 G'day, May 40 here. Just did 15 hard hours to Sydney. That is a flight. Direct flight, 15 hours and 15 minutes is what it was predicted to take. I think we got in 20 minutes early. So the flight back takes only 12 hours because you're going with the wind, but flying from California to Sydney, you're going against the wind. So I paid $184 extra for a direct flight. So it's just 15 hours, man. Are those airline seats getting smaller or what? Now, I flew Delta. Good experience. The stewards are very nice. Stewardesses were very nice. They handed out food three different times. I had had some yogurt and fruit for Brecky. So I skipped out on the other two meals. But I didn't want to drink much because I was in the window seat and a very nice married couple next to me from Colorado out visiting a child here in Sydney. But I didn't want to have to ask them to get up and move. I couldn't scoot by. It was so cramped that I could get up and move if I wanted to go to the loo. And so for a 15 hour flight, I limited myself to two glasses of water. I just felt bad making the move. 15, that's not an easy flight. Man, the first two, three hours, I was going kind of stir crazy. You got a cramped seat. The flight took off at 10.40 p.m. Plane is absolutely full. So the last time I flew to Australia, you could just stretch out. The plane Fiji Airlines was only about 20% full just when Australia first started relaxing its COVID restrictions. So the Australian citizens could fly back to the country. So that was sweet. Flying on a plane about 20% full so you can just have a whole row to yourself, stretch out. That was idyllic. But this flight pretty much every seat was taken. And I ended up spending just over $2,000 because I was willing to spend $184 to fly direct. So would you spend $184 to save 10 hours of layover time? So like a six hour layover and then you have to fly a bit out of your way. So it adds about 8, 10, 20 hours to your flight. So the cheapest flight, there was a 19 and a half hour layover in Indonesia. So the flight would have ended up being about 42 hours. Like no thank you. I'm willing to spend $184 to save 10 hours on a flight, certainly 20 hours on a flight. I've just turned into a reckless big spender. Last time I flew to Australia Return it was like $1,200. But this time around I think the flight from LAX to Sydney was about $1,300 and then the flight from Sydney to LAX back was about $700. But not easy when every seat is taken. You don't like interrupting people to get up to use the loo. So I just let an audio book run all night. Just kind of laid my head on a pillow against the window. And the seat in front of me was leaning back. I was like at the bulkhead or something. My seat would not lean back. So the seat in front of me was like leaning right back onto me. And I just closed my eyes trying to tune into this audio book on the English experience of World War II. A terrific book. I'll link it in the description. It's like the fourth time I've listened to it. So there are certain audiobooks that I like to listen to that are moderately interesting, but they're not so exciting that they'll keep me up at night. So I think I was able to drift in and out of sleep. Then next morning I had some coffee. This is my first coffee in about six months. So that's how I'm able to still function. But I'm so sleep deprived and jangly from the coffee that I can't be bothered figuring out how to use my gimbal right now. So I should be giving you a nice smooth gimbal tilt and zoom. But I can't be bothered right now. I just don't have enough brain cells. 15 hours. So first few hours was tough. And then I became conscious around around 6am California time. My YouTube feed sometimes puts off a vid by 40 about getting cheap airline tickets 10-15 years ago. So yeah, back in 2007 I'd stopped writing on the porn industry and so I was trying to figure out a new way to make money. So I tried a bunch of topics just to talk to the camera about all sorts of different topics kind of based on this software program I'd built which predicted how much you could make from AdSense on different topics. So I did a whole bunch of topics and how to get cheap airline tickets. I think that was the highest rating of my experimental YouTube videos. And I think I ended up making I don't know, $300 or $400 on that video which probably took about an hour's work. Then I made a bunch of videos on how to refinance your mortgage. They did not pay off surprisingly. So yeah, I tried a bunch of things to make money online. I spent $10,000 on how to make money online in 2007 and 2008 and the direct payoff for that investment was probably about $2,500. So I spent $10,000 to directly make about $2,500 but then I was able to make a deal from it that paid off about $80,000. So it was indirect but as a result of the things I learned from buying $10,000 worth of programs on how to make money online I was able to keep my head above water from February 2010 until April of 2012 when I started earning decent money again. But I remember I had a girlfriend in February of 2010 and she went off for a weekend and I went off to Limut LA that weekend and I love Limut LA. A bunch of Jews, like 400 Jews gather at Orange County Hilton and we all stay inside for four days, long weekend just listening to Torah talks and having meals and no one ventures into the great outdoors. Very Jewish event and when she calls me after the event I wasn't able to hear her end of the phone call. There's something off with her phone and then the next morning she says, you know, I don't want to date you anymore. So I was pretty sad about that but that same weekend I got an email about this great offer to make some substantial coin that kept me afloat from 2010 to 2012 and I wouldn't have gotten that offer if it wasn't from the things I learned and there's $10,000 worth of how to make money online programs. But anyway 15 hour flight to Sydney once I'd hit the halfway point like once I realized I'm more than halfway through this much easier to get through it. Got through the last two hours by watching the latest Downton Abbey movie. It's just a very pleasant movie to watch. Not too taxing. Now the lovely couple next to me they were watching the latest Top Gun movie which is not really a movie built for enjoying on an airplane. It's really something you want to see on a big screen. You also watch the Elvis movie and again not really something built for the small screen, built for a bigger screen but Downton Abbey movie was just amusing and pleasant and just perfect for getting me through the last two hours of this elacious flight and it really helped having very pleasant you know erudite you know friendly nice couple. It was his first time out of the United States. I can't even credit what about 60% of the United States population does not have a passport. There's something like two thousand two-thirds of Americans have not traveled outside of North America. So this was his first time just very pleasant listening to the lady with her somewhat watered down South African accent and charming accent to listen to and just lovely couple just really made the journey much smoother. So can you imagine what it'd be like to be stuck on a plane with people that you don't really care for? But of course I was going to be on a plane filled with Aussies because we were going to Sydney mate. So audiobooks that's how I got through the flight. Mainly I listened to about 14 hours of an audiobook on England's experience of World War II and have about I have the decline of fall of the Roman Empire out of my audiobooks. So there are about 80 hours of high quality content there. It was overnight so I'll get on the plane at 10 o'clock. So normally I go to bed at 10 o'clock. I usually listen to watch like an episode or two of Cheers before I go to bed. Listening to that kind of comedy takes the edge off and gets me ready to chill out. If I don't listen to that comedy before I go to bed then I just get too way too easy to get hyperactive and my mind starts going and I'm not able to you know calmly drift off into sleep. So I brought my CPAP with me to Australia. First time I've traveled with my CPAP I felt like my backpack weighed about 50-60 pounds so I didn't check any baggage. I just lugged it onto the plane then lugged it to the bus and lugged it from the bus to where I'm staying. That's my workout. Now I'm just looking for some pull up bars. I haven't done any pull-ups. I need to do some pull-ups and push-ups today before Shabba's. I don't know if I'll score a good Shabba's invite. So you're looking out towards Bondi. Duvid! Blessings to Duvid. So I've reached out to Jim Bowden but haven't heard back from Jim Bowden yet. It's my Aussie mate, regular in the chat, generous supporter of the show based in Sydney. Took me all around Sydney last time I was here. So Bondi is just off in that direction and that's the center of Jewish life. So Jews live on the eastern suburbs here by the ocean. Most affluent areas of Sydney tend to be the Jewish areas. So Bondi is about seven miles in that direction. So about 15,000, 20,000 Jews live in and around Bondi. Probably got about a dozen Orthodox synagogues. That's the burning center of Orthodox Jewish life in Sydney. So Sydney is much more secular Jewishly than Melbourne. So you want Judaism in Australia. You don't need to go to Melbourne. So much more traditional in Melbourne. So Sydney Jews tend to be much more secular. You can go to an Orthodox shul here and the only person who'll be Shemesh Shabbat will be the rabbi and the chazan and they're paid to be Shemesh Shabbat. So professional Jews often are Shemesh Shabbat. Now I'm sure they'd be Shemesh Shabbat anyway but certainly that adds a whole new layer of incentive. But you can go to many an Orthodox shul in and around Sydney and pretty much nobody but the professional Jews are Shemesh Shabbat meaning fully observant of the Sabbath. But they retain a Jewish identity. There's a tremendous tremendous community sense. Not a lot of machlokas, controversy, schism, tearing people apart in Sydney. It's a pretty calm Jewish community. So Jews tend to be challenging people, sometimes difficult people, often splitting off, forming their own synagogues. But things are pretty calm in Sydney Jewish life. There aren't a lot of reckless schisms and needless hatred. Not a lot of sinachanam, needless hatred here in Sydney. So we're looking out there. That's the Kudji Beach where I made my earlier video. Going to write another box during my hiatus. I'm not sure. That's a lot of work. But I do plan to do some journaling, which may lead to blog posts. Now those cliffs that you're seeing, the only time I heard police sirens when I was in Sydney a year ago, when a young man I think trying to take a selfie on those cliffs, like directly middle of the screen, he slipped over the edge and fell 30 feet to his death. And he did it right in front of his girlfriend. So it was a teenage boy fell, Jim Balden. No, mate, haven't checked my email. Give me your number, mate. I'm not sure if I still have it, but definitely want to catch up with you. Great to see you, mate. Thanks for being such a big supporter of the show and for your generous hospitality. Maybe you can set me up with a mango or two mango, Jim. I really need some mangoes. I came to Sydney, mate, to eat mangoes, to watch World Cup Soccer, watch some Cricket, watch the T20 World Series of Cricket, eat more mangoes, maybe some tomato and cheese sandwiches with just a bit pinch of pepper and salt. Yeah, quotient vegan chicken and waffle stream with Jim Balden. Look, it's my favorite little citizen. Oh, mate. This is the life. All right. I think this is the life for me. 40 needs three months a year in Beverly Hills and three months a year in Bondi. All right. I think this is the right ratio for me. Let me spend my winters in Bondi, Sydney, Kujie and let me spend nine months a year in Beverly Hills. All right. There's more concentrated intense Yiddish kite in Los Angeles. There's more Orthodox Judaism in Los Angeles and just the quality of life. I mean, just feel the relaxation, the high trust, the high social cohesion, the absence of anti-social groups. Everybody expected to obey the law to be good citizens here in Australia. You get them nice things here in Australia. Public spaces are clean. Just like let go of all this unnecessary tendons. I got a friend who used to write a blog about the hard times she has sleeping. But guess what? Once she left LA, she moved to Europe, started sleeping a lot better. So any needless tension that you carry around, right, can negatively affect your sleep. I don't know if you struggle with sleep, but I certainly have. But the more at ease I can be with myself, the better I sleep and more at ease I am in my environment. All right. More at ease I am with my community. Look at those beautiful butterflies. And the more at ease I'm likely to be in myself, the better I can sleep. Oh, mate. You're off to pick me up from the airport. You had not responded. No, mate. I didn't. I checked my email when I landed. There was nothing there from you. So I'll check it again, Jim Bowden, where we got to get together. Cheers, mate. Bye-bye.