MsMaverick

New Year in Sydney!

2009-05-31T12:19:00.006+10:00

Want to escape another dreary winter in the Northern Hemisphere and spend December and January at a sexy beach-side penthouse in sunny summery Sydney? With bargain airfares unlikely to ever be repeated, now is a great time to come DOWNUNDER!

My apartment is available for a holiday rental from 22 December to 20 January while I am away with my children.

Location: Balmoral Beach, Sydney, Australia. Address will be revealed as soon as we have made contact l

Description:

4th floor penthouse apartment with 3 bedrooms that sleeps 4 people in 1 Queen (Latex bed!) and 2 singles (all good quality double ensemble beds with posturepedic mattresses). There is one bathroom, an ultra modern kitchen with state of the art appliances, modern furnishings, and a huge entertainment deck with BBQ facility and 270 degree ocean views.

A leisurely stroll out the front door has you on the beach and esplanade with some of Sydney's best al fresco dining spots, coffee shops and picnic spots. Water sports (sailing, kayaking), hiking trails, the Zoo, beaches, designer shopping, delicatessens and cafes are all within a 1 kilometre radius and an easy walk. The city centre and nightlife is just a short hop across the harbour to the world famous Opera House and is serviced by a bus and ferry and taxi.

Photos can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63021466@N00/sets/72157608806659592/

CONTACT DETAILS: Please contact me via leaving a comment here, or e-mail annalie underscore killian at amp dot com dot au or on Twitter @maverickwoman and I will get back to you.

Swop my sun, surf and sea, sexy Sydney penthouse for your snow pad/ condo?

2009-05-23T16:24:00.012+10:00

Well, the Global Financial Crisis is trying its damndest but I ain"t giving in. As they say....when the going gets tough....the tough get creative!

After working 18 hour days for the last 8 months to produce http://www.amplify.amp.com.au, I am not going to have a nervous breakdown, I am going to take a holiday instead. It's just that I haven't had a salary adjustment in a loooong time, and with 2 growing teenagers who seem to think that a pioano and Chanel handbags are a acceptable birthday presents thank you very much, you can see that sole parenting and a single income stream has its limitations!

So, I have cashed in my Qantas frequent flyer points for flights to New York City where every penny saved will undoubtedly be sucked back to pay for the quintessential New York Christmas and hotel accommodation in what must be the world's most expensive hotels! But thanks to my Twitter skills and the generosity of the tweeps there, I have found amazing tips and help- from @tabletcs, @quikbook and @NewYorkology- the latter offering the most comprehensive and relevant guide to that amazing city that anyone could ever wish for. Hard to imagine anything to top that. And...looks like I will be seizing an incredible rate at The chic and quirky Gramercy Park Hotel through the helpful service of Brian Hendricks, Director of Online Marketing at Quikbook (Unbelievable to get such terrific human contact from an online travel site!)

Which brings me to the point of this post. This whole holiday was inspired by an approach by a family in Banff to swop their ski condo in Canmore, Banff National Park Canada, for my place here in Sydney. After I succeeded in securing our flights and trading said points for airfare....they changed their minds and decided to go to Dubai instead!

So the post NYC component of the holiday- the part that was meant to be FREE- is now up the creek unless I can find someone else who wants to swop. And until I do- I can't finalise my New York accommodation!

HERE's THE OFFER

Location: Balmoral Beach, Sydney, Australia

Duration: 22 December to 18 January (slightly neg)

4th floor penthouse apartment with 3 bedrooms that sleeps 4 people in 1 Queen (Latex bed!) and 2 singles (all good quality double ensemble beds with posturepedic mattresses). There is one bathroom, an ultra modern kitchen with state of the art appliances, modern furnishings, and a huge entertainment deck with BBQ facility and 270 degree ocean views.

A leisurely stroll out the front door has you on the beach and esplanade with some of Sydney's best al fresco dining spots, coffee shops and picnic spots. Water sports (sailing, kayaking), hiking trails, the Zoo, beaches, designer shopping, delicatessens and cafes are all within a 1 kilometre radius and an easy walk. The city centre and nightlife is just a short hop across the harbour to the world famous Opera House and is serviced by a bus and ferry and taxi.

Photos can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63021466@N00/sets/72157608806659592/

What I am looking for: A ski condo

Location: Whistler/Blackcomb Main Village

Duration: Approx 6 January till around 16 January

I would like to find a village location slope-side ski condo/ facility with proper beds- 2 doubles will do (no roll-aways or sofabeds please) and facilities of comparable standard to what I am offering.

I could make my car in Sydney also available if a car is offered at the other end of the swop?

Please contact me via leaving a comment here or on Twitter @maverickwoman or by e-mail at annalie underscore killian at amp dot com dot au and I will be in touch?

2008-10-13T04:34:00.002+11:00

In planning AMPLIFY 2009, the AMP Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival in Sydney from 22-26 June 09, I am again undertaking my bi-annual research tour meeting with people and seeking out transformational and inspiring thought leaders to invite to Australia.

This is naturally a very interesting process and itgives me great insight into the difference between ego and id. The more I do of this, the more I am struck by the fact that the truly awesome people never tell me how wonderful and smart and insightful they are. They operate from confident humility, are NOT opinionated although happily share a perspective if asked.

There are a lot of folk in the other camp of ego, though....and its not difficult to distinguish the depth of substance. I am getting better at this every day!

Creativity Champions

2008-08-07T23:32:00.001+10:00

View my page on Creativity Champions

Falling in love is like owning a dog

2008-06-28T15:52:00.002+10:00

Familiar with the theory that the world is divided into cat and dog people? Well...this gorgeous poem by Taylor Mali explains my love life! I am a cat person!

Falling in love is like owning a dog

First of all, it's a big responsibility,
especially in a city like New York.
So think long and hard before deciding on love.
On the other hand, love gives you a sense of security:
when you're walking down the street late at night
and you have a leash on love
ain't no one going to mess with you.
Because crooks and muggers think love is unpredictable.
Who knows what love could do in its own defense?

On cold winter nights, love is warm.
It lies between you and lives and breathes
and makes funny noises.
Love wakes you up all hours of the night with its needs.
It needs to be fed so it will grow and stay healthy.

Love doesn't like being left alone for long.
But come home and love is always happy to see you.
It may break a few things accidentally in its passion for life,
but you can never be mad at love for long.

Is love good all the time? No! No!
Love can be bad. Bad, love, bad! Very bad love.

Love makes messes.
Love leaves you little surprises here and there.
Love needs lots of cleaning up after.
Sometimes you just want to get love fixed.
Sometimes you want to roll up a piece of newspaper
and swat love on the nose,
not so much to cause pain,
just to let love know Don't you ever do that again!

Sometimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
Because love loves exercise.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People who have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again, and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it.
And in return, love loves you and never stops.

How a story can shape your life.

2008-06-22T16:02:00.008+10:00

A friend who is mentoring another mutual young friend of ours on his CV, how to conduct interviews and basically start his career after many years of learning, was talking about how he used stories in interviews to tease out a bit about a candidate- their values, insights etc.

He then asked me which story sticks out for me?

Well, I can literally think of thousands. In any given day, there would be stories that give me new insight, but upon reflection, believe it or not....my oldest memory of a story, and one that probably shaped my life more than I realised, is the story of Heidi. Yes, she of the Swiss Alps- the creation of Johanna Spyri.

I first heard it when I was about 3 years old, and growing up in Johannesburg,South Africa. I had no reference point for either mountains nor snow- or goats for that matter!

My step-grandmother, who was a kindergarten teacher, introduced me to the story by reading it to me from a book with beautiful large illustrations- snow-capped mountains dominating every page. We didnt have TV in South Africa at that time (roundabout 1964/5) and years later, as a teenager, the fantastic Japanese anime series of Heidi came to our TV screens (late 70's early 80's and I lapped it up- it was so energetic and special.

But, back to grandma's lap and my first encounters with this story. I wept for little Heidi being orphaned, then dumped with a grumpy unwilling hermit-like grandpa she'd never met, by an unsympathetic aunt, and then slowly watched how she coped, and watched her optimistic and sunny personality infect and charm all around her- with she herself refusing to be beaten by circumstances.

Just when she achieved harmony and happiness, at age of around 7 or 8, the adults of her family again sent her away to Zurich to be educated (and cured from backward Alpine life) and stay with the wheelchair-bound Klara and the dreadful bully, Mrs Rottenmeier, Klara's governess. There too, she turned adversity into possiblity, learnt to read and write with the sickly and depressed Klara, and in turn taught Klara optimism and eventually persuaded Klara to come and stay with her and her grandpa in the mountain, where she helped Klara to ditch the wheelchair. Heidi's influence also meant that she persuaded her grumpy grandpa to let go of his past anger and resentment and return to the village community and be integrated.

Wherever she went, Heidi drew on what she had learnt from previous situations to cope with new situations and turn the negative into positive. Her joie d'vivre helped to draw out the withdrawn, resolve conflict where possible and bring people together. Maybe she was a rescuer- I don't think so. In my eyes, she was an achiever who rode the waves of adversity, guided by a very strong inner values system.

Of course, I am re-telling this with much more insight and emotional awareness today, but in essence, that's what I learnt from that story when I was 3. I think in many ways, Heidi has been a personal role model and helped me to cope and triumph in difficult family circumstances as a child, keep myself emotionally intact throughout my life and effortlessly deal with change and the unknown.

The second huge impact it had was that it extended my world immediately. I was very curious about trying to work out the concept of Switzerland- another country that was far away and totally different to anything I knew. I tortured my grandma for hours because the story made me realise that the world didn't just consist of my backyard and what I was familiar with...but that the world was HUGE and full of magical places and cultures that were different and HAD TO BE VISITED AND EXPLORED! I think I became a global thinker at that point!

Its no surprise to me either that the story of Heidi has enduring currency across many different cultures of the world- with the Japanese anime series being translated into Spanish and topping the popularity ratings there. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsEUU-w3XlQ

It's because it deals with a classical theme of "true grit", or as they say in South Africa: "Vasbyt"- shit happens everywhere!

widget

2007-12-09T09:12:00.001+11:00

Nokia brand & design priorities

From: whatidiscover, 8 months ago

| View | Upload your own

Nokia brand & design priorities
Keith Pardy & Alastair Curtis
Nokia Capital Markets Day 2006
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/10/107224/Keith_Pardy_Alastair_Curtis_CMD2006.pdf

SlideShare Link

A message about working safely: Aussie style

2007-12-03T15:05:00.000+11:00

An Australian poem

The sun was hot already - it was only 8 o'clock
The cocky took off in his Ute, to go and check his stock.
He drove around the paddocks checking wethers, ewes and lambs,
The float valves in the water troughs, the windmills on the dams.

He stopped and turned a windmill on to fill a water tank
And saw a ewe down in the dam, a few yards from the bank.
"Typical bloody sheep," he thought, "they've got no common sense,
"They won't go through a gateway but they'll jump a bloody fence."

The ewe was stuck down in the mud, he knew without a doubt
She'd stay there 'til she carked it if he didn't get her out.
But when he reached the water's edge, the startled ewe broke free
And in her haste to get away, began a swimming spree.

He reckoned once her fleece was wet, the weight would drag her down
If he didn't rescue her, the stupid sod would drown.
Her style was unimpressive, her survival chances slim
He saw no other option, he would have to take a swim.

He peeled his shirt and singlet off, his trousers, boots and socks
And as he couldn't stand wet clothes, he also shed his jocks.
He jumped into the water and away that cocky swam
He caught up with her somewhere near the middle of the dam

The ewe was quite evasive, she kept giving him the slip
He tried to grab her sodden fleece but couldn't get a grip.
At last he got her to the bank and stopped to catch his breath
She showed him little gratitude for saving her from death.

She took off like a Bondi tram around the other side
He swore next time he caught that ewe he'd hang her bloody hide.
Then round and round the dam they ran, although he felt quite puffed
He still thought he could run her down, she must be nearly stuffed.

The local stock rep came along, to pay a call that day
He knew this bloke was on his own, his wife had gone away
He didn't really think he'd get fresh scones for morning tea
But nor was he prepared for what he was about to see.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief at what came into view
For running down the catchment came this frantic-looking ewe.
And on her heels in hot pursuit and wearing not a stitch
The farmer yelling wildly "Come back here, you lousy bitch!"

The stock rep didn't hang around, he took off in his car
The cocky's reputation has been damaged near and far
So bear in mind the Work Safe rule when next you check your flocks
Spot the hazard, assess the risk, and always wear your jocks!

Senior people have to be CRAZY

2007-10-20T00:34:00.001+10:00

Unlocking Cool - By Jeremy Gutsche, TrendHunter.com

From: trendhunter, 6 months ago

| View | Upload your own

By methodically approaching innovation, organizations and individuals can generate ideas, stimulate creativity, and ultimately unlock cool. The UNLOCKING COOL presentation is typically delivered as a keynote speach with the slides used as a reference for the discussion.

SlideShare Link

Blog bible

2007-10-20T00:32:00.001+10:00

The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging ... And When To Use Each One

From: rohitbhargava, 6 months ago

| View | Upload your own

A compilation of 25 basic styles of blogging including tips on how often to use each and potential to create buzz and blog traffic by using each.

SlideShare Link

A story without love...

2007-07-29T22:46:00.000+10:00

...is not worth telling. How true.

Hope my last imaginary tale didn't scare you too much...but, as we plunged into darkness and cold second night in a row, it really does drive home the awareness of how fragile life is, how reliant we are on stuff and how far away we are from love.

The Great Lover

I have been so great a lover: filled my days
So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise,
The pain, the calm, and the astonishment,
Desire illimitable, and still content,
And all dear names men use, to cheat despair,
For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear
Our hearts at random down the dark of life.

Now, ere the unthinking silence on that strife
Steals down, I would cheat drowsy Death so far,
My night shall be remembered for a star
That outshone all the suns of all men's days.
Shall I not crown them with immortal praise
Whom I have loved, who have given me, dared with me
High secrets, and in darkness knelt to see
The inenarrable godhead of delight?

Love is a flame; -- we have beaconed the world's night.
A city: -- and we have built it, these and I.
An emperor: -- we have taught the world to die.
So, for their sakes I loved, ere I go hence,
And the high cause of Love's magnificence,
And to keep loyalties young, I'll write those names
Golden for ever, eagles, crying flames,
And set them as a banner, that men may know,
To dare the generations, burn, and blow
Out on the wind of Time, shining and streaming. . . .
These I have loved

White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,
Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;
Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust
Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;
Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;
And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;
And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,
Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;
Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon
Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss
Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is
Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen
Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;
The benison of hot water; furs to touch;
The good smell of old clothes; and other such --
The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,
Hair's fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers
About dead leaves and last year's ferns. . . .

Dear names,And thousand other throng to me! Royal flames;
Sweet water's dimpling laugh from tap or spring;
Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing;
Voices in laughter, too; and body's pain,
Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train;
Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam
That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home;
And washen stones, gay for an hour; the cold
Graveness of iron; moist black earthen mould;
Sleep; and high places; footprints in the dew;
And oaks; and brown horse-chestnuts, glossy-new;
And new-peeled sticks; and shining pools on grass; --
All these have been my loves.

And these shall pass,
Whatever passes not, in the great hour,
Nor all my passion, all my prayers, have power
To hold them with me through the gate of Death.
They'll play deserter, turn with the traitor breath,
Break the high bond we made, and sell Love's trust
And sacramented covenant to the dust.

Oh, never a doubt but, somewhere, I shall wake,
And give what's left of love again, and make
New friends, now strangers. . . .
But the best I've known,
Stays here, and changes, breaks, grows old, is blown
About the winds of the world, and fades from brains
Of living men, and dies.
Nothing remains.

O dear my loves, O faithless, once again
This one last gift I give: that after men
Shall know, and later lovers, far-removed,
Praise you, "All these were lovely"; say, "He loved."

Rupert Brooke, Mataiea, 1914

An inconvenient apocalypse - NOW

2007-07-29T22:27:00.000+10:00

We have maybe 90 minutes before it all ends...and, feeling strangely vindicated that I have invested in a wireless internet connnection and a laptop with some battery life left, I decided instead of panicking, I'll invest my last moments to connect with the world by internet- to reach out in a typical human need, for connection with other humans-whilst others more fortunate, share these last intimate moments by candlelight with loved ones! (I have already checked through the window of my high-rise apartment-yes, that's what they are up to!)

It happened about 30 minutes ago...a massive explosion that rocked the world, a blinding light and then thick black eerie silence. I fumbled around in the dark for 10 minutes to find the emergency pack of matches to light my beautiful candles that otherwise serve as decor accents only! So, forgive typos....I can barely see the keyboard. (As a perfectionist, its very hard NOT to go back and fix errors but in this instance, perfection is hardly the point!) In 90 minutes or so, all connectivity will end, so what have I to say or share that could possibly matter?

Well, let's see....today I saw a quote in a 2nd hand bookshop that referenced Socrates- not that he was my hero (I am much more a Sartre babe, or I used to be....when I still had a future), but it said something about the examined life is worth living....or words to that effect. I also browsed Oracle, my local bookshop, and skimmed through the Deepak Chopra book on the life of Buddha...very easily accessible...and ended up buying Future Perfect, by Robin Williams (see, ever the optimist- and a fat lot of good that is now!), and The Beginners's Guide to winning the Nobel Prize by Australian winner Peter Doherty for medical research into Immunity!

These books I bought not only because they fascinate me, but also by way of inspiration for the kids, cause let's face it, its going to take a miracle to have me win it in the next 90 minutes! Cub 1 has a chance, she is far away in country New South Wales at Boarding School and for the moment, not impacted by the Apocalypse. Cub 2, whom I have assured its just a temporary power blackout, is reading her pony novel by the emergency light on the stairwell. We were all going to visit the Nobel Prize Hall of fame in Stockholm at the end of the year- now hopefully, at least one- the sole carrier of our genes into this crazy world, may still get there!

So, what else to say when there is so much? That love matters more than anything else? That money can't buy us out of here? That its pretty cool to go down sipping a glass of very fine Pommery like those Titanic passengers, chatting to you by candlelight, watching the moon rising and lighting up Balmoral Bay like a Tahitian black pearl, just as its been doing for millenia and may be doing again tomorrow and the day after as if nothing's happened?

In searching Google for an image, I found this weird website called K-punk
where some really deep and meaningful stuff was written about this world and others...I didn't have time to read it, have my own shit to get in order here....but if you survive this, by all means check it out-I did glimpse enough to recall what I read about in Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse", on the relationship between greed and civilizations.

And so, here we are...finally, we've raped Mother Earth, sucked her dry for cheap energy, its run out and our greed has turned us to war with one another, Australia invading Iraq for no bloody reason whatsoever other than piggy-backing our greed on the US, and tonight, it's payback time and Sydney has been hit by a surprise (hardly!) act of terror ahead of it hosting the APEC summit of world fools in September. And its all about to end.

I am an innocent, I proclaim_ I didnt support that war so why should I die for John Howard's folly?

Ah....but am I? Have I not been driving a luxury car fuelled by cheap energy? Have I not been turning on heaters and electric blankets and using a tumble dryer when the sun or a lover could have done the job? Have I not been dining out in fine restaurants, wearing fine feathers made in power hungry factories? Have I not been voting Liberal because it was good for the economy and my backpocket even though Rome was already burning and the writing on the wall?

Tonight, Sydney's Collapse is also my collapse...and 4 million others....but how much MORE warning did we need? Why did we not heed? Why not act? Thank goodness I spent time with the cubs teaching them a little through documentaries such as "An Inconvenient truth" and "A Crude Awakening"- movies and debates I also organised at work, along with the brilliant Jane McGonigal's alternate reality game, "World without Oil" but alas, too little, too late.

So, my dear friends, there won't be a funeral...there will be too many dead and rotting bodies everywhere...its best to just bulldoze the place....but, if the Servers in Google Land and their back-ups get off scotfree this time and this post makes it to you...take heed. Act now. Greed is NOT good, and complacency that others will do the right thing to protect us...fairytales!

And then...love a little more...no, A LOT MORE. Live a lot more too, but...in a way that preserves life, not rob it.

This is the Leopard Lady and her little cub signing off and MEWTU, the cat, who is blissfully unaware life as we know it is about to be snuffed out.
So, adieu...until we meet again, and cheers (raising my champagne flute and draining the last drop) xxx

Creating intelligence

2007-07-28T19:40:00.000+10:00

No...this is NOT an essay on religion, but more a reflection on evolution and the Renaissance that we are all in the middle of. Like the printing press was a catalyst for Renaissance 1.0, the internet is most certainly that for Remaissance 2.0 - enabling the spread of knowledge and collaboration across geopgraphies and time as if they don't exist. And indeed, they are no longer barriers.

Collective intelligence is the capacity of human communities to evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony, through such innovation mechanisms as differentiation and integration, competition and collaboration.

This week brought another great example of how our connectedness with others through social networking rapidly builds intelligence and progress when I was contacted by LA-based social media entrepreneur, Richard McKinnon,as a follow-on to my blog and Linked-In profile, which was in turn connected to Des Walsh, a business blogging expert who delivered 2 workshops at our Innovation Festival in June. Des was in turn recommended to me via another blogger in the US, whom I contacted via another Knowledge blog, IT Toolbox, in November last year. In turn, we all have some mutual business acquaintances in common, eg Ross Dawson, author of Trends in the Living Networks and producer of the Future of Media Summits, and to my surprise, Rolf von Behrens, an expert in Sustainability, both of whom I met when I created the first Ryze offline social group in Australia going some 5 years now. (What I find so interesting is how these social networks go through "swarming phases"....Ryze was certainly my first....YEARS before the Web 2.0 phrase was coined, that was followed by LinkedIn, then MySpace - which I gave a miss, then Facebook, which I have again joined- mostly because its less limiting than LinkedIn but alas, at age 45, most of my school contemporaries are obviously in the dark ages and cannot be found in FaceBook!)

Suffice to say- it refocussed my attention to return to more regular blogging-although in my case, I blog for artistic and creative pleasure and philosophical reflection more than being a subject matter expert. (I was also reading some musings on Ross' blog yesterday about the relatively low percentage of Aussies that blog compared to the rest of the English speaking world. I have my own theory about that...its called LIFESTYLE! We have such great weather that I guess, like me, most people would rather be out there and enjoying it than couped up and slumped over the computer_ I have tried multi-tasking by blogging at the beach but the glare makes it a hopeless exercise!)

But, blogging eats up quite a lot of time....I am not talking about simple snippets that merely link to other people's stuff, but considered reflection and synthesis. At the recent Future of Media Summit, I heard a great definition of Influence through Blogs...the first is people who are merely "connectors", the second, and more influential, are those who change the debate.

I think my best value is in doing and showing rather than the academic perspective (I get bored with writing things up, though I know its important) but therein the benefit of the network; others do the commentary and writing if you involve them, which leaves me free to do more of the doing!

And so, together with strangers, all of whom share a common interest and passion, we rapidly knit a tapestry of wisdom, insight and experience together in a way no single individual could.

Relish

2007-07-07T21:03:00.000+10:00

...such a great word, relish - rich, juicy, plump, luxurious....and, so it should be. As the dictionary describes it..."pleasurable appreciation of something"...and that is what I am doing. After 8 years in Australia, and 7 years in my company, starting practically from the bottom again, I feel like I have finally made it back to where I was career-wise when I left Billiton and South Africa end of 1998.

Yes, my recent project, the Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival that I have been arranging for the past 9 months, took place between 25-29 June, and it exceeded even my own wildest expectations. And so, forgive me for taking a moment to relish that...and, the acknowledgement I received from my colleagues, peers, Board members, CEO and my boss.

I received over 60 e-mails and about 300 sms messages...here are just a few snippets to keep in my virtual album...

Sent: 30/06/2007 08:14 AM ZE10
To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Special person

Every now and then I think things are bad and life is flat... Then I think
about the people in my life and how wonderful the world really - despite
its challenges. You are one of those very special people...

Congratulations on what YOU have achieved this week, congratulations in
believing anything can be achieved despite the barriers and proving women
can lead the world...

This from our Strategic Alliances Director who is in the above photo with me, name withheld for privacy reasons

Sent: 29/06/2007 05:50 PM ZE10
To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Congratulations

Hi Annalie

I just wanted to congratulate you on an amazing week topped off by the most
amazing expo. I had been searching for inspiration and the expo has given
me the push and motivation I needed to get through the next few weeks.
Thank you!

Congratulations and I hope the Hub launch is as successful as this week has
been for you. I am very proud to be part of your team.

A member of my team, name suppressed to protect privacy
Sent: 26/06/2007 11:24 AM ZE10
To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Fw: Innovation Festival

A success I think!!

Annalie .....................YOU REALLY PULLED THIS ONE OFF!!!

Congratulations..............and thank you from all of us!!

Name suppressed to protect privacy, but this was from my boss!

Note from CEO to Board Member who attended
Early on day 2, it's clear this has been an inspirational initiative that will shape strategic thinking in (The company) very
significantly.
Thanks for your active participation and support,

(CEO name suppressed to protect privacy)

Note from Board member who attended to my boss
I just wanted to congratulate you on the festival and thank you for the
chance to take part. The work involved in organising something like this
must be phenomenal but what you have done is to offer to the (name of my company)community a world class conference with great speakers and, at least judging by today, thoroughly stimulating content which would be terrific just from a personal
development point of view, let alone the potential to do great things for
the business.

It's sensational! and we are all in debt to you and your team,

(Name suppressed to protect privacy)

To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Congratulations on a breathtaking initiative!

Annalie
The Innovation and Thought Leadership Festival was a huge success and I
know that ddn't happen without a huge effort from yourself in particular.
Congratulations - I'd like to catch up next month when i return from
holiday

Kind regards

(name suppressed for privacy)
General Manager HR & Strategy

Sent Jun 30, 2007 03:58
Subject: Wow.

Wow. You done well kiddo! Stunning event. Off home now couldn't find you to
say bye. Thanks for the recognition. Love your work. You are the star
today enjoy every minute of it. xx

From our HR Director and a colleague

Sent: 29/06/2007 04:59 PM ZE10
To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Re: Innovation and thought leadership festival - question re
location/entry

Annalie

I hope you are sitting down to a well earned champagne. Even though I only
saw a tiny slither of what you have put on this week I was totally blown
away. I wandered around the exhibition for quite a while - it was
fantastic. I can't wait to sit down and chat with you about your role,
aspirations and how we might share stories and ideas. To this end I would
like to invite you to lunch - how does 17 or 19 July work?

I hope you have a restful weekend and do let me know if either of those
dates works for you.

Kind regards
Director (name suppressed for privacy reason)
PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia

Sent: 28/06/2007 11:21 AM ZE10
To: Annalie Killian
Subject: Fw: Thank you

and guess what...........for your sins you get to do a Board presentation
on the 24th July say 20mins talking and 20mins discussion - we need to pull
together a packc next week...............we can work on it together!!

Congratulations again!!!

My boss...again

28/06/2007
11:15 AM

Note from Chairman of the Board to my boss
Thank you indeed for including me in the dinner on Tuesday night. There
has been a great buzz around the company this week and the dinner was a reflection
of it. I thought the whole presentation, the atmosphere and conviviality
said a huge amount about the quality of your team and the inspirational
thinking which is underway.

Annalie is a gem.

Regards
(name suppressed for privacy reasons)

and so on....relish, relish, relish! Success is sweet but fleeting...there is always a new mountain to climb...so, I am already beginning to work on the next Everest!

Thanks to all of you...my friends and family, for your interest and support!

Blackberry salad

2007-07-01T21:04:00.000+10:00

Finally, the Blackberry is silent....eerily so. The Festival ended somewhere on Friday night after a week that went by in a blurrrr...and I ended up a bit blurry after a few celebratory margaritas were forced down my sore throat at the after-after party! Oi, didnt know those things left a dent in your brain! Had to really "think", as I stumbled in the door to two bemused cubs, how to keep a straight and sober pose...was not about to throw my reputation as an impeccable role model down the drain, even if I had much reason to celebrate!

Driving home next day in the car (we stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel on Friday night), Cub 1 says to me: "So Mum, other than having a heap of fun at work, what do you ACTUALLY do?" (Kids don't understand that being an executive, making decisions, delighting customers and shareholders, managing people, assets and crises, and attending too many meetings, IS ACTUALLY WORK!)

"Well," I tried to explain..."my job is to lead people, set challenging goals, to help them grow, find their talent, realize their potential, have fulfilment in their work. It's called Leadership"

So...next thing, cub 2, sitting in the rear, pipes up: "Geez Mom, you sound like Jesus!

Well...I nearly drove off the harbour bridge!

From the mouths of babes...come priceless wit!

On blogs and blokes...

2007-06-16T08:21:00.000+10:00

After nearly a year of on-off dating, courtship, seduction, the odd quarrel, endless foreplay till the early hours of the morning and the occassional midnight wake-up, my new lover and I are just about there...ready to climax together in a massive explosion of sensation and stimulation. Yes, my lover, The 2007 Innovation and Thought Leadership Festival, is supercharged with wow, and is the talk of the town!

Its true- I have joined the ranks of enlightened women and traded blokes in favour of Thought Leaders, Creative Geniuses and Innovative Entrepreneurs, and quite frankly, I have enjoyed more thrills than I've had in years! Nothing like a huge brain between the ears!!!

The Festival grew from a one-day fling called EXPO in 2005, to a full-on 24 week romance, with the main celebrations happening from 25-29 June, in Sydney.

The first of my 30 international guest speakers are arriving next week, I have a media circus on my hands, 3000 registered attendees, hi-tech exhibitors including virtual world avatars and parallel universes, a cocktail party for 600 with "virtual" decor being arranged by a genious French drag queen who covers the Sydney Gay Mardis Gras in his alias as Claire de Lune , I've battled uncollaborative building managers on turning their corporate headquarters lobby into an Expo Centre and cocktail lounge, driven a Lamborghini Gallardo donated by a sponsor, and am preparing for 90 participants to come on an 8-week innovation bootcamp with personal innovation coaches to develop the seeds of their business ideas into flourishing growth opportunities for our business. Today, I am selecting 30 art pieces from 300 entries produced by employees through a 12-week Creative Bootcamp launched to co-incide with World Creativity Day, for the art exhibition in our foyer - we open 25 June. All exciting new initiatives, and I am taking the 9-year old cub with for work experience!

Meanwhile, in the few hours that I manage to grab some sleep, winds close to 200 kms per hour are battering the coast, 6 ft waves in our normally flat inner harbour bay at Balmoral, ripping boats off their moorings, sinking ferry wharves and snapping the terrace furniture of my penthouse apartment like twigs! I woke at 5 am to run outside stark naked just with slippers on to salvage what I can before it smashes through the wall-to-wall glass panels of my little seaview nest in the sky! Not an erotic looking bird I was, I assure you! Hope the stainless steel BBQ does not dance off the terrace and into the Pacific....or worse, on someone's car!

So, that's the reason why I am up so early and decided to use this rare moment of weather bewilderment to update my blog. You see, I have a confession to make. I am NOT Superwoman despite what many say...I have launched the first corporate blog at work and I am simply finding life too short to blog in two places simultaneously, keep up with emerging trends like Second Life, Twitter and Facebook and what not, and play mummy and femme fatale all at once!

Something had to give....blokes and blogs, in that order....seemed a fair trade-off!

Rainbows are made of...

2007-02-04T22:59:00.000+11:00

FRIENDS!

She was not supposed to die. Not before 100! A beautiful vibrant woman in full bloom....a rose just unfolding...33 years old and with the world at her feet ....the adventures of motherhood, stretchmarks, mid-life crises, career/motherhood guilt, raising hormonal teenagers and evolutionary thinking about the meaning of it all, still ahead of her.

But she was robbed. As were we...me, her wonderful husband, her loving family, her circle of adoring friends, her colleagues, her god-child (cub1)and the world. Its nearly 12,5 years since the rainbow broke, and I miss her more than ever as I struggle with life's ups and downs and need her wisdom and lack of judgement to hold up both a shoulder and a mirror. You don't form those kind of friendships easily at this stage of life, they are moulded in the crucible of life over time.

Her joie d'vivre and energy was boundless. She was fearless, hated injustice, laughed from her belly, was curious with an insatiable appetite for learning, passionate about excellence and one of very few people in the world that I absolutely trusted.

It happened in an instant....less than 10 seconds -like love at first sight except better! In a crowd of 53 new first years arriving at House Kruinsig at uni that night of 4 February 1981, we each recognised something in the other's style and attitude (quite rebellious and whacky in those days- not that much has changed!)that went "PING!"

That's something that I have experienced only a few times in my life...and those are the relationships (outside of your children who are born of your flesh) that give most meaning to one's existence. I read this book called "Love is not a game but it helps to know the odds!" and it talks about the mathematically calculated odds of finding friendships or lovers that are soulmates.

Its 1:2334!

Even though Mari lost her incredible fight against the horrid big C, I am so grateful to have had her for a while. And to have experienced this magical zone of soulmateship in 4 friendships over my life and once in the love of a man. These relationships are the colours of my rainbow.

Luckily, three of these friendships remain intact - though scattered and fragmented by geography and through career and family commitments. But they endure. And I close my eyes and give a telepathic hug to my rainbow makers.

No...its not a man!

2007-01-31T22:47:00.000+11:00

Friends...no....don't worry....it wasn't a man that stabbed my heart so...there was only ever one man who hurt me so badly but I am a fast learner and that will NEVER happen again...

I am ok..read the last line of the poem....the tears need to wash away the pain so when you lift your face up, it has cleared the vision to see the stars and sun again.
This blog is the chronicle of my thoughts and feelings. Mostly happy, excited, oozing joie d'vivre....but never one-dimensional, vacuous...its the chronicles of a feeling and passionate soul. A soul that feels pain as intensely as pleasure and joy.

Tears are a cleanser...healing...and us women are nature's ultimate survivors because crying allows us not to break. I once read..."drink" is a man's tears. (grammar sounds odd, but there's a lot of truth in that- how lucky are the ones who can shed tears and purge their grief through self-expression, communication or art!)

escape valve

2007-01-31T01:05:00.000+11:00

Just when you think life is in harmony...someone puts a dagger into your heart.

And you know its going to break. But it doesn't. It just gets more and more swollen with pain....throbbing, aching, straining....until it feels it will explode....but then , in rivers erupting from your eyes, the pain floods down the contours of your face...so your heart can go on.

Tears - Elizabeth Barret Browning

Thank God, bless God, all ye who suffer not
More grief than ye can weep for. That is well--
That is light grieving ! lighter, none befell
Since Adam forfeited the primal lot.
Tears ! what are tears ? The babe weeps in its cot,
The mother singing, at her marriage-bell
The bride weeps, and before the oracle
Of high-faned hills the poet has forgot
Such moisture on his cheeks. Thank God for grace,
Ye who weep only ! If, as some have done,
Ye grope tear-blinded in a desert place

And touch but tombs,--look up I those tears will run
Soon in long rivers down the lifted face,
And leave the vision clear for stars and sun

Summer in Sydney- cool cats, hot dates!

2007-01-26T22:44:00.000+11:00

Well, summer holidays on the Australian Riviera offer endless twists and surprises- and I'll be up all weekend blogging if I had to list them all, but as one friend said: "You should be on the payroll of Sydney Tourism"! This city offers so much....and we didn't even do a fiftieth of what is on offer!

It started with my 45th Birthday, the mystery roses, the weekend party in the country, the first swim in the Murrimbidgee, visits to the capital city, the Science Exploratorium and the Telstra Tower.

There was the wonderful Carols by Candlelight on Balmoral beach -a gentle stroll from home- a first for me and a breathtaking night it was too.

Other fantastic memories are cloudless night skies filled by a fabulous rising orange, then later big full silver moon dancing her moonbeams right off the bay and into my home and my heart! Closer to magic and amazement and wonder you cannot experience- its positively metaphysical.

There were passenger cruise ships - bedecked in fairy lights glistening like diamonds, simulating a brightly-lit floating wedding cake - slipping through the Heads at midnight as I sat quietly in the dark contemplating life and love, enjoying the night breeze.

Contrast this with the dramatic and glorious start of 78 spinnakers billowing at the start of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, shared with a group of friends on my terrace on Boxing Day while cooking on that infamous BBQ!

Then the launch party at the trendy OTT Slide Bar (official festival bar for Sydney Mardi Gras) in Darlinghurst of the first rock concerts webcast to hundreds of thousands in internet land. There was also the first Oscars night for NiceShorts- at the Paddington Chauvel, and winning a bottle of rare single malt Scotch whisky in the lucky ticket draw!

Maintaining the gaiety, the stage production of Australia's very own home-grown musical about the misadventures of a colourful gaggle of drag queens in the Outback - the hilarious and over-the-top Priscilla, Queen of the Desert! was a real treat and masterfully executed!

Of culinary note, there were the dinners with the charming Frenchmen at the Watermark guzzling down exquisite fresh saltwater barramundi with Louis Roederer, and the discovery of new culinary gems-Alchemy (French) and Il Perugino (Italian, in fact Umbrian to be precise)with other friends- all of them in the neighbourhood, creative and atmospheric. Reminiscent of fine European traditions more commonly found in Melbourne! ah....love, love, love it!

There was nippers, kayaking and windsurfing and skiffs at Middle Harbour and Balmoral Sailing Club....blisters, sore arms and a bit of sunburn too! There was a dusk-walk to Clifton Gardens and that picnic with quail's eggs and an "oyster and champagne tasting competition" wearing blindfolds!

And how can I not mention the cricket and that final day at the Sydney Cricket Ground? But the BEST thing about the cricket was England's Barmy Army- what a wonderful spirited and well-mannered crowd of supporters and ambassadors for their island home! They lit up the whole city- thank you guys!

We also did the beach marathon...7 beaches in 7 days from Palm Beach to Cronulla...kids voted Bondi best- think that lunch at Icebergs had a lot to do with it as well as the festive crowds from all over the world...we counted 15 languages just in the 30 m2 around where we sat! Pity the storms at sea stirred up the cold water because swimming in 16 degrees was a SIGNIFICANT challenge. But here's an urban myth that really made me laugh...common wisdom proclaimed that the cold water was the result of the ice-shelf in Antarctica breaking off!

One of the best things about summer is the Sydney Festival with its exotic, innovative and breathtaking artists and experiences....the Jazz in the Park, Symphony in the Domain, and open air theatre at Custom's House and Hyde Park. All the more impressive because of the amazing spirit of Sydney's festival crowds.

Another highlight was the workshop at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Paddy Bedford exhibition- an Aboriginal Artist who was a stockman and cattle musterer in the Kimberleys all his life and took up painting his life stories only at the age of 80!!! He is one of the artists commissioned by the new Musée du Quai Branly in Paris which profiles art from the New World. (Do click on the link provided through his name- its well worth the read!)

And the contrast of a rapid 54 degree Celsius temperature shift as we crossed from 39degree temperatures on the Opera House Forecourt to the -15 inside the Ice Bar (Minus5experience). Don't worry, only da mamee consumed the anti-freeze, the cubs stuck to mocktails which would explain why they nearly turned into popsicles! They had better practice for the skiing holiday in Aspen in March!

Oh gosh...and the Moonlight Cinema in the Botanical Gardens which I prefer to the one at North Sydney Oval, though the summer noodle markets there are a heap of fun!

Coming up towards the end of January, there was my 2nd Burns night supper, and the much-lauded "Toast to the laddies" by yours truly who can't do the accent, have never been to Scotland and can't stomach (scuse the pun!)the haggis, tatties and neeps, but the whisky-tasting and dashing Scotties in kilts showing off great legs provided a wonderful alternative feast. (Sexiest guys in the world- next to those smouldering Chilean tennis players!)

The school holidays sort of end officially with a very special Birthday Party- Australia Day! Its an all-day water-borne party with every man and his boat taking to the water dressed with flags, streamers, balloons, boxing kangaroos, and this year-a few "Priscillas", one of which won the best dressed vessel in the parade past the Jackson Landing Jazz on the water concert. After a long day in the sun, we decided we could forego another spectacular pyrotechnics and fireworks finale at Darling Harbour seeing we are hitting the road early tomorrow to return Cub1 to boarding school.

But not before we have a few more adventures! A farmstay in the Barrington Tops riding horses with a Captain Thunderbolt-type character- a storyteller like you have never come across in your life and in itself worth the drive! Then onwards to the final day of the 35th Tamworth Country and Western Music Festival-yeehaa cowboys!

Monday we check Cub1 back in for further educational enrichment (which means financial impoverishment for mum!) at her boarding school for Year 7 studies.

That will signal the end of a wonderful summer that was never very hot and most of the time unusually and pleasantly cool.

What made all of this so special? The kids did....they are at the age where they are becoming intellectually and emotionally aware....of course same goes for the physical changes to their bodies...and exposing them to a variety of new experiences on a constant basis is my innovation mantra! Laugh....I think it already shows in their school work, vocabularly, maturity and creativity.

Long live curiosity and the human fun button! Anytime you need fun, just dial me!

Leopardess.....by cub

2007-01-05T23:17:00.000+11:00

How can any bought gift for my birthday compare to this work of self-expression by cub1? I think she's simply wonderful! And what is more...the older she gets, the more I like her...you always love your kids but you don't always like them...its a good feeling when the two co-incide!

The summer of my content

2007-01-02T15:55:00.000+11:00

Sorry visiting Pommie cricket fans - to add insult to injury, the Ozzies are thrashing you even under English weather conditions! But thanks...misty, rainy, dreary days are what we call a MIRACLE in this dry brown land - a HUGE treat!

All the more so if you are on holidays and can actually stay indoors, watch the fat billowing fluffy purple clouds roll in over the ocean and then pelt the windows in a long-forgotten yet heavenly whooshing sound.

Even though its the 2nd January (and freshly-made New Year's Resolutions still ringing in ears!) it was evident when my 6am alarm beeped me from deep dreams that this was NOT a good day for trimming and training but a GREAT day for snuggling back under the covers followed by late brunch of Dutch pancakes and French toast - NOT the planned post-festive carbohydrate and bubbly purge!

This is also the summer where my bikini body went awol AGAIN! thanks to a penchant for French champagne and a delightful stream of suitors who seem to think the only way to woo a woman is through fine dining!

But its been a very important summer nonetheless! My daughters on the other hand have discovered bikinis, boobies and a much greater awareness of themselves and the world, and walking that journey of discovery with them is delivering two interesting friends to philosophise and laugh with. Hallelujah - finally the rewards of motherhood!

As their alternative rock blasts across the Balmoral slopes while I'm still scrambling the breakfast eggs, I wiggle my hips too and cart home canvasses and paint for the expression of self and new insights into the universe and try not to nag too much about the mess.

I have also realised that sending your daughter to a posh and expensive Anglican girls school at age 12 is educating her in ways much broader than you had ever imagined it would. Broadminded and liberal as I am about discussing sexual issues in an open and factual way with my girls, I was hardly expecting to be asked the why's and wherefores of losing my virginity! But there you go! How stimulating life is with little people as they morph into big people!

Yes, sex, drugs and rock'n roll is still as much part of teenage life as it ever was-although it feels like even more so thanks to ubiquitous technology and the omni-present media.

In my opinion, this calls more than ever before for open and truthful communication between kids and us as their solid pillars of trust, integrity and respect in a world where it must seem to them that "anything goes".

John Steinbeck wrote "The winter of our discontent" to focus on the moral and civil decay of the 60's. As did Shakespeare in 1653??? in Richard 111. One wonders if any of this is new? My intuition says its not-its just better publicised.

But it does worry me when children grow up with leaders who justify wars and other actions based on blatant lies, when good men (voters) do nothing about it as long as the economy keeps running hot, - so evil thrives!

And I realise that from this summer on, I would love to spend much more time talking with these little big people about the BIG issues while enjoying lots of little things and laughs too!

Hmm....contentment at home with kids...now that's a new era!

what matters most...

2006-12-25T20:33:00.000+11:00

Its the Christmas morning service at St Clements of Mosman. About $10 million of German luxury on wheels sit in the carpark outside as inside we pray for world peace and, alongside Bill Gates and Bono, an end to poverty. Then we chuck a $50 note in the collection plate seeing its Christmas and we won't be here again till next year this time.

My thoughts go to toddlers and grown-up kids in countless malls lining up to whisper a wish into a "make-believe" Santa's ear as the moment gets frozen digitally and e-mailed to relatives continents apart...

...and my thoughts drift to the words of the Janis Joplin song "Mercedes Benz" , and I wonder....what indeed could we possibly wish for? We have so much, such abundance, so much material wealth...what could possibly bring happiness beyond the Mercedes Benz, the Porsche?

But then God/the Cosmic Brain/ Mother Nature/Allah/Santa or whatever people want to believe in...delivers....

He/She delivers what matters most in this dry brown parched land.

Not diamonds or pearls, no Prada or Tiffany, not iconic electronic toys or luxury goods, not Italian or German automobiles...but that what matters most...

...that which is the quest of scientists, geologists and cosmologists alike...the very life source...thundering, loud, splashing, soaking, drenching, luxurious, miraculous little drops of water falling from the heavens like angels of salvation...the one thing we cannot manufacture in Stuttgart or Silicon Valley, Guanzou or Bangalore...rain, glorious, cooling, life-giving rain...

...and I give thanks. I dance with joy, and to my wishlist for next year, I add:

"Dear Lord, please make the State Government build more dams, but this time...IN the catchment areas, please?"

Too few cooks in the kitchen....

2006-12-04T20:44:00.000+11:00

Tonight, I cooked.

This statement would not have raised any eyebrows or been remotely a subject worth contemplating even 15 years ago. A woman, especially a mother, cooks!

Its just that I haven't cooked in some 6 weeks. Life is altered. A woman's existence redefined.

Time for browsing through markets, carefully smelling, probing, testing fresh produce to select the ripest, sweetest, firmest...a chit-chat with the butcher or fishmonger to select the best cut for dinner, and then home to lovingly prepare it with snips of fresh herbs, gentle simmer, slow roast etc...table set for dinner as the dessert bakes, family all arriving home from playing with neighbour's kids, husband and breadwinner arriving with the evening paper and stories of the latest deal signed, and cheeky children falling asleep from all the bike riding and tree climbing that they got up to after they finished their homework.

That's the world I was raised for.

The world I inherited lost the plot and instead, Mummy is breadwinner and cook, arrives late from board meeting at office to daycare to pick-up child from sanitised indoor "Occ healthed-and-safed,risk-averse" cage behind locked doors, kids not tired at all but hyped and hungry and wanting to eat NOW because the high-carb preservative-rich white bread with processed cheese spread or cheap margarine and strawberry jam served for afternoon tea did not dull the boredom of playstation or the same DVD for the 9th time.

So, forget going home, because last night, while you were finalising a whole year in advance's strategic plan for an 8am this morning deadline, you definitely weren't thinking about tonight's dinner preparation needs and consequently the piece of fish you bought to boost the omega 6 oils on the menu is still happily lying deepfrozen in the freezer and you know the asparagus have gone limp and the basil all slushy and slime green, and the vegetable store was just pulling down the shut grill.

Variations on the theme above, interspersed with weekends where you really just want to NOT have to do anything for anyone other than sign a credit card slip, is kind of how things went for 6 weeks leading up to and post a crazy busy overseas trip, with mercifully, someone else cooked and washed for your future genetic hope at boarding school.

So...meandering through the grocery store aisles today as if its some new discovery tunnel and actually deciding what to cook with all the yummy fresh things was actually like entertainment. I can recommend it!

Beaver tails (tales?????)

2006-11-27T01:07:00.000+11:00

Friends, can you help please? I am looking for a native or near-native from the Colorado Rockies...I want to explore family holiday options around Beaver Creek and Vail for Easter (5-10 April 07) next year. Have booked airfares for moi and kiddiewinx to go snow-ball fighting, but internet research is no good if you don't know the "lie of the land". I am initially attending a conference in Aspen (its part of me investing in my own loooooooooong-term future as a independent consultant/ speaker/ author) and then want to travel by car to Beaver Creek or Vail or Arapahoe Basin where the snowboarding facilities are better.

All advice gratefully and gracefully accepted!

Canada photo album:click on top page to open album

2006-11-25T16:34:00.000+11:00

Canada

Skippy goes Froggy

2006-11-24T00:37:00.000+11:00

Some piccies on tabblo...click heading or this link and cross fingers it works
http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/134465/

SURVIVOR a la Parisienne

2006-11-21T22:06:00.000+11:00

I have invented a new "game" ...its called SURVIVOR! the location? Paris!!!

So...the clue above would suggest that I am NOT in Hong Kong now as I should have been....instead, I am stranded penniless and identityless but at least not humourless in the world's most beautiful and expensive city...also home to the most sophisticated pickpockets! In this case, they work the Paris 5 star hotels...everything from the George V to the Meridien Etoile where I am at (much lower on the food chain at 195 Euros a night vs George V at 865 Euros a night!)

Yes, if I was in the little Jean Paul Gaultier boutique hotel that I wanted to book into for its superior charm and style instead of this characterless chain that the corporate travel agency insisted was company policy, I would not have been a target!

c'est la vie! Suffice to say....after I packed all my gear, left my luggage with concierge, bought a ticket for the airport transfer bus, I went to have breakfast. It happened between the concierge desk and the breakfast room- for which access is controlled by a maitre'd- or in the 15 mins while I was having breakfast. My wallet and passport wallet was lifted out of my handbag! I discovered it as I exited the breakfast room to retrieve my just-purchased ticket to head for Charles de Gaulle airport to fly to Hong Kong for my speaking engagement at the university!

Well....you know that sinking feeling..................?

I instinctively KNEW I had been robbed. Funny thing is...the same thing happened to me 25 years ago in the American Bar in Paris....luckily that time my passport was not taken and I was a poor backpacker so a string of credit cards was not a headache.

I wont bore you with the tedium of what ensued....but I still have a throbbing headache almost 24 hours later as a consequence of the stress!

Luckily my company has insured me but dealing with global organisations like Visa and AMEX aint as global or 24x7 as the advertisements say. There is NO EXPRESS in American Express!I would love to place their Marketing Manager in this position and strip him of all his contact numbers and see how he or she manages! It has been a diabolical experience, but Visa is way ahead of Amex in the efficiency stakes I am hoping that by tomorrow I can get emergency cash and a replacement credit card, and then I will be camped out at Australian Embassy who says they no longer provide temporary travel documents, I have to wait for a full passport replacement- 48-72 hours.

So...what is a hungry and penniless nameless vagrant to do today but enjoy the free fresh air and scenic beauty of the nearby Bois de Bologne Park and indulge in my favourite past-time....a picnic on the grass among the lillies and swans, dressed in a fur coat, feasting on the exquisite handcrafted Belgian chocolates I had purchased as gifts in Ghent and a bottle of vintage Bollinger that I bought as a gift for my host-to-be in Hong Kong! Ah...the torture!

Yes, some music would be nice...maybe I will hear some if I am open to it...maybe even enjoy a slow waltz?

Last night, wandering a bit aimlessly trying to find a taxi in the non-tourist part of the city after going to the Police Station which is MILES from my hotel, I stumbled upon a tiny pedestrian lane in a non-descript residential area of Paris teeming with locals shopping at delicatessens, Boucheries full of local delicacies like dressed and feathered pheasants, ducks, and other feathery flesh, rabbits (lapin) in various stages of "undress", and even wild boar hams still covered in the hairy black skin, and...to top it all, the release of the 2006 Beaujolais with wine tastings everywhere, a fromagerie or 6, several exquisite patisseries and boulangeries selling pastries and bread too picture perfect to eat....and a juggler and Little Sparrow-like waif playing the accordion and singing the melancholy Jacques Brel songs made so famous by Edith Piaf.

Yes, I fell into a picture, plonked myself down by a little table, splashed out 6 Euros on a glass of new season Beaujolais, a baguette, some fromage and foie gras (with some emergency cash the hotel manager advanced me to pay the taxi fare to go to the police station!)....and then walked the 4 kms back to the hotel instead!

La Belle Epoque-click on photo to go to online album

2006-11-14T00:47:00.000+11:00

Picture-purrrrrfect Brussels

I've fallen in love!

I have landed in a little spot of preserved old-style unglobalised pure Europe like a long-lost story!

My hotel is a candle-light and Christmas-junkie fairytale....romantic and cosy beyond my wildest expectations.

Roaring fires everywhere, fat white candles emitting a soft golden glow over rich plush upholstered furnishings, lit Christmas trees and tasteful decorations framing corners of the bar and fireplace. Tealights dancing around brilliant red pointsettias on the gleaming black grand piano.

Then out to dine on the famous Moules mit friten (mussels steamed in aromatic broth with hand-cut chips and lots of beer) at Chez Leon in the Grand Place-its picture-perfect row upon row of traditional cafes on cobbled streets.

One can only say thank God that Belgium is not the rockstar of Europe...it has escaped with its soul intact! I shall return to Brussels for sure-long may this city remain au naturale!

Boston: The brightest city?

2006-11-11T08:13:00.000+11:00

Click on the title and it should...hopefully...take you to my Boston pics....ghhhrrr.....getting annoyed with technology here...Google has changed its software and what was easy before to publish directly on the blog aint so no more!

http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/134014/

lost in a great big Christmas cake!

2006-11-09T14:09:00.000+11:00

That's just what northern Canada looks like-a giant Christmas cake, thick icing sugar dripping off cutesie log homes with little chimneys puffing real smoke, row upon row sugar- dusted pine trees, wild elk grazing on bits of green not yet frosted to a crisp and the frozen lakes a bit like the mirror on the cake-you expect to hear a Ho-ho-ho from a jolly old fat guy and the jingling of bells any minute!

As a kid, I loved the figurines on the Christmas cake even though it seems de rigeur for all kids to say-Yuk! I don't eat "brown cake full of dead flies" and only ever ate the thick white "snow" though insisted on having a Christmas cake every year and now I even bake and ice it myself in an exercise that brings me great joy! .
Yet, history repeats itself with my kids having the exact same relationship with both the decor and the guts of a Christmas cake! Cub2's first sighting of snow in France at age 6 was accompanied by a tasting test to see it was sweet like icing!

I digress-yes, I missed the turn-off to Lake Louise after finishing my business in Banff and ended up on an amazing little adventure that gave me a deeper appreciation of the vast Canadian wilderness than I had anticipated. Don't you just love life's little surprises?

Having driven along the main Trans Canada highway for miles without sighting any signposts, signs of human activity or the elusive Lake Louise (it was snowing so be gentle!), and finding myself agog at the size and magnificence of the mountains (baked Alaska's I'll call them!) I took a turn down a little dirt road to Lake Emerald. 6kms in, there it was. Quiet as the dawn of Earth, no humans or cars, just the soft swish of snowflakes falling and my totally inappropriate boots squish-squashing from being soaked in a puddle of icy water, I had my first face-to-face encounter with a real live wild beaver!

Unfortunately, the little devil refused to surface again by the time I squish-squashed back through the same icy puddle to retrieve the camera from the car, but I did get a photo of its log nest. (Perhaps there is a lost Beaver in Scotland which would account for the strange goings on at Loch Ness? Same deal, different accent?)

I did find Lake Louise in the end, had a glass of Moet Chandon and a wee lunch at the Chateau, but saw none of the brilliant blue for which its known due to cloud and snow. But a magical day nonetheless!

Creatures of Habit

2006-11-08T23:54:00.000+11:00

Quote spotted in advertisement carried by The Star-Telegram, a major Texas newspaper which I read as we took off from Dallas to Boston: "We are what we repeatedly do."-Socrates. (The newspaper was just AWFUL-not a shred of international news and coverage of US election results mostly in terms of Texas-the home of GeorgeW, so not a mention of voter backlash and Democrat gains!)

But let me not judge an entire nation on the lack of depth and perspective of one newspaper because we know the likes of The Washington Post, NY Times and Wall St Journal are not in the same category.

Back to how our actions, repeated many times, become habits, then become hard-wired in our muscle memory and even at cellular level through neural pictates (spelling????) in the cell structure.

I admit, as an analytical thinker, I was a bit dubious about all this cellular intelligence stuff, but at a non-rational level I chose to keep an open mind about it, especially in taking an Eastern philosophical approach to life.

But.....I have now had a powerful Eureka! moment and have become a true believer in the powerful way our habits are hard-wired into our bodies. It came through a simple and common pattern-breaker: having to drive on the"wrong" side of the road.

Absolutely everything is reversed, and there are so many actions in driving that are simply repetitive habit that dictate to your body and all of a sudden, your muscles are on auto-pilot and if your brain doesn't take control back and actively "think" and problem-solve, you are going to be indeep doodoo up the wrong side of Santa Monica Boulevard in peak traffic!

But sure, those are the big issues and your brain is on alert for them, so surprise surprise!-you hire a car and discover an entire city/region you have no prior knowledge of in the course of a day, without calling 911 or waking up in a hospital emergency room!

3 factorso are at play here:
1. Courage (otherwise known as chutzpah or stupidity, based on where your own comfort zone sits, and
2.Intuition-listening to the inner compass, and
3. Acute observationskills-taking in clues that you don't even know are clues until your intuition deliberately accesses them in your brain's random access memory in a moment of panic!

This is a long-winded self-congratulatory back-slapping story because I was astounded at how my "comfort zone" was threatened at the thought of walking out of the LA + Calgary Airports at 1 am in the morning, hopping into a car without any orientation of the city/province and only rudimentary tourist maps, no passenger to help navigate (maybe that was a good thing because Mars/Venus tells us that a man can't ask for directions) and armed with only a determination to see and do as much as I could in limited time and an attitude of allowing myself to fail, have an adventure and a giggle, smile brilliantly if I upset the locals and ....well, just doing it!

The more I succeeded, the more my confidence grew and the bolder I became.Driving sans map into the CBD of Calgary for a frantic one-hour shop yesterday at 5pm (and finding parking!) when all of Calgary was pouring onto its congested streets heading home, is a personal best. LA wasn't so bad because it was Saturday and Californians at the beach are meant to be a little laid back, and Rome to Venice by car 20 years ago doesn't count because my sister was navigating although central Rome through the Via Veneto is worth a black belt!

No, its not the big things that tripped my brain-its the little things. Where cerebral process is bypassed and hardwired into a habit, that sparked most of myEureka minute. How my body consistently walked to the wrong side of the car where the steering wheel was meant to be, and how even in walking on thestreets and in airport terminals crowded with purposeful walkers, my body automatically steered left, much to the consternation of the Americans who must have thought me a stubborn upstream salmon!
Vive la difference!
The purpose of this business trip is about deepening my knowledge base and expertise around Innovation in organisations- and my first profound insight comes from a bodily not a cerebral process. The lesson I take from this is that just like we navigate traffic with eyes wide shut when we are in familiar territory, we operate on auto-pilot at work when executing our routine day-to-day roles and our powers of observation and thinking devolve to a muscular and cellular level where we are unable to "see" what is clear as daylight to a fresh pair of eyes.

In order to get a "fresh" pair of eyes, we have to pattern-interrupt: Swop tasks, swop roles, or if too hard, invent a different way at least once a week of performing a routine task because we will bypass the brain AND the senses if we don't- and there's no way we will get fresh ideas for innovation that way!

The Smell of Canada

2006-11-07T00:16:00.000+11:00

Well, Ms Mav's mojo has bounced back and the bastard who smashed it is no longer a factor.

Now, where were we? Oh, let's just start with now and forget about chronological correctness. We are in Canada. The Oak Room of the Palliser Fairmont Hotel in Calgary to be precise and yes, unlike in the US, this Blackberry technology is working so I can update this blog in real time! Seeing the Blackberry is a Canadian innovation, its the very least one expects!

After a stupendous 44 hour day of travelling and exquisite experiences on a 14hour transit in LA yesterday (more about that in another Blog), I was finally able to lie horisontally in a bed ( a heavenly one too!) at about 2am Calgary time.

I woke 8 hours later, quite capable of sleeping another 8, but there are things to be achieved, experiences to be had and life to be lived. As I stumbled into the lift, it pierced my conscious awareness, my Epicurean being, into instant recognition: the smell of Canada!

Yes, right up to the 11th floor wafted the smell of freshly cooked waffles and maple syrup. Unmistakably! My descent was rewarded with confirmation. In the magnificent palatial reception rooms I found a stupendous set-up...a breakfast/brunch voted as best in Canada 5 years in a row.

Well folks, they sure know how to do brunch in GRANDE style....I have never seen anything like it! Everything from fresh fruit and yoghurt, anything you could imagine under the theme of an English breakfast, to pancakes, waffles, a complete Sunday roast lunch, an an entire three tables devoted to desserts!

Much as those waffles winked at me and nudged....I decided I couldnt possibly do that and the beef...but it looked soooooooooo good and was assured by the waiter that "if you've never tasted Alberta Beef, you ain't tasted beef"...so he promptly cut off this 1 inch slab and buried my plate under it.

That was it...I am now an advocate for Alberta Beef....never tasted ANYTHING like that....sorry South africa, sorry Australia, sorry Texas...in my book, Alberta is king...for now...until I go to Argentina and give their beef a whirl.

I couldn't eat that huge slab of meat, but what I ate left no room for anything else....and I wasn't about to tackle the long road to Banff feeling droopy and sleepy from an enormous meal!

Whilst driving to Banff, I stopped by the roadside for a leg stretch...and was joined by a Rocky Mountain cowboy who was very proud to hear of the impression his native land's beef had made, so he told me where to go in Banff for a good steak...the Salt Lick.

So, I ate like a bird next day whilst visiting at the Banff Centre for Leadership and Monday night I went to The Salt Lick...expecting a steakhouse but instead finding a fantastically sophisticated, very trendy restaurant and yip...the best darn steak EVER!

It was so nice to look at different menus and innovative items....I must admit its been a looong time since any Sydney menu wowed me with anything new....(I hope you are reading this Luke Mangan and Bill Granger)

Taste and smell, as well as visual appeal are such important senses....and particularly smell goes directly to the right brain...its highly associative and connected to memory....its so important when designing menus, restaurants and other experiences where we want positive mental connections, to involve the senses!

Thanks Canada...the smell of a freshly grilled piece of Alberta beef has been filed alongside the maple syrup and waffles....and will live in my memory till I die.

One day in L.A

2006-11-04T01:30:00.000+11:00

One day in LA

Click on the cover photo to open the album

Gathering of the goddesses

2006-09-24T18:33:00.000+10:00

See my Tabblo>

Three places I'm not...

2006-09-13T23:41:00.000+10:00

We ain't where we wanna be
We ain't where we're gonna be
But thank you, Jesus,
We ain't where we used t'be.(apocryphal African-American spiritual)

Thomas Edison failed 9998 times before the Eureka moment. He said it wasn't failure...it was all new information and 9998 ways of how NOT to invent electrical light.

What few people understand is that the prevailing paradignm of light in his era came from thinking only in the metaphor of fire....candles, paraffin etc...he had to completely break that pattern of thinking to create a new method of making light...it wasnt a tweak of existing beliefs!

So it is sometimes with our own lives too...our thinking is what can keep us trapped where we are, and old or out-of-step thinking and wishes preclude us from totally different possibilities...possibilities that can illuminate our lives and fill it with infinite light if only we were prepared to let go of attachment to our beliefs.

I am a bit vague and abstract here...its deliberately so...these words are merely for reflection...not a story. I know what some of my dearly-attached beliefs are...do you? As they say in the 12-step doctrines...awareness is step1 of letting go!

I use the lyrics of one of my favourite songs by Josh Groban, used by Cirque du Soleil for their show Quiddam, as a beacon to remind and inspire me when I feel fear. Its called "Let me fall" The person I will grow into once I let go of what I'm holding onto, or once I take that leap to cross my fear, will catch me...but...I HAVE to let go and take the leap!

Let me fall
Let me climb
There's a moment when fear
And dreams must collide

Someone I am
Is waiting for courage
The one I want
The one I will become
Will catch me

So let me fall
If I must fall
I won't heed your warnings
I won't hear them

Let me fall
If I fall
Though the phoenix may
Or may not rise

I will dance so freely
Holding on to no one
You can hold me only
If you too will fall
Away from all these
Useless fears and chains

Someone I am
Is waiting for my courage
The one I want
The one I will become
Will catch me

So let me fall
If I must fall
I won't heed your warnings
I won't hear

Let me fall
If I fall
There's no reason
To miss this one chance
This perfect moment
Just let me fall

breakthrough technology!

2006-09-10T22:29:00.000+10:00

Its been a while...I know...but sorry, its raining cats and dogs! Its raining ideas and opportunities! And its raining men! Hallelujah! (Actually...its a nightmare juggling so many balls!)

Today's headline is about something I am REALLY excited about because I love learning so much, and when I learn something, I have a compelling (if sometimes mis-guided) desire to immediately pass it on!

You know how serendipity works...and that other wonderful New Age word: SYNCHRONYCITY? well...its corporate speak for the nature in which stuff just unexpectedly comes together and tap you on the shoulder to see what you couldn't see before!

It seems to me there is a new "global warming" of sorts in education...a return to basics to teach...connect....transfer knowledge...its called "making the invisible visible"...its cutting edge technology in the corporate and educational world....picked up by Harvard's Faculty of Education from studies in Italy among children.

The technology? Drawing, talking through pictures and a revisiting of the visual arts....remarkably like our earliest forebears did on cave walls!!!! (Last year it was story-telling...yes, I kid you not!)

These things are BFOs...BLINDING FLASHES OF THE OBVIOUS...but, in our complex and large hi-tech, high-rise towers of knowledge, we seem to have perfected the art of alienation from truth and meaning...our employees working with only small pieces of vast global puzzles and our leaders lightyears removed from customers, yet steering the ship with only one source of information: numbers!

Hooray for a return to rock-painting...after all, they have endured for eons....wonder if this blog format and code that created it will last beyond 2010 before its unreadable?

My father who is in heaven...

2006-09-03T01:31:00.000+10:00

Isn't it funny how, when someone you love, dies, even the most agnostic choose to believe they are in heaven and not in nothingness? Why is this so? I shall have to ponder this more deeply...but not at 1:38 am.

I wanted to simply remember my father on Father's Day...and say sorry for all the socks he got on days such as these. Socks are the ultimate cop-out, along with hankies and jocks.
Its unlikely that I will make anyone a father again, but hypothetically speaking, should it happen, I solemnly swear that I will not give him hankies, socks or jocks ever for a celebratory event (unless they are seriously funny and NOT the main course!)

What would I give you Dad...if you were here? I'd give you time. I'd simply sit with you in your quiet way, and hold your hand. Wish away the things that got in the way.

I'd retell to my children the stories you made up for us, our favourite being "Piet Pompies + Hanswors" - two simpletons from the circus who stowed away on a train from Johannesburg to Cape Town to go and see the sea for the first time- and all their misdaventures from being discovered and thrown off in the middle of the night in the Karoo...jackals wailing in the distance...crickets chirping, farm dogs barking and the icy winter wind biting into their shivering, quivering bums as they argued about whereto next...

That story wasn't written down ever- it was all in your head. You varied it, added new twists and adventures to keep us intrigued and laughing, but 40 odd years on, I still remember it in minute detail...perhaps it was you who awoke my wanderlust with all those adventures and misadventures?

Of all the things I remember about you, some stand out more as I get older, live longer, grow wiser (hopefully!). They are
Tolerance: I can't think of a time when you would criticise or judge others. You may have thought these things, but, you kept them to yourself. I haven't met many people who can truly claim tolerance as a value. Nor forgivenness- and you had that in abundance too.
Generosity: No matter what, through tough times and good times, you always shared, gave, found something for those who didn't have.
Confidence: A secret shared with you was as good as written on a piece of paper and burnt to ashes in a fire. You took many to your grave. Sometimes I wish you didnt. Too much weight can weigh you down.

The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering galleries, they are clearly heard at the end, and by posterity.

And finally, another acknowledgement of the importance of fathers, for raising little people into balanced adults by renowned American feminist Gloria Steinem

"Most (American) children suffer too much mother and too little father"
And, the fathers suffer too...its so good to see this changing especially among GEN Y. Ninety three cheers for Dads who reject overdemanding careers so they can enjoy parenting their kids too, and may there be lots more of it.

Revisiting blogpost of 1 July- a forgotten art

2006-09-02T23:04:00.000+10:00

I bumped into this today on "listening" - good follow-up to something I wrote about on 1 July. Its from the blog of Stephen Shapiro, an ex partner in Accenture and given that background, oddly the author of a book called "Goal-free Living."

Stuff about Spring

2006-09-01T23:48:00.000+10:00

This is my 44th Spring, not that I can remember much about the preceeding 43, except one year when I went on holidays to Cape Town and surrounds to be totally charmed by the carpets of native wildflowers. God's tapestries!

Though my head and my heart is full of things I want to write about(because its been a reflective week), I am not quite ready to spit it out on screen! (Yukky...that analogy doesnt quite work with modern technology, does it?)

But, I thought this glorious 1st day of Spring deserves to be acknowledged...not only for the warmth and beauty of the day itself, but the promise that it represents. The promise of regeneration, freshness, youth, hope.

I wonder if this Spring will be memorable? Memorable in a happy sense, not memorable like in planes flying into buildings.

I also want to thank people who read this blog, who barely know me except through these writings, and thus have come to know me well, and gives back to me in countless ways that they may not even understand. Its very special.

Some marvel that my writing is so straight from the heart...others find some discomfort with aspects of it and say so, and some ask me why I write?

I honestly haven't given much rational consideration to that. I write because I can. Because it orders my thoughts. Because I love it. Because the voices in my head wont stop until I do. Because I need to talk to someone after the homework has been checked, the lunch boxes packed, the bedtime stories read and the cubs are tucked snugly in the cot. Because I have a need to share.

Neither man nor woman was created to be alone. You know? Spring stuff? Birds and bees and pollen and stuff...?

Cerebral combustion

2006-08-29T21:16:00.000+10:00

This is a photo of the car-free medieval city of Ghent in the fatherland of my favourite modern composer, Jacques Brel, and where I hope to be strolling along the canals in late autumn (November)for the Creativity World Forum.

To predict that I might explode from creative combustion is an understatement, because Ghent will be preceeded by a week of visiting technology geniusses in Silicon Valley, then on to the Ivy League Business Schools of Boston for a Post-Grad programme for Innovation Leaders from corporations all around the world. I am pinching myself as I am writing this because to visit Boston and its history of New World academic success has been an impossible dream - especially in those Zululand years that seem a millenium ago, though those were some of the toughest challenges an executive could ever face and we practised Innovation on the trot!

But as the saying goes: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice man, practice! So it is with all dreams...keep at them! NEVER GIVE UP!

I will have a free weekend to take a drive down the America's Cup East Coast, Martha's Vineyard, perhaps enjoy a famous Cape Cod Clambake, then pop in to New York before flying to London where I will hook up with a friend from Sydney now working in Innovation there, then cross the channel to Ghent.

I'll be flying home via Hong Kong to deliver a presentation to the Masters students at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. I think I will have enough cribnotes from the gurus by then to appear half-knowledgeable! For if there is one thing I know, the more you learn, the more you realise how much there is to know, and teaching others is a true test of mastery of any subject matter!

Any volunteers to babysit Cub2 for me while I'm away?

Mermaid Tales...with evidence!

2006-08-27T23:33:00.000+10:00

This is a story about a mermaid....several in fact. One still a guppy, one a puppy turned 12, and one a mummy....so old, that her mermaid tail had, unbeknown to her, become little more than a show tail, and when she needed to use it one fine day in the big blue Pacific Ocean, it was useless!
She flapped and spluttered, wriggled and wiggled, and all to no avail...her tail refused to support her, dressed in full mermaid regalia, modern mermaid artefacts like Blackberry and Digital camera in her breast pockets. (seeing it was a family-celebration, she had to cover her mermaid breasts!)
But, ever the classy mermaid that she is, she went DOWNUNDER, without getting her hair out of place or smudging her immaculate make-up, and splashing about just enough to float her torso above water to rescue her technology tools, her social life and her terra firma job as one Blackberry has already bitten the dust in less adventurous circumstances!
Ah....even though King Neptune didn't send a school of seahorses to save the old mermaid, she knows that the little mermaids would miss her if her tail fell off and she sank to the bottom of the big blue. They wept....and then took photos!

... See my Tabblo>

A happy story out of Rwanda

2006-08-23T21:31:00.000+10:00

To think these beautiful peaceful mountains played witness to the most atrocious killings as the Hutu tribe slaughtered 800 000 Tsutsi people over 100 days in 1994- just like the rest of the world stood by and watched.

But...such is the spirit of Africa's people...they cling to hope, and hope is what makes us conquer the unimagineable.

Nothing was a more touching example of such hope than the story on the front page of today's Sydney Morning Herald. I can't repeat it all here, but someone could not dream this up...an example of how the truth can be so much more fantastic than our wildest hopes and dreams...

...that a man, beaten to a pulp and left for dead along with his 11 brothers and sisters and another 140 murdered family members, as his pregnant wife scrambled with a 3 year old toddler to escape the clutches of panga-wielding genocidal villains, could find one another 12 years later...2 continents and 2 hemispheres apart...and everything that they have endured inbetween including his incarceration in illegal immigrant centres for more than 10 years...that is a story that I will revisit everytime that I am even beginning to dwell on my own dramas.

It was a moment that demanded action. My action. I went from the coffeeshop where I read the paper to the computer, googled the Red Cross who assisted Damascene and his wife Jeanne to find one another through registries and the tireless work of wonderful compassionate people, and made a donation so they can help unite more in this situation. The earthquake victims in Pakistan. The Tsunami. The Middle East. The floods in Asia. The war in Sudan and Ethiopia. The ever-present food crisis in East Africa. The refugees that will still come. As our planet scorches.

My contribution felt hopelessly insignificant. But, thats not the way to think.

Its contributions like these that have made ALL THE DIFFERENCE to one family...and their story has brought a lot of happiness to my day!

God bless them that there will be nothing but happiness ahead.

Trading places: home exchange holiday?

2006-08-20T19:18:00.000+10:00

This photo was taken from my terrace at about 3 pm today and shows only a third of the 270 degree views across Sydney Harbour and the heads- entrance to the harbour. Temperature was about 25 degrees, and its officially still winter in Sydney!

Had my usual fantastic coffee with a friend at Bather's Pavillion on the esplanade, hugging a safe and sheltered beach- a 2 minute stroll from casa mia. Followed by a lazy read of weekend papers in the sun, and then hiked up the hill for a gentle workout, crossed the road to pick up a few things from the shopping centre offering everything from world-class delis to fantastic fresh produce, major supermarket, boutique wine store, plus trendy boulevards of designer shops, a great library and 3-level gym and aquatic centre. Strolled back home,then popped some champagne to watch the sun go down with some friends who dropped in on their way home from the beach!

Perhaps tonight Cub 2 and I will walk to one of 2 cinema complexes for a movie, or shall we rather get a dvd from one of the 3 local hire shops and pick up authentic Italian pizza or a Goan curry from Taste of India to dine in? Or, hop on the bus or harbour ferry and in 18 minutes, dine in the city or catch Turandot currently being performed at the Sydney Opera House?

The point of this real account of a day in the life of us is that I am looking to exchange this paradise for 2-4 weeks in Aspen, Colorado in March 07, or Tuscany, Dubrovnik, Prague or Provence in July 2007...or offer me an alternative? Bariloche in Argentina? Banff or Lake Louise is perfectly good too!

I will list on the international home exchange websites too, but hey...with a wide network of international friends and blog-mates, perhaps you know someone who knows someone who wants to do the same in reverse!

Contact me via "comments button"...it goes straight to my e-mail address, and I will be in touch.

La famiglia: Nella neve a Mont Hotham

2006-08-19T19:12:00.000+10:00

Snow....that white magical crystal fluffy flakes of frozen water ...it simply brings out the child in us....as does flying above the mountains like an eagle.
No matter how expensive...its a great family holiday!

See my Tabblo>

12 years later...

2006-08-17T21:36:00.000+10:00

Around 3 o'clock tomorrow morning, it will be 12 years since my first cub was born...and changed my life forever.

As I page through my "paper blog" of that time, a fat & worn black journal, reading poems I wrote for my unborn baby since her 6-week fetal heart practically leapt off an ultrasound screen , through to cards from friends and flowers sent to the hospital...112 in all, to the sleep-deprived ramblings before mum and bub found a rhythm...the memories flood back like yesterday.

How I had planned it all...in exquisite detail...the birth, the breastfeeding, the little dresses, the fairy tales, the doll collection preserved for 35 years, the life I envisaged raising a little girl. How none of it went according to plan.

How we learn to adapt...quickly too...and how I love this child for who she is, not what was in my head. I marvel at discovering how she thinks and how her mind gets shaped. How I struggle some days to balance spirit with guidelines and boundaries.

We are so generously gifted with survival instinct and protection of the species skills (and thank God for GOOGLE some days too!)...and even 12 years on, those traits are as strong as ever...allowing nothing to threaten the wellbeing of our children. Moving countries if necessary, sacrificing personal love and happiness if there is a perceived conflict, going without so they can have.

She is far away today...at a school where I hope the emotional price of separation will pay handsome dividends some day...but I know tonight, probably this minute, she lies in her bed longing for her mummy's heartbeat...as I long to hold her in my arms, and sing "Hush lil baby, dontcha cry...mumma's gonna bake ya a chocolate cake".

Though she doesn't know it, her cake will be delivered tomorrow...in the form of a snow-capped mountain conquered by the snow-boarding queen! And next week, when she returns, a cruiser to take her and her mates fishing anywhere they want to go on Sydney Harbour.

So...more photos and memories and a print-out of this blog entry will go into the big fat black journal...to do the talking when I am no longer there...and remind her how special she was to her Mum.

A cosy little nest

2006-08-15T22:08:00.000+10:00

Balmoral Castle is beginning to look more and more homely...the lounge suite finally arrived today after a 3 month wait but not without a moment of drama!

I am beginning to form a little prejudice here based on NUMEROUS experiences with delivery folks these past few months of to-ong and fro-ing and deliveries...and the prejudice is NOT against migrant labour. Those people have a great work ethic and are all too happy to help, to be in this beautiful country and earn an honest and decent living. No, I am afraid there is a different class of white trash...but let the facts speak for themselves.

I ordered the furniture from a somewhat upmarket boutique on the EXPRESS terms that I want an end-to-end service. NOT ANOTHER BUNNINGS BARBECUE STORY IN OTHER WORDS!

That means the product, which is modular in design for urban lifestyles (read: you must be able to carry it around steep and narrow staircases and doors), has to be delivered, assembled and all packaging removed as part of the deal...otherwise NO DEAL.

So, said white trash arrive with delivery today, and tell me..."Nah! Ugh-ugh...Nope! We don;t assemble...that's extra. The shop will charge you $100 for that, but if you pay us cash, we'll do it for $60."

Smelling a rat, I nodded calmly, and as they cart in 7 boxes, I ring the store to politely enquire how come my contract says assembly included but Boofhead here wants to charge me extra? Store confirms...assembly is paid and Boofhead is meant to assemble-without collecting an additional $60 in cash!

Well...testosterone explosion! Chief Boofhead starts cursing, tossing papers about and talking about being here till 3 am, phones the boss, complains, jiggles his toys and performs a melodrama for all of Mosman to hear-lasting roughly 10 minutes.

All of which came to naught. The store phoned the boss, the boss phoned him, and in less time than his Oscar-winning performance lasted, the entire thing was assembled.

I love putting corrupt jerks like that in their place. Consumer=1. Boofhead=0.

Jungle laws

2006-08-14T22:35:00.000+10:00

I always forget to say thanks for the e-mails, the compliments...and now and then the delightful debate as someone decides to take on the big pussycat! I love it.

I also receive many questions about "the Chocolate Guy"...laugh!...who would have thought he would stir so much imagination?

Sufferance

2006-08-13T22:55:00.000+10:00

Funniest quote of the day: Overheard at the Mudgee Food & Wine Fair: "The liver is EVIL, and MUST be punished!"

The Appetite of Wonder

2006-08-12T22:25:00.000+10:00

It starts in the womb...when our senses first perceive...and it ends as we exhale that last breath,even if we are a hundred...that sense of wonder, that yearning for learning.
For me, there is nothing as sweet as a new discovery...it doesnt have to be a world-first or unique, but when the clouds of confusion lifts for you as an individual, its no less grand than Columbus discovering the New World!

So it must be for history's scientific and mathematical geniuses...yet, to the masses, their work remains largely inaccessible and ignored because no-one can take the complex and decode it into simple everyday terms!

I am one of those masses, but ever so often, my universe inexplicably collides with another, and invariably, it opens a delicious new frontier and indescribable pleasure.

In keeping with an earlier analogy of seismology, I had a tectonic shift in my appreciation of the magic of maths this week. Its the most amazing discovery when one finally sees the pattern in things...to be exact, the maths. Its everywhere!

It all started with a picture that fascinated me...the picture was used as a logo for Seed Magazine (a favourite of mine), and designed by Jonathan Harris as an expression of the crossover between science and culture. That is the image posted here, with science represented by the ordered and precise image on the left, and culture by the image on the right that appears random, and the phylotaxis the central image.

Being the curious pussycat that I am, I simply had to find out more. So, phylotaxis led me to the Fibonacci Sequence, the Golden section, Newton's Laws of Determinism, and chaos theory.

But, what are the odds, that in two consecutive days, I would in completely random fashion (or is there in fact a chaotic pattern in the universe leading us to one another for some mysterious and unknown purpose?) meet firstly a Romanian Maths boffin ex CSIRO who is a fractals freak and so passionate about this subject that he would whizz around the beach pointing out the manifestation of this wondrous concept right there under our noses in the shape of shells and the branches of trees through to the replication of individual leaves...re-surfacing long-buried maths lessons from high school to dance like some wild gypsey music, lifting a veil into a new paradigm of understanding- as arousing and exciting as Armstrong's first step on the moon!

...and secondly, whilst attending a Masterclass of Regional Wine appreciation at the Mudgee Wine and Food Fair today, find myself sharing a table with two Americans on holidays Downunder, the one a Professor of Maths at UCLA and co-developer of a an alternative curriculum for high school Maths to teach children Maths by doing...by observing fractals through studying the fern that grows on the school wall or the broccoli they dont want to eat on their plate, or the algorithms used by Google to search the internet, or the deciphering of the human gnome sequence, or plotting the way the world feels today through systematically analysing 35 million blog postings on the internet every few minutes at wefeelfine.org.

...and so, a whole new world is discovered...I feel such a thrill! A lifetime of joy and new insights...like when I first read Richard Dawkins and "The Selfish Gene"...and the start of my interest in evolutionary biology, and what has become a bit of a passion ever since!

Dawkins, another good thing to come out of Africa (born Nairobi, Kenya 1941) is my equivalent of the male fantasy of some sex siren like Schiffer or Shakira.
(Laugh...yes, I have a bit of a thing for an enormous....errr ....pair of frontal lobes!It lasts a lot longer than a few minutes!)

Yes, this sexy man is inter alia, the Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, where he has studied and taught for more than a quarter century.
Dawkins has been liberated from routine academic duties to fight full time for science, enlightenment, and plain common sense in a world where the forces of superstition and deliberate obscurantism prevail. Plainly, his job is to make science accessible to ordinary men and women, boys and girls, and I say there should be MUCH MORE OF IT!

The point is not to understand it all...but to be curious. Science runs the gamut from the tantalisingly surprising to the deeply strange, and ideas don't come any stranger than Quantum Mechanics. More than one physicist has said something like: "If you think you understand quantum theory, you don't understand quantum theory."

Needless to say, wine-tasting and quantum mechanics at the beach turned into a random lunch, and lunch turned into a looooo oooooooong afternoon with all ending up here at my chaotic castle for coffee and spirited discussions of self-replicating mathematical patterns in the greatest pieces of art our world has ever known...with the geniuses that produced them, Mozart, Bach, Da Vinci, Stradivarius and even Shakespeare...all applying these mathematical principles intuitively!"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ... I get most joy in life out of music."-Albert Einstein

I know I am a sick puppy...but notwithstanding my Epicurean passions, there simply is nothing as exquisite as multiple mental orgasms!

Give thanks for blessings

2006-08-12T01:23:00.000+10:00

1. Thanks for Cub1...she lives up to her name!
2. Thanks for Cub2- she is so much like me, we don't fight...much!
3. Thanks that I am not flying to America today!
4. Thanks that I live in a castle in heaven.
5. Thanks for work...it keeps me out of the shops!
6. Thanks for friends...they say if you have five, you are a rich person. I think I am rich.
7. Thanks for brains...if I have to choose between beauty, a great body and a magnificent brain, I just say thanks ...could have been zero out of three!
8. Thanks for family...come to think of it, I have more friends than family on this earth! And those i have are very far away.
9. Thanks for health...when I look at the stiff botox faces around me, I love my laughlines more and more and I know my self-esteem is intact too!
10. Thanks for freebies...good water, pure air, sunshine, peace.
11. Thanks for the beautiful man who makes my coffee every morning. He reminds me of the joys of being a woman
12. Thanks for my Crackberry. Its the extrovert's ultimate toy!
13. Thanks for my cat. He makes no demands and loves me flaws and all!
14. Thanks for everything I forgot and that I'm obviously taking for granted.

Seismology

2006-08-10T21:02:00.000+10:00

(Refer previous post). Bloggie, your thoughts came back...one suggested "VERTIGO", inter alia, as a title...I thought that was interesting...but not an accurate descriptor of the emotions. Just proves how a picture communicates different things to different people?

No, the more appropriate caption would be: NOT SOLID AS A ROCK!

The world observes a MsMaverick...as a rock...a symbol of stability, calm, capable, alone, unwavering, strong. And so she is...ostensibly... mostly.

But, Mother Earth, when she overheats due to factors internal and external (yes, such as human activity),the built-up pressure has to go somewhere...radiating from that inner core outwards in seismic waves to escape where there is one tiny little crack...or forcing one open where none can be found..and so, rips apart mountains (see photo) so that once solid rocks crumble ...fall, gravitate to sea...sink! And then comes the tsunami.

Daily, Mother Earth experiences multiple small earthquakes that do not even cause a ripple, but there can be a multiplier effect...with each mini-quake triggering another and sometimes resulting in mega-quakes years later- with devastating effect.

Thank God humans aren't rocks. They are much stronger...they are NOT solid...they are soft...made of flesh...can absorb...bruise...tear...bleed...break... heal. They can flex...laugh...cry...get angry...punch back...go for a run...have a period...

But even so, every little quake, takes its toll. Creates tsunamis.

Every wound, big or small, even if healed, leaves a scar. An ts never as it was before.

Hang in there!

2006-08-09T20:48:00.000+10:00

Dear Bloggie ...when you feel the mountains are caving in on you, what do you suggest? (Other than HRT?)
Do let me know your thoughts?

Me

wah-wah, blah-blah.....but what a way to tell some stories!

2006-08-07T21:42:00.000+10:00

Behold the only monarch I have ever met...King Goodwill Zwelethini of Zululand, (in the traditional symbol of Zulu royalty, leopard, pictured next to King Mswati II of Swaziland)Believe me, the pomp and ceremony and shananigans are no less -in fact probably at least equal albeit in a totally different style-to those accorde British Royalty!

So what brought this post on? Nostalgia I guess. Have just returned from Swaziland in the 60's, by way of fine cinematography and acting in Wah-Wah, Richard E Grant's powerful portrayal of his own childhood in the final moments of British rule in Swaziland. We have a philandering bitch of a mother, desperate alcoholic father, confused boy, the "club" as the centre of society in all British outposts, the ever-pleasing servants, a flurry caused by a royal visit in aid of the transition to Swazi Independence (aside from the royal visit, a non-event for the expat community!) and a lot of French spoken in the poshest of English accents which doesn't make it sound like swearing at all- more like jolly good adjectives, my dear fellow!

I visited Swaziland on many occassions since the 60's,and its beautiful rolling hills, friendly people, social decadence and bubble-like economy jumped straight to the fore of my memory. In my twenties, Iconducted an audit of a large mill in the capital Mbabane, and stayed two weeks at the Royal Swazi Spa which by this time had lost its lustre as "Top Naughty" after new casinos in the erstwhile Black Homelands, like Sun City, in South Africa lured its decadent clientele and prostitutes away. It had returned to being a sleepy hollow, and everyone I met had the name Dlamini (descendant of the King). Hardly surprising since King Mswati annually holds a virgin parade to pick a new bride, and currently sports 21, which is still 59 shy of his father, King Sobuzo,the longest reigning monarch, who had 81 wives at the time of his death.

So, obviously when in Rome, do as the Romans do, and what a jolly fine time was had by all those expat Britons in them good old days!

Now, in stark contrast, Ten Canoes, (see link as per yesterday's blog), paints a very very very different picture. A tale about family, community, honour, harmony and living by what was unwritten but widely understood laws for civil harmony. Though shalt not covet they neighbour's wife! What a fantastic piece of work and a wonderful opportunity for us to get a glimpse into an ancient culture, its values and tradition of upholding them to this day, through story-telling. There should be more of it...LOTS MORE!

I would be a terrible film critic, and I am not trying to be that...but for what its worth, I loved both these movies that dealt with the history and cultures of both my former home in Southern Africa, as well as my new home Australia.

I think I will definitely be in the dreamtime tonight...Go see it.

DREAMS ARE GOOD FRIENDS...so sings Vicky Leandros

2006-08-06T22:43:00.000+10:00

Its a well-worn cliche that there are only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week...but when out of the blue, you get a little "pasella" (African language for a much-prized bonus/ freebie!)in the form of a Bank Holiday when you don't even work in a bank...well, you can have a little meltdown just thinking about all the things you could do with it!

I have been contemplating it for days...and finally it came together! I shall declare this little "pasella" a "Family Festival". Seeing I don't let the girls throw sickies (since they started school, between the two they have not missed even 4 days of school), I am going to claim a day back for "brownie points" and spend it as a "Mummy at leisure"!

For one, no alarm clocks...we shall sleep until we wake up! When we wake, we will go and jump puddles and chase sea gulls, then hike to the heated indoor pool for a few laps, have hot toast and superb coffee with my dark-eyed Venezuelan barista, Don Adan, with the chocolate velvet voice. (If you can't wake up next to him, at least you can make eyes at him over your morning coffee and newspaper! Wink-wink!)

Then...catch a water taxi to the Sydney Boat Show at Darling Harbour to teach little kids why dreams always come a few sizes too big..so you can grow into them!

To start them off on the dreamtime, I will be chartering a cabin cruiser as a surprise for Cub1's birthday party, and have lined up her Sydney classmates as crew! (Have told the boys to bring fishing rods too, though she assures me she knows more about fishing than all of them put together! EEEK, as long as I don't have to guide wriggley worms and smelly prawns onto hooks!) Its going to be interesting playing Capt Killian, chief cook and nanny without falling asleep from the seasick medication- but as usual, we will manage!

I am also planning to speak to a few international charter agencies about resuming what I did in my innocent youth...chartering skippered sailing yachts in the Med or Caribbean and making up a group for holidays. Think I'll focus on women customers only this time...imagine, a flotilla of babes in the Med...and from a distance, no-one will be able to see the wrinkles or cellulite and we can drive those hot-blooded blokes crazy!

To conclude with, perhaps a glass or two of champagne in the lazy winter sun and then off to the Dendy Cinema for more dreamtime up in Arnhem land on Ten Canoes or a dash of de ja vous with the solitary South African Academy Award-winner "TSOTSI", possibly even a trip down memory lane with the WAH-WAH or "The White Masai"

I have not planned much beyond that-must leave opportunity for a spot of spontaneity and serendipity- who knows what you might bump into? Hopefully not a spear-wielding Tsotsi!

Hmmmm....dance me to the end of love!

2006-08-03T22:46:00.000+10:00

It must be the week for poetry, music, romance...and this post is inspired by one poetic soul who reads my musings here and sends me beautiful songs! I had forgotten how I loved the song by Leonard Cohen because I had it only as an LP and sadly, that sold for 50 cents at my garage sale (have not yet replaced it on CD!)

and then...one thing leads to another and next thing I was delving into poetry and a newly-published collection of 16th century Shakespearean-style sonnets by Paul Monk-"Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty"- which I promptly ordered as I know Paul Monk (funny how unMonk-like he is, yet a deep and profound thinker!) in his guise as Managing Director of AUSTHINK...and there the connection comes back to me and work and innovation and...you know how the mind meanders and mine does that extra-ordinarily well!

But this is NOT about work, its about my other passion...PASSION, and the stuff that stirs the soul. The soul, consciousness and its evolution. According to research by Professor of Archealogy, Steven Mithen, the human responsiveness to rhythm and music runs very deep. It is more deeply-rooted in our psyches than language itself, because it is traceable to the mode of communication which preceded language and which still shapes the way our hominid brains work. He calls this pre-linguistic mode of communication by the acronym hmmmmm, because it is holistic, manipulative, multi-modal, musical and mimetic. (refer The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Body and Mind and The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science by Stephen Mithen)

All this is a very complicated, but nonetheless facscinating and illuminating, way for explaining why at a conscious level, I cannot understand or explain why I burst into tears when I hear beautiful music, or read a poem that through the sheer rhythm of the words chosen, touches the universal hmmmmmmmmmmm within me......(no co-incidence I'm sure that mantras and chakras use similar sounds to access the deepest consciousness)

Thus it is tonight...tears flowing for no particular reason...just the amygdala and hippocampus in my limbic brain responding and embracing every ounce of primal energy contained in this beautiful art.

And seeing I am having the weepies, why not pass it around and end with a poem by one of my favourites, Nobel Laureate, Pablo Neruda.

Tonight I can write

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.

Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars,
and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance."

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings.

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her.
How could I not have loved her large, still eyes?

I can write the saddest poem of all tonight.
To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her.

To hear the immense night, more immense without her.
And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass.

What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her.
The night is full of stars and she is not with me.

That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away.
My soul is lost without her.

As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her.
My heart searches for her and she is not with me.

The same night that whitens the same trees.
We, we who were, we are the same no longer.

I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her.
My voice searched the wind to touch her ear.

Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once
belonged to my kisses.
Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her.
Love is so short and oblivion so long.

Because on nights like this I held her in my arms,
my soul is lost without her.

Although this may be the last pain she causes me,
and this may be the last poem I write for her.

Hardcore pleasure

2006-07-30T20:26:00.000+10:00

"Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship." Epicurus 371-270 B.C

Epicurus is often misquoted in the context of culinary pleasure or hedonism, but this is a gross misrepresentation of a complex and radically opposing view to all of his contemporaries including Plato and Aristotle- a view that everything that is, is the sum total of our sensory perception combined with "the mind's eye", and that the ultimate happiness occurs when all these senses are pleasured. For Epicurus, and his disciples like me!, its when GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD FOOD AND GOOD CONVERSATION is enjoyed in a beautiful environment.

I devoted 18 hours this weekend to the pursuit of hardcore Epicureanism.

From Sydney's finest seafood restaurant (PIER) where even the fish are killed thoughtfully "iki-jime style" by specially-trained fishermen to ensure minimal stress to fish and flesh, to a self-confessed kitchen-klutz cooking her first meal for friends today, at the age of 55 and in a borrowed house with 6 of us staying for 6 hours and the best ever time! There's a deeper story there, but it proves, with friends, you can take risks, be yourself, expose your vulnerabilities and know that even if you stuff up completely, they won't care because they came for you!

A common thread through many of these interesting friends is a colourful life full of diversity. There's poverty, hardship, migration, success, riches, loss, death, alcoholism, divorce, marriage, hardship again, success again, marriage again, divorce again, bankruptcy, stock exchange listings, to BRW list of wealthiest...all coupled with incredible minds, resilience, sincerity, humour, humility, and humanity.

From a tough childhood in the poorest of poor in Nova Scotia and daily beatings by hoodlums to a brilliant legal practice in Australia, from Catholic backwaters in Ireland to a female director on several boards in an era where such occurrences are still a miracle; from Australia's most prestigious event management company to a risky business venture that flopped and wiped out a lifetime's accumulated wealth, but not the friendships that mattered; from prospecting for months in tents in the remote Yukon or steamy Borneo to CEO of a global mining corporation...but not all were high-flyers, some just like me, but all offering warmth and something of themselves. How blessed am I to have such friends, break bread with them, share their stories, pain and pleasure and share mine with them?

The thing I enjoy most about these people is their groundedness. They are always the same. None of them have a need to be heard, impress, or compete. These people know who they are, don't have to prove a damn thing to anyone, and are genuinely interested in others, no matter how humble. They listen with great attentiveness, and look to learn what they can. They are widely read, have a deep knowledge of politics, world events, social issues, open minds with personal views balanced by perspectives of both sides, whether the Middle-Eastern war or environmental degradation in our own backyard, Sydney Harbour.

They also give back. Without fail, every single one is involved in some or other community activity (not high-visibility glamour causes for show -just the local Rotary club table at the markets once a month or reading to the Alzheimer patients at the local home) that requires a commitment of personal time, not dollars.

Epicurus - mate, you got it! There is no greater gift than the great conversation of brilliant minds, enjoyed in the warmth and depth of friendship, while feasting on yummy food and wine, under a clear blue sky and warm sun on an azure harbour.

Death by chocolate

2006-07-27T22:29:00.000+10:00

Hmmmm...I have a yummy new friend, and the kinky bastard is killing me!

Not only do I have to battle his razor-sharp legal mind and barristerial wit but, under extreme torture, am being inducted into the dark, dreamy, creamy underworld of the Aztec cocoa miracle and purveyors thereof.

His winter evening ritual is to invite me over for a nightcap consisting of hot Belgian couverture chocolate sipped from little round ceramic pots, slunken into deep leather armchairs, waves lapping 10 metres away as we toast our toes by the real wood fire and talk about his world of villains and vice, with a dash of spice.

Now, sampling the finest chocolates from around the world does not ordinarily pose a problem to women, but distinguishing different flavours and textures while blindfolded, and having mistakes punished in rather lascivious ways is a kind of punishment a girl could become a slave to!

Needless to say...the kids think they've died and gone to heaven because mum is dating the Easter Bunny! Hmmm...think I should balance all of this by giving the City-to-Surf fella a sporting chance with me- chocolate by moonlight and push-ups at sunrise?

Wonder what the Heart Foundation would recommend for lunch? A carrot farmer?

The age of discontinuity

2006-07-25T23:04:00.000+10:00

Recently, I was told that my sweetness and light halo was cracked because in a moment of extreme provocation, my "dark side" was glimpsed.

I have spent many hours thinking about what that meant and how I felt about that statement. I guess its against an expectation that girls are meant to be sugar and spice and all things nice. Most of my life I have played that part...peacemaker, harmoniser, daddy's sweet lil girl, mum's pillar of strength, sister, girlfriend, wife, and mother...trying to make everyone happy and worrying about myself last.

I also contemplated that statement in the context of some leadership and culture stuff we are doing at work, where we are using a pride of lions as a symbol of high-performing teams, not without contention, because some believe lions are not a good example because they are not always purring pussycats.

Leaning philosophically towards Eastern philosophies and the notion of balancing yin and yang energies, and even considering the ecosystems of the natural world, I find it hard to understand how anyone can expect others to be the same ALL THE TIME- sweetness and light in rain or shine, notwithstanding challenges, hormonal cycles, and the stuff that makes up life.

Of course we have dark sides, of course we lose it at times!!!

If we didnt have these dimensions, be that aggression, sadness, drive, power etc, we would be the equivalent of blanc mange - a great big tasteless jelly incapable of achieving great things, crashing through hurdles, scaling barriers, loving deeply, living passionately. Its all a matter of channelling energy - and if the Yang energy dominates at times, its about recognising it, and in an evolved consciousness, restoring balance as quickly and as often as one can.

But alas, the discontinuous world in which we live, where one person households and single parenting is statistically more the norm than the exception, energies get out of sync and most don't have the luxury of time-out, holidays or even a baby-sitter as they struggle to simply make ends meet and survive.

At 3am this morning, I was reading a book that looked at the growing trend of homelessness across the globe. Yes, its real and yes, it happens to more and more people as they fall victim to the mechanics of modern life, discontinuity in marriage, employment and sustaining connections of any kind. The biggest impact- as always- is on women and children who were dependent on a father/ husband as breadwinner.

Interestingly though, evidence indicates that the ones who cope best with discontinuity and creating new survival habits, are those who grew up in family units headed up by females. The reason is not because women are better at parenting, its because women know about sacrifice, making trade-offs, adapting, and creating a life in spite of having dreams for self-actualisation interrupted by family, marriage, childbirth, divorce, caring for the young, the old, the sick, the insane. Of course, there's more to it.

The author (Mary Catherine Bateson) goes on to examine the lives of women and the role of caring, and states that "to be nurturant is not always to concur and comfort, to stroke and flatter, to please and appease. Often, it requires offering a caring version of the truth, grounded in reality. Real care includes both the cold shower and the scented tub. Self-care is about setting priorities and limits."

I re-read that paragraph a few times. INDEED! This coming from a Harvard Professor of Education and daughter of the world's most famous anthropologist, Margaret Mead. This book, titled "Composing a life" offers a radical rethinking of the concept of achievement, and suggests that fluidity, flexibility, openness - the adaptive style of women that succeed in spite of setbacks -are the key survival traits for the age of discontinuity in which we live.

I read that, and take comfort that as a survivor of a discontinued marriage, discontinued income (at times), discontinued country of residence, discontinued friendships through death and moving, and discontinued family support structure - my ability to care, nurture and support two young lives is largely thanks to my "dark side", my animal instinct and female ability to sacrifice self and adapt, but also setting priorities and limits so that I don't crumble in the process.

Yes, your energy gets imbalanced. Yes, you have stronger Yang. No, much as you want to be sugar and spice and only nice, you cannot be soft and feminine and yielding and dependent and sweet and light all the time - a solitary leopardess in a foreign environment, no back-up family or team, with cubs dependent on only her ability to adapt...adapts! They survive, they even thrive!

I have abandoned the notion of being the perfect woman in terms of some out-of-sync ideal. Without conceipt, I am proud of what I juggle everyday without dropping balls: socio-economically contributing migrant, successful business executive, loving 24/7 parent, homemaker, friend and sexy goddess, to name a few.

I know that I am raising a generation of girls who will get up and go riding waves again and again even when life's rhythms and patterns dump them- repeatedly!

We are women- hear us ROAR!

The re-inforcing cycle

2006-07-23T17:00:00.000+10:00

Tony Blair wants to make a "culture of respect" a central tenet of his final term of office. There has been an interesting debate on it in the British media...I will leave a few links here for those who want to explore.
I wonder if Mr Blair was reading my mind, because I have been thinking quite a lot on the subject of respect and manners myself in recent times!!! To me, the two go hand in hand.

One can learn the right way to pronounce and eat "escargot" or lobster carapaces from a book or a finishing school sheep dip, but can you learn how to be a decent human being in a one month or even one year crash course? I think not.

What is the purpose and foundation of manners and respect?

It stems from empathy for others and awareness of the fact that we all share this universe, and that in order to live in harmony, there is a give and take in terms of rights and responsibilities. These are values that are ingrained from early childhood, and are copied from the behaviour of parents firstly, and teachers and friends in the second instance.

In a culture of "me, me, me" wanting it all "now, now, now", where communication is instantaneous, where relationships are started and ended in less than 140 characters on a mobile fone screen, where people are "deleted", where pollution is "outsourced" and finished goods "insourced", where we trade our connectedness to reality and live virtually in several simultaneous imagined lives and under alter egos and avatars (Ms Maverick being one such an example-granted!), its a consequence that awareness of self, impact on others and flow-on consequences to environment and society is diluted and possibly lost- and along with it, respect and manners.

Much as I love technology and adopt it fast, I get personally irked by the accompanied lack of manners in its use. Take instant messaging as an example.

Why would one forget one's manners of polite interaction in this medium? Why would you not "knock" before entering, enquire if its convenient to talk, remember that the person at the other end has a real life and is in fact real, maintain politeness as if you are talking face to face, acknowledge one another, close a conversation politely with a goodbye or something equally civil?

The mobile phone these days follow you everywhere, but its still a good idea before launching into your life story to check that its convenient for the other to take the call! Always on doesn't mean eveready!

But these are trivial examples in the bigger scheme of things. Where is the downstream impact of lack of respect more blatantly obvious than in our environment?
Or at the ugly interface between cultures and races? I have seen people who pride themselves on fine manners and sophistication lose the veneer entirely when it comes to someone that is not from the same socio-political and economic demographics. Yes, it has a name...anything that ends in "ism"

I think this is the dilemma that multi-cultural societies face in maintaining a culture of respect and good manners. It has to go beyond ethno-centricity. No finishing school can fix this. If we don't nurture empathy for others regardless of creed or colour in our homes and in every building block of education along the way, no laws will fix it retrospectively.

Manners and respect are grown and cultivated from within...its a value rather than a technique, or a finishing coat slapped on in a fine private school or crash-course in Lausanne. They reflect who you are more than where you live, what school you attend, what wealth you enjoy, what colour your skin or what you wear on your head- be that a beret, a burkah, a beanie, a baseball cap, a turban, a top-hat or a fez!

Children who learn empathy for others and the concept of systemic thinking (understanding that everything is connected and affects everything else), will recognise for themselves what is the right thing to do in any situation.

The most amazing thing about it though is how respect, and lack thereof, is recycled. The more you give respect, the more you get it from others. The more disrespect you dish out, the more you are disrespected. Its a simple equation.

New beginnings

2006-07-19T01:02:00.000+10:00

I made a big decision 10 days ago. To let go. To let go of all hurt. All anger. To forgive and forget. To open up and be receptive to the universe and its loving again. And that has made all the difference.

I had brought down the shutters after a meaningful relationship went pear-shaped early this year. Perhaps its a natural reaction and nature's way of self-healing, although some people leap from one relationship or marriage straight into the next, not taking time to reflect, improve self-awareness, seek feedback or learn from why and how you got there and what is the meaning of it all.

Each to their own, but I think if you dont have a period of quarantine, you could end up repeating the same patterns or attracting the same type of mis-match to your wants and needs.

When you are down there in the dark place, your chemistry shows through, just as it does when you throw that mantle off and emerge happy and optimistic and energetic. The lights in eyes start flickering again, the smile plays on lips, the face glows. And what happens? You become a people magnet! The right sort of people! Those who want light and life and love and positivity and hope - with a focus and a passion and a purpose and a plan.

Sounds like such a cliche....but cliches become cliches because they are proven right over time.

Suffice to say, I had a wonderful time in the snow, socialising with fun people, making new friends, dancing for hours and having great conversations with my cubs. Their thoughts are forming and their curiosity about the world and politics, and what makes it all go around, is being tickled.

Back on the homefront, the social calendar is full with theatre, winter season of opera, overseas visitors, tennis and the odd weekend away...so, La Vita e Bella!
Cub1 is still home till 24th and both are with Bluebeard for the weekend, so I have a bit of freedom and will be making the most of every minute! Ben Elton live at the Capitol on Friday, tennis Saturday, dinner party Saturday night and Sunday we start NIDA course to set young Cub on her dream to fame and fortune as an actress.

I have also started my secret squirrel project. The business plan and marketing plan are both advanced, but cant say anymore otherwise it wont be a secret squirrel! But all may be revealed when legalities are taken care of! Suffice to say, much fun is had by all!

Thanks for putting up with me in the Dark Ages. I'm back....better and stronger and happier!

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone ...

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,
reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed. Never throw out anybody. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Sam Levenson

Funniest relationship advice ever...

2006-07-15T22:20:00.000+10:00

Came across this tonight, SIMPLY HAVE TO SHARE IT!...Its NOT American Mid-West White Right-wing values like John Gray's Venus/ Mars thing, but practical speak from Downunder...Ms Maverick would love to hear waht YOU think? Mail me by using the comments button below.
A manual called "She'll be right" by Dr David Lake who explains relationships with light-hearted humour AND serious stuff.

Here's a thought-provoking and humorous approach to how to put up with "the baddie"

Dr Lake also does an interesting programme on Sharemarket Trading without fear and negative emotions...see http://www.eftdownunder.com/Oztrading.html

2006-07-15T13:01:00.000+10:00

Cool Cub progressed from Ground Zero in snowboarding in France last year to Junior Instructor with 48 hours of training all up across the two seasons...go my little super athlete!

Hotham is HOT!

2006-07-12T10:52:00.000+10:00

Its official. I am old.

I am craving silence. Nature's silence...the soft woosh of falling snowflakes, wind whistling through structures erected in its way and ice sliding down roofs and crashing- sounds in harmony with the soft, cloudy, muffled white landscape that my soul is drinking in.

I am on top of a mountain. Mount Hotham in the Victorian Alps.
But no matter to which far corner of the village I retreat, I can't escape the plasma TVs blasting with repeated monotony the latest concerts of Pete Murray, Jack Johnson, Norah Jones, Robbie Williams, Greenday. I don't mind any of them, I own music by all of them, but its not the kind of "blank canvas" that silence or classical music allows the mind to paint its own pictures on - it invades, claims, disrupts, and yes, annoys!

There is a White restaurant and a White Spa here. Perhaps some lounge where only White Noise (and no kids!) is permitted for old fogies like me to sit quietly and contemplate navels will be my contribution to the guest suggestions form?

But the above is my only gripe. And I should place it in the context of consistently excellent service, quality facilities and fun activities we have enjoyed on this spectacular mountain.

After our last dismal Australian holiday in the Whitsundays, I held low expectations of another local holiday in this sparsely populated land with accute labour shortage where a culture of egalitarianism seems to run contra to a service orientation.

But, I have been bowled over by Mt Hotham. Even before arrival, every contact I had with the Hotham Skiing Company and its Central Reservations office was a positive experience-and how many call centres could you say that about? Questions were answered in a friendly, patient and helpful manner, and when anyone needed to check on something, they actually rang ME back! Get that? And, they use sms to send you a snow report and activities schedule prior to your arrival.

Check-in cemented those first impressions, and every day since, we have been surprised and delighted by ultra-helpful staff in every corner of the resort. From the shuttle-bus drivers (and what a dull job they must have driving up and down a mountain every 10 minutes, 17 hours a day! yet they look like they genuinely love it), to the spa-staff (none of those snooty beauty parlour types here!) to the kitchen-hand in the coffee shop who found a guest service officer to answer questions she couldn't (not the usual snort and shrug of shoulders you'd get from busy cafe staff).

When I met the CEO over Welcome Drinks on Sunday night, I understood. A youthful and passionate Canadian with a clear purpose and message: "Everyone is here for a good time, not a long time! If the guests have a good time, the staff do too, and vice versa."He looks after BOTH!

The natural beauty of the mountains, great snowfalls and good food helped to create pleasure for every sense, and the Alpine Regional Council and resort developers have to be singled out for national recognition in creating something with a strong, distinctive and uniquely attractive Australian Design that dances in harmony with the environment and the snow culture. I can't wait to see the new Bale complex completed! Well done architects.

In short, we'll be back! And we'll be telling our friends and the world.

Furry Snowbunny

2006-07-11T21:01:00.000+10:00

Cub1 took this pic and told me i look like something out of the fifties! Thanks kids...seeing I am nearly 50, well, perhaps I should just get used to it! What do you reckon?

Big Brother Cold Turkey

2006-07-09T10:47:00.000+10:00

A week ago, I had no idea what a Turkey Slap was. And now, I can order one at The General Pub&Grub at Mt Hotham, where I am holidaying. It comes only in extra-large and on extra-thick crust (yip, the chef's a boy!), topped with shaved turkey, creamy brie, rocket and cranberry sauce! I don't think I can face it-that's one turkey that leaves me cold!

Seeing everyone has had something to say about THAT SHOW, I may as well wade into the mud-wrestling too!

The only thing stupider than Big Brother is those who watch it. That includes quite a few people who I thought better of, but then again, boys being boys even though they be the 40-year old Managing Directors of major companies, maybe they are so sex-starved that the hint of nipple or fleshy buttock is enough to keep them glued to it for hours! Geez, don't they know there are quicker ways to get a fix?

I don't mind Big Brother-its never even featured on my radar till now. In fact, I kind of thought it must beat watching fish swim around in a glass tank if you are one of those poor people manning toll booths or monitoring security cameras at Parliament House in the wee hours of the morning. Besides, the controversial footage was aired only via internet streaming at 4:15 am on a Sunday morning- hardly family viewing time and quite frankly, good luck to anyone who had nothing better to do at such a time!

But even stupider than those watching it are those that watch it and THEN demand it be banned. Don't they know where the “off button” of their TV is located? No-one in my home watches it, but that's more because they recognise it as mindless drivel than any imposed ban.

I am with the journo who said: "What do you expect of a reality TV show? Disney?"

Everyday out in the real world where alcohol & drugs, testosterone and the sexes get mixed, these incidents occur. Women have been at the receiving end of predatory sexual males asserting dominance by shoving their manhood down their throats since Adam was a boy. Nothing new there, and nothing wrong with it if its mutual desire. And therein the nub (knob?) of the matter!

Perhaps this incident and all the furore will alert our daughters more to exploitation, what constitutes acceptable and lady-like behaviour on their behalf, situations to avoid, the boundaries between play and force and the difference between a gentleman and an animal. And perhaps it will alert our sons more to the consequences of alcohol, mob mentality, thinking with your dick, how to woo a woman instead of forcing yourself and your genitals on her.

If that is an outcome, I say hooray for the Turkey Slap!

But the real turkeys here are the fame-famished young people who allow themselves to be conned, manipulated, exploited, set-up, humiliated and violated by the money-and ratings-hungry producers of that show. Big Brother sure is alive and in control of you.

Commercial break-go get a cuppa!

2006-07-05T23:31:00.000+10:00

ze petit purrrrgeot is packed, a case of champagne too...and this blog will resume once we have safely arrived and run out of immediate priorities that need taking care of, like cracking da bubbly and getting the cubs out on the slopes and booking massages and hot rock therapies for da mamee cat.

Thanks for all the messages and feedback...greatly enjoyed...and while I may be a bit slack on the correspondence, I will try and keep up the flow of funny stories. Aint't life grand?

Mouths of babes et al

2006-07-04T19:38:00.000+10:00

Having the cubs back at le castle sure turns up the humour! Today, walking past a dental surgery of one doctor Gordon Fang (!!!), the subject turned to (ab)sur (d)names! Like how come a guy called Keith Urban sings country music? Or isnt it fitting that Russell Crowe has finally turned to crooning instead of acting?

But we were in store for more entertainment: While watching a movie today where in one scene a fat man was undergoing some "slimming treatments and scrubs", Cub 2, aged 8, asked: Why are they covering him in Guacamole?" (Her only reference point to anything green and creamy comes from a love for Mexican!)

Cub2's innocence was again priceless when Big Sis, fresh back for first holidays from all-girls boarding school, complained about having to learn how to apply a condom to a banana (this subject is taught when they turn 16).

"What's a condom?" asks Cub2. "Its like...errr..... a jacket/wrapper thingie to protect a ....er....ehm...watchamacallit during sex", replies Cub1, blushing fuscia-pink.

"I don't get it", comes the little voice, "why would you need it if bananas come in their own jacket???!"

Well, what can you say...the logic of babes! But click here for a commercial flash to support innovative condom application in Zululand.

But the family record on the laughometer still stands for this one!

During a breezy evening out, while 75 year-old grandma visited from Cape Town last December, she asked Cub1, in thick South African accent: "Please hold my crotch, darling, I'm feeling a little cold!" Cub1's eyes nearly popped out. "No really Grandma, I know we're family and all that, but aren't you taking things a bit far?"

This may need a little explaining: The South African accent makes "uh" sounds a bit like "o", and after a hip replacement op, Grandma uses a crutch to support her when standing or walking, and on this occassion needed to free up her hands with Cub1's help to put on a jacket in the cool evening air. Given that grandma also used the crutch on occassion as a WOMD (Weapon Of Mass Destruction) for unruly grandchildren, said instrument was not exactly the object of much affection among ze cubs!

Snow leopards

2006-07-03T11:23:00.000+10:00

Still hurting from kitting the cubs out for the snow and a new snow leopard coat for da mama cat, but can't wait to get down there! Car is being serviced and anti-frozen today (more ouch!), stocking up on bubbles and red grape juice at Dan Murphy's tonight to make sure we don't dehydrate and temporary butler is waiting in the wings to wait on King Mewtu at Balmoral Castle while we're having snowball fights!

If you can fit in a few wall sits and squats, leg lunges and stair climbs between now and the weekend to get ski-fit, we have spare bedroom in apartment at White Crystal, Mount Hotham...so more than welcome to drop in! Friend from Singapore had booked to join us but politics between the Swedes, Japanese and Thais on Project Orange forced a postponement.

I can jump puddles

2006-07-02T20:17:00.000+10:00

Had a perfect day. Well...as darn near perfect as can be...6 hours of me-time while kids visited Bluebeard. I spent it luxuriating in sunlight with no fixed agenda. And then...a serendipidous encounter with a stranger over breakfast at the beach! Who knows what a day can bring?

Breakfast turned into a walk, a walk turned into jumps across Balmoral's rockpools (click link for photos), marvelling at starfish, counting the sails of a hundred yachts floating past, waiving at skin-divers & kayakers, warm winter sun on skin, and just talking - from Nietszche and Gaugin to Tchaikovsky and punk-rock, from growing Christmas trees to the challenges of innovation, from the mid-night sun at Trondheim to homeopathy, from starsign nonsense to mid-life crises, from the sensory effects of voice to the school syllabus!

Before I knew it, it was time to fetch children, buy catfood and bring in the washing. As I waved goodbye, I realised I didnt even know his name. But what does it matter? It was perfection in a bubble.

Barbieland et al

2006-07-02T08:40:00.000+10:00

Thanks for all the feedback and shared stories on BBQ buying...we've all had a good laugh! The bloody great big Jolly Jumbuk arrived in all his square and shiny ugliness, devoid of artistic design and the worst set of casters relative to size you've ever seen. Damn...why aren't the Italians or Scandinavians designing these things- they'd be much more elegant!

But...it works well and the cubs love it! The castle is overflowing with young children this weekend and the weather has forgotten its mid-winter so its al fresco breakfast, lunch and dinner till the novelty has worn off!

Will just have to go back for more toys...scrapers and covers and polish 'n stuff and perhaps a fella who can do the cooking instead!

a forgotten art?

2006-07-01T22:33:00.000+10:00

Listening...

Several unrelated events triggered these musings...the first a snippet of fluff from a freebie newsrag I read on the ferry, dispensing my horrorscope for the day, stressing: "You must resolve relationship issues through communication, not by worrying alone or trying to find all the answers in your own head"

The second jumped out from a conference paper I downloaded that contained this profound quote ..."There are two kinds of listeners: Those who listen, and those who are waiting to speak."

The third dot joining these points in a neat little line came from an over-amorous man who simply refused to accept that I didnt want to go out with him. I tried to explain why, but his arrogant ego would not give me a gap either way...talking over me, interrupting me, getting shitty, attacking me, etc. These were the very reasons why I didnt want to go out with him. At 48, this man had little relationship skills and lacked the basic awareness to understand how his behaviour was sabotaging his love life! The inability to listen is one of the biggest causes of communication and relationship breakdown.

Hell, I am not perfect at this stuff myself...but based on how I have stuffed up or been at the receiving end of it, here's how I think stuff gets in the way.

1. The first act of love is to listen. Actively, totally in the zone of the other... absorbing, hearing.
2.Poor listeners are hard to have relationships with. Half the time is spent trying to clarify, remedy, nurse egos, manage perceptions, undo damage or feeling irrelevant because they're not listening anyway.
3. The above quote is incomplete. There's a third type of listener (or non-listener if you will!). Those that have so much baggage and self-esteem issues they cannot suspend judgement, analysis, prejudice or see beyond their own world. They project this onto what is being said, distort meaning and ruin honesty and openness- the very ingredients of trust and intimacy.
4. Modern technology is a wonderful aid to communication, except in times of conflict. Relationship difficulties have to be resolved eyeball to eyeball. Forget SMS, online chat, email. If someone doesnt want to talk things through, there is no respect for the relationship, commitment to the other and it suggests a lack of emotional maturity. Can a relationship like that work?
5. On the positive side, listening is a magnetic thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Listening well and responding appropriately is the highest perfection in the art of conversation.

Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and a modern-day Shakespeare has this to say on the subject: "You should listen to your heart, not the voices in your head."...and from The Land Before Time, this wisdom:"Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely."

Sounds so simplistic, and it is. If only Mr Groening could tell how to tell the difference between the voices of the heart and the voices of the head. But...perhaps thats precisely the point! Silence your own voices so that you can hear!

I dreamed of Africa

2006-06-29T22:16:00.000+10:00

Today I took 400 people to Africa with me. 400 IT geeks, chanting "AMAZULU" when they spotted the shy adaptive leopard, the unpredictable buffalo, the awesome elephant, the raw energy of a pride of lions in full hunt, the unmistaken power of 2 tonnes of rhino.

It was something else....a little footprint of the magic of Africa, deep into the heart of my new home, my beloved Australia. Its weird that some people cant share a love for two countries...I feel all the richer for having them both...like children...or parents...in my heart.
Even though the rangers were brilliant, and the music and photography conspired to evoke the familiarity of the sounds and sights that I lived with for 38 years, a virtual safari is...well....virtual! Like an e-mail love affair! So, as I make my way to bed tonight, I am left with a hunger...a hunger that has not been sated...a hunger that is more closely connected with memory than any of our other senses....a hunger for the smell of the African bush.

To think, one can buy a fully-fenced game farm with river frontage, thatched home etc in a nature reserve for the price of a studio apartment sans views in an ordinary Sydney suburb! Check this out!

Barbieland: Where virgins fear to tread...

2006-06-25T22:36:00.000+10:00

When I walked through these doors, it was love at first sight. (God knows how I will ever part from it- I am ruined for life!) Outdoors is where it all happens...breathtaking views all the way to Santiago, the sapphire sea and seductive Southern sun...but if you are planning on doing the al fresco dining thingie here, you could cook yourself medium-rare by 10am if you don't invest in shade - shade that won't fly to Uluru in the first seabreeze!

This weekend's glorious weather provided the perfect incentive to get Balmoral Castle summer ready....yes, I know its still 3-4 months away, but why was "Carpe Diem" invented if not to give obsessive-compulsives a behavioural excuse? Besides, its 30 June tax year-end sales everywhere and bbqs, patio furniture, gazebos and brollies are not exactly walking out the door in mid-winter...so for the bargain-lover, what better time to play "flash the cash" (or AMEX in this case seeing I fly Cub1 home on Frequent Flyer points!)

At the insistance of Mr M, the inner-urban one-person-household design consultant and handyman friend, I commenced bbq shopping about a month ago, but seeing the only barbecueing he does is at The Oaks, we didnt really have any criteria for assessing these mysterious steel boxes ranging in price from $89 to $8900!!!

Years of eavesdropping on blokey conversations at braais in Africa (where real men cook with real fire) and poofter gas barbecues Downunder("toss another shrimp on the barbie luv") have taught me that this was dangerous territory second only to car talk, as an expression of penis-envy.

Seeing I have no need to compete on size or staying power, this BBQ virgin was ill-equipped to tell the difference between Jumbuk (Aussie name for a sheep)and Beafeater (sounds like Mardi Gras!), Webber and Grillmaster (BDSM?), and a zillion other specimens.

How thick is thick enough? Regular SS or marine? Powder-coated or vitreous enamel? Solid cast-iron -cured or raw? Standard fit-out or custom-sized? Hooded or without? Side-burners or rotational effects? Displayed or hidden energy source? And then I haven't even started on the toys and accessories!

My head was spinning. How to avoid having my innocence abused and my terrace deflowered by some imposter sleazebag rust-trap with iron screws, no driptray for overflow and handpumped manual ignition?

But, as in dating and love, one gets nowhere by playing wallflower, you have to dance with the lot to find your feet and meet a prince! So, with some trepidation and armed with a bit of internet facts, I set out to comb the Northern Beaches "strip" of outdoor, leisure and BBQ stores.

After two days, I reckon I had it sussed. Could tell the difference between marketing hype and "designer" features vs the fundamental stuff. Instant battery-operated fuel ignition and a smooth vitreous enamel coating would satisfy my needs best. (can't stand cleaning all that black muck - but convenience comes at a significant price premium!) I locked in my vote on a last-in-stock, marked-down, middle-of-the range Canadian called Grillmaster, from Bunnings.

Only one wee concern...the new object of my desire's wrapper had been tampered with, though the salesman assured me repeatedly "No worries luv-he's all intact"! The optimist, impatient to get to play with her new toy, chose risk over delayed satisfaction.

Obstacle 1 came in the parking lot- he simply wouldn't fit! We tried everything-the reclining front seat position, the boot, the bonnet and even topless. Finally, left with only one option, we did the strip. Piece by piece, I loaded him up, lithe limbs slung around the seats, torso in the boot and a fuel cannister prodding me through my seat and leaving me in fear that it may blow me to the moon in case of sudden impact!

Back at the Castle, Obstacle 2 meant carrying the Canadian up 62 steps in 7 trips, and laying him out on the lounge floor for mounting. I was so excited. Sms'ed all my friends to share this milestone and had several offers of help, but this pleasure was going to be all mine...another giant step for womankind and another DIY project mastered!

After all the retail courtship and decision-anguish, a glass of wine and the sensual sounds of Spanish guitar was needed to set the mood. It started promisingly with legs lining up perfectly, the male and female nuts & bolts finding one another and screwing tightly, the base clicking in effortlessly. This was too good to be true. Indeed!

Obstacle 3 surfaces. The optimist should have yielded to that little voice about the unsealed box- Part SP 26a & b which connects torso to pelvis, was nowhere to be found. Back 62 steps to the car, nope! Not one for giving up at the first hurdle, I persevered in the belief that the missing bit would miraculously appear once I had the upper body in shape.

But, alas, it was not meant to be. The Grillmaster was paralyzed from the waist down AND missing the knobs that ignite the fuel. He was not going deliver the fantasy of sizzling sausages and roasted rump that I was salivating for! So around midnight, the Canadian came to a pitiful end and spent the freezing night locked in the boot of my car. The fine-print on the Bunnings slip showed that I could vent my frustrations at 8am Sunday morning!

"And what was the problem Madam?" asked the rather dashing Outdoor and Leisure Manager.

Erectile dysfunction!

"We can't have that, Madam, at Bunnings we make a special effort to look after our lady customers. Could I interest you in another model Madam?"

"Only if it comes fully erected and delivered!"

Of course Madam. As a country-boy with long experience in these matters, I recommend you go with what most Aussie blokes pick: The Jumbuk (should have guessed!)And, seeing that you had to endure all these disappointments, I'll erect it, deliver it and help you to commission it on Tuesday night!"

Now, short of instant gratification, what more could a girl ask for? A bigger and better instrument for the same price with guaranteed results vs a DIY job -its a no-brainer!

And seeing he is already making the delivery, he's chucking my shade solution onto the ute along with that Jolly Jumbuk!

Watch this space for more adventures in Barbie-land! But to avoid your own pain in future...research here before you buy!

a river runs through it

2006-06-20T12:55:00.000+10:00

The slow passage of time
grinds the rocks in my life
to powdery sand
and my river finds its path
to where it needs to go
slowly
in spite of my resistance

Love is the Killer App

2006-06-19T23:09:00.000+10:00

love. The one thing all humans need...and the thing that eludes most.

Found out yesterday that two tennis buddies had split up over the long weekend...after two years of seemingly sensational synergy.

They're a great match (sorry, not trying to play on tennis metaphors here!), they laugh together, socialise well, communicate well, etc. I thought they both had enough emotional awareness and maturity from their respective marriage break-ups some 4 years ago to handle anything! Survived the blending of his 3 boys with her 2 girls, dodged moody and greedy ex partners and difficult divorce settlements on both sides, juggled 8 grand-parents, excelled in dual professions and certainly enjoyed a healthy physical and tactile relationship after years in the desert! (Familiar pattern for many people I suspect!)

These two people love one another deeply...it is evident to all of us who have watched them come together and fall in love. And, from experience too!, we also know that they're not going to find anyone "more fun" or "less complex" or sexier or "more together" out there. At their age, 47 and 46, there are few that aren't greying or balding or getting a bit flabbier or a bit "creased", and neither is there anyone undamaged or baggage-free from what has gone before...its often the path people have walked that make them more interesting in my view.

But notwithstanding that, these two people have strong chemistry...And thats the hardest thing to find. If the chemistry happens, you can work on the emotional compatibility stuff even though it can be slow-going, but it CAN grow, whereas sexual chemistry is an on-off switch in my belief!

I felt a bit the same after watching "The Break-Up"-which admittedly is about a younger and much more immature couple-but you have the same sense of frustration at their inability to put ego aside and work things out. Why is it so damn hard to say sorry, I screwed up? Sorry, I was too pushy, Sorry, I was insensitive? Is it harder to do this than to live with regrets for the next five years, perhaps forever? I think not.

Of course I don't really know the full story- who ever will...its their personal lives. I just hope if they struggle with ego and misunderstanding, that they will have the sense to get help. It can be so simple, and alleviate so much hurt and pain. The ability to forgive comes from the ability to know and understand. The ability to heal comes from telling where it hurts and why.

I am no shrink, but having lost someone and something special myself, I cant bear to see them throw it away. No-one is perfect, and because of that, we have all been given the capacity to choose, to learn, to forgive, to be patient, to understand, to communicate, to love.

24/7 Parenthood

2006-06-18T22:47:00.000+10:00

With the exception of two hours between 2-4 pm today, I spent every waking hour this weekend with an 8 year old. An 8-year old whom I love, and who is great company. But an 8-year old nonetheless.

Did I mention that I had a date on Friday evening with the New Zeelundha but got dropped by the babysitter at last minute, so the 8 year tagged along for some fine waterside dining at one of Sydney's finest? (his idea...but it was either that, or cancel, or take-out pizza at Balmoral Castle!)

I really enjoyed watching a movie with her yesterday (although The Break-Up is probably cultivating premature relationship cynicism!) window-shopping and coffee-crawling among quaint arty shops in Surrey Hills, and she undoubtedly has an eye for design (and expensive taste!), though she drew a line on working through the entire Sydney biennale with me.

And this morning, we ran in the Mini-Mosman charity marathon before I worked at the hot dogs booth at her school fair while she blew a small fortune on rides and face painting and the chocolate wheel.

The point I am making is that I dont think I am a bad mother. But God, I need a bit of space - so badly!

Epicurean epiphanies

2006-06-13T20:41:00.000+10:00

Dear Bloggie...I was preparing some guidelines today for the launch of our first corporate blog (yes, another innovation led by moi!)then..an OH-OH moment: I am NOT practising the REGULAR updates I am preaching! Lol...seeing this is a personal blog and not a professional one, I guess...so what? If anything, it proves that I have a REAL life that's full and rich in experiences and the occasional insights!

Talking of busy lives, the long weekend had even me throwing in the towel! Cold and damp after a week of pouring rain and splashing about with work, kids,interviews (been headhunted for a big job..watch this space and fingers crossed please!) trains, planes and automobiles , I cancelled a date to the opening of the Sydney Film Festival and a cocktail party involving Jennifer Arniston (Cub2 was devastated that I could say NAH!), opened a bottle of red, slow-roasted some lamb shanks for the three of us and just watched movies on the telly (the latter being the TRULY abnormal behaviour for me but the kids loved it so much!)

Now...to most people this may not sound like a big deal. But for me it was. Because life, and doing things, is my drug. Packing every moment full of experiences and hating just sitting around aimlessly. Yet, what's the point if you don't have time to savour them? And therein the aha-moment!

As the weekend unfolded, I ended up musing late on Saturday night with a friend on the art of reflection...and he hinted that perhaps I kept myself perennially busy to avoid reflection. Well, truth is I do it to STOP the reflection!I think its quite pointless to dwell too much in the past, and being a bit of a thinker, I can at times live in my head and go around and around in circles and beat myself up for all the mistakes I have made! But that does not change a single thing, so instead, I busy myself with ambitious projects, wild escapades, exotic travel and extreme adventures!

Avoidance behaviour? Pro-activity? Whatever! I have to stop piling the plate so high and savour and taste every morsel that's on my tongue RIGHT NOW!...let in linger, roll it around, explore its tastes, textures, subtleties and smells.

Which brings me to one of my favourite subjects: Epicuros and his musings on The Art of Happiness. I dont know whether its the glorious pink sunsets from my kitchen window or the full moon dancing on the bay across my balcony, or reclaiming 40 minutes a day because I am not sitting in traffic jams, but I have time again for simple pleasures: cooking, friendships and conversation.

Simple is the operative word. So often, Epicurean philosophy is misused in the context of gluttony, excess and elaborate feasts. It is everything but.

I pondered this very thing yesterday morning as I accidentally stumbled into a shop where many millions of dollars trade hands in the pursuit of culinary perfection.

It looked like the tables at my garage sale when I moved house after 18 years of rampant consumerism. Special gadgets and tools, exotic cake tins, Arzberg china, Madeira linen and crisp Damask, Italian clay pots and German cookware, Waterford Crystal and Swiss knives...the United Nations of Quality was represented row upon row, shelves from floor to ceiling.

My hand reached towards an unusual vase, but it stopped mid-air. Later it reached for a pepper mill with lights and bells and dancing Zulu warriors (just kidding!)...and stopped again...because flashing in my mind's eye were those garage sale tables when I moved...groaning under "must have" things used maybe five times in 18 years (some not even once!)...and in the end, it has zero value or even negative value if you have to pay someone to remove it to the garbage tip!

I had an epiphany in that shop. I realised that our propensity to consume STUFF must be directly related to the amount of personal space at our disposal. We could limit our impact on the planet by limiting the footprint of our dwellings and making everyone carry everything up at least three flights of stairs!

It sure has curbed my consumption pattern, yet my life is more interesting for it. My barebones dollhouse kitchen has turned out more gourmet feasts in 6 weeks than the previous 6 years, with no compromise to quality nor diversity! For me, the challenge to create something magnificent with bare necessities is true mastery and art...and therein lies the thrill! The thrill comes from the size and complexity of the challenge conquered.

Forgive me if I shoot across to Sunday night's rugby game to reinforce this point. As usual, we caught the Special Events bus to and from the game...but on the way home, in spite of a great night out and 39-3 victory for the Wallabies, there was no sense of cheer on that bus, no animated chatter, no drama, unlike this morning after the Socceroos victory over Japan...So, my insight of the day is that:

Conquest and victory in sport, as in cooking, and anything else i can think of including love, is only sweet if gained as a result of dogged determination and a struggle to conquer big and real challenges.

I hope Cub1 reads this blog and remembers that for the challenges she faces in conquering her new environment! (Ooops, violated guideline 2: BLOG is too long!)

Conspiracy or serendipity?

2006-06-06T21:59:00.000+10:00

Well...not that I am an analytical type, but...why does that funny pointy ball keep popping through my posts? I can't work it out...for a football agnostic and intellectual junkie like me, perhaps ze Gods have gone crazy?

It all started when I met a rugby-mad dad and his two Young Wallabies. I went from oblivion to several test matches, to being nagged by my cubbettes to buy them a rugby ball, rugby jerseys, scarfs and beanies and even shipped a boxing Wallaby to England for Springbok cousin, dressed up as Lion!

It didnt help that cubs and I ended up sharing a table with ex Wallaby Captain of World Cup fame at Tres Sopranos- our local pizza joint, a few weeks ago...and now Cub 1 at very expensive ladies school is drawing up a petition to get touch rugby allowed and mum has to line up rugby super stars to coach les girls!

Having recently met ex team doctor of the All Blacks, and a good mate of Francois Pienaar, another doctor and Captain of World Cup fame ( albeit the horny kind....no, the Springboks dummy! don't always think naughty things!), I must confess I'd be much happier if the girls pursued a gentle sport like tennis!

But then again...I can see how 320 girls living under one roof in almost boot camp conditions in sub-zero temperatures could benefit from releasing a few pent-up hormones by chasing a pointy ball! It sure beats bitchiness!

Well, looks like my rugby education is set to continue and cubs think I'm supermum for getting us all invited to the Wallabies/England game on Sunday night. Only problem is: What to do with the bloody New Seeluhndar? (Perhaps I'll reciprocate with the ballet - hope he doesn't break into the Haka Haka when the curtain rises!)

On parenting...the first of many!

2006-05-28T22:36:00.000+10:00

I miss my child. I miss her energy, cuddles, jokes, being part of her everyday and sharing the ordinary things like unpacking the groceries or a chatter as I cook dinner. What price we pay for this opportunity? Who knows...only time will tell.

Its made me think of why parents would go to such lengths to secure the best for their children...I guess its because ultimately...its that innate primal drive of the gene pool's survival...equipping our own offspring with the best chances we can to tackle the waves of life...just like little baby turtles scramble across the obstacle course of the beach to make it to the water before the sun or the birds of prey get to them....and once there, facing an entirely different environment with a whole heap of fresh challenges...sharks, seagulls, fisherman

...I feel like a mama turtle...quite far removed from helping my little hatchling, though I guess I have the technology advantage of at least being able to coach her by phone on a daily basis.

But even then...I cant tell her...my darling, i miss you so much...because we will both be in tears! I have to play strong...encourage, build up, nurture, be firm and soft and understanding and sympathetic all at once, help create the vision of what this is all for, put the infrastructure in place for the picture that she must paint on the canvas of her own life.

We have never really dealt with bullies at school before, so it comes as a bit of a shock to us both to encounter girl bullies, and through my child, I am reliving snatches of my own transition to a high school away from where all my peer group went. We are both strong leaders, slightly irreverent and uncompromising-after all, the apple does not fall far from the tree-and the funny thing is...you have to be learn to BOTH adapt, yet remain yourself!

As I mentor her...I am reflecting on and drawing so much on leadership studies and realise...the path of a leader is often a lonely one. One that is thrust upon you by fate, and you can no sooner hide it than fake it. Its simply there! You are who you are!

Analyse any human emotion, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation. ... The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable. ... Mans most disagreeable habits and idiosyncrasies, his deceit, his cowardice, his lack of reverence, are engendered by his incomplete adjustment to a complicated civilisation. It is the result of the conflict between our instincts and our culture. (Sigmund Freud)

...and then there was one!

2006-05-21T21:32:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago, there were 37. Boxes that is. Bar one that's full of office stuff, everything now has its little place-albeit for some just temporary while I'm still "feeling" the place. With nothing on the floor, the luxuriousness of so much space tempts me to stick with the minimalist approach to decorating. My budget would love it too!

On the subject of minimalism....here's a giggle! Nudity can do strange things to otherwise normal people (sure you can imagine for yourself!), but it did a funny thing to me yesterday! Whilst undressing to take a shower after all the unpacking, the bathroom floor which I have been ignoring for the sake of my sanity, began yelling at me!

Now I don't have a cleaning obsession, having developed a counter-culture to a mother obsessed with scrubbing and cleaning...but there is something very disconcerting about inherited dirt! One's own seems much less objectionable!

Overpowered by an irrefutable urge to immediately rectify the situation, I sank to my knees, and began cleaning- a la French Maid style in just a few scraps of undies. That thought left a smile on my face and brought a whole new dimension to cleaning and scrubbing for me! When I laughed out loud, Cub2 came to investigate and demanded an explanation for the giggles and bizarre choice of scrubbing outfit - complete with elbow-length gloves! Some quick thinking about not mucking up your clothes with bleach and ammonia persuaded her of the practicality! One wonders when she grows up if she will continue the tradition?

I am of the generation of women who define themselves by their contribution to the economy, society and the tax office...not the state of the household they run. But there must be some primal nesting thing connected with this cleaning business, because last night as I was showing some guests who came to dinner around the apartment, I beamed from ear to ear when they remarked on how immaculate the bathroom was!

If only they knew!

Life's a beach!

2006-05-20T07:32:00.000+10:00

The question is...when you already pack 36 hours of living into 24, how to squeeze and extra half an hour to regularly update your blog?

So dear blog, pardon me for relegating you to a lower priority these past few weeks while I was just holding onto my hair!

The BIG MOVE happened...all at break-neck speed...back broke too with the physical nature of lugging and hauling weighty stuff up and down either to the skip for turfing, or onto the pavement for the garage sale, or finally up 3 and a half flights of stairs to my new nest in the air.

Throughout all of it, I thought of many things to write about in my blog. One is about friendship. I was quite amazed by who came out of nowhere and offered help. Moving is one of the hardest things -physically and emotionally- one can do, rating after death and divorce as the highest stress factor in life. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped us in some form or another. I could NOT have got through this alone.

Although physically very hard, this was a happy move. From the darkness to the light. From lots of baggage to not enough! (Still have nothing to sit on!) From the cold to the warm. And warmer it sure is! About 3 degrees in winter and probably the reverse in summer due to the influence of the ocean.

Other than getting rid of furniture, linen, toys and excess of everything, I also threw out my wedding dress. As I tossed that cloud of white onto the back of a truck taking stuff off to the welfare bin, I had no pangs. No regrets. No feeling other than lightness and a sense of freedom and relief about letting go of all the past, and optimism about the future.

I haven't rushed into any major decisions to furnish the new place in spite of a few hours browsing the furniture stores. I have come to the conclusion that I am quite skilled at putting an outfit together but putting a room together is another story! Buying good lounge furniture is a long-term commitment and you have to love it every day for many many years- not unlike choosing someone for a relationship. Its worth taking your time!

Its early Saturday morning as I am writing this. I am still pinching myself at the good fortune of finding this apartment and acting on my intuition and pursuing it to conclusion. I have never lived anywhere quite so wonderful. The local area, shops and restaurants offer the rich tapestry of inner city living- a bit resembling a European lifestyle-with strolling distance to EVERYTHING, yet with a one street separation, is sufficiently removed to offer tranquility peace and calm where I am.

Last night, Cub 2 and I walked to the local pub where we had the best value for money meal in my history of living in Sydney- two 300 grams of perfectly cooked rare Porterhouse steaks (too much for us so the cat had steak for dinner too and agreed!), a glass of bubbles (juice for cub!) all for $24! The convivial atmosphere of the Waratahs game, the flirtatious winks of a few boys and the cheerful chatter of people at the next table were all an unexpected bonus!

Then we strolled to the best video shop - a new franchise specialising in award-winning foreign films and all-time greats and classics, where the owner and I plotted together an idea to create a social club for movie-lovers in the area. We hired 4 DVDs to keep 3 nights for $10! And everyone warned me that living here would be dearer...not so! So far, I have noticed better choices, better quality, and prices on par or in cases better than I enjoyed before. We also have a modern cinema showing the latest offerings within spitting distance on the aptly-named Spit Road, so the World's Fastest Indian(fabulous movie!) and Da Vinci Code (average) have already been consumed!

With the multi-media stuff now connected thanks to the generous help of a friend, my broadband on wireless and study "rigged", today is the day earmarked for unpacking the last of the boxes: my books! An exercise in love! Straight after I finish this and take a morning walk followed by a coffee and read of the Saturday papers down by the beach. Come and join me some morning!

Cub's coming out!

2006-04-30T14:21:00.000+10:00

Tomorrow my first cub is starting a new phase in her life. Normal and sane people would not attempt to get kid off to boarding school, move out of a house after 7 years into a small apartment, deal with a broken arm, go on week's adventure holiday, and settle other kid into a new school....all these changes in the space of 4 weeks.

Then again, we are not normal neither sane...but it has its upside.

Packing up house while getting Cub 1's stuff ready has meant that i re-discovered all the journals of her babyhood- and i kept copious notes before, during and after giving birth to her....and reading all my thoughts and reflecting on how much has already happened in her short little life since I first saw nothing but a madly beating little heart at foetal age 6 weeks on an ultrasound scan.

Looking at her now...she is still that wildly beating little heart, that bundle of energy, passion and an unquestionable will! She radiates electricity and attracts people to her easy-going vibrant personality.

I am so happy that despite potholes, HUGE ONES!....she has learnt to jump over them and grow into a "together" young adolescent.

Crikey....now if only we can get the tidiness factor together!

In search of excellence

2006-04-25T22:59:00.000+10:00

Just back from a 6-day study in how to lose customers and infuriate people!

But the sad thing is, I am not sure there is an easy fix....its easy to criticise, but if you put yourself in those boots as say a CEO, hmmm.....tough challenges to solve totally...but that doesn't mean one should have a laissez faire attitude towards the current status quo.

I am talking about standards at the Barrier Reef island resorts....and the complexity of staffing them to the standard promised in the brochures, with the calibre of service that people expect of 4 and 5 star resorts and the prices charge by them...in comparison to say a stay at a 5 star resort in Bali or Thailand.

I think the inability to source local labour from a resident community lies at the heart of a lot of this. Transient staff, like backpackers and working holiday folks just dont put any heart or pride into the place, leave after 3 months and it starts all over again.

Hmmm.....I think one juicy practical business dilemma for the MBA class!

And then there's the logistics of catering to masses on an island and getting fresh food supplies. Last year, on Brampton, we witnessed the weekly food delivery debacle on a small landing strip where the pontoon was supposed to offload trucks straight on land. It became the afternoon entertainment...5 vehicles stuck on the soft beach sand in the end and it wasnt until the bulldozer was hauled in that things got moving. Needless to say, after all that time in the sun, the salad was pretty limp for the next week!

Solutions anyone?

Abundance and shortage

2006-04-16T22:42:00.000+10:00

Funny how you don't enjoy the third piece of chocolate as much as the first..when its the same chocolate?In economics its called the law of diminshing returns...what a great descriptor.

And, if you're surrounded by the stuff, suddenly all desire wanes! I have the cure!!! Need to lose a few kilos? Throw out the celery sticks, no-fat cottage cheese and skinless chicken breasts and wheel in cupboards full of Easter eggs, hot cross buns and over-the-top verboten delicacies, stack them sky-high in your pantry, and in about 30 minutes, you will be craving the simple joys of a crunchy bland refreshing iceberg lettuce leaf! Yes, this is a live testimony from the Killian test-kitchen.

Yes, I am talking about another Easter Sunday. although i try to curb excess by ordering fewer and fewer chocolate eggs from the Bunny every year, there is an optimal number required to make for a decent hunt- and that's not two or three!

So...in an exercise to see in how many creative ways chocolate can be consumed, some eggs were nibbled from the ears down, others from the tail up, some melted over toasted hot cross buns and others dropped into hot milk. All this before the morning church service where the pagan ritual was merrily continued before and after the service with baskets of eggs for the flock.(slightly different bent to the bread and fishes parable!)

We needed all that good cheer to sustain us through another 4 hours at the hospital AGAIN with Daughter1's broken hand! The duty doctor did such a poor job last Thursday that by Saturday the whole thing was falling off. Luckily we saw a very competent lady doctor today who explained in fine detail why a fracture in scaphoied was so complicated and long-term risk if neglected. She took one look at the tomboy and went for the industrial strength plaster cast!

Even though we were all splattered in little white dots from the plaster exercise, it finished just in time for Easter Sunday dinner with my surrogate family in Australia...and a more colourful bunch you couldn't hope for! And yes, another egg hunt for the 20 odd grandkids and mine.

Dinner conversation over wonderful turkey with full trimmings was, as always in this household, very controversial and stimulating, in the wake of a newspaper feature article on the eldest son, and some rather outrageous journalistic vitreole- but that's the nature of politics. I can just marvel at the strength of that family to withstand so much and stick together...and my theory is that its the rituals that keep it together....these regular gatherings of the clan.

Mrs A is my heroine and whenever I am there, I secretly fantasize what my life might have been like if I wasn't the corporate high-flyer out of necessity, but a mother of 6 presiding over my brood and making a happy home for children and friends and grandchildren ...just like her. This is a much greater art and much more complex than any project I have ever undertaken in the world of work...and with much less thanks.

But thank heavens...there was no chocolate for dessert!

Looking forward - in turbo drive

2006-04-13T21:28:00.000+10:00

What do you need more than a hole in the head when its the day before Easter, you just got onto the freeway and you have back-to-back meetings booked all day? A phone call from the school to say that Daughter1 had a bad fall and may have broken her arm!

In moments like this, there is no point observing the niceties of traffic regulations. Your auto-pilot reaches for that Blackberry and the Executive Mother-in-distress kicks in....what do I juggle, who do I delegate and how the hell do you get off this frigging freeway anyway?

So...hanging onto my sense of humour, (because let's face it, with everything on my plate at the moment, a broken arm to boot is just God's way of telling me she knows what stuff I'm made of and she's just checking that I'm not getting slack!), I pick Daughter1 up and we set off for combat with the hospital system!(did I mention today was her last day at this school before she sets off on her New England adventure from Term 2?)

Won't bore you with the 4-hour wait....nothing happened anyway so nothing to tell! Except that the wait was ultimately worth it because she did break some carpal bones and had to have her hand set in plaster...not the fibreglass kind until we have been to the hand-clinic...AFTER our diving holiday on the Barrier Reef next week! Sigh...that holiday was booked ESPECIALLY for Daughter1 because she believes diving and snorkelling and fishing are the things she cant do because she doesnt have a father to do it with! Its going to be pretty interesting diving with an arm aloft in a plastic bag!

With the little medical drama over by2:30pm and Daughter1 delivered back to school in time for a surprise from her classmates, and not content with only one challenge in a day, I went to inspect another crummy joint to move into once my chicklets have flown the nest. This was a good thing, because it convinced me that the place I had fallen in love with ten days ago was definitely a must have (see pic!). So, I drove straight to the agent, got her to phone through my final offer and got acceptance on the spot. I am moving in on 6 May. (OOPS... forgot to tell them about the cat?)

So here's the runsheet for the next 21 days:

Easter weekend: Order bin for rubbish removal, sort the good stuff from the throw-outs, and assemble garage sale stuff in carport. Deal with visit from ex. Arrange Easter Egg Hunt and bake cake for Easter Sunday dinner with friends. Buy doonah, sheets, shoes, and other things for new school and wash and mark ALL clothing. Find someone to feed cat while on holidays.
Tuesday: All day director's meeting: Two project presentations to make, none of which I have started on (was supposed to do that today but see above...test-drove the health system instead!)
Wednesday 19 April: 6:30 am departure for Daydream Island. Do nothing for 6 days. Enjoy kids. Sip wine. Bake in sun. Read books. Go to bed at 10 pm, sleep till 10 am.
Wednesday 26 April: Attempt to get back into work mode (Work...that place you go to get money to pay bills)
Thursday 27 April: wipe out another day at hospital with Daughter1 at Hand Clinic
Friday 28 April: Speak at luncheon with 100 PR professionals
Saturday 29 April: Monster Garage Sale in collaboration with neighbours (as organised by self!). Book haircut for kids.
Sunday 30 April: Finalise packing of school stuff. Farewell lunch and friends all afternoon to say goodbye to Daughter1. Find place for Daughter2 to stay while away with Daughter1.
Monday 1 May: 6:45am flight to New England, buy uniforms, meet staff, have medical, settle Daughter 1, catch flight back, arrive 9 pm, collect Daughter2
Tuesday 2 May: Early wake-up to take Daughter2 to new school through worst traffic jam in Sydney via Spit bridge (Note to self: try the Cammeray rd instead). Pray to God for an answer in terms of after-school care!
Also: Meet student to be mentored as part of Lucy Mentoring Programme.
Wednesday 3 May- Friday 5 May: Drive between St Ives and Mosmania to school then dashing across the water by slow ferry to work. Attempt to have an impact by day while furiously packing up house by night
Saturday 6 May: MOVE! Leave the past behind and make a fresh start in my new home bathed in sunlight and 270 degree views all the way to Santiago!
Sunday 7 May: Start the day with a walk by the ocean at dawn....and start the rest of my life with less baggage and fresh hope!

Broken chip

2006-04-11T22:06:00.000+10:00

I wanted to write something for this blog tonight. But as it came out..... it was not happy and joyous and inspirational. So i deleted it. There is enough hurt and pain in the world without me adding mine to it. I have already contributed enough in my lifetime- and the sad fact is, I can undo none of that. And I can honestly say with clear conscience that I did not intend to hurt anyone.

I can only try to make this, and the next moment a positive one. Only do my best. Ask forgivenness from those whom I've wronged. And most importantly, forgive myself for my humanness.

Another life lesson

2006-04-09T23:26:00.000+10:00

Never wear good jewellery to the Royal Easter Show!

Come to think of it...why did I even bother to wear anything nice or make an effort with appearance when all that really counts on a day of parental torture and extortion is comfortable shoes and a fat wallet!

Its not like anyone else is dressed up....and if i didnt wear last year's bonus - beautiful big hooped 18 carat gold earrings, BOTh of them would still be snuggled safely in my jewellery box!

Nor is it a place to make an impression on a strong handsome farmer despite trying to smell like a farm sheila by stepping into a blob of warm cow poop at the Jersey Judging ring in a pair of high-heeled sandals! We toured all the animal husbandry halls, patted one-week old piglets and great big Limosin stud bulls, milked a cow or two and and even tried on a few Driz-a-bone oilskins - but not a single handsome farmer in sight! (Lots of short scrawny fellas with missing teeth and friendly smiles though....but while I still have teeth, I want a man with teeth!)

Come to think of it....the people at shows and places like that are often the most outrageous thing you see or remember! Every shape of the human form is represented. There is something quite universal about such attractions that seem to draw the same kind of crowd no matter where you are. Except for Disneyland, I have never in my life seen as many daggy people together (an just where DO all those ridiculously oversized bright stuffed animals end up?)

Mind you, EuroDisney in Paris was no better. That book "Why French women don't get fat" was all based on lies and clever marketing-the author clearly moves only between the 1st and thhe 15th arondissement of Paris, because on the outskirts and in suburbia, French housewives are no more slim and chic than the rest of the world's over-worked, under-pampered mothers! Vive la mama!

So, next year, if I fail to escape my annual fate as Showbags carrier and walking ATM, I will leave the glitz and glamour safely in the drawers at home and simply don a tracksuit and sneakers, along with a cushionfor those long waits while the kids get their adrenal glands pumping on the rollercoaster rides!

But its not all torture. The bus ride back home after the evening show in the arena is BLISS!

And...as I look back on our first show 7 years ago, pushing a pram with one hand and holding onto a wild and fearless toddler with the other, juggling nappy bags and bottles and marvelling at the excellent infrastructure at Sydney's Olympic Park for the needs of mothers with babies, and I look at how well-behaved and accepting of the words "no" and "Enough" those same two little people were today....it gives me a sense of having achieved SOMETHING!

Parenting can sometimes feel like a job that's never done...and it isn't....but its nice to be able to find some evidence occassionally that all your invested energy does not just evaporate into the ether.

Timing is everything

2006-04-06T21:51:00.000+10:00

Well...some people call it synchronicity...other's have a variation to "being in the zone"...but few of us can deny that sometimes, no matter how hard we try and slog away at something, it just doesn't budge, while other times...something that was deemed almost INSURMOUNTABLE! UNTHINKABLE! INCREDIBLE!...just comes together in a symphony.

Its both exasperating and wonderful....exasperating only because you wish you could simply pull the right strings to fast forward or reverse or change sequence around when things don't go the way you'd like them to go...and its wonderful when with little effort, and just an open and receptive mind, things come together in the most elegant way.

What am I talking about? Well...I have twice ended up in a relationship where timing sucked and the end-result was just heartache, so I'm still learning on that front! But presently, life is taking some hairpin bends around major decisions- like kids' schooling and a place to call home. And timing is of the essence!

This upheaval was all triggered by a simple phone call one Monday afternoon in March to a school I thought I'd never be able to send my daughter to because I believed it out of my reach. Sensing the thud on the other end of the phone must have been me falling off my chair with disappointment, the friendly registrar pointed out that they were doing selection interviews and scholarship exams that very weekend - and I'd be welcome to bring Viva (said daughter!) along for the ride if I wanted to! (The ride being a round trip of 1200 kms and 14 hours of travelling, mind you!) Of indecision and patience I can never be accused, and i agreed on the spot to do so!

M work schedule was crazy, couldnt get reasonably priced accommodation in the town, had to organise a babysitter for the cat and get enthusiastic about sitting in a car for 7 hours On Friday, and again on Sunday, with two small children who hate my taste in cds! But we went.

Well, that phone call changed our lives. Viva is off to that school less than 3 weeks later, with a parallel helix of change to my personal life and that of her sister.

Thinking outside of the usual square to reduce my outflows in order to finance this opportunity, I finally get the opportunity to move out of the 8-bedroom house I have been living in for nearly 6 years (at that time...it too was the right answer because as a new migrant to Australia, I didnt have work and ran a bed and breakfast service for the wave of South African migrants arriving in Sydney as a small business.)

The normal way of finding accommodation alternatives in this beautiful but pricey city of Sydney is to comb the rental classifieds and spend hours dashing between appointments on a weekend or attracting speeding fines after work. I did quite a bit of this. But then, I placed a "looking to share half a house" advert in the local newspaper, and low and behold...timing is everything again!

It just so happens that someone whose personal circumstances also changed dramatically fairly recently, was browsing that newspaper and bingo...we have two needs that co-incide. On the face of it, seems like a perfect solution for all....but will know after inspecting the property, a waterfront on the harbour in an exclusive address complete with private jetty! (I have plans B & C ready if A doesn't work out!)

Now...if only I knew what time my ship was coming in!

Time will be in pretty short supply in the next three weeks though....there's Easter, a holiday already paid for in Queensland, and a few big projects at work to commission whilst packing up house and kids all alone, moving, and sending one off to boarding school on 2 May!

But isn't change fun?

Early Easter gift

2006-04-04T22:40:00.000+10:00

When life gives you lemons...make lemonade they say. But what if life gives you chocolates? Share it around I guess?

Well here's what i found next to my bed as I woke up this morning. This was written by Iola, who, like me, gets carried away by special celebrations and rituals like Christmas and Easter and Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, etc and is always making up presents and special thingies weeks ahead of time.

This is called "EASTER POEM" by Iola, 8 years

This is a poem about my Mum
who I dont think has a big bum.
She's happy, she's funny,
she hugs me like a bunny
but dont get me wrong
she has her sides
mostly when she cries
with her big beautiful eyes.
I love you mum, I love you so much
I don't care if we live in a hutch.

The first step of a million word journey

2006-04-04T21:06:00.000+10:00

Well....on this 4th day of the 4th month in 2006, I'm finally crossing the rubicon from private thoughts to shared thoughts.

What tipped me over the edge? It was a snippet in todays Sydney Morning Herald about the Blooker Prize....the Booker Prize parallel for books which started life as blogs. It makes sense really...doing it this way. I have had several attempts at writing a book but somehow, thats just way too big a project and daunting ambition to tackle in the 7 and a bit minutes a day that I am not working for some shareholder, the taxman, the kids, the credit card company, the community or taking care of the essentials of living.

so, I figure if i can use those 7 and a bit minutes to write my thoughts down by blog entry, before I know it, I will be closer to my destination!

Now...all i have to figure out is....where is my destination?

Perhaps its best to observe a piece of cosmic wisdom....and just live in the moment...the here and now....go with the flow.....the theme will "emerge".....

Well....let's see what emerges.

I had a wonderful start to the day....dressed in sexy black top and pencil skirt and my new long black boots, with a cashmere tangerine wrap thingie and black fur trim, dropped the roof on the way to work, played sultry French music and sang at the top of my voice as I roared down the highway to work bathed in the champagne light of early autumn.

Now, how many people go to work in a mood like that, I ask you? So...the theme for today is giving thanks. Thanks to have an opportunity for self-expression through work and making a positive contribution to society in this way.

Thanks also for the great news I got from Iola's school teacher whom I met at 8 am and who told me that I have a delightful and very creative young daughter whose narrative style of writing and vocabulary is exceptional, who is socially well-adjusted and a popular choice in class when seats are swopped around fortnightly.

Thanks for colleagues and staff at work who are supportive, competent and capable and most of all- very likeable.

Thanks for the time I had tonight with the kids to call out their spelling and give them extra challenges as I chopped the green beans and peeled the butternut while the potatoes were boiling away and the chops grilling! I had fun too watching them struggle with the curved balls I made up, and then their eyes light up.

Thanks for the phone calls and msn chats I had from friends, far and wide, looking me up, checking to see I am OK.

Thanks for blogs like these that I can look up and re-read when I get the mutters and need to remind myself of how good things are.