Camp Eden We will rock you

Without Prejudice





When I look back on Camp Eden four months later, I feel a bit sad, and that's because the people were a bit sad, depressed. I loved it, looooooved it. Who wouldn't ? 5 Star meals, lush rainforest, sun, sauna, spa, gym, exercise, nice company, open fire, lectures on what to eat, how to prepare food. I was like that happy dog in an email my sister sent me.

Dog: Breakfast, my favourite
Walkies: My favourite
My Owner : My favourite

I was like that, determined to get the best out of the whole experience. And the others after I got to know them had "Big Problems" real big problems.

One a young Mum, with 3 darling little boys, who had been on speed, marijuana, had tried to kill herself on the Sunday night and booked in to a health farm to "get over everything", the very next day.

She was a fitness instructor part time, her body polished and toned within an inch of it's life. She looked like any suburban Mum, bit on the boyish side but all manic energy.

I shared with a girl, beautiful girl, tall, sleek, sweet girl of 28. She had been with a man for 8 years, married, bought a house, and he left her 6 months later, and had kept her on hold for 12 months.

And she was one of those really genuine girls, you could tell, the kind that gets her heart broken really easily. I kept her talking and then I said,
"You've got depression, haven't you?"
She nodded, ashamed, and cried, I hugged her and said, well thats OK, so have I.
I'll tell you what I told her later.

There was the man who was there for a rest, after having his second bout of Stomach Cancer, The two men whose wives had sent them, sick of their workaholic husbands, kids fed up too.
The Social Butterfly, older. never been married, never had children, who was a lovely lady, really great, slow husky voice, loved a drink.

A girl lawyer with her boyfriend , a music Manager whose wife had also sent him, a magnificent Anglo Indian, One single youngish man , there were 16 of us there that week.

And I loved everything, except the withdrawal headache which for me came on within a few hours, coffee, my addiction, coffee. And Dave had been feeding me little expressos of coffee from his new coffee machine.

It was his new "toy", costing a mint and he loved it. I am sure he did the expresso thing deliberately because as I went to hop out of the car, he said,
"Oh, by the way, there's no coffee and no TV," and laughed, taking off in his Jeep Cherokee, gravel spitting. Bastardo!

Dave had been 12 months prior, he hadn't really felt good with his divorce over and he hadn't dealt with it and he hadn't dealt with a court case from years ago, so he went and he raved about it.

He got straight on the phone to Camp Eden, got some fabulous discount, hey he's a succesful business man, but he's no idiot.

Camp Eden usually costs $3,ooo a week and a lot of people are there for 3 weeks. People pulling out Super to go, using personal loans, one young man of 28 was sent by his mum, she paid for 3 weeks. And I'm looking at these people and thinking are you nuts?

Who pays that sort of money?? And George had said to Dave to organise a massage for me, $400, for a massage. I can feed a family for a month on that. I couldn't see the value. so I refused it and the others, had at least 3-4 each.

The schized young Mum, crying for five hours after she had a Kahuna Massage, taking 2 hours. I'd have been crying about the $400.

And I sooked the first day, withdrawal headache fierce, but some one had some Aspro Clear and it was heaven when the headache lifted, My roomie had gone out on the 6am walk and the exercise class and yoga and I just wanted to stab at her with a pen.

I wanted to ring Dave up and get him to come all the way from Redcliffe to pick me up, I couldn't climb the ***** hill, a gradient of 45 degrees, in parts and they could all stride up and one lady was 70 and had a bung knee. I hated them all on the first day and I was not staying, no coffee, what???

Just some sort of seed that mimicked a coffee taste and was vile. So after my headache had gone I explored and looked around and I started to feel better.

David had told me everyone gets a withdrawal, everyone, and it usually comes around the 3rd day. He said the smokers are the worst, one man signing out on the 4th day as he just could not handle withdrawal.

And on Davids visit a couple had escaped, stealing two of the bikes to the nearest pub and its about 18 kms away. Mostly uphill. and they arrived back in the wee hours, shitfaced and woke up the whole Camp with their lusty singing and were expelled the next day.

So all the health nuts strode about doing everything, qijong, Yoga, powering down on the treadmills, I did a lot too but not as much as the young vibrant glowing, women with broken hearts.

I walked and walked and By the 3rd day I could get up that drive way and not fall prostate down on my face at the end of it. So I just took it easy and enjoyed everything,

And on Wednesday morning we all went on the Flying Fox at 6am in the morning, rain beating down in our ponchoed heads.
It's the biggest one in the Southern Hemisphere and is 200 feet in the air and you are harnessed and you take what they call "A leap Of Faith" out into the air, dropping at first and then you are off.

I had faced down a violent man earlier in the year, off his head on something armed with a shovel. I didn't need a "leap of faith," I take one every day.

So it was dark, raining and all the 16 were miserable, finally getting their withdrawal, some of the girls were crying,
misery all around
So I turned around and for some crazy insane reason started slapping the rythm to "We Will Rock You" Boom Boom Slap Boom Boom Slap


"Buddy you're a boy make a big noise playing in the street going to be a big man someday"

And they laughed and joined in and we all started singing the song our voices, calling out over the huge menancing trees, the drop, 200 feet. Into the valley we sang a song of inspiration and motivation and they all flew.

Flying off into the unknown and did it time after time, climbing the steep hill to do it over and over. Signing waivers before hand and two men wrenched their shoulders, showing off, and one had to go home.

I marvelled at these people who faced so many challenges and mine didn't look so bad at all, in comparison. None of them was struggling in their daily lives, but were in their "lives" and I had a life.

I was was only challenged by having enough money, or if one of the kids were sick, the old dog dying in stages. What Zach was doing with his plan on being a Policeman.

They all wanted kids somewhere, or had them but couldn't connect. and that was all I talked about my Family.

They were disconnected from life, their life and it was painful to watch. Me being the bleeding heart I am I had to sort them all out.

And after a while, I thought, this is my experience and they can all sort out their own lives. They are all big people, and there were better people than me to give expert opinion on their lives.

There were life coaches, one man having been to the bottom of addiction, cocaine, and turning his life around in his 50's. Wonderful man, so calm and wise.

So it became my experience, walking in shadowed woods by myself, driven to just exercise my body. Thoughts coming and going, no mobile, no communication with the outside world and it was confronting. And inspiring and after a while, I "got it",

We let so many other things into our lives, people we don't like or listen to loud bullying people, and they don't know as much as we do.

(And as I write this, Jai knocks on the door, with an empty bottle of coke, saying "

"Mum thought you would like this" and it says on it
"Share a Coke With Lauren"
"Thanks Jai, it's her anniversary in a month or so , "

and he understands, grunting and walking away. And thats what I found in Camp Eden I already did have it all.

I had a job as a Mother, Grandmother, friend, lover, but I wanted more. I wanted the voice inside me to come out.
So long I had kept things hidden, why ??"

So I kept on and viewed the others with detatchment, I am not comfortable around people I don't know that well and I felt intimidated with their lives, so unlike mine.

Not better than mine, just different, more "stuff" inspired than me. I like what ever I have and treat myself to the best.

Not $400 massages, but best perfumes and clothes and shoes, (They are threatening to outgrow me, I need a room for just them. I can't possibly wear them all, but I love them.)

They make you write 3 goals and they chase you up to make sure you are doing them.
3 goals in 12 months.

Mine were,
Write a book
Be fit and healthy
Have a partner in life

And thought, sure!

So I had inspired people with music, me just having fun,  and I did it again with Murray and beautiful Boris, going through his second bout of stomach cancer.

Murray was a headache, to the others, he was only young and bounced off walls, cracking his knuckles and flexing, 28, quite smart. he and his sister developing a company of tee shirts and I think he had been on Big Brother. he was built and a Surfie Dude who said "EPIC" a lot,

I think he made a lot of the older people uncomfortable with his manic craziness. His Mother had sent him there for 3 weeks, paying for him. A month earlier he had been a victim of a violent home invasion, 3 men, with weapons.

And I knew what was going on with him, he felt weak, threatened, and had lost his balls. And he needed to get them back.

I asked him if he played an instrument, we were in this beautiful wood lined room, music instruments all around. He ran to his room and brought back his "Prize", a guitar. It had a shiny silver plate in the middle of it and he could also thrash it. A Thrashinator.

But he started playing accoustically first, Boris grabbing a guitar as well. Then we had duelling guitars for a while. Both men trying to out do the other. But then Boris played some Spanish and Murray some thrashing stuff and it was bliss.

And we became friends Murray and I as mentally we were the youngest there. Both of us big kids. So we palled up and one night he took me for an illicit, sneaky ciggie, I had given up in Feb but just wanted a drag.

So we did feeling very bad that my shiny roomie might detect the smell. I adored her but she needed to lighten up and be a bit of a bad girl, seriously!

And we chatted. I viewed him as a naughty boy like Kyle, all bravado and topping story after story of his bravery and aggression.

And I thought he's just hurt., scared, so he walked me back to my room and tried to swoop me up and kiss me and I laughed and turned my cheek. Not such a boy. after all.

I avoided him after that as I knew he was just being a bit silly. And by the end of the week I had lost nearly 3 kilos and a lot of mental baggage. I felt fantastic and Dave said so when he saw me
"Babe you look fantastic"

Dave my Brother is very motivating. He has seen all the great Motivational Speakers, Trump et al.
No one can inspire me like Dave, but he's still my younger brother and he knows this.

So when I was home at his place he wanted to know what I felt about Camp Eden and I couldn't stop raving. He was pleased.

And I had to do a news letter for his Company and he wanted to express what he was feeling, motivate the "Troops. Dave has something like 40 Franchisees that work for him and he likes to inspire others.

Wanting to get his thoughts to the page, so I did it for him and he said later when I asked him something about success, and he replied
"Write",
"You just did it for me in half an hour", You have talent now go home and write, write the stories of Bob, because he was a character and funny. Start there and see where it takes you"

So I did, then it became bigger, I didn't realise people were reading them. Especially Bob even though I had put him in the story as B. And I took out the "Crazy Bob". term.

Everyone calls him that as he is not mentally crazy but some of the things he used to do certainly were.

Strangling people in cars if they cut him off, beating up people, taking people on left and right and usually winning, with him being satisfied and he was horrible to his girls,

Dave wanted me to bring out a book called
"Parenting Tips By Crazy Bob "
What a shocker it would have been, probably a best seller.

He just had no idea or clue what was proper or expected and would break every rule in the book and the next day change it back.

We never knew what to expect with him, he called us the drama queens when he loved it and stirred things up until everything went belly up and then he was satisfied.

When I was married to him it was like living with a ticking time bomb, and every day it was like we changed trains and got on another ride. We called it Home And Factory ot The Bob Hancock Circus. Him the ringmaster and us the acrobats. We even had a white horse, Zabeth.

He was a frigging nightmare and still is, but we keep contacte very limited or he depresses us for days. Saying to Yvette who has just lost her beloved dog of 11 years, when she asked before Bonnie died what he did with the carcasses after, knowing he loved his dogs.

"Burn em, I just burn em out on the Bonfire"

It was not the answer Yvette wanted to hear.

She said just Dad, he's always, Yeah, what do you want, yeah well I am busy, yeah bye.

"Thats the Old Man, he'll never change "

So I found out he was reading them, George rang he heard it from someone else and I thought after a while maybe there is stuff he doesn't know.

Like Bali where his daughters had a great time and then I think,

"Nah, he be chopping wood somewhere and cursing, not wanting to be reading anything by "her".

So now 4 months after Camp Eden where am I??
I'm more patient with the kids and Yvette and the others.
I like myself
I like writing every day for however long it takes
I've lost weight, quite a bit and feel good.
I exercise, dancing and walking and stretching loads of stretching. I want to be able to do the splits, like Georgia and Frank.
I love my life with all it's challenges
By writing about the past it helps to lay it all to rest.

I feared writing for the very reason I didn't want to originally, I would have to write about Lauren, first, because if I didn't get that out first I couldn't move on. And it was just a bad as I thought it would be. Tears raining down on the keyboard. But then I found I could move on, just precious memories left behind, no anger, so freeing.

And I found out her friends were reading the stories and couldn't wait for the next instalment. WTF????

And like Steven King said, I found my muse, the thing that makes my heart beat and hours go by and I don't even notice, .......writing of course.

Maybe I was ready to go to Camp Eden, needed to go, forced to go but it changed my life. Not the Camp itself but being forced to take stock of my life, and no matter how much I didn't want to, I chose to. I made a choice and I came away a rich woman, a very rich and contented one, a Queen. Wise, dignified, and then I just may chop off a head or two, Bless

xoxoxox


For Murray





Love Janette

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