Australia

8 or so weeks on the run…

Anne2 Comments
No sniping ....... yet
No sniping ……. yet

I am enjoying the wonderful absence of urgency and stress. We have had two weeks at home after the trip to New Zealand and there is plenty of time to do anything that needs to be done, but nothing seems particularly important.  I love lazy mornings with slow starts, problem is my lazy mornings can easily run into the afternoon.

Make new friends but keep the old

One is silver and the other gold

This old refrain keeps echoing through my mind. These eight weeks have been full of precious new and old friends and family. The intensity of the delight in reconnecting with people has surprised me.

We have had many conversations with friends about how much you need to work at our stage of life.  Could work look differently than it does now? Longer leave periods? Part time? Less stressful jobs? Can you retire too young? How much money do you really need to retire? How do you have Continue reading →

Shhhhhh….it’s our little secret…..our Little Malaysia

Steve2 Comments

Whether we live in a small country town or a large city, we all have our favourite little restaurant. 

Little MalaysiaYou know the type I’m talking about. Those restaurants that you always return too….the ones where you are on first name basis with the owner or the chef……the ones where they know what you like to eat before you place your order……..the ones where you don’t need to look at the menu……..the ones where no matter what you order, or how many of you there are,  the bill is never more than $20 per head…….and most importantly……the ones that allow you to bring your own alcohol “BYO”.

Henry is the Chef, and Fania is the front of house manager at Little Malaysia in West End, Brisbane – it’s their Restaurant, it’s their passion, and it’s their life. For us……it’s our favourite little restaurant, where we have spent many of our Friday nights in great company and with great food.

West End is Continue reading →

Brisbane is pretty damn good!

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I have cycled many of these bike paths almost every day over the past 5 years as I made my way to the office, but today, they looked very different! Perhaps it’s because I had my eyes wide open?

cycling BrisbaneUsually on my morning ride to work I am pre-occupied with what might be waiting for me, either in my inbox or on my desk, oblivious to the really important things around me, and how great they are. Not only the natural beauty, but how fortunate we are to have such well-maintained and positioned cycle ways and paths for moving pedestrians and bikes safely around the river city of Brisbane.

It really hit me just how lucky we are to live here – whilst it’s Continue reading →

A week or so on the run

Anne2 Comments

P1070361We’ve been on the run for about a week, maybe just a bit more, and time is starting to slide. I have very little idea of what day it is and it feels as if I have been away for a long time. Bliss. This somehow feels different than a holiday. Having six months off creates a new perspective. Sorry work but I am not missing you.

P1070380Our pace has now dramatically slowed as we are spending time with my 65 year old sister who uses a walking stick and has challenges with mobility. It’s a humbling exercise in patience, one which I struggle with.

Now with my family of birth I have taken up the position as youngest sister and slid easily into the middle seat in the back of the car, a place where I suspect many youngest sisters live. My daughter will laugh at this as often her place in our family car is the middle seat. There are not many situations where I am now the “youngest” of anything so I will relish my place.

I am already getting tired of restaurant and fast food meals which means that for the first time in a long time I am thinking about cooking, not that I am doing any. Steven cooked bacon and eggs for dinner and it tasted like a treat.

As the frenzy of work has absented my head I have space for other ideas to float by but right now I’m not thinking of much more than how extraordinarily beautiful Queenstown is.

Steven and I are muddling along beauP1070378tifully together… there will be a time along this journey when I suspect we will need time out from each other.

I’ll update regularly about our experience on the run… but I couldn’t possibly set a timetable for that….or anything.

Lycra, Prawns & Pinot

Steve3 Comments

Cycling shouldn’t just be about sweat and spinning wheels across the pavement. We mamil’s (middle-aged men in lycra) are far more couth than that!

Prawns & Pinot

The idea of a Prawn and Pinot ride came to me last Easter, when I recognised that our favourite route not only included the parklands and foreshore of Moreton Bay, but went right past the moorings of the Moreton Bay prawn trawler fleet on Cabbage Tree Creek.

Since that time I have enjoyed the experience on three occasions. The latest was yesterday on Continue reading →

My Inner Road Rager

Anne4 Comments

I’veP1060765_edited been cycling to work most days for  a year, a round trip of about 15 km, not bad for a 58 year old. It’s been a challenge for me. I’ve never enjoyed exercise but started leisure cycling when we moved to Brisbane  8 years ago. I’d enjoyed riding a bike as a kid so to me it was the least painful way to do some exercise.

On holiday in 2013 I was cycling with a group of women who were in their 70’s and they made it up the hills. I didn’t. This challenged me Continue reading →

Australia Day

Steve2 Comments

How do you celebrate your national day, and do you really know what and why you are celebrating?

P1060936It’s a bit sad when you have to resort to Google to confirm what the origin of the day is all about, but that’s what I did. For the record, Australia Day is celebrated on the 26th of January each year and marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the first fleet of British ships at Port Jackson, New South Wales, and raising of the flag of Great Britain at that site by Governor Arthur Phillip. (Thanks Wikipedia)

Whilst that’s the historic significance, today I’d suggest that most Australian’s use the day to celebrate our freedom, wealth and safety, the diversity of our community, and the spirit of “mateship”, all attributes that allow us to call Australia “The Lucky Country”. That’s how we spent the day.

Whilst we don’t get hung up on tradition, we always seem to find ourselves spending the day with close friends, sharing the good weather, great food, chilled wine, stories from the year just past, and our plans ahead. Always with plenty of laughter. Where would we be without others to share Continue reading →

Wedding Rings and Canoe Paddles

Anne5 Comments

imageI love a good wedding, and Felicity and Job’s was one of the best. It was a spectacularly beautiful summer’s day as they married in the chapel at Sanctuary Cove. The glorious weather was truly appreciated as the day before had seen a deluge of rain resulting in closed roads due to flooding.

image

How wonderful to see families and friends come together for such a joyous occasion. The chapel was full of children laughing and smiling, I’m so glad they were included.

It’s such an honour to be invited to a wedding, to share that special time when a couple make their commitment to each other. Felicity and Job had written their own vows and the heartfelt expression of their love for each other, and their hopes for the future, ensured many tears Continue reading →

From Leather to Lycra

Steve4 Comments

I hate the label “mid life crisis”!

The Leather
The Leather

I don’t think I was having one when I bought the Harley at age 45, but I was probably a perfect fit for the stereo typical label. It was just a time in my life when it was what I wanted and could afford it. Did it matter that I didn’t even have a motor bike licence? Not to me it didn’t.

Hang on…..before you get all righteous, let me explain.

When I returned from Papua New Guinea in 2000, I was fortunate to get in early on the Peter Lik train………destination, world domination. I was employed by Peter as his group CEO at the time when Peter had one small photographic Gallery in Cairns, North Queensland. Within four years, Continue reading →

Weekend Warriors

Steve1 Comment

Have you every had something that you were good at and really loved, but for different reasons you lost it…or gave it away? I have.

Saxing it up
Saxing it up

That something for me was music. When I was about 14 years old I was an accomplished musician for my age, playing trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, euphonium, a little bit of piano and the electronic organ. Those talents saw me playing most weekends in an old time ballroom dance band – Ron Campbell’s Orchestra, “The Pride of the South Coast”. All was fabulous for a few years, and then I found girls. The pressure for a young adolescent boy of competing priorities got a little too much, and ultimately, I chose girls and lost the music. That loss lasted almost 15 years. When I met Anne she had no idea of my musical aptitude – all she knew was that some odd looking cases took up a whole lot of room in my wardrobe. Those cases contained my sax and trumpet. I knew I would make music again, and in the early 1990’s I did. As a family, in 1990 we moved to Papua New Continue reading →