paddock TV art work had fun traveling the paddock giving people a Reality TV view of paddock life. Unfortunately all this amazing stuff came to an end and it is now time to pack up and head off to the next adventure.... Luminate festival

Stardate Jan 21st 2013
Just one week..... but so busy.... drive down to the Kiwiburn side at Mangakino and drop off a trailer load of stuff for my theme camp then back to Auckland for the second trailer full, collect friend Niki from the airport on the way thru on this trip, several trips from a friends farm down the road to collect the dismantled pirate ship and other gear stored on her farm.  A couple of days work to assemble the pirate ship and make a few small modifications to handle our new 10hp outboard. Then across to New Plymouth on friday to take part in the Mind Body Spirit Expo on the weekend because I still need to earn some money to keep my life afloat. It was a great weekend, made some money and as a bonus I caught up with some of my Auckland Taiko drum friends who were down for the festival of lights. Then back to our "Home' on the paddock at Kiwiburn where great things were being built by several teams of amazing people.

Stardate Jan 14th 2013
So I have been very busy at home working on various Art projects for Kiwiburn since getting back from Prana but I decided to treat myself to a weekend off up north with the lovely people from Circus Kumerani at Kaiwi Lakes, and what a great weekend it was, no matter where I go I seem to find a bunch of my friends already there and this was to be no exception. The marquee was situated right beside the lake and several times I walked off from a workshop and into the lake to cool off, only way to go. As always these guys organise great workshop presenters with both great skills and a friendly manner. I learnt some great hoop tricks to practise over the comming days & weeks.

Stardate Jan 4th 2013
last night at Prana we only had a few of us drumming in the Teepee, most people had gone home but I was staying over to help packdown some of the tents etc, it was a quiet and mellow night , but it was a great balance after so many wild nights. We were all rather tired and injured after so much drumming and dancing, by 1.30am I had fallen asleep on my djembie several times so I headed to bed.... Love to you all

Stardate Jan 2nd 2013
What a night.... the most special one I have ever had here at Prana.... first while wandering down to the beach to watch the moonrise I caught another bunch of friends practising for their fire performance tomorrow night, then I wandered to the big teepee where the drummers were really pushing some lovely energy for a short dance before heading off backstage to help prepare for our fire show (I am the fire safety officer)..... and oh what an amazing audio visual journey it was.... normally when Sika performs I am lying on my back in the paddock watching the stars, this time I was backstage lighting up fire toys, putting them out once the kids came off stage and watching for any problems and ready to run out with a fire blanket if required. The whole performance went for 2 hours but because we were all so keyed up it seemed to go so much faster.
After helping to pack down the fire gear I headed over to the big teepee because I could hear that it was still rocking.... inside I found that a bunch of the musicians who had performed on stage earlier had joined a bunch of our serious drummers and so I danced and drummed for another hours or so before we were asked to cut the music..... way past my usual bed time but I was still bouncing with the energy we had been creating.

Stardate Jan 1st 2013
So I am sitting here writing this on a hot sunny afternoon here at Prana, despite the heat some customers are wandering the market place. I was just trying to get a message from my cards but instead a small breeze picked up a card from one of the sample decks on our table and dropped it at my feet.... "The Web Weaver", this is very much a job I have found myself in for several years now, multiple vectors connect me to a large universe of community members, I find myself helping people to connect and "Collaborate".... this is a process that is occurring more and more lately, many people are realising that rather than compete with one another we can work together more and the result of this Collaboration is often more than the sum of the individual pieces.
For the first time our "Nightly Drum Circles" have been officially listed on the Prana program, it seems that as a result more people are coming in each night to enjoy drumming and dancing up some lovely energy, the result has been some intense action happening in the big teepee each night, I supply a bunch of drums and a box of percussion instruments because I want to encourage this, the down side is that by the end we have a box of rather sad instruments, surplus donations from our Moonfests are used to replace those I can not repair.
Last night a bunch of our fire friends did a really good job of creating a wondrous new years show, tonight another bunch are adding some fire effects to Sika's musical performance (and I have been asked to be the fire safety officer, I am always happy to ensure that my friends don't have a fire accident).

This Prana started a bit like last years with rain on the setup day but that was the end of the comparison, this time we are basking in sunshine.

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