Byron Bay

We had a break from the Arts Factory to stay with Odette.  If you don't recall her from our adventures in Keri Keri with Lisa Mackinnon, then I should remind that she's a hippy, but not one of those people who think that being close to nature is an excuse to never change your underwear.  Odette writes about the shamanistic approach to mental health, and she impressed me greatly with her down-to-earth pragmatic approach to life.  She's what hippies OUGHT to be, in my opinion.  She's rude, frequently bitchy and nasty and very real.  She's a slight little person who floats about in flared pink flowery trousers and anti-nuke t-shirts and is prone to making comments like, "I hate those airy-fairy new age types."  And "I'm not a teacher.  I'm not a guru - I frequently fuck up like everybody does."  Odette pointed out to me that most of her philosophy isn't new age at all but extremely OLD.  And best of all, that philosophy doesn't get in the way of her enjoying celebrity gossip and television.  So we had a great evening with her - she was house-sitting at the time, and looking after a huge dog with the incongruous name of "Floopy".  As usual, the conversation got quite filthy - especially when Caro brought up the subject of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.  Poor Nicole - her ears would have burned if they had heard what Odette and Caro had to say about her.  Odette has a thing for Brad Pitt too, "Put Tom and Brad in a bed together and I would die happy.  Unless of course they got into each other..."
 
After spending the night at Odette's, we wandered around Byron, which is an interesting place.  It's a sunny beach place with surf shops and pavement cafes everywhere.  There's a very chilled vibe and lots of eccentric shop signs like, "Clothes for People Who Like to Go Naked", "Light Fingers Make Bad Karma" and one shop sign which informed customers it was closed on Tuesday, "Gone Fishin'".  However, the high tourist quotient means that prices are horrendous and the budget took a real battering every time we stepped outside.