Hello. ! As usual life continues"full on", kind of business as usual, nothing amazing to report, however, of note is Nasko has come to stay for a few days and a liter of "medicine" has dropped in from Ecuador. Nasko and I will "test run" it this evening. !

House cleaning. As you can see the floor looks good. It is time to re-paint the walls.

Thinking about painting here is a picture of Peter and Honsa working on the little kitchen. Peter, Honsa, Andreea and Ivi completely re-painted it - loads of work and a great job. !

Here are a few more walking pics. It was a long walk. !

 Next section. I am getting close to the top. !

We need some rain. ! More tomorrow. !

Another sunny day. ! 

I had lunch with Frank at Bar Sol, and in the meantime Pedro and Lyla made a great Paella.

A few more walking pics coming up. !

 OK, I am going to go through the next gap. !

 This is a strange perspective. I have come up through the hole and I am looking down into the valley. Fairly high. !!

This the last level to the top. More tomorrow. !

I have been back here in El Rio for a week as of tomorrow. All is well here. Pedro and Lyla are down from Valencia for a few days. It' s good to see them.

Here are a few pics of my dog walk last Tuesday,

This is the start of the climbing part of the walk. I am going up through the V:

 Coming up

Walking through and looking up to the next level.

and here I am looking back down to the river. It looks pretty steep. It is. !

I'll continue the walk through and up, and over, and down, tomorrow plus anything "of note" from the day. !  Hasta la pasta,  David.

Here it is, a picture of the boiled porridge and shredded duck. Muy Bien. !

 

I am now in Changi Airport Singapore. This is a very comfortable airport, comfy armchairs, plug in points next to the armchairs, shopping malls and a great porridge menu.

Here we go some pics. First off The Porridge Menu. This must be one of the finest porridge menus in the world. !!

 and here's the plug in and sit down and snooze and enjoy the free Internet access. Not bad, actually the best. !

I started off this morning at Brisbane Airport, so I will give you a Brisbane view. Here it is. :

On to London in 3 hours. !! 

Hello All,

Well, that's it. The Conference is over and I have "had my say", quite a lot of words over the three days.

I guess there is often the feeling of "come down" after such an event. Unfortunately for all life on the planet things are pretty bad as a result of the behavior of our perverse financial, legal, and business structures.

The "how bad" is actually not normally acknowledged. We have had speakers from many disciplines addressing this Conference.

The information has been profoundly inspiring and profoundly depressing. In this Conference we have been able to look at our situation. The good and the bad and the very ugly. !

I talked about the role of society in the sorting out of this mess which we have got ourselves into. I also talked about the Mirador  open pit copper and gold mine in Ecuador.

The simple bottom line is to acquaint ourselves with the facts, to look into our hearts and to see what part we can play individually and collectively, in sorting out this mess and in the building of a new and happier world.

Sounds easy?. No it isn't. ! We are all going to have to step outside our "comfort zones". 

Go for it. ! Big Hug.  David.

Hello All. Now I am my third day in Brisbane and I am feeling quite at home. We had a good Conference day with good presentations, full of information and well presented.

We had a group dinner with amazing fireworks.

A bit of a strange upload but you can get the idea. !!

This is a picture taken from the Conference Hall.

I've done a fair bit of talking today, so have others. !! A good day. Here is a picture. !

Well, that's what we need. We have been looking at the terrible situation that we are in. There is hope.

 Well, there's a really good idea. !

Day 2 in Brisbane.

All is going well. I had a good sleep last night, and I needed it. Three nights in various types of seats and "time travel", was a bit "wearing". 

As you can see in the picture - a luxury bed. I slept until 9.30 and nearly missed breakfast.

This evening I went to the first event of the Conference, an art show with the concept of unification of Nature and Humans. It was well attended, and I have a couple of pictures for you.

I met Michelle the Conference organizer and had dinner with Nati Greene who is a lawyer from Quito in Ecuador who is in the "front line" in the struggle for Yasuni Park and whom I have been in contact with over The Mirador Mine. Also present were Alex and Maria, two lawyers who work for the rights of Aborigines and their lands here in Australia. Good dinner and good company.

Alex gave us a lift back in the first "Hybrid" car that I have ever driven in. Impressive. I like the system. Here is a "dashboard" picture.

This shows that the car is running on electric power. We are stopped at a traffic light. It would be good to see more of these in Europe. !

More tomorrow. !

So, I arrived in Brisbane at about 9.00 this morning and caught the bus into the city at 9.45 to go find Chill Backpackers.

Chill Backpackers - bit of a dodgy outfit, noisy, limited washing opportunities, failure of Wi Fi system and small very cold prison like room with sealed window, so I was at the mercy of the cold air conditioning with a central thermostat. Not good. !

I have upgraded myself. See the view from my window with small terrace, Wi Fi, good bathroom . luxury. !! Here is the picture:

Hong Kong to Brisbane

Hi All,

Well, I left El Rio on Sunday night and I arrived in Brisbane this morning. It was a good trip with a potential problem which was spotted by UK Immigration. They noticed that I did not have an Australian Visa and had not been granted "boarding card " rights. They were super helpful and obtained a visa "there and then" which took us past plane take off time, however, the plane left Heatrow for Hong Kong 45 minutes late, so I got on board. 

Hong Kong was quite comfortable with one Euro equaling 10 Homg Kong Dollars. Here is a picture of a 100 Dollar Note. Nice ones. !!

It was another long flight from Hong Kong and I arrived in Brisbane at 10.00 this morning.

Hong Kong Airport. !

Airports. Madrid and London. I am nowin Hong Kong and running out of battery. !!

Pictures from the top quarry at Hueli.

That is a beautiful San Pedro Flower. !

More fire wood. Might be a cold Winter. !Peter, Lucas and Iva are "on the case". !

Evening quarry pictures. !!

 You can see the effect of the blasting

 You can see the small crushing / milling machine and Yesso ready for "trucking out".

This is the "restored" area at the back of the hill.

I do not think that it is right for the quarry to remove this hill. Maybe we can save it.

 View from above Los Molinos

 View from the road

Closer to the quarry.

The Bath has arrived. ! I am with Silviu on my I Pad. Silviu is with Julio in Ecuador. !

Morning walk pictures.

 "Away from it all" Country Property. !

Looking down the river to La Casa De La Realidad.

The "cave" dry food store is shaping up under th hands of Said and Lucas.

 Beginnings

 Dogs doing a smell check. !

Dashinka, Lucas and Said. I think that we will have a roof in a day or two. !

Just a little bit of rain, 2mm. !

 The garden, and Lucas, Andreea and dogs walking up after the rain. !

Not exactly wet, but damp. !