Vilx

2013-11-10T05:30:00.000-08:00

I just realised that I haven t updated my blog here for months. I have also blogs on facebook, one is Travelling-a way of a lifestyle, and another one is in Estonian, Vabana sündinud, vabaks ka jään.
Last update here was the beginning of June, when I still worked with Sherry nearby Brisbane and sold the jelly on the markets. When I think of that it s for me like another life or the page that s almost forgotten.
So I moved to Sydney in July as I decided to become student and study tourism. It was quite easy to get into the school and as I had an agent who helped me with the whole process, she recommended me to take more courses and I ended up taking 4 courses, so my last course will finish in 2015. Now is 12 of Oct, 2013, so I have a visa for a while.

I m not gonna go into the details what I went through when I actually came to Sydney. Now when I look back I can tell it was the time, when I started to write music. I learned to play guitar more and more. I wrote songs, I started to perform on the street cornerns. My first song that I sang through the whole night was my own written song and it was in Estonian. I don t know what it was, luck or good will, but I remember after first or second hour on the street I was about to quit, as I didn t make much money, just about 25 to 30 dollars maybe, but then I changed the spot. I moved to another place on the same street, where it was more quiet and people could hear me more. Also they couldn t walk around much. It was like a trap :)
And then I started to get more money. By the end of the night I made 182 dollars or 184, I can t remember any more but funny about this is that I was singing only that one song through all night my own written song in estonian. 6 5 dollars, one 10 dollar, and one 20 dollar, then 60 dollars in 2 dollar coins, 30 dollars in 1 dollar coins and only 30 dollars in silver, small change.I remember some people asking what was the song about.
"Which language is it. Is it spanish?"
"Can you sing in english please?"
"Hey, this girl has birthday today. Can you please sing the birthday song?"

Many similar questions like that made me learn other songs. Write songs in english. I learned to play happy birthday song, which I realised took me only 5 minutes as it s only 3 chords.
Hmm..I wrote this post on 12 of October and today is 10 of November, when I actually publish it. Lots have happened during last month and ..so I publish this first.

Estonian, who has aboriginal background?

2013-06-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

Couple days before my visa expiration date Sherry suggested me to go and get my luggage from her place just to have all my bags in one place if I needed to leave the country. I agreed with her. On 9 th of May I flew to Brisbane from Sydney. I was about to go back on 13 th of May, but flight got cancelled and the end of the day I realised it doesn t really matter whether I m in Brisbane or in Sydney on the last day of visa, which was 15 th of May. So I stayed in Brisbane. Just on the last day my immigration agent lodged my visa application and I got myself at least "on the process". I kept working with Sherry on the weekends in different markets and festivals.

One day we ended up in..oh don t remember where it was, but not next but one after it, was runned by one lady who said she s also estonian.

"Hey, what is your accent?" asks suddenly a lady in her 50 s.
"I m from Estonia."
"Are you really? I am too", she smiles kindly.
"Really, can you speak estonian?"
"No, it s my grandmother, actually great granfather..who was..let me write it down for you.."
She gets so excited. Goes and gets papers ready and writes down all the story what her parents went through.
I actually forgot to ask, how the estonian guy got into the middle of 'paddicks' far north and west of Queensland, she only said that in the late 18 s estonian guy came to Australia, started from Darwin, which I remember she mentioned, but how he got to Queensland, I forgot to ask, as the story following, grasped my attention more than anything else.
"So my mum was half aboriginal as the guy who was estonian, had child with aboriginal woman, who is my grandmother", she explained me, writing even the names down.

The best part of the story is following.

"My grandmother and my mother travelled from Mount isa to Brisbane in 5 years, barefoot. My mother was 5 when she started walking and got to Brisbane when she was 10."
"Wow", I could only say.
"5 years taking the journey what we can do now in few hours by any transport.That s about 1000 kms, but still barefoot, that s a cool story", I m thinking myself. "I have to really get that story to my blog".

I wanted to take picture of her, as she doesn t look anything like aboriginal, but yes she did look like estonian. She said her brother looks a bit like aboriginal though.
She asked is she can send the picture to my email, but I gave her my phone number, so she sent it to my phone. I couldn t get the picture onto computer, asked her to send the picture to my email, but she hasn t done it. Now, it happened that my phone just "gave up", broke down, doesn t turn on anymore, and therefore I don t have the picture..

So the story ends here, without picture...

Becoming a sailor on Sydney Tall Ships

2013-02-18T21:23:00.001-08:00

Now when I look back, it is a bit funny, what I went through last couple months. Sleeping on the beaches of Gold Coast for about 2 weeks, staying with that lady after Christmas. Then finally we had an agreement that I m going to find my own place as I got job as a security. So it was when I went to library in Southport, it was very stormy day. All the news forecasted some heavy rain and flood. So I m at library and this lady comes down and says:
"Leo, look there s all your stuff here, you remember? It s Sunday and you promised you move out on Sunday."
"But it raaiins..!!!" I was shocked.
She really took all my stuff, put them on trolley and brought them to library.
Couldn t she just say it to me? I could have done it myself. My phone s battery I remember was flat, not only, it was broken I thought because of the rain. I was speachless. Just couple days ago I met another guy who had his unique furniture business near to Chevron island. I promised I get some girl to work for him as an administrator and he gives me a place to sleep in return. So that was an option I could think of only.

I went there for couple days, then rent a room on Vista street in sharehouse with some argentinians, spanish, germans, dutch, kiwis, ozzies, canadians, korean and some another estonian too. I loved that place, I was there for a week. It was just very next to the ocean. Couple hundred metres from the ocean.
I kept working on the weekend, but then one weekend I was off. I decided to apply new passport as I lost it in Perth like a year ago and more, and thought why not to apply it now, when I have time.
So I came down to Sydney, applied new passport, but I also applied for another job here. So many things I have had to think of.
Yes, now when I look back, I slept on the beaches, stayed with that lady - all these crazy things hoping to get sponsorship from my job. And then after working 5-6 weeks for the company, they say that they can t offer sponsorship.
I m like..I spent 1000 dollars for the Security license, had this interesting experience on the beach. My friend, who worked for the company, was positive that they can offer the sponsorship. The company just wanted to fill up the papers for him just before the Christmas, just like couple months ago and now they can t do it..
New changes in the law in new year?
I don t need answers, I need solutions. So I realised it doesn t work out anyway. Came down to Sydney, applied for new job and will start tomorrow as a crew member on the Sydney Tall Ships. These ships look like the ships of the Pirates of the Carribean.
Tomorrow I can bring my bags and stuff on the board. Move in tomorrow and start working on Thursday. Today is Tuesday. Now I have only 3 months to go until my visa expires. I m not sure what s gonna be after that, but I don t worry about that. Life is adventure. Adventure by adventure.

Meeting with an opera singer

2013-01-21T19:09:00.002-08:00

I don t know for how long I will continue writing here as I also opened a new page on Facebook titled "Stories that need to be told", but I changed it into "Travelling - A way of a lifestyle. So I m writing there now as well.

It s been good last 4 weeks though. I m still staying with that lady and it s really cozy. I just thought to myself how many times I have had free accomodation in Australia? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7..7 times!!! 4 of these have been absolutely free, other 3 included working for them. I am working now on the weekend only, but have saved some money already. Can pay back to my friend and will get my own place maybe this weekend or next week.

"Leo, can you come today at 4?" one lady sent me a message about accomodation yesterday. It was meant to be at 5.30 pm.

I went there, walked like 2 km from the bus stop. It s in Bundall, very quiet area. I couldn t believe Gold Coast has such a private area. But it was a bit remote, need my own transport to live there, but as I got off the bus, and didn t realise how far was the place, I decided to go anyway as I made that effort to get from Southport to Bundall, which is not too far, but still..

I had a little trouble finding the place. It was showering a bit, but not too much. It almost never rains, unless it s storming, anyway, it was just a little shower.

She wasn t home and I decided to wait. My phone s battery got flat as well because i was using my navigation system to find a place.

She is singing teacher. I mentioned on my ad on gumtree that I play piano(just to give them idea, who I could be, apart from any other things that 29 years old male would like).

"Hello Leo!" she escaped from her sport car.

Very nice and lovely attitude I sensed from the first moment when on the phone she actually sounnded like with no emotions, more like tired of something.

Her parents were eastern europeans too, so we had something in common. Father was from Croatia and mother from Ukraine. She actually reminded me a piano teacher from Perth, who s parents were from Eeasten Europe too, Romania I think, can t remember though.

She was very talkative and hospitable and she got all the things it takes to have a studio. So nice and big livingroom. But 200 for the week a bit too much for me at the moment.

"I have some bills to bay and am a bit behind if you could help me to get some more students for me, I could reduce the price for you," she said.

She was actually an opera singer. Once she was invited to sing in Sydney Opera House. Every year they invite some 5 best opera singers fro Australia to sing in there and she was one of them. She asked me to play one song and gave me a note.

"I m really bad in reading the notes, you are probably better than me," I said.

"No, my fingers are very short and never wanted to pay much attention how to read notes," she was laughing.

Once I started to play I realised what the song was and she helped me out singing the song.

WOW!!!

I stopped playing. She sang so amazingly! The voice was so powerful, I was pleased to hear how she sang.

"Wow, you are really, really good singer. No wonder that you are singing teacher," I said.

"I was used to have many students, but when I moved to Sydney, I packed all the things up and left this place. Now, when I m back, I don t have many, but would like to have more, " she said me later.

She dropped me back to Southport saying:"Once you get more job, more hours, let me know- if I still am looking for somebody to rent a room, and haven t got anybody, I may reduce price for you too. I think about that and you think about that," were her last words.

I jumped out of car and the public transport, the bus was behind us and peeping impatiently. I almost wanted to show the finger to the busdriver. Idiot!

Piano bar, court, that lady, oh she drives me crazy!

2013-01-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

Little excitement is stirring inside, but things are looking pretty good at the moment. I m still staying with that lady. It s been very kind and generous of her. I don t know how I would have lived so far. I moved into her place at 25 th of December, just on the Christmas Eve and today is already 10 th of January. Huuh..2 weeks..just about that.

She acts like mum, talks about her son and compares me with his son, well his son is 35 and I m 29, so yes, not many years difference. She wants to help here and there and one stage I couldn t stand it anymore and I said:

"Hey, relax! Take it easy! Don t get too excited! I want to manage things on my own, ok..?"

"I m just trying to help", she said.

I got my job as a security now, but it s only on the weekends and I was thinking to get some more hours, so get another job as well. Was thinking to just play piano in different bars and then once she got so excited:

"Hey, I know the place, RSL, you could play there!"

What she does, she goes to dress up herself and comes to the living room:

"I m ready!"

I was a bit surprised and to be honest a bit upset.

"So what s happening now..I m just trying to have some fun and maybe even earn some money," I was thinking in my head.
"So I have to entertain her too," I realised her thought.
I tried to show my dfispleasurement to her, but it looked like a rudeness to her obviously. I just didn t know what to say.

So we go, I just present myself in reception. Administrator gives me the number of the manager who runs the events and stuff. I just simply walk off, find a piano and check the building. Once I don t see her, I leave the building and go back "home".

"I just wanna hear how you play, I love pianos!" she told me later. Obviously I was rude to her.
Actually she has helped me a lot. Where else I would have lived? Just on the beaches. And the venues are also near to the Southport and from Southport it s not far to go to work. So actually in that, it couldn have been even better. So I m just quiet. I work, have place to be, start saving money again and in couple of weeks I should be able to rent a room with some young people already. Jaanus is planning to take a flat just next to ocean, with amazing view to the ocean. I just need more hours and I want to pay back some bills that I owe to my brother and ..also police tickets. Eh, yesterday I went to court, because of one incident. But in court the was no case waiting for me. It was my first experience in court and I hope I never have to go there again. Police simply lied to me. They just picked on me, made a fun of me. So there was no court case for me and I was waiting for that for a month!. It was just being drunk in public place, they picked me up, didn t give me any tickets but that paper. It said something that if you don t pay bla bla bla, I couldn t understand it much, but I remember police telling me:

"You have to go to court on 9 th on Jan". I m like whatevver!??!

Anyway, nothing happened. I just need to be sober and act normally.

So I have place to be, hoping to get some more work and see how it goes. Today actually I went for that interview and, in the Oasis shopping Centre just by the Broadbeach, on the 1 floor, there was a girl playing piano, just in the middle of the pathways..it was part of the bar. After my appointment I came down and asked about the piano.

"I saw girl playing piano here before. How does it work with this piano? I m actually also pianist."
"Aaah..mmm," the girl waves to another guy.
"So yeah, just wondering how does it work with this piano, I saw a girl playing before, I m also pianist."

"Do you just wanna play or for job?" he asks quickly.

"For job."

"The graphic is full, but you can write down your name and number and we will contact when we need," he gave me the paper, rolling it out from the receipt machine.

Done. Another chance to play. I really would like to play somewhere. If I had piano at home, I wouldn t even want to play somewhere on the restaurants, but I don t have. So if I get the chance, I play for myself, when getting also paid. Why not.

And that s it for now. If I get time and enthusiasm to write, I ll do it again.
Oh, I cut my hair as well.

A real Christmas miracle

2012-12-27T20:35:00.002-08:00

Last 2 weeks have been something that I have never done before. That was definitely experience.
After coming back from Emerald, I stayed few night in Brisbane as I worked for Sherry, philippine girl, and then as she left for Philippines I started to camp outside.
Well, my focus was on my security license and the job resulf of those papers and finally the sponsored visa that might come out of it, but will see how it goes, when the time is up, in May. Anyway, I didn t want to spend much money anymore, really wanted to survive simply, so I didn t take any hostels anymore. 4 nights at least I slept in my sleeping bag next to Roma st train station in Brisbane. In the mornings I went to swim in Southbank which was nice and then my friend Jaanus, that I met month ago, invited me to party in Surfers.
I had been holding my bags in the lockers in trainstation, but then I took all my stuff, except one bag that I left to Sherry s place,(which, is still there) and moved to Surfers. Since then I ve been here. Well, in Gold Coast.
Basically 2 weeks I ve been sleeping in the parks and by the beaches, in Surfers Paradise and by some other lakes or riversides. Most of my bags I kept at Jaanus s place. He lives with one ozzy girl. Some nights I even slept in his car, but mostly outside. It s been I say amazing experience, though the most annoying part was, to carry the stuff. My laptop case, my sleeping bag. I worried about my laptop that can get stolen when I sleep, but it was under my head as I used it as pillow when sleeping, hoping when somebody wants to grab I would have woken up. Never happened anything like that.
One night I started to rain. I hated it. I was just sleeping by the beach in Surfers and I had to find the dry place, but I was hoping it will finish off. I finally moved away, but then it was late already, I was wet. My sleeping bag was wet and I was worrying about my laptop if it s ok. It is still ok, as I am using it writing this blog.
Meanwhile I got appointment for the job and on the New Years Eve I will have my first shift as a security guy.
I just did it for that. I lived for that and hoped I will get it as I wanted to live in Gold Coast. I like here.

As Christmas came closer, I really ran out of money as I hoped I will start working earlier but it delayed, and my first shift was pushed to the New Years Eve. So I had to borrow money. Never want to owe money and don t like to borrow, but had to do it, to live to next wages.
But it didn t bother me so much. What bothered me, was Christmas..
I still had internet on my phone, and got to see, what s happening on facebook.
I didn t care about the gifts and food pictures what everybody shared, but I cared when I saw somebody
writing:
"Christmas is not about gifts its about friends, and family and close ones that you get to see on Christmas. It s the time, when we get to see our loved ones".
When I saw that I just simply felt bad.
I was just getting my sleeping bag ready in the Macintosh park that is next to some kind of river and I sat down on the pench. I took out my pen and notebook and feeling so emotional on that very moment, I wrote that poem(first I wrote it in estonian, but did translate it later into enghlish):

Secretly I cry

This is the first time,

yeah, probably it is

I sleep outside alone

but tomorrow is Christmas

This is the first time,

yeah, probably it is

I miss the ones,

who usually have been around

This is the first time

yeah, probably it is

Secretly I cry

but I will breakthru

Butterfly landed on my cheek

I know there are many around

But still on Christmas Eve,

Is it luck that can come around?

This is the first time

yeah, probably it is,

But the sorrow is gone now.

Butterfly. My soul got turned around.

And that s how it was. When I was writing those rhymes, the butterfly touched me and it just changed my mood so I also gave a poem a happy end.

The miracle is not here. Miracle happened next day on Christmas day.

I heard of Christmas lunch that was organised by St. Peter s church and thought to go there.

"How to get there, I went there, but couldn t find it!" said one man by the local community center when I just got there in the morning.

"I think it is on the corner of South..and Nerang Street" I said.

"Do you know how to get there? Do you know?"

"I think so", I said.

"I get my car here in a minute and drop you there too", he went to get his car.

As he was driving one lady came near and asked if anybody wants to go there.

She knew where the place was so she came with us.

Lunch was really nice. I met one taiwanese girl that I d met just couple days ago as well so we sat together.

It was all organised and they even gave a Christmas present for everyone who came. It was a surprise.

It was all nice. The guy who organised the lunch came to talk to me as well.

I told him, that it really made me a Christmas feeling as I am travelling on my own and far away from home.

Taken from the Christmas lunch

It all last like 1 hour. Then we started to leave, I went out with that taiwanese girl and that woman who knew where the place was.

"So where are you living?" she suddenly asks.

Taiwanese girl already knew that I was camping outside.

"Well, I m just camping outside. I m not sure, where I m gonna sleep tonight", I laughed.

She got a bit serious and said:

"You look good boy, why don t you come and stay at my place couple nights, until you get your job and stuff?" she asked then.

I was a bit surprised. Didn t expect that. But of course I couldn t say no. So I got a place to stay in.

She prepared a Christmas dinner as well and I felt that I really had the Christmas feeling.

When having that dinner I reminded my poem I wrote last night on that bench. I told about it to her and translated it into english. And then I realised that BUTTERFLY really had a roll in my luck.

This woman told me then I can stay at her place until I get my first wages. Anything better I couldn t even imagine. Amazing. A real Christmas Miracle. What else I can say?

4 months of adventure, some police tickets and a bit of work

2012-12-27T18:55:00.001-08:00

It s 28 th of December, 2012. It s 4 months since I wrote last time. I went to cotton farm, to Cubbie station in Dirranbandi. My boss didn t like me because I asked too many questions. He liked those, who never complained, those, who just arrived to Australia and didn t know any rights they really had. Also those, who just loved to lick his ass. He didn t pay as the agreement was and of course I started to ask questions.
"It doesn t matter how many hours you write, it matters what I write", he said

. In Estonia I would have taken him to court, but I didn t want to bother myself doing it here. Still thinking to make a youtube video about what sort of job you can find when you work for him. Chinese company bought the whole station few weeks after I left and, being a bit upset, I hope he lost his job as chinese would get their own people to be in charge. I was there for 4 weeks only.

After that I came back to Brisbane. Spent a lot of money in Gold Coast, partying weeks in Surfers.

But in Surfers I also heard about the security job, that might help me to stay longer in country after May. So I did my security course, studied on those papers, payed and got my Security Provider License few days ago. It took me like 2 months. It s been crazy time though.

During partying I did some Police visits. Just some stupid incidents. Now I have already 3 tickets to pay and I also owe something to YWAM Perth.
Meanwhile I ve been working on the solar panels in Surfers, sold some funny girly decorations in Redcliffe when I met philippine girl Sherry and I went for Emerald, to work on the solar panels as well.
It is just the quickest way how I can generalise my last 4 months I think.

Koreans, thai couple and "my world"

2012-08-25T04:52:00.000-07:00

It s 19 th of August, 2012.
Just read my blog and when I did that, it reminded me the blogs that I wrote when I was maybe 12 or 13 or 14. Just wondering if these blogs are somewhere in safe. On those days I couldn t speak or read english, only estonian and maybe some russian too. We lived at Kastani street in Haapsalu. I spent most of childhood there. Funny, the town- Haapsalu, is so little. Only about 12 000 people live in there and next bigger city is 100 km away which is Tallinn, the capital of Estonia which population reaches 400 000 and the whole Estonia s population is about 1 300 000. Just about that.
Anyway, I was saying that my town was and is so little. There is no much change there. Actually there is, but not towards the population. My point is- I never, well yes, I barely went to the other side of the town. All my life was in that little street. I loved it so much. I really did. It was my whole world. I didn t want or need to go out of it, because I really enjoyed to be there. Our street was big though, well- for me it was the whole world, but also compared to the other streets, it was bigger than the others. So for some reason I never didn t care to even know what was happening out of it. When some new guys came to our street, we were watching them. We kept eyes on them.
"Who are they? What they want from here? What business they have here?" I remember making those questions. Just 13 years old, but so big already in ourselves. :)
Yes, I loved my street. It was the best for me and I got excited about little things. So excited that I thought that I have to write them down. I told to my friend that I m writing a blog and they felt inspired to do the same. At least one of them started to write also.
So yes I, wrote blog. And few of them. Few books I think. I wonder if they still exist because of moving out of that street after years, they might be lost now. When I was in my second high school year, we moved to the centre of the town. It was weird, I felt like I left behind my whole life. And in some point, I probably did.

During the last 3 months I have moved 7 times. And now everything is opposite. I do fall in love with different places, I am amazed of the beautiful nature, nice beaches, big trees and also different people. But, there is no such thing as "My world". I m like searching for it. I think I am.

I ve never been good cook. Like embarrassed of it.Too lazy not have had even a go. During my travels people often asked what is the estonian food. What do you eat. I m like. Ehh, mumbling with the answers as I couldn t even cook anything delicious. Sometimes I think that if I was travelling with some other people, with other estonians- they could solve the problem. And if I couldn t cook, then so what, at least the other estonian proved the good taste of estonian food. But I m on my own. Got nobody to help me out. Got no one else to point the finger- I m the stupid if I can t make it. So I decided to learn cooking.
The thing is that I m living with the koreans and with australians. Australians are mixed. Well, they are australians, but their parents are not. And they are couple.
Girl was born in Thailand and boyfriend s parents are from El Salvador. Girl did so good thai food that I got really challenged to learn something. And koreans moved here, and they cooked such a nice dinner that I felt that if I m not gonna cook them anything they gonna hate me. :)

So I had a go, and they loved it. Surprisingly it turned to be really good as I was kind of having a try.
Koreans were here about 2 weeks, they left this morning, and I m leaving also today. I m just gonna stay in the bus station over night to catch the bus in the morning as I don t want to wake up early to rush in the morning. This time I m heading to Dirranbandi, actually it s only about 250 km from Collarenebri- the horsefarm where I was before, month ago.

I was between going to Bundaberg with koreans, as they are heading to Bowen, which is around 1200 km to north, which is somewhere between Townsville and Mackay, so they could have drop me off in Bundaberg, that is just on the way there. But I decided for Dirranbandi, as I think I m gonna earn there some good money. Long hours every day, and accomodation also for free. Gonna stay there probably around 6 weeks, then the guy said he could give me one month off and they he would want me there for longer time. See how it goes for the first time first.

Put some pictures with koreans. They were really cool lads. Told them to meet up in Karratha in few months, as they want to make a trip all around Australia. I ve got one friend in Karratha, said there is loads of work. So I might be going there after that.
So today is pretty big day. I forgot one of my bags to the place I was before- Narrangbi. So we went with the thai couple and brought it back. Saw Bernice s friend there. Forgot her name..Took the mattress back there that I borrowed, got my stuff backed and am ready to go again now.
Haven t taken any pictures from the house though, should do it now..
Anyway, few pictures with koreans and then next blog will be in..month, 2 or who knows.

And one video clip too :)

Sometimes very lucky, some times not that lucky

2012-07-21T23:56:00.000-07:00

I am in Brisbane, actually in Narangba, that is around 35 km from Brisbane. I ve been here around 1 week, before that I was in Collarenebri about 3 weeks, that is close to Moree, which is around 500 kms from the east coast. I worked there for the horsefarmer..

I expected, yes, I expected to earn some money there, get some money in my pocket, but it didn t go like that. Even though the ad on gumtree didn t promise firm income- it said:" Dad has contract and if he gets work then you will get work as well," or something like that. Anyway, I worked for them anyway, had place to sleep and good meals 2 times a day. In the morning I made sandwiches- I need to eat also in the morning-I just won t have energy to work, if I don t eat before.

"You eat sandwiches in the morning," said my german cabin mate. When he said that, he reminded me the time when I lived in Denmark with few germans. They always had proper and certain food in certain time. That was funny for me, who is used to eat anything any time. Mick, the farmer said once:

"I appreciate that you eat all what I cook," and I really think it was always good too.

We had fish almost every night. We caught it ourselves from the river. River was just next to his property.
What a luxury. I said it to them and they laughed too.

That s how we did fishing in the mornings..

We also caught yabbies(crabs?) from the pon.

Few more pictures taken from the farm:

Me, welding- fixing the gate

When I left the farm, I didn t have much money in my pocket, but I left with the good feeling. I was happy to move on, it was rainy day when I left. It started to rain few days before my leaving. And in the morning when I had to leave, it kept raining, it was really dirty and muddy and I felt good to leave that place. Maybe it s also in my blood- I always love to move on.
But I was lucky. Week before I left I met randomly one woman in the pub that we visited over the weekend. She told me she knew how is to travel. She had been to around 80 countries in the world, and the fact- she also visited Estonia once, so she knew where I was from. We found many topics to talk about and she added:
"When you come to Brisbane, you can come over and stay couple of nights there."

I promised to call her and I did. I called her on the next days intending to really come and she really welcomed me here. So here I am. Really staying in her place. She introduced me to her friends and people she knows as a backpacker. That s what I am for them. Travelling in the country from place to place.
"I don t know how to thank you for that," I said once.
"I have been travelling a lot in my life and people have helped me a lot- once you get older and meet somebody young like you- then you can help this person too."
That s what she said. I was really amazed of that.
I keep telling this to my friends and people are amazed. Just like that? Do people like these really exist?
She gave a house key and said, come and go when you want. At the moment she is not here, visiting her boyfriend- partner and the other woman who lives here, went to vacation. I am basically on my own here.
Unbelievable. I am absolutely stranger and she allows me to be here just like that. How is it possible?
I don t know. Maybe it is something to do with some religion, that she believes that if you help somebody then in next life she will get it back. Ehh, just a random thought. Doesn t matter. These people exist. In fact, just a month ago it happened to me again in Perth, I already wrote about that in previous blog I guess. It was amazing too.
Sometimes I think it happens only in Australia and maybe also in New Zealand, she is actually from New Zealand but lives here now. Through her I also got job. One of her friends friend hired me. I worked on Friday already and will go to work also tomorrow. So I start to earn money and go on with my life- travel again. Of course I don t stay here for ever, probably this weekend I will rent my own place, but I am truly thankful for her and still amazed that somebody offered her place just like that.

One good friend told me yesterday:
"If you believe in good things and act in that way- the good things will come to you too." I think he is right. When you are positive, things will go positive. You spread the good "spirit" or "aura" or "karma" and if you do so, you will "magnet" the good things. If you are negative, then everything opposite happen to you.

Anyway, I finish my blog with few pictures from here:

This time I don t pay rent. How cool is that?

2012-06-06T11:44:00.001-07:00

It was Friday afternoon when I put some ads on gumtree about finding job in Perth. I put different ads like:
"Looking for fit and strong guy to help you move your furniture? Call me!" or
"I am looking for job on construction sites. I am experienced carpenter, have done paving, painting, etc. Please call me!" and one different ad:
"Want to get some piano lessons?Call me or write me! I have played piano for 23 years."

One brazilian guy rings me up and asks me how much I charge for moving little sofa. We agree in amount and he picks me up, we do this little job for about half an hour or less, gives me money and takes me back to my home.
Funny guy, wants to offer me a weed as well, but I refuse.
"No, I haven t smoked already like for a year and it s no good for me, I get paranoias."
"Aa yah, if you get paranoias, then it s better to not smoke. I can smoke, I don t get paranoias.
Promised to call me again, said he needs more stuff to transport later.
But I also got another call.
"Hi, I saw your ad on gumtree, you are piano teacher right?"
"Yea-yeah, do you wanna learn piano?"
"No, but do you have piano? she asks. I m like, how can she ask that. How can she think that I don t have. I obviously need to possess piano to give lessons.
"I have piano in the house, I saw your ad and thought maybe you also need a house with piano."
I actually had to move out from the flat where I stayed.
"I have piano in this house, but I actually need to move out soon."
"Do you wanna come and check the house then?"
I m like, well, it wouldn t be bad idea.
I meet her up and check the flat. That was not the flat that I expected to see, neither was piano in tune.
I m pretty disappointed and willing to say good bye quickly, but then she starts talking about going to church and these very days I m feeling actually to get far away from these people, but as she behaves so kindly, I tell her why not.
She wants to pick me up and bring me to the church she goes.
She is asian, from Singapore. I explained her that I actually had to move out from where I was and I actually already had place planned for couple of nights and for my surprise she offers to take my stuff and drive it to where I had to go.
So she really helps to take my stuff and drives me to Subiaco. She doesn t know me, but just totally randomly helps me like that. I m just totally surprised. She is so kind that I leave some stuff on her car to let her know that I want to go and stop in her house as well, or just in case I can t stay in Subiaco too long. I told to Tony, that I won t stay there longer than couple of nights. Tony is a former mayor of Subiaco. That s another funny story how I got to know him, just from the streets. My friends would often tell that things like that can happen only to me. Next morning she picks me up from my old place from 60 Cheriton, we go to church, then later shows me her own house where she stays and talks more about her business. She rents out 10 houses. Owns but also pays loan to bank. Business woman as she calls herself.
I stayed couple of nights in Subiaco and today I moved in here, Scarborough beach road. The beach is quite close here.
"West coast has the longest beach in the world", said Rachel. Her real name is actually something else, but I must say I don t know if i have met any asians who have introduced themselves with their real asian name. They always make up "english" name.

I wrote this all late night yesterday. Now it s midday. Today I need to go and see what s happening in the Aussijobs. The agent said yesterday that she puts the position aside for me and asked me to send my resume and go and talk to her today again. The employer was gonna be working all day but in case he calls, then agent could have my resume to tell him about me. If he s not calling, then lately tomorrow I ll get to know if I get the position or not. That is good position, that gives me opportunity to get into mining as well.
Now I need to send resume and go there. That s the plan on today.
House where I stay is cool. Rachel is really busy, runs around and communicates with clients. Actually this is also kind of hotel, where I m staying, it has spa and yeah, many bathrooms and many bedrooms. It is called Doubleview Bnb.
That s it for now.

Koreans and their names

2012-05-17T10:18:00.003-07:00

There are 2 koreans who work with me in the Phoenix shopping centre.

"What are you planning to do after this?" I asked from Seo.

He says something in korean to another guy, who gives his phone to Seo and Seo translates something in it and shows me a result: "Archeologist".

"You wanna become archeologist?" I asked.

"Hmmhmm", he nods.

"Indiana Jones", says another guy and laughs.

"So you like digging?", I asked and realised that it wasn t appropriate question.

"History, lots of history in Korea", he tries to explain what he is into.

"You like to dig gold? Silver?"

"Yes, yes"

Finally I figured out he also wants to go to school, to become an archeologist. It costs 24 000 dollars to study archerology in Korea, (South Korea).

"Very expensive in Korea," he repeated.

"You want to earn to money, save it from here and study in Korea and become archeologist?" I asked to help him out from explaining.

"Yes, yes, thanks", he was laughing.

"24 000 dollars for studies!

"Yes, yes," he kept repeating.

I met another korean guy one year ago up in North Queensland. He also earned money for studies.

I stood up and said good bye.

Saw him later and asked his name.

"My name is Seo in korean, but in english it is Fetri."

"Fetri. Fetry?. I just felt it s not really english. More like korean or, italian? Well, but definitely not english.

I asked why he changed his name.

"My paren, parent, parents..parents told me I need to change name for english."

I didn t quite understand why his parents asked him to change or was it his parents who commanded to change. It almost sounded to me that he had to change because his parents told so.

I might got him wrong too.

But it wasn t Ferri.

"So your name is Seo in korean and Fetri.."

"Yes, Pee, a.." he spelled.

"Wait, is it Patrick?"

"Yeah- yeah-yeah, Patry."

"Ah, Patrick, not Fetry.." we laughed.

"Ok, see you later."

I don t know why they always change their real names. You never get to know their real names unless you actually ask for it.

But I like them, they are cool. Very friendly always.

Black spoke polish

2012-05-06T09:40:00.002-07:00

Today was/is Sunday. 6 th of May. 2012.

I was working at Coles in South Perth today and I m happy my shift was there today- yesterday I was in Phoenix shopping centre that is way bigger and is very busy, when South Perth is very slow. That s good.

When having another break, I got to know my workmate, well, more like Coles mate, who is working in shelves. His parents are from Poland and he, too, can actually speak polish. 2-3 years ago he visited Poland for month or two and got to know more about these people. He said they ve got quite a lot of gypsies. I don t know much about them, only when I lived in Hungary, in Budapest, just before I travelled to Australia, I saw them in Budapest. They don t have very good reputation and it s the same in Poland according to my Coles mate Robert. I m not surprised. But I was surprised in a good way that he knew polish and said he wants to go back to Poland one day. I said something in russian, but he didn t recognise that. Russian and polish are similar, but can be still different enough to misunderstand each other.
At home he basically talks in polish and that s good, he s bilingual. I would speak also estonian at home if my future mate would be estonian and if I would still live in a country where the official and main language is english or something else. But yes, I liked him. That s funny, because in Estonia I wouldn t relate myself in anyway with polish or Poland. There s just no connection between us and them, but for western world there would be. For them we would be eastern european countries and for some reason I felt connected to him, that s funny, because he s not even from Poland. He s from Australia, but to be honest, when I looked at him after figuring out his routes, I saw it on his face. He was eastern european, I mean, his blood is.

That was interesting yes. I think I realised that first time in Australia. I think I even sensed that he was almost like talking about home or some lost and found treasure, when he was talking about Poland.

There was one thing that surprised him, when he got to Poland.

"I heard black man talking polish, that was just so weird", he became a bit excited.

"I saw maybe only 3 blacks in the whole time I was there and no asians", he added.

No asians! Wow. I think we would have few in Estonia, at least in capital? Or I ve been away for so long that I can t even remember anymore. But we would also see more blacks in Estonia I think.? At least tourists.. we have quite a lot of tourists in summer time(from May- Aug). But yes, that s true, Eastern Europe wouldn t get that much blacks and asians and other ethnicities, only white caucasians or however it is called in english.

From tomorrow I am working at Woolstores shopping centre, that is in Fremantle, close to ocean, beach and probably for the whole next week.

I don t know if I m gonna see Robert again. He said he wants to become accountant, but haven t finished studies yet. Doesn t have even Facebook. Everybody has, but he didn, t, and I didn t ask any other contact. Anyways, the whole next week I ll be busy at work. That s good. Can save some money hopefully.

That s it. Finito for now.

My visa status and Anissa.

2012-05-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

It s 4 th of May, Friday night. I haven t been very busy lately. Pretty relaxed and loose especially comparing to my house mates and people from the YWAM base, though, I m still living at one of these houses they rent. It s pretty good to live here. I couldn t find any place in the city according to the cost and conditions of course, but also people here. No one is allowed to consume alcohol here, no drugs, no alcohol. Nothing gets lost or stolen I can really trust people here, even if I forget something somewhere, I know I can get it back.. It s really convienient in that sense.

I went Aussijobs today. It s a workagency and for some reason estonians have a good reputation there. Ave recommended me to go there and mention that I know her and Brigitta. That was my second time there and Anissa, woman, who is running the agency, was happy that I brought news from them. She just asked them yesterday to bring a present to another estonian guy, who works in Williams too.
I was sure that I m on bridging visa and that s what it says, when I look at my online status, though it says both, but I couldn t say what it means.
Anissa asked her assistant to call to Immigration again. After explaining on phone that I have been to Perth Immigration department many times already and have sent many letters too, the guy on the phone told me to send them one more letter, to explain that I m not studying anymore, just in order to get on bridging visa. Actually, I don t even need it. He told me that it ll go to bridging once my student visa expires, which is on 23 Aug unless Immigration doesn t cancel it before or put me on working holiday visa. So it seems like I ve got plenty of times to prepare myself for what I d actually like to do or so..Also I know now that the conditions that I had on student visa, will remain also on bridging visa, if, I ever will be put on it. So I can work only 20 hours a week until I, whenever it happens, get on second working holiday visa.
"Are you working somewhere now?" asked Anissa.
"Eeh, it s kind of random."
"Call me on monday, I ll find you something in my garden."
I smiled.
"Ok, I call you on Monday" and left the room leaving at least 20 backbackers in there. Why not I was thinking. It s always better to have more options.

Africans are more laid back than australians?

2012-05-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

Some people ask if I miss home, if I miss Estonia. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don t. I met one guy from Uganda, Joseph, he s really cool guy. He told me how he would love to get work on mining site, save some money and definitely go back to Uganda, build nice house and live there.
"It s very nice in my country, it s beautiful, people are very friendly in rural areas. The more rural you go, the more friendly people you meet."
We also talked about family structure and how is it different from Australia to Uganda and I told him how is it in Estonia.
"In my country you don t see old people rushing home from work, old people don t work in my country, they work when they are young. Here you can see even old people rushing.." and he did this grimace on his face and was laughing but showed disappointed grimace.
"Really, you see that here? I thought people are laid back here in Australia. You should come to Estonia and see how is it there!" I laughed.
"You work when you are young and you help your parents and you make sure that when you are old, you don t have to work anymore, you give orders and your children help you", he explained.

I ve never been to Africa, but it seems like africans are really laid back, according to what he explained. I m sure it s not laid back in Johannesburg and in some other big cities, but when I was thinking of how he was talking about his home, it was clear to me that he misses his country, he wants to go back there.

Maybe gonna get work in a mining for a while?

2012-04-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

I don t know is it wright or wrong and I don t actually care if I m wrong, but I have also this little belief/faith in numbers. In a number of 7 as it is my birthday nr.

Today was 27 th of April. It s been around 17 months since I got to Australia first time. I just checked my blog and the total number of views is 1701. I have 7 followers on my blog at the moment and there were 7 pageviews on my blog today, yesterday, it says, it had 37 pageviews. Lots of sevens :).Though by now it is 28 th, as it is a bit over midnight by now.
What I have observed sometimes or maybe I want to see that, if there s something to do with nr 7, then something good will happen to me or must happen. Few days ago I met Joseph from Uganda and I saw him today again and he said that his brother is trying to get a job in mining. Their very good friend from Congo is a big boss in that certain mine site and Joseph s brother, Ben, is trying to go and work in there too. Ben also happened to come over today to the base with his wife, son and his wife s mother and I got to know him too. We changed contacts and he promised to say a word for me.

Tony flew to London today, well, more like to Singapore for couple of nights before he flies to London and I don t know is it good or bad that he had to go just now when I m facing the questions with Immigration, but anyway, meeting with Joseph s brother was good. Maybe I m gonna work in mining soon? That would be cool experience and also good money I guess, the only worry I have is towards my visa. I also met Tony yesterday, well, on the 26 th and he said that if there s need, he can contact minister of.. I don t know..Foreign Affairs? to speak for me. I don t know what would I do if I wouldn t meet him so randomly.

I only have faith that everything s gonna work out somehow even if it seems to be actually quite crazy situation. Visa is expiring in unknown number of days as I m on bridging visa now and I don t know their decision yet. I wouldn t have problem to get new visa, but I lost my passport and I didn t complete the school, which I heard is something that they don t like as they had to cancel my visa now and they might think:
"Why should we give him a new one if he didn t use the last one fully?"
But it s just the worst case. I already know Tony, I am in safe environment in the YWAM base and I know people from mining site too. That sounds good enough.

13 months without phone?! Wow..:)

2012-04-25T09:59:00.001-07:00

It s 25 th of April. Time goes really fast and I feel that I start all my blogs with that phrase, but that s true, just lot of things have happened again. My school mates have been in London already for about 3- 4 weeks and I ve been trying to get to on another visa- Second Working Holiday Visa- official name of that. Though I feel I haven t done much. I didn t think it would take so long. Sending copies of my Certificate of Return to prove who I am, responding to Immigration for the requirements of health condition and things like that just have postponed the whole process.
Meanwhile I got job from egyptian guy, who comes to the base that I m still related a bit. I wonder myself how comes that I, who loves to be in connection with people, didn t have phone for more than 9 months. Wow. Last time I used phone was in North Queensland. I remember it was so rainy day, well it was raining there for weeks and the family that I got to know later from the Baptist church, was stuck in the mountains for weeks too because of heavy rain. They used boat to cross some valleys, and when the water level wasn t very high, they crossed the river by tractor. So cool, I ll never forget that. But before I went to stay and work in their farm, I worked for another farm, that was banana farm too and that s where my phone got wet and broken.
Some pictures from the time when the rainseason hadn t started yet and few video clips too that one japanese guy recorded.

Banana field before cyclone Jasi

Tory, who was sometimes very harsh, he had his own

sense of humor towards backbackers, but inside he was

nice guy. Told me sometimes about his kids and that s

where he became very kind and friendly, but as I said,

some people couldn t see that in him, because he was their

boss and for me he wasn t boss. For them he was very

commanding and if he didn t like somebody he showed it

with the "whole respect" so that nobody would get him

wrong. He would fire them immediately, but sometimes

he was just joking with that phrase and sometimes

people didn t understand when he was serious and when he

was joking. There would be more stuff to say about him,

but I leave it formyself, it s been already a year..

One more picture of Tory

Lunch time.

Me on the left and my brother on the right.

He came to work there for about month, before he

went to Japan to see his girlfriend.

Back to my phone.
I remember I put my phone to my right- side pocket to keep it dry? It was not possible to keep it dry in there, but I needed to take phone with me for that job- to know the time- because I was working there alone and far away from the shed, where we had breaks and lunches. I tried to keep my phone somewhere dry, under the different parts of tractor but by the end of the day, my phone was dead again.

That picture is taken from the truck trailer, and this

ute is about to drive through the flood too.

These pictures are taken after cyclone Jasi. It was the most devastated cyclone that was ever estimated in the whole Australian history. It was category 5, that hit this region there.

So weird to see how different it was after cyclone Jasi..Beautiful green land turned to gray and ugly, just like there had been bombing..

Video clips of how hard we were working there..:)

But in fact, I actually met Prince William too.

As Tully was the most devastated place

by cyclone Jasi, he flew to visit

this place in person.

He flew there with 5 helicopters.

This street would have been usually almost empty on

normal day.

(phone story continues)
I warmed it up for couple of times, and it began to work again, but one time it didn t start any more and after that I didn t buy new one, it was probably mid March, and now it is the end of April, year later. So I have been actually without phone for about year??? Wow.!!!!

But the beaches and the nature in North Queensland are corgeous!
Some picture from there then:

Anyways, after being there for about 4-5 months, I left that place and flew to Sydney for my birthday. My brother Janno was in Sydney too, I just wanted to celebrate my birthday with somebody that I knew instead of spending it with some people that I met recently.

On the first day in Sydney, just couple of hours after getting there, we decided to go and see Opera House and just maybe hundred meters or 2 before Opera house 2 estonian girls recognised our language and said Hi. It was so cool, I didn t expect to meet any estonian there. And next few days we spent it together before they went to New Zealand or somewhere, can t remember anymore.

And in Sydney I didn t buy a phone too, I thought if I get to Perth, then I ll get one, but then just kind of didn t need it. Actually it s not true. I used often my brother s phone and he didn t like it, but somehow it worked. I should have bought it, but I got used to not have one.
That s crazy, I stayed in Sydney for 2 months without phone. I came to Perth and was used to it, I kept being without phone for next 6 months too, actually next 9-10 months and to total up with the time in Sydney and the little time after finished working in Tully, it sums up all together 13 months.13 monthhsss!!!!!

So, here we go, some pictures from Cambodia..
Actually I still try to excuse myself how comes that I didn t get a phone during this time..Maybe because everything was organised by somebody, even the trip to Asia was runned by somebody and that s why again I didn t need to worry about things how to get here or there and bla bla..

Some pictures from Hong Kong too..

And some from Perth..

Now I m done with studies, hoping to get another working holiday visa, work and travel again a bit.
I tried to get some work last week but then Rafik, the guy who recommended me the job, said, you need a phone and then I realised, well I guess it s time to have one. I guess it was sort of relaxed in some sense but maybe also careless not staying in immediate contact with people around me. When one australian girl Amy heard that I actually lost job because I didn t have phone, she wanted to give me one, I was like, no I need to buy myself, but she said she wants to give it to me and so it was, she gave me the phone and I bought credit myself.

So crazy!!!! I have heard of people having no account on Facebook, but no phone for more than year?
Actually one american guy, Seth, he just told me that he also haven t had it for long time, haha.
( Seth if you read my blog then please forgive me using your name in that context..:)
And eveyone else, who sees their pictures on my blog and don t want them here, let me know, I take them off. ;)

Anyway, that s it. Time to be connected also on phone! :)

A former mayor invited me to his home

2012-04-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

Just too many things are happening at the moment and I wasn t sure what to do. I decided to contact that mayor again. Last time I saw him around 3 months ago and I was wondering if he even remembers me. I sent a message to him and he responded this morning and then I called.

"Hello good afternoon!"

"Hey Tony, it s me, Viljo."

"Hi Viljo, how are you doing?"

"I m good, thanx, I mean, I m not even sure how am I doing" I answered honestly.

"Yes I understood from your message and I do remember you, what s happening then?"

"Hey, it s just little bit complicated, I was wondering if we could meet again?" I asked.

"Sure, whenever is convienient for you!"

This reminded me his helping attitude. Always asking how it s more convienient for me.

I asked if we could meet today, it wasn t fine to him first, but then he said if only afternoon. I had nothing on this afternoon, so we decided it for 2 o clock.

"Take your time, whenever is convienient for you.." This sentence started to stuck in my head already.

Emmy, my mate from media workduties showed me video project that she had to be finished by tomorrow and then I realised that it s almost 2 o clock. So I called him again and asked if it s ok to meet a bit later in 45 minutes. He was fine.

"Whenever is convienient to you."

I went home quickly to take camera with me.

I didn t want to be late anymore and I grabbed few coins that I earned from busking yesterday. I caught taxi and asked if he can get me to Forester Street with these coins, there were about 14 AUD. He agreed. Taximeter ran somewher 18 but he was fine, I gave what I had.

I love taxidrivers. I was used to be taxidriver myself back in Estonia for 5 months. Usually you give a tip to them, well, if you like taxidriver. If I didn t get a tip, then I would think automatically that probably the client didn t like my driving or me, or yes, client was just poor. But taking a taxi, you shouldn t be really poor. At least in Estonia you don t take a taxi if you don t have money. And what was I doing? Putting my last coins to taxi? And not even be able to give a tip. Taxidriver was fine. He asked me over the address, but it was complicated.

"Can I use your phone to ask it from him again?"

"Yes, here it is."

He asked me what am I doing and I told that I m part of missionary organisation. I know that taxidrivers love to have conversations with their clients. Otherwise they shouldn t work in the sector where communication is needed. I miss taxidriving. It was cool. Just having conversations with so many random people. He didn t take me to the house though, maybe because I didn t have money enough.

I gave him all my coins.

"How am I going back then? Train costs at least 2 dollars" I was thinking to myself.

Tony offered me couple of coins later but I didn t want to take. I didn t want to give him expression that I went to meet him for money. I told him about my situation where am I at, but I didn t want to take these coins and put them for school when I knew that he was giving them for train. So I walked back. It was abound 6 km I think, but I loved walking. I took many pictures too.

It was good meeting. We just talked about my school again. He had lovely I would say humble little house.

He had many pictures on the walls. Pictures of musicians and about himself, some big paintings of Jesus too. He was catholic. I was forgotten that he had religious background. Then I saw guitar there and I played him the song that I wrote about month or 2 ago. That s funny to sing a song to somebody who doesn t understand the language. The song is in estonian. I recorded it also we days ago with Emmy. The link is here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYBxyk0HN9o&list=UUPhCn2HaGuiJby2n9nxou3g&index=2&feature=plcp

And he also had piano at house and I played that too. He encouraged me a lot and promised to come and donate when I m busking again. I just need to inform him when I do that. That s the question to myself too. When? I was gonna do it today, as I just used money for taxi, money that I was gonna put to school. But without Emmy I don t wanna go very much. She was tired today. If I m out the school from tomorrow then I need to find out new way, and that s where he was gonna try to help me like he said: "If I can."

If he can t then God still can. Nothing is impossible for God. I like that.

Life like a movie.

2012-03-30T10:28:00.001-07:00

It s 30 of March, 2012. I m writing often, because there s lot of things happening. I feel like it s similar to the time when I got to Australia first time around 16 months ago. I got here and had nothing in my pocket. But I believed everything can only get better. I thought Australia is like a land of paradise. Economy runs well, wages are good regardless where you work. Of course for ozzies it wouldn t be like that. But for me, coming from eastern European country, it was pretty much like that. Wherever I worked, I was getting payed more than 3 times at least that I could earn at home. More than that. 4-5 times even and that all working just as a labourer, then how much could I earn having a position somewhere?
But when I got to Australia, I didn t know exactly where I was gonna work. My come to Australia was pretty messy. I only stayed around 10 days at home, in Estonia and before that I spent 5 months in a country of Hungary. That is in the middle of Europe. By economy and culturally..well, by economy it would be eastern european country, by culturally..it s just different. All the countries in Europe are so different, by language, by history and also by economy. I just talked about Europe today with my school mate Armand from Indonesia.
He made me laugh saying: "I thought Europe was a country".
"I asked where are you from, and he said I m from Germany. Wait-wait! Germany! In Europe? So Europe is not a country?" he laughed explaining how he met somebody from Germany times ago and was excited about that. He told me about Indonesia. I didn t know that they have such an history behind. Dutchs colonised that huge country for 300 years. Wow. I just didn t know that. I don t even remember if we learnt that in geography class. We learnt a lot, but maybe I just can t remember. At school I didn t pay attention much maybe..
Anyways, where was I..Hungary. Yes. It situates in the middle of Europe and hungarians would be pretty offended if you call them eastern europeans. I don t know why. What s bad to be eastern European? All bad people, corrupted? I don t think so. There are lot of good people around. They were used to be bigger country, some parts from Austria, some from Croatia, some from Romania and others around them got some land from them after second World war. Maybe that s why they just would like to be something more than just what they are now. So this is where I was for 5 months and after that I only visited my home country for couple of days, around 10 days and then I came to Australia.
I m jumping from one topic to another and it reminds me my literature class, my teacher who told me to not have too many thoughts in your composition. It s just too complicated and doesn t make sense for whole story. But that s my story, even that is very brief. I m just trying to write down where was I 2 years ago, how did I start my journey to Australia and where am I now.

I only remember that I didn t know what exactly was gonna happen when I just got to Australia, but I remember that I had this good faith just like Bob Marley sings: "Everything s gonna be alright". And it went well, I got job very quickly. Everything just worked out smoothly, though I didn t organise that. Funny is that I actually owned money to my friend, who payed me the ticket to Australia and I had to pay it back, which I did in few months. The amount was around 1500 AUD
Now I m basically in the same situation. I own around 1400 AUD to the school, but now I have some difficulties. I don t have passport, I only have kind of paper that is called Certificate of Return which allows me to get back to Europe. But I can t work now, unless I wanna quit University of the Nations and get a job and quickly work out my visa papers. But can I actually renew my visa with that cetificate? Hmm. I doupt in that. I wrote to Immigration but haven t got any response from them yet. Next week I m just gonna call or visit them personally, that s probably the best and most important step that I need to do quickly.

It s 31 March now. We had meeting at this morning with my school leader and with one another leader from the base. Basically the situation is pretty dramatic. It s three of us, me, Armand from Indonesia and Melissa from Havaii, who still haven t got payed all the fees that needed to be in by..yesterday. And we were given a "mercy" to sort thing out by Monday. The rest of the team went to do recording of the songs that we wrote during last 3 months. All together we wrote 5 songs that would be on CD. That s cool. I didn t have any professional recording experience before.

Pictures that we took yesterday from the studio.

That was the school. On the meeting this morning we were told that if we can t figure out how to pay our school fees, then we have to leave the base. My question is only where? I put my money to school, believing that this was my next step after DTS( Discipleship Training School that I also did here in Perth, which started 9 months ago and finished 3 months ago).
"Hey guys get back to the vision what you had before you joined the school. Stay on your vision. Don t loose it. Don t give up. Remember why you wanted to join the school", said Armand enthusiastically to us after meeting. He s right. Why did I join with that school? I have my former staff at backyard doing something with my housemate. I told her the situation.
"I am leaving in 4 weeks", she said. "I thought I should stay in YWAM base, but I feel like God is giving me more and more this feeling that I should go home, set up my own studio there and maybe go to Europe later on this year", said Samarah from North Queensland, Australia.
I felt little bit encouraged. So it s ok to leave the base. And somebody else also said that there are seasons in your life, it was Karen Lafferty, speaker in our school for one week. So what is my season now? What was my vision before? I go back in time to Hungary. I remember I had this vision. Just writing songs and giving messages through that. During the school I have written at least 3 songs, 1 on guitar, and at least 2 on piano, but I haven t been very active contributing to the group in the songwriting.
"Even if you don t have money, it doesn t mean that you have to give up with your vision", said Jessica from Oregon. I like that.
I m not gonna give up. Anyways, my heart is in peace. If I have to leave the country in 28 days, then let it be. If I can join with media staff, then let it be.
"There are seasons in your life". Karen Lafferty.
And I believe that the breakthrough comes, is it leaving the country or doing something else, but something new is coming to my life that is called refreshing Breakthrough.
Just like there is saying. God moves in a mysterious ways.

News, that shake anyone!

2012-03-28T02:26:00.000-07:00

Last few days have been really touching me. Some moments made me just speechless.

As I have had this "hope" sometimes, waiting when they come and tell me:

"Viljo, we think you should leave the school.."or something like that, but nothing like that really happened.

Well, yesterday I had one on one with my school leader again and we talked about financies, again.

He reminded me that as I haven t paid most of my school fees which means that I also
can t go to London, but it also means more. It means that school has to inform immigration departure or whatever departure it is, inform them, that I m not at school anymore, and then they would cancel my visa. Fortunately my visa would be cancelled in few weeks, there would be kind of time for me to prepare getting my things together and leave the country. That would be a bit sad I was thinking. I put all my money to school and now I am facing the fact to leave the school and leave the country. The thing is, that actually I wouldn t only loose my graduation but also visa. Even that doesn t bother me much, what bothered me was that I m not sure if I could ever enter to Australia again because if I leave the school, my visa would be cancelled in few weeks, I couldn t probably get money enough to pay my ticket back to Estonia, which means that Australian government( I heard) would put me to plane and simply send me back to where I m from. I would be blacklisted to this wonderful country called Australia. Option was to get another visa, I was thinking. Well, I also don t have a proper passport,

I lost that too. I have some kind of paper that replaces my passport and allows me to fly back to Estonia, but I m not sure if I could use it also for applying new passport here, well more like in Sydney..

Anyways, some things have happened and humbled me.

Some people say that I m proud person and I almost argued about that with one girl and I guess she is right.

I was trying to find excuses why am I like this. It s because of this and that. If I would be there or do that, I wouldn t be acting like this and bla bla. And besides that all it s still challenging to stay where I rather wouldn t be on my own choice. Often I guess I find excuses that I just need change, I just need to go somewhere else and do something else. Why should I be here and "suffer" that all?

Once I posted something like this to my facebook profile and then one lady commented:

"Most things that are very good, are very difficult.." and I think she is right.

Anyways, come back to things that actually really humbled me.

One day some of my classmates just felt that they wanna give me some things. For example Jessica, girl from Oregon gave me her camera. I was shocked. I love cameras. I just like taking picture, taking videos and all that stuff. I never even had my own camera. Often I used someone else s camera, and once happened that I used someone s camera again, I spilled it in a water. It was in North Queensland when I worked in banana farm, and it was flooding there. It was crazy, even cyclone Jasi hit that place and after that we wanted to have that all on tape. And then I spilled it in water. Water was up to my hip, over knees definitely. I couldn t even go so far. Well, we even swam in there, between banana trees, where we normally were working under hot sun, it was just flooding there then. So I bought a camera, but not for myself. That s funny.

So Jessica gave me a camera. I was moved. I probably haven t even shower her how much it actually means to me. And then..

Armand, from Indonesia, Jakarta, comes and wants to give his videocamera. I was like what?

What are they doing. I already have one. What am I supposed to do with another one?

I felt so bad, because I didn t know how to respond, I didn t want to take it, but he said he deffinitely wants to give it to me. He said, he prayed, and He felt God wanted him to give it to me. I can t refuse things like that, it wouldn t be honourable. But that wasn t even enough.

Few days later, one morning, I think it was Saturday. Maddie, from California, North California, they often wanna point it out, that it s not South but North, well, more like southern californians do that maybe (as far as my memory remembers- it s sometime so bad, especially with names..). Anyways, Maddie knocks on our door that morning when I was sleeping, around 9.30 I guess and she is holding her iPod.

I knew what was coming and I didn t like it at all. Like what? Another gift. I felt so bad.

I m questioning why she wants to give it to me and the answer is similar to my other classmates.

"I was praying for that few days and I m pretty sure that I want to give it to you".

I said it s getting really hard for me. What am I supposed to do with that I said. I don t even know how to use it.

"Does it phone too? Like can I do calls with that" or something like that I ask. She laughs and says no, it s iPod. Only music.

"There s 125 GB also and 8000 songs on it", she adds.

"If you really feel that you don t want it or you don t need it, then just borrow it

for a while and you can give it back to me later if you want", she smiles in a lovely way.

I m like wow..

2 cameras, little bit of money and then iPod.

I was really thinking that goes back to her, I don t need that. Just day or 2 later I was just thinking that, maybe, if some miracle happen and I can go to London, then I can actually use that iPod as a harddrive.

To put all the pictures and videos that I m gonna take with my new Lumix camera.

Today I m finishing lunch and my school leader wants to chat with me again. Today we also have this so called commissioning night. It s when we kind of dedicate everyone who has their fees, for school and for outreach, that is trip to London or wherever they go, some might go to some asian countries and do their mission there.

Anyways, today was kind of due to get all money in and buy the tickets. Sabo, my school leader reminds me that again and kind of prepares me that I should be aware where am I at, should I maybe get some work in a city if I m leaving the school as I mentioned before in the beginning.

However, in the end of the conversation he says:

"I want to encourage you. We have a budget for the school that is put aside, and we wanted to support you with 2000 dollars so that you wouldn t have so much dept for the school in case you have to leave the school. I wasn t expecting that.

I was just shocked. Like really? I couldn t even say much.

"I would be rejoicing now if I was you" or something like that he said. But I was just speechless. Again.

So many times this week.

I have to finish now, need to run to dinner. See how the commissioning night goes, and what comes after, I will write soon..

Preparing for London..

2012-03-16T10:37:00.002-07:00

My trip to London, am I even going this time?

Wow, it s been again months since I wrote anything on this site. Last time I probably wrote when I just got back from Hong Kong, back to Perth and I m still here. I ve been here since November, 2011 and today is 17 March, 2012 and I am still part of YWAM, that is Youth with a Mission, organisation that is all about missions. I have been with them since July 2011, that makes it 9 months by now and sometimes I ask myself: How long more I will be with them? I don t know the answer yet, but I think I might stay with them for a while. Why? That s what I m trying to explain and maybe also figure out to myself and to you, who you are on the other side of the screen that what are the reasons I should stay on with them or why I should not..

It s my 10 th week out of 12 week lecture phase and it s been practical. We have learnt how to perform, how to be on the stage, how to write songs and how to play in the group, but I think the challenge for me was, how to write songs in a group of people that are from all over the world, mostly from States, but also from Indonesia, Australia, Africa and I am the only one in this group who represents Europe, more specifically I would say Estonia cannot represent all Europe, but anyways..

The school is not just about music. It s about missions. It s School of Music in Mission. of University of Nations. Let s put it that way: We learn how to reach people through music, with music.
Most of the songs what we hear on the radiostations contain a lot of immorality, violence, hopeless and stuff that promotes it in people s lives.
Our vision is different. To write songs, that connect people, but also bring them hope in their lives.

But it s not that easy, that just gather in a group and only write songs and go.
Few days ago I had this one on one with my school leader and he asked about my financies. I told him what I had to say. No changes in financies. He asked me if I know why. He pointed that it s because I probably haven t done enough, like haven t contacted people and stuff.
I told him that I don t even know if I wanna be part of that stuff anymore and that s probably one of these reasons also why I haven t contacted people, haven t done updates and stuff. He comes back to question:
"Do you see the benefits from the school you take with you if you leave the school?"
"There are some", I think to myself, but don t say anything.
He encourages me to stay on and think through all these things and conversation ends as he had to go somewhere. I have tried to avoid these conversations, because I don t have much to say about financies.

I know I haven t done much also, I mean, I can t go to work, because it s not just school, it s more like organisation that sends students also out with their songs, but without financies, it s not really possible. So I m part of school, having some workduties after classes for the organisation, do some homework and that s how my days go.
How do I get my school fees payed?
They ask me often what have I done for it. They encourage me to pray for it. To pray for my financies? It sounds a bit unreal, and I don t know exactly how it works, but last time when we went to Cambodia and Hong Kong, it happened, somebody donated to my name 3060 dollars. That was just like what? I was motivated to stay on, but now haven t seen anything coming in and I feel like haven t done much to get my financies in. I actually know some people, who might have some "spare" money, but I don t really feel very confident to ask money for my school fees. It s just not what I want to do. How should I explain? What should I write?
"I m part of that school and would you like to support me to get over all these fees and stuff..", it s just a bit
embarracing. My school leader would respond to that with question:
"Does it have to be comfortable always?"
And I think why not. I mean what would people think back in my country about me? They would say:
"He s in Australia. It s one of those countries in the world where normal labourer would get payed more than
any specific worker in other countries, why should we support him?"
In Australia we can easily get 20 dollars per hour, without knowing much.
How can I ask any support from my country?
In Europe there is lack of opportunities to work. Even if you are lucky and you find job, the salary per
hour would still be somewhere between 5-10 Euros and in eastern Europe somewhere between 3-6 maybe. I don t surprise if somewhere they get even less, like only 2 Euros or only 1.
2 euros per hour, when In Australia you can get 20 euros? My brother worked in Sydney on construction site for 23 dollars per hour and on Saturdays he got double, 46 dollars per hour, which in Euro would be
somewhere around 30 at least, 35 maybe. I m not in course how is the course between AUD and EUR,but
30 euros per hour is deffinitely fine in any place in the world, whether you live in Sydney, in London or in Tokyo, this should be enough to not worry about financies unless you are greedy person, never is enough for you.
So yes, I can t really bother people back in my country, they would rather ask help from me and I would like to help them if I had enough or some spare, but yes, not really vice versa.

But whatever happens, will happen. I keep telling this to my leaders, they don t seem to like this very much, they would even say that I have wrong attitude. They try to encourage me to not have any backup plans and to be honest I don t even have any. If I can t get financies in 2 weeks, well, in 2 weeks we want to be flying already to London, but if I can t get these financies done, then I have to do something else.
I have always had that little desire to do something for society, for environment around me, sometimes more, sometimes less, but it s been there. To change something in the world, give some good input or bring some good news. It s been there and it would probably remain there.
I remember when I lived in Hungary, worked there for some charity purposes in a voluntary sector, I found piano in the house that we worked at, it was a bit out of tune, but it was still piano. I wrote one song I remember, I almost fell in love with one british girl, nut I didn t tell it her, because I knew she was leaving like in few days, but I wanted to express myself somehow and I wrote that song. Actually there was more like a story. I lost her USB stick, I was responsible to make a video for them, video from the trip they did in Budapest, but I lost her USB stick, it was like 18 GB and I think lot s of footages was on that stick. I was partying there one night, and then it happened I went home without that USB stick. So embarracing, finally they basically kicked me out of their program. I felt so bad, I felt that I really made a mistake and then I wanted to express myself somehow and result of that I wrote that miserable song.
I know it s pathetic but as I already mentioned that then I would also give a link to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFq8I08scH0

Anyways, back to the topic. London. Am I going this time?
Only God knows.I trust God, totally. If He wants me to go, then I m obviously going. Who can stop God? I don t think anyone can, we can turn back to Him, but we can t stop Him.
Oh, one of our goup members made a little video about us. That s the link to it.
http://vimeo.com/38273312

And one more thing,
If anyone feels that wants to support our trip to London, then you can go to the following address.

http://www.ywamperth.org.au/007/payonline.asp

Just choose for student payments and to the final step you can also type just Somm or School of Music In Missions.

End of that blog this time again.

17. March 2012.

Perth, Australia

Viljo

Back from Asia

2011-11-25T06:16:00.001-08:00

It s Friday night, 25 November, 2011.

It s been 2 months already since I wrote last time anything about my life.
2 months ago I left Australia. Wow, time has gone quickly and many things have happened.
We went to Cambodia for 3, 5 half weeks and then we went to Hong Kong for another 3 weeks.

We teached some english to local kids and sometimes

just played few games with them.

They were pretty good in english thanks to local guy

Vuthy,who had turned his own home into the

basethat basically funcioned as school,

church and their home.

This picture above is taken I think a bit further away from the

place we stayed, the place what was home to Vuthy.

That s the river, we had to cross to enter the island and visit villages on it.

It s one the first moments after we crossed the river and hit the island. That was the first and only

island that we reached with gospel too.

It s been really long time no writing. My own laptop or netbook- however to call it, got
"injuries" during the flight from Cambodia to Hong Kong and now it doesn t get the clear picture on it.
I can t use it anymore. Well I need to fix it, maybe on Sunday I might have a time to walk in Perth and see if I can find any computer store that can fix my laptop. I do have some good videos and pictures from North Queensland and other stuff that I haven t really showed to anyone via internet like facebook or any other blogsite that I was using in times.

However, there s been a lot of stuff that I ve been through and maybe that busy life has been one of the main reasons that I haven t written anything about my recent life, anyways, I hope I still remember the most that has stood out and I can bring it for the memories.

Video clip from the village and some more pictures from Cambodia:

Fe and Maddie cut my hair today, I mean they shaved it basically, almost though, not really but I look
like bald man I guess. That is also something that hasn t happened to me for years already, perhaps last time it was when I was in late teens or in early 20 s. Now I m already 28. Fe just told me today:
"Hey, you don t look like 28".
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You look like 24".
Here s the video.

And then she explained that I actually don t sound like 28. That normal 28 years old guys are tired and I sound younger. I thought it must be to do something with people around me. She just turned 20 and also other people in my group that I ve been together last 5 months are all younger than me.
But to be honest, sometimes it was also hard to me. I even thought it was a problem and I couldn t find any solid topic to talk with them. All of us are from different countries. 7 people from 7 differnet countries.
Obviously it wasn t just me who had trouble with one another and maybe it wasn t just age that was
problem. But it can happen to anyone.
Just yesterday, I had one on one with my leader Adam and I told him things that I should have said perhaps before.. Perhaps much earlier than yesterday. It would have been way easier for myself but for some reason I couldn t or didn t want to say as I thought it might bring some difficulties into group and I decided to not annoy people with my thoughts that annoyed me. I m deffinitely not person who holds things back from the others and hides things from people, but it was something that I pondered that if I say, it might bring too much inconvieniences into group and in some point I decided to not tell to my leader what was annoying me the most. Well, I told him basically everything about the others and thing that bothered me and things that made me happy but I didn t never go into the deep discussions about himself. Though I mentioned something earlier and it wasn t very clearly expressed, but as it was burning lil bit inside me I decided to do it and I did it yesterday. So I told him what bothered me the most about him and even about churches and about Bible.

I told him that he was one of the reasons that made me think of churches as a powerful unity that
works just for its own purposes. He sounded so commanding sometimes and I didn t like it at all.
I asked him why should I work for unity that is so commanding and doesn t let its followers to ask questions or give some advises.
"I m open to learn and I am willing to change to be better leader. I m sorry..I didn t mean to be
commanding in personal level, I just wanted things to be done quickly and there was no urge for having fun of commanding", he told me then.

Suddenly I felt so much peace and relax that I finally told him what was bothering me.
"I planned to not go into this discussion, I was thinking that it s just few weeks until the descipleship training school is finished and I can forget everything. I thought I don t have to bring this uncomfort
into group and therefore I never told you that before", I added.

Anyways, now it s done and life moves on.
Later on in the evening we watched Rio, today was good day, after all responsibilities we gathered in Adam s place again and watched another movie.
"Sometimes love comes softly"..

Another interesting and a bit funny story how I made a friend during the mission trip to Asia, to
Cambodia and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was impressive. Full of people. People everywhere, people were also way different to
the people in Cambodia, but I would skip Hong Kong for a while now and talk more about Cambodia.
People in Cambodia were I would say more like shy, but also friendly. Didn t feel any danger anywhere I went. It was funny for me that we couldn t walk on our own. I mean, I m 28 and I need to stay with people when I go out? I realised again that I can t stand groups where I m stuck, where someone always tells me what I have to do and I need to consider with them often. Now it sounds
like I don t like people. That s not true. I just love travel sometimes alone and love to discover on my
own.
Anyway, even it was hard to me, I did it. We became friends. We got to know more about each other, and it became easyier and easyier later on as we grew together.
Now story about how I became friend, I would say good friend with one of my team members.
There was girl that I didn t understand and we quite didn t even like each other in first weeks. One day she told me:
"Viljo, I m sorry that I chose to not be friends with you."
It was late and I understood it s not a time to ask why, but I forgave her. I already had
plan to go and talk to her, why she acted like she did. Though we couldn t talk much about that, as we had rules, that girl and boy can t have one on ones, which was another ridicilous rule, that I hated. Why?
Anyway, next day I found time to talk to her on day light.

It was interesting talk I remember. We didn t know much about each other, but after that day we became better friends. Now I can say that I m even a bit sad that this school is finishing in a week
and she is not staying here. Yes, that s funny that we didn t like each other and now we are so good
friends.

That s probably time when we had that talk.
Erwin has taken photo. Good timing.

Anyway I m happy that I made a new friend. Friends are necessary. Life is about friends and
relationships. Without good relations we can t have nice life. Money doesn t replace good friends
or good relations. Good friends are priceless. I appreciate them the most.

I m happy that I have made new friends during that school, during that outreach, during
that time I have spent with them. All the way from Perth- Cambodia to Hong Kong.

Now I ve been back in Perth already over month, other teams have arrived. Just one team arrived
Africa, from Mosambique. It s cool to hear lot s of stories what they have been through. One more team
is still coming, in an hour or 2 there will be 2 more teams coming. One is coming from Thailand and
another is coming back from Bangladesh. Many teams.

Now I finish.
Perhaps add more stories and pictures what happened in Hong Kong but also here in Perth.

11. December. 2011