Working in Rylstone

Rick and Wendy's place in Rylstone really made us feel like we were out in the country--and, indeed, we were.

They'd been gone for about a week, so they decided they'd get their horse from the paddock so it could "mow" the lawn in their backyard.

As you can see, standing in their backyard gave us a view of rolling countryside and a huge sky.

Here's Rick and Wendy retreating in the background about to start setting dinner. For our time there, Jen and I worked during the day, but we all got together for a meal in the backyard every evening where we were regaled by Rick's incomparable rambling stories.

The room where we worked gave us a beautiful view of the mountains in the distance (in one direction), and the horse in the backyard (in the other).

What were we doing? Rick and Wendy are amateur film-makers, having filmed and produced a documentary called "Think About It". You can see the webpage here: http://thinkaboutitmovie.com/

Apparently Rick made a fortune in real estate, and then lost it managing and training race horses. One day another trainer told him "You'd be better off shoveling their sh*t than training them!" This struck a chord with Rick, and so he started a business selling horse-manure as an "active mulch" to individuals in Sydney for their gardens. You can see their amazingly broken website at: http://www.kingpoo.com/Default.htm That's right--King Poo--a name Rick proudly uses constantly. We loved it.

They run their business from their other property in Terry Hills, in the Sydney suburbs. They employ several salesmen who are paid commission for being--I am not kidding--door to door poo salesmen. Danny--the 26-year-old German traveler--said he tried his hand at the business, but that it was a pretty hard-sell. He did say, however, that everyone in Sydney was universally extremely polite. People would answer their doors, would not slam them or become angry, and would actually politely converse with him and wish him well. I have to say that I have a hard time imagining that happening in any US city I know of.

We, thankfully, were not involved with King Poo. Rick and Wendy were excited to begin a new project aimed at cultural tourism to the Vanuatu islands, and they wanted our help setting up a website. This sounded right up our alley!

It turned out they had a rather ambitious vision. They wanted the website to promote a documentary film they were making about Vanuatu, provide a booking system for cultural tourism, an online storefront for art and agricultural products, as well as the ability to purchase music downloads. How'd it go? We'll tell you in the next post!