Packing Light

Here’s the problem with travelling with a trombone: you have to travel with a trombone.

I’ve always considered myself a good packer, but it doesn’t matter how skilfully I’ve picked out my clothes or how well I squish everything in, at the end of the day I still have to carry around a massive trombone.

Last week I had my biggest packing challenge yet: to get my trombone and backpack on a Ryan Air flight as one bag weighing under 15kg.

I wasn’t particularly worried about the weight, I knew I could get it under 15kg if I tried really, really hard, it was the ‘one bag’ part that concerned me. I voiced this concern to my travel agent before I left.
“Just wrap them together” she said casually.

Of course! It was genius! Suddenly my whole notion of basic words changed. ‘What is a bag?’ ‘What is one?' The lines started to get blurry.

In the days leading up to my flight, I started hearing horror stories about how mean Ryan Air is when it comes to baggage. When I told people my plan, they were sceptical.
‘I don’t think that will work’
‘Seriously, I wouldn’t’
‘I’m not sure if you can pull this off’

Sounded like a challenge to me.
Alas, couch surfer Magnus made a suggestion that seemed to be a lot more logical.
‘Can you put the trombone in your backpack?’
Yes I could (with about 30cm sticking out the top).
I sighed, this was going to be far too easy.
I covered the sticking out trombone with my backpack‘s raincoat, and wrapped it in duct tape.

As you can see, it looks a lot like one bag. I had no problems with Ryan Air, the girl checking in didn‘t even look at it.

I understand that in some ways this is far less impressive than the top photo, but I still think it’s pretty impressive that I managed to fit a trombone in my backpack. I think I can say that aside from the trombone, I did pack light.

Monthly Update

One month in and I’ve broken even (excluding flights), but only just.

The busking has been a bit tougher than I expected. Clearly I’m not in Oz anymore.

France was lovely, but the French gave me no money. Once I figured that out aand headed for Parisian tourist trap, everything got better.

Things certainly improved as I travelled north. Hamburg was OK but would’ve been better had the weather cooperated.

I discovered my new favourite coin in Copenhagen; the 20 krona (about $4)

Sadly Sweden has their 20 krona as a note, but back to Norway and it was a coin again.

My best success was in Norway, but everything was so expensive that it didn’t work that much better than other places.

Best busking spots:

For money: random park in Oslo
For beauty: Flam, Norway (view of the fjords)
For atmosphere: Schanzenvierte, Hamburg (after Germany won the football)
Best all rounder: Pont Neuf, Paris

My Epic Busking Adventure: European Edition

The Paris Office

After successfully busking my way around Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it’s Europe’s turn.

The plan is to busk in the rich countries, so I’ll be mainly sticking to Scandinavia and the north west, then head to London for the Olympics. In saying that, planning has never been my strong suit, so who knows where I'll end up.

Celebrity Apprentice

Part of my job on Hayman was to take photos and videos of the various celebrities that came to the island.

I have a feeling I signed something that said I wouldn’t disclose who they were, so I’ll call this particular celeb Mrs X.

Mrs X came to the island to do a number of photo shoots. I was told by the General Manager that it was imperative to get a good interview with her.

A time was arranged between photo shoots for me to get a video interview with her.

The first shoot was happening in a Beach Villa, and was running extremely late.

I waited outside with the entourage; stylists, publicists, hair and make-up, etc.

“We’re running behind, so you’re only going to have 5 minutes with Mrs X”, the publicist told me, “Make sure you’re ready”.

I knew I had to have Mrs X looking fantastic, and the island backdrop looking even more fantastic.

I set up the camera and positioned a chair in the sun with the beautiful Coral Sea in the background.

When Mrs X finally came out, I motioned for her to sit in the chair.

“No, no, no, she can’t sit in the sun”, said the make-up artist running towards us, “her face will melt off.”

Oh.

“Just move the chair back into the shade” he said.

I don’t know much about lighting, but I do know that if you put your subject in the shade, and have a bright backdrop, it’s not going to work.”

“She’ll be too dark in the shade” I told him.
“Can we get a light out here?” asked Mrs X.
“No, there’s no time” said a clipboard clutcher.
“Why don’t you use a flag?” someone else chimed in.
‘What’s a flag?’ I thought, but nodded anyway.

A couple of guys bought out one of those big light reflecting things.
“Where do you want it?”
“Oh you know, like, ummmm, over by the…. Wherever you think is good.” I said.

I looked in the camera. It still wasn’t working. The entourage was standing around impatiently watching me I was freaking out. I tried another angle. It didn’t work. My time was running out and I knew it. I just wanted it to be over.

“Actually maybe the dark is good”, I said, “yep I‘m pretty sure that will work”, even though I knew it wouldn’t.

Fortunately the real photographer came to my rescue. He gently suggested a different angle. The light was perfect.

The interview went off without a hitch, and I even remembered to press record!

Pretty in Prison

Living on a tropical island isn’t all its cracked up to be. White sandy beaches lined with palm trees, crystal clear water and lush tropical gardens is in fact my prison.

Yes, I know, you hate me. I’m sorry, but perhaps you should try living on a 8km2 island for 9 months and see how much you love it in the end.

The truth is Hayman is paradise. For a week. Well for me at least, some people love living there. The problem is, I’m a city girl. I want dirty and crazy and adventure, so idyllic tropical islands are not for me.

I became aware of how much this place is like a prison when I noticed myself doing something strange. I started exercising. Not my usual incidental exercise where I strap on a giant backpack and take the stairs, this is the real deal. Boxing classes, cross fit, boot camp and even running.

One must understand that I have never run in my life. I lie, when I was 15 I trained for a cross country race. Twice.

Now I find myself running 4 or 5 times a week. Like in prison, there’s nothing else to do.

Not Quite Five Star

Somehow I’ve managed to go from working on the streets to working in a five star hotel. My colleagues are no longer prostitutes and panhandlers, but five star professionals.

There are two types of people in this world, those who can keep a white shirt white and those who can’t. I fall into the latter category, whereas most of my colleagues are in the former.

I have to wear a white shirt every day. The chances of me keeping it white significantly decrease on meatball and sloppy joe day. I’m just thankful someone else washes it for me.

The only thing I find harder than keeping a white shirt white, is sitting in an office. I figure if I'm not going to fit in, I might as well go the other way. 'Creative genius' is what I'm going for at the moment. I've got balloon sculptures, piles of paper, a tennis ball, yoyo and a huge wall of post its.

One of my favourite pastimes in the office is distracting the events department who work nearby. They organise things for a living so I'm kind of like their worst nightmare.

One day I was peering over event executive Nina's shoulder to see what she was doing (people love it when you do that).

"Oh wow, look at all your little folders in your email" I said

"Yeah I have a folder for each month, and a folder for each event in that month."
"That's amazing!"
"Ummm not really. How do you organise your emails, dare I ask?"
"Come, I'll show you"

I must explain that we get emails here every time a boat arrives (about 4 a day), every time a boat is 10 minutes away, every time a boat leaves, every time a boat is delayed etc. etc.

I took Nina round to my desk and showed her my email which had 6,000 emails sitting in my inbox, mostly about boat times.

Her knees buckled, she fell to the floor and put her head in her hands.
"Why haven't you deleted all those useless emails?"
"It just didn't occur to me"

Next time I have a real job, I'm totally going to delete my emails as I go, and maybe even have fancy folders.

Off the Record

I took this photo of my collegue. She thinks I'm really pro.

I’ve been working on the island for a few weeks now and it turns out I’m meant to be a photographer, videographer and reporter. If you’ve ever travelled with me you’ll know that my camera rarely comes out. I’ve either lost it, broken it or I can’t be bothered to get it out of my bag. I’ve never owned a video camera, and my computer skills could certainly be better.

Now I find myself being referred to as ‘the island photographer’. People ask me questions about cameras, lenses and editing programs. I’ve been trying really hard to look professional even if my photos and videos aren’t that good. Here are some of my tips on how to look like a pro photographer/videographer:

• Get down on the ground to take a photo
• Shut one eye
• Take photo, look at camera, press buttons, take another photo, look at camera. Nod.
• Talk about lighting
• Take a whole lot of photos really quickly. Nod.
• After filming, say ‘that’s a wrap’ or ‘yeah, we got it’
• Use a tripod
• Taking films from different angles
• Talk about editing programs, compressing files, transferring, uploading, downloading and converting

A few days ago there was a massive all staff pep rally and pool party. The general manager asked me to film his speech among other things to make into a short film.

I felt particularly pro that day. I had my tripod and a few different cameras. I got a shot of all the staff walking into the room with a plan to do a time lapse (how’s that for lingo). When the speech started I ran over and changed angles, zoomed in and out, panned shots of the crowd, swivelled, adjusted the tripod; I had it all going on.

I’ve actually learnt a bit about video cameras over the past few weeks and there’s a nugget of information I’d like to share with you all. When you film something, it’s good to do panning shots and keep the camera steady, zoom in and out, get various angles etc; it’s even better if you push the recording button first. Yeah, that happened.

Technot

I spent the last week training for my new job in a marketing office in Sydney. The last time I worked in an office was when I was 18. I worked in a payroll office and I hated it. I spent most of my time making paper cranes and post-it mosaics.

This isn’t like that job, this it seems, might actually be a real job where I’m expected of do things. One of the problems is that I may not be fully qualified for it. A lot of the issue is technical; I have no editing or filming or photography experience. Such a shame.

They gave me a whole lot of equipment; video camera, underwater camera, macbook pro and loads of cords that I’m not sure what to do with. I was trying not to show them my inexperience with technology. My computer got delivered one afternoon, all the staff stood around looking at the box.

“Well, aren’t you going to open it?”I shifted awkwardly; I didn’t want to open it in front of them. Computers make me nervous.

I took it out of the box; it was shiny and silver with a big white apple. I touched it, pretending to caress it, but really I was frantically trying to figure out how to open it. I found an indent in the front side. I gently tried to pull it apart. Nothing happened. I tried again, with a little more force. Nothing.

“Go on Maya, don’t be shy”

I wasn’t being shy. I just didn’t know how to open the computer. It could happen to anyone right?

*I eventually opened the computer and am now using it to type on.

2nd Best Job in the World

I’ve been a professional street performer for over a year now. It has to be one of the best jobs in the world. Playing my trombone in the sunshine at Sydney Harbour, people throwing money at me. Busking around Canada, Business trips to New Zealand, Canberra, Blue Mountains and Picton- it’s a tough gig to top.

Summer was golden. I was working 10-15 hours a week, getting paid more than most of my friends and not paying tax. The last few months have been harder. It got cold. Less people, less tourists, no cruise ships and it’s harder and less pleasant to play. I was going to have to find employment elsewhere. Now I find myself about to begin my very first full time job. You heard right; I, Maya Sebestyen, have a real job with a contract and leave and everything.

I bet you’re all wondering what else you can do with a Bachelor of Arts aside from being a street performer/ sailor/ hotel manager/ bartender/ bingo caller.

There was a job advertised a few years ago as “The Best Job in the World”. Tourism Queensland was going to pay someone $150,000 to live on Hamilton Island for 6 months, do all the cool stuff and blog/ vlog about it. I don’t have that job. I’m not getting paid $150,000 but I am getting paid. I’m not going to Hamilton Island, I’m going to Hayman Island which is slightly further north and I’m being employed by Hayman Island Resort not Tourism Queensland. Other than that it sounds pretty similar.

Got Questions?

Where is this place?

Hayman is part of the Whitsunday’s, a group of islands in the Great Barrier Reef. Far smaller and more expensive then Hamilton, this privately owned island is home to a luxury resort and that’s about it.

What exactly will you be doing there?

Writing blogs, making videos, taking photos etc. I will have a better idea once I’m up there, but I'm pretty sure I'll have to go snorkeling, sample the lobsters, test out the masseuse, jet ski....

How did you score this?

A girl I went to high school with hooked me up.* I made a 2 minute video (busking turned out to be an excellent topic) and voila!

*To all those people who delete people on facebook they “never talk to”, I say; think twice.

When do you start?

Training in Sydney this week. Fly to Hayman July 10th-ish.

How to Get the Most out of Your Sub

For Catie,

Subway. It’s the fast food joint you go to when you want to feel less bad about yourself, or you accidentally walked past it and forgot how darn good it smells.

It’s a well known fact that the employees at subway are called ‘sandwich artists’ I am completely agree with the assessment that a sandwich can be a work of art. I won’t go into my sandwich beliefs now- I simply don’t have time.

Although the subway worker is known as the artist, I believe the customer is the conceptual artist, after all you’re the one who has to get the vision across to the artist. What will your sub look like, smell like, feel like, taste like? How can you control the subtleties of your sandwich; the ratio, the order of ingredients etc.?

My personal aim is to get as much on my sub as possible. Sure, the flavours might not mingle as well as they could but at least I know I’m getting value for money and also taking out some of the decisions I have to make. I used to say “I’ll have everything” but as my friend Catie pointed out, this was a rooky mistake. When you ask for 'all the toppings', they only give you a little bit of each, the trick is to ask for a few at a time. “I’ll have tomato and carrot” then you wait til they’ve put the tomato and carrot on, then you say something like “and onions”. Wait. “Black olives….. And green” Wait. “A dozen cucumber slices should be plenty. Wait. ”Oh and LOTS of pickles”. Wait. “Are they jalapenos? Yes I will have some of those”. Wait. “Actually I will have some lettuce” etc.

Another important thing to consider is in what order should you ask for toppings? To be honest I’m undecided, here are a few options that you might want to consider:

• Favourite toppings first- sandwich artistry isn't rocket scientist, but after a while I think they start giving less of each topping.
• Smaller items first- they put a lot of the smaller items on first then if they put fewer larger items on, they will take up more space, if that makes any sense.
• Sandwich order- where items go in relation to each other is of vital importance; in terms of flavour but also texture. E.g don’t go putting tomato next to your bread or it will go soggy. A waterproofing topping like cheese or lettuce is a much better option.

Disclaimer: The sandwich artist will almost definitely hate you if you use this approach.

Disclaimer disclaimer: But it's totally worth it.