DAVE DOBBYN'S 'THIS TOWN' # Look how long it's taken you # to arrive in this town. # From the dawn into the dark, # I will hold you deep in my heart. # Look how long it's taken you to arrive in this town. # LAID-BACK MUSIC Mangawhai Beach to the Kaipara Harbour, it's only a very narrow segment of land mass, so it` it` the coast-to-coast thing is just amazing and` and two very different coastlines. I moved here 13 years ago from Central Auckland, and I've somewhat come back to my roots, living in a rural area. Nice to see you. You too. We'll see you again tomorrow. Thank you. (CHUCKLES) I'm Bianca Tara Hartley,... So, that's one flat white. ...and I live in Kaiwaka in the Kaipara region of Northland,... How was your food? Very nice, thank you. That's good. ...and I own a cafe, called Cafe Bianca, and a clothing boutique called By the Way Clothing Boutique. I realised I was slightly different pretty early on in my life. I liked things that were not your typical farm-boy things; I preferred to play with dolls rather than trucks. But it all fell together when I was in my teenage years. What can we get you, sweetheart? Uh, raspberry, please. OK. Well, I guess we're coined as being transgendered, um, which are people that live to the opposite sex of which they are born. There you go, sweetheart. Above all else, I'm a very happy person. ...table three. I've always had a passion for clothing. Are you girls going OK? The dress code ` I` I set a high standard. I think it makes the staff feel good, and I-I think there's a bit of glamour in us all, and I enjoy bringing it out in people. Oh, that's a lovely-looking coffee. And there you go. She's got this little Grecian headband on, all done in diamante and chain. So, this is Amber. So give us a little whirlie, darling. Look at that. Isn't that gorgeous? It just fits the body beautifully. Grooming is very important, and I often say to them if they look in the mirror and it's too much, it's perfect. Don't you agree? (CHUCKLES) The comments from the general public are amazing. They go, 'Oh, wow, you all look so beautiful.' It's not, I think, what people generally expect to find in small-town rural NZ as they walk in, and it's like being captivated by another world. UPBEAT SYNTH MUSIC Well, I worked in entertainment, and I've done a lot of theatre work. I did that for two decades, and it was a fabulous period of my life. It was a very special time in our entertainment and cultural history, because in the early days when I started performing, you could be arrested. You were not ever able to carry a female identity. We were never really promoted as boys who wanted to be girls. We were just fabulous showgirls. In '87, the Homosexual Law Reform came through, uh, of which we all, sort of, fought very hard for. It somewhat legitimised a lot of transgender performers, and I remember, in '87 when the reform came through, wondering what it meant for people like us, but I now know today, moving into a smaller community, that it has given us equality,... There you go, sweetheart. You've got plenty of bus money there. Awesome. That's good. ...and as the years have gone by, I've come to love the community immensely. You're looking gorgeous. Oh, thank you. So are you. I love your ensemble. Oh, thank you. I don't think in the 13 years I've been here there's ever been an issue, um, about being transgendered, or, you know, I've never been put on the fringe of the community, and they have been nothing more than embracing and making me feel a part of the community. CAR ENGINES HUM GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC Te Hana is exactly between two major towns ` Auckland and Whangarei. Te Hana grew up around a dairy factory, a cheese factory, in the day before there was roading or anything here. It's a little town that survived all. I'm Kerry Strongman, and I guess I'm a carver of life. My main thing that I carve is swamp kauri, and the reason I do this, it's, uh, 25,000 to 55,000 years old, and it comes from a time before man, or man as we know him, and a much more tranquil time. REFLECTIVE MUSIC We have a saying 'If you touch it, maybe it'll touch you back', and I believe as I carve it, it definitely does carve me. REFLECTIVE MUSIC CONTINUES I'm very blessed. My grandfather took me from a very young age. He taught me until he passed away. He started teaching me about things, amazing things, um, about life, about the wood, about the trees. It's a bit like having knowledge downloaded on to your hard disk ` it, uh, comes up when I need it, and I find I'm using it more and more as I get older myself. I'm training two special guys at the moment. Well, I don't know whether it's them training me or I'm training them,... TOOL SCREECHES ...but they are to be two of my successors, and my dream is for them to take over where I'm gonna leave off. I believe if I teach them everything I know, and they add what they know, they're gonna be twice as good as me at least. I call it 'jewellery for giants', just because everyone's a giant; some way or another, we're all giants. My sculptures are pretty well all over the whole planet, and some will come up out of my past and send me a picture of them and their sculpture, and I'll go, '(GASPS) Oh my gosh. That's one of mine.' Why do I live in Te Hana? Well,... I love the north. I think it's a land that's totally undeveloped of potential beyond compare. I'm a Northlander, and I'm proud of it. There are great people in the north. Uh, we care about people in Te Hana. Te Hana, I love you. Te Hana! (LAUGHS) BIRDS CHIRP INTRIGUING MUSIC The bush has smells and tastes, and our bush is unique. You know, it's thick, and it's enticing, and it's magical. TOOLS CLINK The Trackies are a group of men who` mostly men who go up into the bush and they cut tracks. Now, they've been going for about five years. Our aim is to make Mangawhai known as the destination for walking. What we want is a place where people could come and enjoy what we have to offer. We have some of the most beautiful scenery here, um, but it's hidden, and people don't know about it, and so the Trackies are trying to make it more accessible to all kinds of people. In the bush, I have a really good system there. Normally, one of the guys will offer to walk in front of me so I can see his shoes, and I carry a piece of tea tree so that I can feel the depth of stairs. So it's just like using a rolling cane. INTRIGUING MUSIC CONTINUES I have an unusual condition. I have a sick brain, if you like. I have sight agnosia, and so when there's a lot of movement or noise or activity, then I lose my sight, and it's a like a jigsaw ` that you take out all these clumps, and` and you just can't make the picture out. I see flickering of lights, and then there's big black spots, and then I'll turn my head, and I'll think, 'Oh, there's a nikau over there,' and then I'll look at the nikau, and then I can't see the nikau, but then I see the flax over here, so it's just strange, really. When you are faced with knowing that your lifespan may be a lot shorter than everybody else's, then you wanna put as much into it as you can, I think. Staying positive is about making the most of everything that you're given. BIRDS CHIRP MEN CHATTER So, when I started with the Trackies, they didn't have a regular person that came who was a woman, so it's been a really really gentle worming my way into their hearts, so to do that, you know, it's food. MEN CHATTER I'm just really lucky. This community's fantastic. I'm very involved in it, and it` it makes you want to do something every day. Come here. Angus is my` my very bestest friend. He, um` He's a` He's a trained working dog,... Come on, Angus. Let's go. ...so he` he guides, he crosses roads, he finds shops, he'll find things in shops. If I want to go shopping, I can read him a shopping list, and he'll find the stuff I need. How I came to be in Mangawhai was that I realised that I can be so much more independent up here, whereas in town, there's too much going on, and I just can't see. You can do anything if you really want to. It's up to you. You know, you can wallow in it, or you can get out and do it. My Scouts are really important to me. They are an awesome bunch of kids. They call me Kauri. If they're not tightly wrapped, they're gonna fall to bits. Yup. The kids think I'm really, really, really old, cos they're so young, but, um, yeah, so they call me Kauri, like a gnarly old tree. # Hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching seven by seven. Hurrah, hurrah. # The ants go marching... # I care about people. I care about people a lot, and I care about our young kids of today, cos I think they've got challenges that are way beyond what we ever had as kids. SCOUTS CHATTER How I would like to be remembered ` as somebody that gave back to the community, as somebody that gave back to young people. The thing that I would want people to think is that I was kind, cos I think kindness is really important. SCOUTS CHATTER BOY: It's like pass the parcel. GENTLE CHIME MUSIC WIND BLOWS SOFTLY Kaipara Harbour's a huge harbour, but, um, it hasn't got very much road access to it, so not many people know it. Absurdistan is the name of the community. It's obviously a bit of a joke name, and when you tell people 'Absurdistan', not many people get the joke. They say, 'What? How do you spell that?' and, uh, it's obviously a bit of a take-off on Kazakhstan, Khuzestan, Afghanistan, all the 'stans', but it's absurd. It's a good name for this place, because there's many things to laugh at, and that's the only way to deal with them, actually. (CHUCKLES) Absurdistan is a community of friends really wanting to, uh, understand life, yeah, and how we can make it easier, how we can live more simply and live really peacefully and` and enjoy nature. Take those to the kitchen. Have a good beetroot salad. I joined to get away from the rat race of Auckland, stresses of being a single woman with a property to look after in a fairly stressy sort of job, and, um, the opportunity was here to be able to come and join friends here, who I've known for a long time, and sell everything up and jump into the unknown of a community like this. It's not an ideal community, but it works. We have come a long way in becoming more positive and understanding each other, all from different backgrounds. We try to deal with conflict as soon as possible. We do have a meeting once a week, and we can talk about issues around who's going to put the rubbish out, you know? (LAUGHS) That... (CHUCKLES) That` That's one of my button-pushers. (LAUGHS) SERENE MUSIC The advantages are the time, really. I can do things at my own pace. There's no judgment. There's no comparison, competition, stress, all those things. SERENE MUSIC CONTINUES I think more and more people will want to live this way, because there's human contact and it's more fun. Yeah. SERENE MUSIC CONTINUES We whirl when we feel like it. It could be any time just as a meditation and sometimes have an opportunity for neighbours to come and participate in the whirling as well and to watch. Whirling is a meditation for centring, letting go ` letting go of thinking, letting go of the body, really, too ` and` and reaching a state of blissfulness. I can whirl comfortably for about 20 minutes, half an hour ` depends on the day. If you're good at whirling, you actually can go into meditation very very fast, because you naturally have to be there. If you're thinking too much, you fall over. SERENE MUSIC CONTINUES WOMAN: I probably cannot explain it, uh, properly, but it just makes me very happy about the world, cos it's going around you, and you are staying still inside, and it's nothing` nothing really changing, but everything's still changing around quite a lot, and that's the point of whirling. I'm really happy that I've chosen it. Yeah. I can't think of a better way to live. REFLECTIVE MUSIC Mangawhai Heads Surf Club's been` uh, was set up in the late '60s. All the, sort of, longboarders would go and hang out. The surf club is such a` an integral part of the community. We offer a volunteer service, lifeguard service, emergency rescue. It's pretty exciting. Uh, there was a whale stranding earlier this year. We had a fire down the beach about three weeks ago. It's kind of like 0 to 100 in, like, a split second ` nothing's happening, then all of a sudden it's` it's all on. I try and get in the water every day if I can, whether it's for a paddle or a swim. I don't know what it'd be like growing up in Utah or Palmerston North. I don't know. (CHUCKLES) Be just a little bit too far away from the coast for my liking. My dad's a really good surfer. Well, he used to be a good surfer. He's an old bugger now. Uh, but he started me surfing, uh, when I was about 6 years old. So I got into longboarding, uh, when I was about 18 years old. We get a lot of beautiful little waves around Mangawhai, um, that really suit traditional longboarding. Um, love nose-riding, love cross-stepping, so it's` it's great, yeah. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's pretty much the bread and butter of my, uh, daily existence. It sounds terrible, but that's it. And I think because, you know, you're a surfer, you spend a lot of time in the water, it's` it's just so important that we look after what we've got, because it's not too hard to imagine that in the future, that` that it won't exist like it does today, and that's really important. When I hit my 30s, I decided that I was gonna start getting involved in giving back to the surfing community. For the last five years I've been involved in coaching, managing teams. So, Drew, you're in red. Yay! Tom, you're in white. Cody, you're in blue. < OK, wave selection's really important, OK? And the other thing too that I want you guys to think about is completion, cos if you fall off, what happens to your score? It goes to nil. You don't get it, OK? We'll warm up quick. This year I started off with a group of about 10 kids in the winter, so it was really cold, and then all of a sudden it just` the word got out there, and now I've got about 30 kids that I coach a couple of times a week, ranging in age from, like, 6 to 14. But every level, you know, right from the young kids, it's about getting them confident and capable and strong and fit. I'm quite happy to coach the kids that wanna go to the events, and I'm really just stoked to be involved with` with the groms from Mangawhai surfing ` Nice. Sweet. as long as they give me plenty of waves. (CHUCKLES) ETHEREAL MUSIC Most of us came up to Mangawhai to get away from Auckland. I do miss Auckland. I do miss the lights. I do miss the traffic. (CHUCKLES) I'm probably the only one up here. I call myself an abstract photographer, and before that I was in, um, corporate as a child manager, and previously to that I was registered nurse. 24 years ago we bought the bach, and we used it as a bach, and then we came up here full-time. I was diagnosed with lupus at the time, and I was finding it really, um, difficult. We wondered whether it'd been, sort of, the stress of the last 20 years of my jobs, and, um, so that was one of the major reasons we came up here, was just to, um, chill out a bit, I think. I was always interested in photography all through my life, but I never had the time. I would never have got into it, or maybe I might've got into it at a later time, and maybe I would not have done the` the areas of photography that I do. ETHEREAL MUSIC CONTINUES I'm photographing the wave patterns on the top of the sea. Through a clear water, you can get what's on the seabed, and that's what gives you the colours. I mostly do my photography downhill, um, within Picnic Bay, probably within 6m, 7m square. When I first started out, there was one particular place that I used to get the best photos, and I'd go down there day after day, and I'd get totally different photos from exactly the same spot. The Photoshop thing always comes up. You know, they all sort of say, 'Oh, they're Photoshopped.' They can't understand that you can get all of that, um, just from taking a photograph above the sea, and you explain that everything's wet, so it's brighter, and you get that magnification because of the water going over the top. I don't know how much they believe that. People sort of say, 'Well, I've never seen that before. 'I've been down the beach. I've lived by the beach. I've never seen that before.' I think it's because it's fast, and it's over within a second, and I've just got it in that one second where the pattern is. I love our lifestyle. I love living here. I love this house. I love, um, looking out at the sea. Every morning I look out there, and I... 'Can go photographing today?' Every morning. LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC I think it's actually taken me a long time to realise that there was an interest in what I was doing. With the shop, I'm` I'm realising that people are taking some notice of the pottery. It's a humble affair. It's a little business. It's` It's nothing, um, but it's nice to see people come to buy a pot, if` even if it's just a small pot. Then they have taken an interest in it; they have paid me the best compliment. I don't know why I became a potter. It just happened. One day I went to a friend's pottery down the road, and I threw a pot,... MACHINE WHIRRS ...but before that time, I was picking up bits of clay. I even like the smell of it. I can recall one night loading the kiln, and it felt as if I, in fact, wasn't doing that. AIR HISSES, FLAME POPS I was doing something that was really old. (BLOWS) Sometimes I describe it as being, um, a thousand potters' lives flowing through me somehow ` gritty and, uh, timeless. Timeless. The fish, of course, is an important, uh, iconic symbol uh, for me, because I love the ocean, and I love to fish. REFLECTIVE GUITAR MUSIC OK. I jump in? Yeah, yeah, just` Not just yet. Not just yet? No, otherwise you'll end up in the drink. OK. The lovely Vanessa... What out for the rocks. I met Vanessa in Queensland in Australia. I had gone over there, and I was working over there. A few things` My life at that stage had fallen apart. I'd had a few moments with my, um, bipolar, and I lost the plot. BOAT ENGINE HUMS REFLECTIVE MUSIC CONTINUES The bipolar, uh, you know, I make light of it. I'm always joking, you know? But you get to a place that you don't know how to get out of. It is the most... painful place that you could imagine to be, but there is a way out, and there has been a way out for me. Gary introduced himself, making a complete nuisance of himself, and, um, it just evolved from there. I found out he was a` a bit of builder, and I had an old cottage over there that needed renovating. Our friendship just grew from that. Mm, so then he brought me back to this little town, and I decided that I'd stay here, cos I like it. Eventually, we` we came across a medication that worked for me. It does the job. I have a life. Now we have to catch some fish. Lots of fishies around. Lots of fishies. Since Vanessa and I have been together, this is the best I have been. This is the biggest mountain I have climbed in my life, but the fishing has helped. Any chance we get, we can get out fishing. It's awesome. It's a lot cleaner... Gary's pretty good, you know. He'll put his rod down to help me. I got him. I got him. He likes to see me catch the fish. I hope it's dinner. > Not a big one, I don't think. Why is it you take a woman fishing and she catches all the fish? It's just not right. It's not fair. Just get that towel. > I thought I was a good fisherman, but her fishing is better than mine, obviously. It must be. I hope no fishing gurus are watching this. (CHUCKLES) SEAGULL SQUAWKS DISTANTLY I like the freedom of being out there in the ocean. I like the peacefulness of being out there. It's the sense of empowerment, being out there. UPLIFTING GUITAR MUSIC I don't want to live anywhere else. I have lived here for 31 years. This is more than half my lifetime. I feel grounded here. It gives me a sense of, um, who I am as a NZer. I really like this place. UPLIFTING GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES My husband and I split up. I run the farm on my own now, and I supply raw milk to the locals, and I'm milking about 35 cows at a time, and we're using really traditional farming methods, completely organic, and just going back to the way that your great-grandparents farmed. Yeah, I feel quite passionately about my cows, and their health is very very important to me. So their teats will get washed, and then each teat gets dried before they're milked, so we're very particular about the hygiene. We operate with an honesty-box system. We even has an honesty EFTPOS machine, so you operate that yourself. It's also a no-waste system. Any milk that's not sold that day, it goes to the pigs. ROOSTER CROWS We have, uh, 50 hens here, and, um, we sell the eggs, and, um, you have your traditional chicken foods, and we like to supplement that with curdled milk, and the chickens go absolutely crazy on it. It's an incredible source of protein ` there's another way of just making sure there is absolutely no waste in what we do. I'm` I'm a busy person. I like being busy. I'm the unit commander for Mangawhai Cadet Unit with the NZ Cadet Forces. I have six children. I have five of my own and a foster boy. So all of my children have done Cadets, um, through the years, and for me, I kind of thought, 'Well, will I still want to be involved 'when my youngest is` is left?' But, um, absolutely. I can't help myself. We have a parade night every week, um, Wednesday nights. And at my` my word of command, stand at ease. The core values of Cadet Force is, uh, discipline, loyalty, respect and integrity. Right dress! It is old-fashioned values, and I think it's the way a lot of young people today need them. I think I'm fair, but I'm also pretty hard. Um, I don't tolerate fluffy. I` I'm not really the fluffy kind of person, and I speak to them honestly and straight up. Fall out! I think it is important in my life, because I really enjoy it, and I like getting the best out of children. Physical training's definitely part of our, um, Cadet Forces, getting kids active, um, doing the absolute best you can, so we do have a required fitness level, which is the same as the army one, but just getting out there and being active. Come on. Keep it working together. Mum, I think she kind of encapsulates the fact that some people in life are leaders and some sit on their arse and do nothing. MAN: Go, go, go, go. If they're too slow... She's a leader, and that takes a bit of courage and` and something extra special, so Mum's definitely go that something special. (CHUCKLES) I think all of them get something out of it. For me, it was dropping a bit of the girly stuff. I met my husband there, so I literally owe my children's life to Cadets, I guess. (CHUCKLES) Go, go, go, go. Hands in, team. Hands in. Hold 'em up. I think it gives them some confidence, and it give them a lot of leadership skills, and it gives them the ability to be the amazing people that they're gonna be. Really proud of them, and it is a privilege to work with them. Careful, Stacey. Now turning round so you're coming down` Yup. Fling the other leg over. I'm very happy with my life here. Good work. < Come on, Paul. Come on... I feel like I` I'm doing something good. I think if all of us decided to do something good in the world before we die, um, the world would be a better place. Come on, come on. Keep it up! Keep it up! Keep that pressure on! Go, go, go, go, go! LAID-BACK GUITAR MUSIC I came to Mangawhai back in the late '60s, early '70s, on a surf trip with a whole bunch of schoolmates, and I fell in love with the area back then, and, uh, I` I thought, 'One day I'm gonna go back there.' I live in an area just outside Mangawhai called Te Arai. I started in radio after` Well, it was the first job I had when I left school. That career has lasted... (EXHALES) 40-odd years,... A couple of hundred feet suspended about Durham St just near Chester St corner. ...going through all the different roles, finally ending up doing breakfast radio. I got to a point where a lot of my friends, old surf mates at my stage of life, they're dying, and I thought, 'How much money do you need?' BIRDS CHIRP I just thought, 'I can half my income source, 'because I spend less up here, so I'm having a better way of life, 'my health's better, and, um, quite frankly, I` I'm` I'm a lot happier.' 11.32 on Heads 106.4FM in Mangawhai and in the region. Checking the weather conditions for the weekend and the surf conditions, weather... I bought a frequency and, um, started Heads FM. It's more than a hobby; it's actually part of the community. Having a local voice in the community is` I think it's paramount. ...won't upset the... 'Also, um, I'm part of the emergency response plan,' you know, with tsunamis, big storm warnings that we have. We get the` the cyclones here. So that's an important, uh, role that I take seriously. OK. (GRUNTS) INTRIGUING MUSIC Beekeeping really... I got an interest back when I was about 21, and I went out with a beekeeper and was thoroughly taken over by the bees. They're lovely creatures. There's a romance about beekeeping that appealed to me, and very rewarding having your own honey. MACHINE WHIRRS We use it for, uh` well, obviously, for ourselves, for our friends, for gifts. We use it, um, to trade. Bartering is a` is a big thing in this community. Also, as the, uh` the honey's extracted from the comb, the wax is left, and, um, I've got a solar, uh, wax melter. Um, I take that wax, I mix with with organic coconut oil and make, uh, my own brand of surf wax. It's a great existence. It's not luck. It was actually making a decision and being prepared to push aside a lot of the stuff that clutters up one's life and to say, 'OK,' and, 'Let's just take a chance.' REFLECTIVE PIANO MUSIC Mangawhai is an incredibly beautiful area. It's like nowhere else in NZ. You've got such variety in one little spot. We arrived exactly a year ago when we had this idea that the world is coming to an end... BOTH CHUCKLE ...and we need to start thinking of self-sufficiency and, uh, equal living and, uh, looking, you know, after our own vegetables and our own energy. LIGHT UKULELE MUSIC Moving here, even though it's incredibly beautiful, initially, I found it really really hard. Had this sort of thing, like, almost bawling, you know? Like, 'What the... have I done?' You know? Kind of like, 'I wanna go back and live in Wellington,' but it totally switched around now, you know, and I think connecting with the land, I'm totally at home now. As a young boy, when, uh, I went to primary school ` I think I` I must have been 6 or 7 ` uh, one of my teachers told us that if you drill a hole through the earth, you end up in NZ, and as a little boy, I was like, '(GASPS) That's so exciting. 'I want to see what the world looks like from the other side.' What are these ones? Yeah, I don't know. They` They` They're still very sweet, you know? Like, if you eat them... Are they peas or beans? Some kind of peas. Yummy. This section is` uh, that we live on here is a 2ha property which we've got, at the moment, three heifers on. I was thinking all the farmers around the country will be going, 'Oh my God.' (LAUGHS) Let's look at the eels, eh? Come on. One of the amazing things we found out when we got here was that there's these incredibly enormous eels, uh, in the creek, and to the local Maori people, they're kaitiaki ` kaitiaki is someone who looks after you. So no one can eat them. (CHUCKLES) You can feed them. OK. Here's your bones. (CHUCKLES) LIGHT UKULELE MUSIC CONTINUES The community itself has really, um, grown on us. We started a choir here. I run choirs. It's part of my job. I'm a theatre director and a singer and an actor and an ex-dancer, and so, uh, singing and working with communities and conducting choirs is part of my livelihood. ...heke a Tane Mahuta. ALL EXHALE DEEPLY The forest, birds, trees, insects. Generally, we always start with a` a physical and vocal warm-up. My approach to singing is quite physical and involving the whole body. ALL VOCALISE: Ree, pee, re, re, po! This group here. ALL: Ree, pee, re, re, po! Keep going, keep going. A lot of people in the beginning, they are a little bit terrified by what is expected of them and how they express themselves,... ALL: Ha-he-ha, keke! Ooh, a, ka! Ha-he-ha, keke! Ooh, a, ka! ...but once they get into it, they kind of get hooked, and they want more, and they love it, and they come back. So, if we can have you in three lines but, kind of, the front line over here, yeah? < Have three rows. (PLAYS MELODICA) Jumps in two. And... ALL SING SUSTAINED NOTE Softer. Much softer. Much softer, yeah? Much more form. What is your target vowel? SOME VOCALISE All round and forwards, yeah? Remember the shapes. (SINGS FIRST TWO NOTES OF SONG) ALL REPEAT SOFTLY Singing from the soles of your feet. ALL SING Your singing with a physical engagement, but you also surf the spirit of the songs, so each song, because they are songs from all over the world, they have a unique rhythm and a unique essence, so when you sing so many different songs, you` I` I feel that you expand your personality and your way of living. ALL SING Beautiful. The market's Saturday morning ` vegetables and fruit and a bit of clothing as well. I think it's almost like the European medieval marketplace, you know? The centre of the village where people come to gossip and to joke and to meet and to hang out and to see whether everyone is OK. It's very much, like, uh, serving the community. This morning I went to the market, and I heard all these people saying, 'Oh, I'm coming to the concert. I'm coming to the concert.' PEOPLE CHATTER I think what matters is the excitement that is building amongst the choir members of, uh` They're starting to realise that the sound that we are producing is very rich and very good, and so they want to share that with people. (PLAYS MELODICA) # Mraval zhamier. # Mraval zhamier. # Zhamier. # Mraval zhamier. # Ghmertma ine... It's part of my joy in life to sing with others. ALL CONTINUE SINGING > When you are a conductor and you have, like, 25 or 30 or 50 people singing to you, you get such a buzz from all these vibrations that come in your body, so after a night of conducting a choir, I'm always, like, on a high. # Mraval zhamier. # CHEERING, WHISTLING UPLIFTING MUSIC It's just a big sweeping bay, beautiful white sand, and, yeah, it's just... home. I wanna become a better fisherman. (CHUCKLES) I can't help you with that. (CHUCKLES) You're such a dick at times. BOTH LAUGH I'm even Santa Claus here. How`? What a privilege that is, you know? We're all performers, and it is like a` a theatre that comes with food and the best coffee. (LAUGHS)