Diary Camp \Eden
Without Prejudice
26.06.2011
Sunday
Arrived at Camp Eden, 1st lady I met was Christina from Beaumaris, 3 boys, here because her sister recommended it She looks tired and is giving up smoking.
She never smokes around her boys. So it's one week on and one week off.
She's dark and pretty with shadows under her eyes from what looks like exhaustion.
WE have a one on one talk with Nicky, who weighs and measures us. (Optional ) Dave my brother has been here before and he has filled me in a little of what the week will be like, as he drove me up here.
Into the Gold Coast hinterland with rain forest all around and far away from society.
I'm guessing so none of us can run away, desperately chasing a coffee, a drink or a cigarette.
Luckily I don't drink, only occasionally and gave up filthy cigarettes 5 months ago which is not to say I don't still crave one. But since I have come here I don't feel any craving at all.
The first few hours were orientation, getting acquainted time. I am sharing with a girl called Jenny, she's 28, fit as a fiddle Long lean and thoroughly committed to fitness.
By the first night I have a thumping headache that last almost 24 hours and it's excruciating. I am in the dreaded "de tox", stage and I don't sleep all night, lying eyes burning, turning away from the pain in my head, I am livid and all I can think of is the thumping and the pain,.
And across from me Jenny sleeps like a log, softly snoring and I am so jealous I want to grab one of my 500 thread count Egyptian Cotton pillows and throw it at her, but just lay there instead. Eyes burning and jaw fixed.
My detox is from caffeine and others are nicotine, so I tell Christina (Nicotine detox) that anything ending in an ine is what we are detoxing from.
The lady that tidies up our room adds another one, wine. and there are lots of people detoxing from that.
(re hint with wine, my grandson Kyle works at a big liquor shop, the boxed sets of wine are bad value for money. It's 2 bottles of wine and a lot of cardboard)
There are all sorts of people at Camp Eden, some young, some old, some fat, some thin, some loud, some quiet. All of us are starving by day 2nd day and eat our food ravenously.
We all crave different things, Chocolate Royals, cheese, chocolate, wine, coffee the list goes on but we don't dwell on the craving subject.
The food is 5 star and fabulous. A porridge mix in the morning of grains and fruit, served hot, which is to die for and definitely moreish. Coffee banned but there are heaps of teas to try and dishes and trays of fruit, garlic, and chili to add.
I try a few and the fresh fruit water jug and drink heaps of it, made frsh every day. Also at breakfast are giant platters of fresh fruit. Even fruits not in season. Everywhere there are conatiners of freshly filtered water, filtered 3 times, for our enjoyment.
The porridge, plus yoghurt, plus fresh fruit and fruit compote is more than ample for breakfast and none of us leave the table unsatisfied.
Then there is always morning tea which today is fresh fruit but they vary it and make it more than interesting. Melon and passionfruit, dates and fresh figs, oranges, mandarins, strawberries whole and sweet.
The first lunch is wraps 2 on a plate and then a choice avocado, hummous, salads, tuna, rolled and cut in half.
Green snakes tiny and harmless wind around the branches of the trees as we look out the dining room windows. Watching us eat our lunch on that first day.
I am fascinated by them , they peer in at us not he least bit frightened by us. Curious, turning, beady eyed.
The Camp is at the very end of the Currumbin Valley. On our orientation with Frank we see two owls perched in a tree, Frank tell us to be wary on our walks, eyes everywhere for all sorts of animal life and I have a bad feeling he's hinting at snakes.
The surroundings are truly beautiful, the reception is at the bottom of the valley. As are the saunas, pool, psa, mud baths, massages, fully eqipped gym, steam room and small library and reception/receiving room.
A little further up the hill is Camp Eden Room where we had Qi Jong. Something not to be missed. You are summoned at 6am in the morning with a gong and loud rap on the door and you are not forced to go, but it's worth the early start and sets you up fot the day.
Right at the top of the hill is the dining room and lounge area. I thought this was a smart move. If the pool and dining room were reversed there would be not a lot of exercise going on, I thought, or maybe I was the only one with this wicked idea.
By Monday afternoon I felt so much better as someone had found me some Aspro Clears and the headache finally lifts, making me feel almost dizzy with relief. the headache had started to feel as if someone had fitted a tight band around my head and kept on tightening it.
And after lunch I take the easy walk by myself as I am too ashamed to admit I can barely walk that, never mind the torturous 45 degrees macadam road way, that most of the others walk.
Judith walks it and she's 70 and had a bad knee injury. She wears a hefty knee bandage but is one of the most determined women I have ever met, so I leave her to get on with it.
Sue has given up smoking the same time as me Feb 2011, so we are rightly virtuous and both fat little porkers, with two stone of excess weight on, courtesy of comfort eating.
She is as soft as brush, Sue and you can tell she wants to be everyone's friend but still manages to look totally unhappy when she thinks we are not looking.
And by the time I reach the steps to the dining room I am almost bent double with a stitch and 2 of the others run up the stairs past me and I ignore them.
They are all so keen and all go at it really hard and i am a soft bodied slothy who couldn't give a ***T how many times they run up and down.
I decide I will do it all by myself and I do. I take the classes with all the others and do my own exploring and walking in hushed catherdral od green I listen to my body and mind at last. No distractions, just nature and I can't get enough of more and more solitude.
I do the walk of stones, inside a maze and on the way you ask yourself a question and by the time you make your way out, you have the answer. I am sceptical of this but I ask a question and at the end I have an answer.
And By Tuesday I can walk the road, I wait till all the others are out of sight and then I attempt it twice and find I cam manage and by Wednesday I can dog trot it, slowly. I am thrilled beyond all measure at myself.
By Wednesday we can have meat and have a Madras Curry that is out of this world, we have cooking lessons and preparation lessons by the chef, Blair and he is a walking testament to wholistic living.
As are all the staff we find out, the all are either Vegans or Vegetarians or really fussy about what they put in their bodies and glow like other world creatures, against us pasty skinned un healthy blobs.
We have life coaching classes and the guy is wonderful, clam and understanding and in the warm Camp Eden room, lying on a bean bag and almost lulled into sleep with his soothing voice I am a contented woman.
I know my life lessons and I am really sure about what I want in life and unlike the other people there, I am not searching for answers. But I never realised whay an outstanding life I already had until I went to Queensland.
I am an anxious person and I did find out I needed to relax a lot more and to stop stressing about others lives. Not to be too judgemental and that I need to write, really write, but not fiction this time, fact.
Dave my brother says the same thing, he said I had "it", as regards writing and I should do it.
I don\'t tell him that I know I will have to write about the hard stuff first and that is not something I want to do and keep putting it off, it's too hard.
I find I am a people pleaser too and in the end I don't care. I loved the people but they have major, major "issues" and a lot of them don't let you in and you have to read between the lines.
Not forgetting that these people have paid a lot of money to be there and I am being treated, so I am there because I want to be there and they are there because they have been forced to, stuck in their lives.
I have lived the most basic lifestyle for about 3 years now. I love a simple life, kids, work, leisure, recycling, don't spend a lot of money. When people were forking out $400 at a time for massages, I was shocked. Even the poorest had them. I didn't.
I'm not fond of people that I am not intimate with touching my body. Even when I had my breasts examined recently. I said to the doctor,
"They are attached to my body, you know"
And he laughed.
"I.m not just used to the manhandling", I replied and then blushed as I realised what I had said.
I love a head and shoulder massage but thats about it, So the others all had them one kahuna nassage taking two hours and one girl cried for 5 hours after. But I think she was detoxing from more than cigaret
tes. She was manic and it was all about her and her problems which she bored us rigid with and she spun into the centre of everyone's experience and drained us all.
She cried a lot and so did everyone, except me who had cried with the headache on the first day and was going to get Davied to come back and get me and I was putting up with all these clean living **** heada ansd so on. I was a very angry person at first.
And the the whole place decided to embarce me and I was calmed, did the Qijong and yoga and ance and enjoyed every minute.
I was not thrilled however with the gym circus exercise which shot you straight up to the top of the gym on a harness. You had to let go with one hand and no matter what I did I could not let go of both ropes and prayed to get down.
I am not big on heights. Naturally all the rest could do it, even the 70 year old with the bung knee. She was on major pain killers, so she was probably feeling no pain, anyway and off she swooped and I just thought, bummer.
I can never take these things seriously, and when people were relaying their spiritual experiences or the challenges I would just nod and murmur, fantastic, womderful and think
"Are you nuts?"
My life was so steeped in practicality, living at the back of my daughters house with a tribe of 7 boys, certainly keeps your feet anchored firmly on the floor.
There always something to do and it's good work. Simple basic but still work and at the end of any day we are worn out. And if there was one currency worth more than anything at Camp Eden it was kids.
Everyone wanted kids and I had so many I felt like the Woman in the shoe, there is no greater innocence than a child, no greater teaching or learning and I just like to surround myself with them.
They are great levellers and truth tellers as well. And they can make your heart sing just looking at them when they are asleep or at play.
Cruz at the moment has just discovered he can walk and it gives us hours of enjoyment watching him. Yvette bought him little sneakers and the way he high steps in them is just funny and adorable.
Back to Camp Eden..................
So by Wednesday I realised I had a body and it needed exercise so I stepped it up and by the time I left I was 2.8 Kg lighter, just in five days. God it felt good, to get the pounds off. So Thursday they did the "pole" as a challenge, which a is a telegraph pole with steps on either side,
And you clamber on to a platform the size of the yellow pages. You are in a harness and reach out for a trapeze bar, dropping at first, then playing out to the bottom. Terrifying for people that are scared of heights and believe they can't get up over that platform. One of them didn't, too fat, he said.
( At George's I met a business associate of his, Mr Wong, George warned me he told it just as it was, so when he walked in he pointed to a male friend,
"You're too fat ! "
The friend was quite cut as he had been working out and thought he looked great.
Then Mr Wong he saw a photo of Georges son,
"He's too fat!"
George laughed and agreed and told us when Mr Wong was at a dinner and asked what his steak was like, he answered,
"Mmm, Dead Cow, good" )
By Thursday I was feeling unreal, really healthy and really well. there was an evening walk to see the fire flies, I didn't go and the girls came back with leeches inside their socks.
Causing great consternation at the dining table and the attention seeking one was never more alive, hopping around the room and screeching. The guys weren't much better.
Everything tasted wonderful and we were a little starved for bread but we had a Hamburger on thursday and we fell on the bun like satrving wolves. Murray had two, big boy that he was.
26.06.2011
Sunday
Arrived at Camp Eden, 1st lady I met was Christina from Beaumaris, 3 boys, here because her sister recommended it She looks tired and is giving up smoking.
She never smokes around her boys. So it's one week on and one week off.
She's dark and pretty with shadows under her eyes from what looks like exhaustion.
WE have a one on one talk with Nicky, who weighs and measures us. (Optional ) Dave my brother has been here before and he has filled me in a little of what the week will be like, as he drove me up here.
Into the Gold Coast hinterland with rain forest all around and far away from society.
I'm guessing so none of us can run away, desperately chasing a coffee, a drink or a cigarette.
Luckily I don't drink, only occasionally and gave up filthy cigarettes 5 months ago which is not to say I don't still crave one. But since I have come here I don't feel any craving at all.
The first few hours were orientation, getting acquainted time. I am sharing with a girl called Jenny, she's 28, fit as a fiddle Long lean and thoroughly committed to fitness.
By the first night I have a thumping headache that last almost 24 hours and it's excruciating. I am in the dreaded "de tox", stage and I don't sleep all night, lying eyes burning, turning away from the pain in my head, I am livid and all I can think of is the thumping and the pain,.
And across from me Jenny sleeps like a log, softly snoring and I am so jealous I want to grab one of my 500 thread count Egyptian Cotton pillows and throw it at her, but just lay there instead. Eyes burning and jaw fixed.
My detox is from caffeine and others are nicotine, so I tell Christina (Nicotine detox) that anything ending in an ine is what we are detoxing from.
The lady that tidies up our room adds another one, wine. and there are lots of people detoxing from that.
(re hint with wine, my grandson Kyle works at a big liquor shop, the boxed sets of wine are bad value for money. It's 2 bottles of wine and a lot of cardboard)
There are all sorts of people at Camp Eden, some young, some old, some fat, some thin, some loud, some quiet. All of us are starving by day 2nd day and eat our food ravenously.
We all crave different things, Chocolate Royals, cheese, chocolate, wine, coffee the list goes on but we don't dwell on the craving subject.
The food is 5 star and fabulous. A porridge mix in the morning of grains and fruit, served hot, which is to die for and definitely moreish. Coffee banned but there are heaps of teas to try and dishes and trays of fruit, garlic, and chili to add.
I try a few and the fresh fruit water jug and drink heaps of it, made frsh every day. Also at breakfast are giant platters of fresh fruit. Even fruits not in season. Everywhere there are conatiners of freshly filtered water, filtered 3 times, for our enjoyment.
The porridge, plus yoghurt, plus fresh fruit and fruit compote is more than ample for breakfast and none of us leave the table unsatisfied.
Then there is always morning tea which today is fresh fruit but they vary it and make it more than interesting. Melon and passionfruit, dates and fresh figs, oranges, mandarins, strawberries whole and sweet.
The first lunch is wraps 2 on a plate and then a choice avocado, hummous, salads, tuna, rolled and cut in half.
Green snakes tiny and harmless wind around the branches of the trees as we look out the dining room windows. Watching us eat our lunch on that first day.
I am fascinated by them , they peer in at us not he least bit frightened by us. Curious, turning, beady eyed.
The Camp is at the very end of the Currumbin Valley. On our orientation with Frank we see two owls perched in a tree, Frank tell us to be wary on our walks, eyes everywhere for all sorts of animal life and I have a bad feeling he's hinting at snakes.
The surroundings are truly beautiful, the reception is at the bottom of the valley. As are the saunas, pool, psa, mud baths, massages, fully eqipped gym, steam room and small library and reception/receiving room.
A little further up the hill is Camp Eden Room where we had Qi Jong. Something not to be missed. You are summoned at 6am in the morning with a gong and loud rap on the door and you are not forced to go, but it's worth the early start and sets you up fot the day.
Right at the top of the hill is the dining room and lounge area. I thought this was a smart move. If the pool and dining room were reversed there would be not a lot of exercise going on, I thought, or maybe I was the only one with this wicked idea.
By Monday afternoon I felt so much better as someone had found me some Aspro Clears and the headache finally lifts, making me feel almost dizzy with relief. the headache had started to feel as if someone had fitted a tight band around my head and kept on tightening it.
And after lunch I take the easy walk by myself as I am too ashamed to admit I can barely walk that, never mind the torturous 45 degrees macadam road way, that most of the others walk.
Judith walks it and she's 70 and had a bad knee injury. She wears a hefty knee bandage but is one of the most determined women I have ever met, so I leave her to get on with it.
Sue has given up smoking the same time as me Feb 2011, so we are rightly virtuous and both fat little porkers, with two stone of excess weight on, courtesy of comfort eating.
She is as soft as brush, Sue and you can tell she wants to be everyone's friend but still manages to look totally unhappy when she thinks we are not looking.
And by the time I reach the steps to the dining room I am almost bent double with a stitch and 2 of the others run up the stairs past me and I ignore them.
They are all so keen and all go at it really hard and i am a soft bodied slothy who couldn't give a ***T how many times they run up and down.
I decide I will do it all by myself and I do. I take the classes with all the others and do my own exploring and walking in hushed catherdral od green I listen to my body and mind at last. No distractions, just nature and I can't get enough of more and more solitude.
I do the walk of stones, inside a maze and on the way you ask yourself a question and by the time you make your way out, you have the answer. I am sceptical of this but I ask a question and at the end I have an answer.
And By Tuesday I can walk the road, I wait till all the others are out of sight and then I attempt it twice and find I cam manage and by Wednesday I can dog trot it, slowly. I am thrilled beyond all measure at myself.
By Wednesday we can have meat and have a Madras Curry that is out of this world, we have cooking lessons and preparation lessons by the chef, Blair and he is a walking testament to wholistic living.
As are all the staff we find out, the all are either Vegans or Vegetarians or really fussy about what they put in their bodies and glow like other world creatures, against us pasty skinned un healthy blobs.
We have life coaching classes and the guy is wonderful, clam and understanding and in the warm Camp Eden room, lying on a bean bag and almost lulled into sleep with his soothing voice I am a contented woman.
I know my life lessons and I am really sure about what I want in life and unlike the other people there, I am not searching for answers. But I never realised whay an outstanding life I already had until I went to Queensland.
I am an anxious person and I did find out I needed to relax a lot more and to stop stressing about others lives. Not to be too judgemental and that I need to write, really write, but not fiction this time, fact.
Dave my brother says the same thing, he said I had "it", as regards writing and I should do it.
I don\'t tell him that I know I will have to write about the hard stuff first and that is not something I want to do and keep putting it off, it's too hard.
I find I am a people pleaser too and in the end I don't care. I loved the people but they have major, major "issues" and a lot of them don't let you in and you have to read between the lines.
Not forgetting that these people have paid a lot of money to be there and I am being treated, so I am there because I want to be there and they are there because they have been forced to, stuck in their lives.
I have lived the most basic lifestyle for about 3 years now. I love a simple life, kids, work, leisure, recycling, don't spend a lot of money. When people were forking out $400 at a time for massages, I was shocked. Even the poorest had them. I didn't.
I'm not fond of people that I am not intimate with touching my body. Even when I had my breasts examined recently. I said to the doctor,
"They are attached to my body, you know"
And he laughed.
"I.m not just used to the manhandling", I replied and then blushed as I realised what I had said.
I love a head and shoulder massage but thats about it, So the others all had them one kahuna nassage taking two hours and one girl cried for 5 hours after. But I think she was detoxing from more than cigaret
tes. She was manic and it was all about her and her problems which she bored us rigid with and she spun into the centre of everyone's experience and drained us all.
She cried a lot and so did everyone, except me who had cried with the headache on the first day and was going to get Davied to come back and get me and I was putting up with all these clean living **** heada ansd so on. I was a very angry person at first.
And the the whole place decided to embarce me and I was calmed, did the Qijong and yoga and ance and enjoyed every minute.
I was not thrilled however with the gym circus exercise which shot you straight up to the top of the gym on a harness. You had to let go with one hand and no matter what I did I could not let go of both ropes and prayed to get down.
I am not big on heights. Naturally all the rest could do it, even the 70 year old with the bung knee. She was on major pain killers, so she was probably feeling no pain, anyway and off she swooped and I just thought, bummer.
I can never take these things seriously, and when people were relaying their spiritual experiences or the challenges I would just nod and murmur, fantastic, womderful and think
"Are you nuts?"
My life was so steeped in practicality, living at the back of my daughters house with a tribe of 7 boys, certainly keeps your feet anchored firmly on the floor.
There always something to do and it's good work. Simple basic but still work and at the end of any day we are worn out. And if there was one currency worth more than anything at Camp Eden it was kids.
Everyone wanted kids and I had so many I felt like the Woman in the shoe, there is no greater innocence than a child, no greater teaching or learning and I just like to surround myself with them.
They are great levellers and truth tellers as well. And they can make your heart sing just looking at them when they are asleep or at play.
Cruz at the moment has just discovered he can walk and it gives us hours of enjoyment watching him. Yvette bought him little sneakers and the way he high steps in them is just funny and adorable.
Back to Camp Eden..................
So by Wednesday I realised I had a body and it needed exercise so I stepped it up and by the time I left I was 2.8 Kg lighter, just in five days. God it felt good, to get the pounds off. So Thursday they did the "pole" as a challenge, which a is a telegraph pole with steps on either side,
And you clamber on to a platform the size of the yellow pages. You are in a harness and reach out for a trapeze bar, dropping at first, then playing out to the bottom. Terrifying for people that are scared of heights and believe they can't get up over that platform. One of them didn't, too fat, he said.
( At George's I met a business associate of his, Mr Wong, George warned me he told it just as it was, so when he walked in he pointed to a male friend,
"You're too fat ! "
The friend was quite cut as he had been working out and thought he looked great.
Then Mr Wong he saw a photo of Georges son,
"He's too fat!"
George laughed and agreed and told us when Mr Wong was at a dinner and asked what his steak was like, he answered,
"Mmm, Dead Cow, good" )
By Thursday I was feeling unreal, really healthy and really well. there was an evening walk to see the fire flies, I didn't go and the girls came back with leeches inside their socks.
Causing great consternation at the dining table and the attention seeking one was never more alive, hopping around the room and screeching. The guys weren't much better.
Everything tasted wonderful and we were a little starved for bread but we had a Hamburger on thursday and we fell on the bun like satrving wolves. Murray had two, big boy that he was.
