Byron Bay

Look, I may be giving you a bad impression here.  I don't mean to.  There are a lot of cool things about the Arts Factory.  And it was sort of fun staying in a tent.  It was like being in "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" or something - the heat, the claustrophobia, the unnerving realisation that you can actually SMELL your own feet.  
 
CARO: Ah... Symon?
ME:      Yes?
CARO:  Do you mind if I spray your feet with my underarm deodourant?
ME:     Okay.
 
Now I would like to emphasise that normally I smell quite pleasant.  I put my Arts Factory Aroma down to the humidity and to the fact that my sandals had, by this point, seen quite a lot of the world.  I had been spraying the little buggers with anti-smell stuff ever since that night when Caro Rexona'd my stinking plates of meat, but it really seemed to make no difference.  Now I just smelt of foot odour AND Rexona.
 
However, I was talking about the cool side of the Arts Factory.  Well, firstly they had the Best Cinema In the World.  It was called The Pighouse and showed older films, but the thing that made it the best cinema ever was the fact that it featured COUCHES and MATTRESSES.  What a brilliant innovation!  Caro and I took a mattress each and watched "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" and "Hannibal" lying on our backs.  (Well technically, only I watched "Hannibal" - Caro sat and listened to it with her eyes closed in case of gory bits.)  The Pighouse was attached to The Piggery restaurant, which was also part of the Arts Factory.  It was a very funky place too, serving "Karma-Free" vegetarian food in a big renovated barn with lots of nooks to sit in and chill by candlelight.  
 
I was also very excited at locating a GALAXIAN machine in the lounge room!  I hadn't seen one of these since I was 15 years old.  I eagerly put my dollar into it and found out, that yes – even after all these years I was STILL crap at it.  But it was nice to find out.  And it was lovely every morning to wake up to the dappled sunlight bouncing through the trees and off Mozzie Creek, with lime green butterflies zooming about alongside dragonflies the size of small birds.  We also had a pet lizard who swam about next to our cube.