DIY hotel room kitchenette

If you open your eyes wide enough, you can almost see the whole oppressive circle. So, we get to stay in these fancy hotels on tour. Fancy hotels are nice, and comfortable, but mostly unnecessary. When it comes down to it, all your really need is a comfortable temperature, and a soft place to lay down. Internet access is nice. These expensive hotels get you by the balls and don’t let go, charging you extra for almost everything. They certainly don’t supply you with kitchen facilities—it’s much more awesome to eat crazily overpriced room-service, right? So, you are seemingly forced to go out and spend your money in restaurants or at cheap, disgusting fast-food joints. There’s always Subway, which is fucking everywhere, but that’s really not much better. Who knows where those vegetables came from and what kind of chemicals were used to grow them…

But where there is no kitchen a little ingenuity and effort does a kitchen make. First, a short trip down the street to the “Central Market.” For a second I thought I was back in south America, except it was not nearly as cheap. My trip yielded a large pie-shaped slice of brie, 4 tomatoes, 3 avocadoes and a couple small baguettes. Nectarines for dessert. I think I spent about $12 on enough food to make at least 3-4 solid sandwiches. Room service was kind enough to deliver some butter, salt and pepper without charging me anything. Those supplies came on a plate and a fabric napkin, both of which were useful. Then I made use of the complimentary coffee & tea supply tray as a cutting board, and used my Leatherman like the all-purpose tool that it is. Bam! It’s sandwich time.

So, moral of the story—the minute you start thinking that your circumstances force you to live within a certain framework, or do certain things or make certain choices—that is the very minute that you let yourself die a little inside. Every one of those moments is like a little gasping breath of death—and I’m trying to gasp just a few times less every day. Whether you just want to save money, or you don’t want to keep throwing your hard earned cash at places like Subway out of laziness or convenience, or both, you can do it. I’ll admit, I don’t know exactly where all my food came from, but most of the places in the market were organic, and at least I feel better about supporting local vendors.

I don’t think Quantas pilots are particularly smooth when it comes to landing. But we’ve made it this far, right? And no one can complain too much about an airline that still feeds you a sandwich and a drink for lunch on an hour long flight.

It is just as blazingly hot here, if not hotter. I don’t plan to go outside much until we head for the festival tomorrow. Should be a sweat-fest, but these Australian audiences have been stellar so far. In the meantime I think I’ll hit the gym and edit down my article into an alternate sidebar format for Wonka. There is talk of drinks tonight—eh, whatever.