I’m the maker of Notzarella by day and a writer by night. Brisbane Australia is my home base though I dream of tropical climates and fruits. I was born in 1980, placing me in my early 30s as I write.

That’s probably already more than you need to know and the following biography of my three decades is completely optional.

I was a pleasant enough kid. Then from my mid teens I started rejecting things. By the end of my teens I had successfully rejected everything except alcohol and sex. Like many in my generation disillusionment with the world came with no solutions. I moved job to job, girl to girl, place to place, living day to day, hand to mouth because it was all I knew how to do. Daily inebriation kept the frustration of my life and questions about the world at a safe distance.

Subconsciously, I was waiting for the world to fall apart, something I figured it should have done already.

My dissatisfaction came with a spark of interest in the meaning of it all. I devoured Buddhist and Taoist literature which always left me hungry for more. Intrigued as I was, words were still just words and the world was still hopeless. I continued self-destructing, never stopped looking for meaning.

One day however, I believe it was the second day in a row I had woken up and proceeded to cure a hangover with a beer, I set myself on a path. I stopped drinking and girl-hopping (for the most part) and began meditating, eating better food and opening myself to the future. It was the right time (it couldn’t have been later).

For the rest of my twenties I enjoyed being who I was, experimenting with different creative paths. I was as happily independent as I have ever been in Melbourne, working in a vegetarian cafe and then Starbucks. Then I went to China and met Angela who is now my wife and it goes without saying that I have not been as happy or indepenent since.

Living attuned to only my own needs and pleasures was a slippery slope. The best thing that my spiritual journey has uncovered so far is an interest – dare I say compassion – for the world beyond my nose.

Strangely, it isn’t my self-perceived artistic potential that has led me to self-suficiency, although it is creativity by another name. Being vegan, I sorely felt the lack of a decent non-dairy cheese, and almost compusively started dreaming and experimenting. Eventually it became a reality and now, a business.

But a thinking man needs something else to do except stir pots. I tried dabbling in web design again, but simply felt I wasn’t needed.

Although I’ve always had a slight interest in writing and a peripheral awareness of how my skill with words was evolving, that isn’t the reason I now choose to write with more focus and dedication. It’s the idea of helping create the world as a better place that has finally settled me in at alidark.com for the long haul.