I was feeling particularly lost. Having had none too distantly been in a relationship that wasn't quite everlasting. (to say the least). It's amazing how quickly one can become attached, and how devastated one can feel when the illusion fades, and ones attachment is not returned.

"There's not a problem in the world, that's too big to run away from" Snoopy the Dog

Anyhow, I'd run away. It seemed like the best thing to do at the time. North, 3 or 4 thousand kilometers.. I'd driven up the East coast (by the way, this is back in Australia I am talking here), together with my good friend Zalan.. We'd just been to the 2000 International Rainbow gathering at Tenterfield..

Well, Somewhere just past the NSW border into Queensland, we were pulled over by the police on a routine car maintenance check.

Basically, they told us that my car was an unroadworthy rust bucket, and to get it fixed, or off the road within 2 weeks.

I felt pretty down. I had hoped to get another few months out of the vehicle, at least until the papers expired. (it was Eric's car (Eric Karlsson - visitor no. 121 in my guestbook) - he'd been so kind as to leave it with me before returning to Sweden)..

Anyhow, I looked into the possibility of fixing it up, but too much was wrong with it, and to do so would have meant spending pretty much the rest of my savings, so suddenly I was faced with the prospect of not having any wheels, to which I had become most definitely accustomed.

Well, as said, we were heading North. I had Mary Farms on my mind, I think I lost count of how many times I'd sung it's praises to Zalan over the previous year or so that we'd spent together hanging out at his guesthouse in Hepburn Springs. (well worth a visit - http://www.continetnalhouse.co.au).

Within a couple of days we were there.. It was a mighty sad return for me. All the gardens had been neglected, and that wonderful feeling of community that it had once had which I was remembering with yearned fondness had disappeared.. my good friends Arji, Dean and Jef (Dean and Jef are both mentioned in my coincidence stories), were still there, but I certainly no longer felt quite so at home there.

Some days later, Zalan and I parted, I no longer recall where he was headed.

I was pretty clueless, stayed on at Mary Farms in the hope of finding direction. I really needed a good friend.. A good fruitarian friend, I thought. Maybe a travelling companion for a while.

I recall one morning, Jef had let me rest in his one room hut, and I sat naked cross legged on the wooden floor, leafing through his magazines, old copies of National Geographical. They didn't really interest me, it was just my boredom and heavy feeling of not knowing what to do..

At the back of the hut, I could hear someone walking in the leaves under the orange tree growing there.

I stuck my head out of the window, and there was this bright naked guy. We had soon introduced ourselves, and didn't take but minutes to discover we were both fruitarian. He was Sunshine Jimmy from Canada. It was a delightful encounter, and after we became acquainted with each other somewhat, I felt like I was meeting a long lost brother.

I recall, he was a pretty recent convert to raw fruitarianism, and he was detoxing quite badly, lots of mucus on the move, but then his enthusiasm was equally a bubbling, and he was very determined to stick at it.

Well.. roughly a day or 2 later, I moved off of mary farms. There was an expectancy for me to work while I was there, but I still didn't really feel up to doing so, so decided to move out into bushland alongside Windmill creek (only a kilometer or 2 from where everyone was at, but on the outside of the boundary fence).

The following Friday I think, I gave Jef and Jimmy a lift into Cairns where our main goal was probably to stock up on fruit at the Rusties market...

Anyhow, Jimmy and I were hanging out in Cairns together talking about what we should both do. He was planning to head back to Canada I think, though I recall he talked lots about heading to Spain to experience the wild figs there.. I on the other hand was at a loss to know what I would do once my car was scrapped (within less than a week, I believe).

Then, I'm not really sure who came up with the idea first, but suddenly we were talking about Indonesia. Jef had been talking of Sumatera, telling us how perfect it was there, and how the fruit is in such abundance and good quality.. We were both dreaming of durian.

I guess it was a pretty spur of the moment decision, but within an hour or so, we had both bought our tickets to Bali, and would leave within a few days.

Suddenly I was feeling on top form again. I had a direction, a focus, and a friend who shared my passion for fruit.

We had delightfuly simple fruitarian meals on on our flight over, and landed in Bali to be greeted by the blanket of heat and continuos chaos that is the norm at dempasar airport.. I'd been trying to tell Jimmy what to expect as I'd been there 2 years previously, but I guess no amount of description fits the reality. It hits you. I could tell Jimmy was none too impressed. The worst thing for us both I think, must have been the fact that every male member of Indonesia chain smokes.. What a difference from breathing such clean pure air of Australia.

It was an endurance test getting to Padang Bai, (I chose the destination as I felt we had a fair chance of scoring some durian there)..

I recall Jimmy not being able to get over the fact that there was so much litter everywhere.. I explained to him my theory that littering is really our nature, it is just that in our natural setting, it'd be fruit peal and pips we were spitting out, not plastic bags, chewing gum and cigerette ends.. Besides, I felt also that the comparison that they were creating so much rubbish, implying that we in the west didn't, was wrong. The western world creates far more rubbish, the difference being that we (attempt at least) to collect and hide it all. Very little of it in reality gets recycled. Instead of bits everwhere, we dump it all in a land fill.. So I guess I didn't really blame the people for just letting things drop everywhere. My internal finger wagged more at the mass producers of disposable packing.

Anyhow, I digress, don't know why the litter issue suddenly jumped into my mind.

We found the durian, right where I expected it to be.. Probably some of the last ones left on the island as the season was over..

Jimmy and I hung out together for a few weeks. I think we both felt like we were a couple of modern day Arnold Ehrets.

Much of our focus was in discovering new markets and searching for durian.. We seemed to live mostly on papaya and white passion fruit, although Jimmy had an intellectual fondness for green leafy vegetables.. I think his logic was that he needed the leaves in order to not loose his teeth.. Maybe he was wise in doing so, though my current attitude is shy of doing things because some text book says it's the right thing to do.. Sure I had lost some of my own teeth through trying to act like I was in my natural environment (see my Mango story)., but I still felt strongly that the only reason one should eat fresh greens should be if they smelt and tasted good, and if one was strongly appealed to them. To eat them otherwise would not be wise. I'm not saying that Jimmy didn't find the smell and taste appealing, all I'm saying is that is the only reason I would consider them the right things to eat.

Anyhow, we travelled up from Bali, through Java and on into Sumatera. A long tiresom bus journey, but our conversations were always colourful, deep and meaningful, and much food for thought.. It was while travelling with Jimmy that I decided to start writing down some of my thoughts.. Which later were to get channelled into this website.

I believe we just missed a great earthquake in some place called Bengkulu I think, where we stopped for a night or 2..

Well, after stopping of at Lake Maninjau on the sumateran equatorial line, and spending a week or so chilling out at one of the lake house guesthouses.. Jimmy and I decided to go our seperate ways. He was eager to get to Thailand and experience more durian (we weren't scoring as many as we wanted, as the season was over), I on the other hand wished to travel up to lake Toba, one of Jefs favourite haunts.

I think we parted in Bukuttingi..

I had thoroughly enjoyed our time travelling together, and was really quite missing Jimmy after we had seperated.. I think the only thing I had found remotely annoying about his company was his constant thirst and consequent needing to piss all the time..

We emailed each other a few times afterward, but he showed little desire of wanting to hook up again. He'd got himself a job teaching in Northern Thailand, wearing a pink tie and shoes. The thought made me laugh.

When I finally made it to Thailand, I stopped at a cheapo guesthouse in Krabi, and coincidently enough, while reading all the grafitti on the bedroom walls, I came across one that was on about fruit and raw food, I had to smile again when I saw who'd signed it.. yep, you guessed it. Jimmy himself.

Last I heard from him he was in India.. Good luck to you Jimmy wherever you may be!