A Month in a different rut.

Yesterday I exited  Blackheath Vipassana meditation center after spending a bit over a month serving in the kitchen. The center kicked off two long courses concurrently at the start of August. A 30 day course that finished up on August 31st. And a 45 day course that finishes up on September 15th.

A different experience to serving on a 10 day course. With the center being locked down. The gate from the road was shut and deliveries to the kitchen were offloaded into a van parked just outside the gate and we had to trundle up with a wheelbarrow to retrieve the deliveries.  On a 10 day course the servers join the students in the hall for group sits. Not so on a 30 / 45 day course. With servers doing their best to hide from the students at all times.

So:

• pretty much no poker education or poker playing for August this year
• very limited digital diet.  Which I set about correcting yesterday while travelling from NSW to Melbourne. I inhaled several podcasts from Tim Ferriss. In particular I enjoyed the latest chat Tim had with Tony Robbins.
• three hours of meditation each day for 30+ days. Felt great traveling and observing the outside world for the first time in a month. 

On the flight down to Melbourne I sat next to a General Manager for a firm that sounded like it might be a good fit for work experience for #1 son who is in his 3rd year of his engineering degree and needs some work experience at the end of this year.  Managed to get email contact details and have sent them to #1 son so that he can send his resume through. As the firm has facilities in Auckland (where #1 son is studying) and Thailand, if #1 son gets a gig in Thailand I'll look at paying his air fare to Thailand as a 21st birthday present.

Have returned to an airBnB in Port Melbourne that I stayed at in April/May this year where I find they have a new flatmate who has a Netflix account... And I'm allowed to binge watch during the day. Just what a digitally deprived digital media addict needs upon return to civilization.

A little tired today after staying up to 3:00 am playing internet poker.... Back to the life of a homeless poker player. My major goal for September is to acquire what all wealthy homeless poker players have: A van.  Time to start visiting car auction sites....