Beautiful Spirits Always Attract Good Karma

One of the best things about having a stall at the Salt Spring Saturday Market, (although such things aren't a weekly occurrence or anything), is the opportunity to meet people that you would have no way of coming in contact with under your day-to-day circumstances.

Meet Thorsten. I did. A wonderful guy originally from Germany who decided to take a detour to Salt Spring in between flying back from Germany to live in New Zealand on a working Visa after previously residing in Australia for four years. He's travelled quite extensively, even living in Arkansas, when he was younger on some sort of exchange for skilled workers. He's a mechanic who trained at Mercedes Benz with a university-level education in Economics.

He stopped at my Salt Spring Saturday Market table to look at my photographs and he had a huge knapsack on his back. It's definitely not the kind of thing you need on your back while trying to enjoy yourself.  So, I asked him if he'd like to store it behind my table. (Yes, I must admit, he was cute and I noticed that too!)  He has that quality of smiling not just with his mouth but with his eyes. You can see it in the photo above. 

I ended up learning quite a bit about him because he and I got along really well, so I told him if he needed a place to camp that he could camp in my backyard. He ended up staying with me and we took in Ruckle Park Days on Sunday and I showed him Ruckle, my very favourite place on the island. He thought it was spectacular as well.

Later as we hiked back towards the car, we met up with Isela from Colombia and her new friend Fany from Mexico both working as au pairs on the island.

 This afternoon I met with him again, after he camped somewhere else the previous night. Being trained at Mercedes Benz he was really adamant that he could fix the way my car's exhaust pipe moved by simply getting two clamps and putting them on. So, after a brief visit to Mouats, clamps purchased, he got down on his back in the parking lot on the wet pavement and got out the extremely mini version of his regular tool kit proclaiming, "I feel naked".  In 10 minutes he fixed the problem which, to tell you the truth, I barely noticed.

Gotta love German-trained mechanics. He's the perfect man, 20 years too young.

We had lunch together at The Seaside Kitchen while he was on his way to Tofino via the Crofton ferry.  As we were discussing logistics about the bus to Tofino from Nanaimo, the guy at the next table said, "I live in Port Alberni. I'll drive you there and you can grab a bus from Port Alberni to Tofino." Simple. Done. Problem solved.

That's the way it is when you travel and your eyes are smiling. Everything works out as it should and without effort.

We hugged goodbye and he insisted I take one of the buttons he'd bought at the market.

It read, "Dinosaurs against Extinction!"   I could totally relate to that sentiment.