Laura Seabrook's Ramblings

Yesterday was fun, but also had its fair share of dissappointment.

We all continued to work on the parade entries. The "Pot PLant" was finished and Kali entered my old eBike (now hers) as "banned technology". There were complications getting in getting both to the parade which reuired pulling each in on the back of a trailer to the outskirts of town via car. The plant was attached to James' mountain bike and he rode in. Kali rode the eBike in, but Carol and I (and also a hat that Carol was going to wear in the parade and whih resembled a giant smoking rollie) wled 1 or 2 km into town.

That was not so bad but that we hadn't been briefed that this was what was going to happen, and that by the time we got into town (Carol had to stop a couple of times for her asthma) the parade and started, Carol had no energy to march) and effectively we missed it. Carol was very upset at the time and I was extremely dissappointed as I got no shots of any of it! Also, Carol finds smoking the weed helps her mood enourmously, and it seemed like all around town, this was the one weekend when (instead of not being able to walk up the street for half a minute without someone offering to sell you some) there was none to be found!

See what happened (as we learned from James later) is that Fat Pizza came up a few years ago and did a show about Nimbin, showing the dealing and smoking of MJ openly in the street, and covering the MardiGras. That attracted a lot of attention, but it also attracted the police, as grass is still illegal in this State. Normally, the police don't do much because the bottom line is that it is a community thing and really, not disturbing the public order (in fact it's part of it). But, the police must be seen to be doing their duty, and since then squads of them descend on the town and it's environs during this weekend.

That's why Kali was a bit paranoid driving us here on Friday night - she was expecting being pulled over and searched. That never happened. Carol was advised not to take any dope into town yesterday and she didn't but effectively the whole place was dry all day (not quite). We went to the pub to use the toilets and had a few beers as well. I discovered that the diabled toilet in there had no light and had buckets and mops stored in it - what is someone really needed it? We were both a bit frustrated and cranky at this point. That changed when we went into a bookshop. I bought a book called Goth Craft (about certain elements of the Goth scene) and Carol was able to obtain some emotional medicine. She mellowed out after that and we both started to have a good time.