Shadow Boxers Christmas letter 2005

Greetings All,

Some of you still insist on not reading my blog, and persist with this ancient 'e-mail' thing, so, I indulge you with the proverbial Christmas email.

This year for me, for the most part, has been pretty much summed up by a Ben Lee lyric, "A lot goes on, but nothing every really happens."

I'm battling on being the silly inventive type I'm supposed to be, getting knockbacks left right and centre for my ideas. I'm still learning alot, still relying on my persistence and perseverence to get me through. My dreams are still intact, I'm still cloudcastling away, enjoying such things as much as I can.

Novemeber was great. I spent 10 days in Bali attending a Bio-rock workshop. Bio-rock being one of my favourite bleeding edge construction system. In a nutshell, you use seawater as an electrolytic bath and use a very low voltage to accrete or 'grow' limestone around a steel frame. Think 'magic concrete' and youre pretty close. You build your steel re-inforcing and grow the 'concrete' around it rather than pour it in place. It's great stuff, it has enormous potential which I fully intend to exploit and save the world at the same time.

The floating about the tropics, building it, helping communities defend themselves from rising sea levels, enjoying a vagabond life is just cream on top. I can easily make Bio-rock pay for itself and a sizeable construction vessel. There are ways and means for me to get a 35-40m vessel for an extortinately cheap price. Anyways, the details are more than is warranted here. If someone wants to hear them, you know where to contact me. :)

I have a new 'day job' to goto in the new year, selling power tools for Bunnings, (Aussie equivalent of Lowes/Home Depot). Nice tidy wage, good conditions, good staff, generous staff discount. Basically, me = kid, Bunnings = Candyshop. Is GOOD ! :)


The job will lubricate a whole lot of projects for me. One of which is my boat. I'm building a workboat, twin inboard engines, about 8 metres long and at this stage, it keeps growing as I add new features...:) radical hull design, playing with some hydrofoil type lifting strakes... you know the drill with me.. :) Never happy with off-the-shelf anything. She's going to be a tough little boat, one that I can go bluewater and international sailing with. This will be the first "Dreamsmith", others will follow, getting progressively bigger, better and more heavily equipped, but for now, she'll do fine. My first real trip is likely to be upto the Torres Strait Islands for some Bio-rock building, then probably up through Timor etc to Bali for some more work up there.

I'll need crew if anyone feels like coming ! Be warned that places are limited so book now ! :P

A few girls have drifted in and out of my life and as much as they have all been adorable, none have stayed, no re-criminations or bad ju-ju, just wrong place/time/people sorts of scenarios.

I returned from Bali a changed man. It showed me that there is indeed something that I can do which fulfills all the incredible and uncompromising demands I make of myself and this world. I've finally stumbled on my road to Nirvarna. I am, for the most part, a happy camper.

Life is ok, but it is ramping up into good and it seems to be continuing to climb in an incontravertible fashion.

I hope your Year has been fruitful and happy and I look forward to hearing from atleast some of you.

My best to you and yours for this season and for all that follow,

Craeg