Category Archives: Reflections

The Highlights of My 2011

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2011 has been a bittersweet year for me.  As I struggled to look for work, I was suddenly faced with something I had never had this much of before: time!  Time to do many things I had been putting off doing but was always too busy to do before.  Although the opportunities of the “paid” variety were lacking, I was also given opportunities to do other things that just may one day lead to a more fulfilling life.

And so, as another year draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on some of the things and events that have impacted me in whatever capacity.  Many have been happy but some, not so much.  So here we go…

Retiring Swans Co-captain Craig Bolton takes a lap of honour around the SCG

Footy Season

The year in AFL has been a mixed one.  My team, the Sydney Swans, spent most of their home games in Sydney playing in wet conditions, which means I spent a lot of time trying to stay dry in the stands.  With the well-respected Paul Roos now retired after a very successful 8 years in the senior coach’s position, the reigns were handed down to his former assistant, John “Horse” Longmire.  It had been six years since the Swans won a Premiership and with many of its Premiership players retired or retiring, many critics did not give the youngsters on the 2011 playlist much chance to make the finals series.  As usual, the Swans showed their “Bloods” spirit and proved the naysayers wrong and we made it as far as the second week of the finals, finishing sixth on the ladder.  Not a bad effort at all.  Go Swans!

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My Bucket List

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2011 was a bittersweet year for me.  As I looked for work, I was suddenly faced with something I had never had this much of before: time!  Time to do many things I had been putting off doing but was always too busy to do before, but also time to procrastinate and to keep putting off the things I had been too busy to do before.  Something of a dilemma, huh?

Ever since the Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman movie The Bucket List came out, everyone seems to be talking about their bucket list – a list of things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”. Whether you actively think about it or not, chances are you have one, even if it’s only a list you’ve been keeping mentally, in the back of your mind, but have never written down.

And so, towards the end of 2011, I tweeted to my Twitter followers asking how many of them have a bucket list.  A fellow blogger and “Collar”, Christine (you can find her blog at http://glassonionblog.blogspot.com/) and I agreed we would both publish our respective bucket lists. Continue reading →

Hugs and Kisses

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I stayed over at my sister’s house last night as she and my brother-in-law had a rare night out.  I was minding my nephew who has to be the easiest kid to babysit (once you’re used to his routines as if they’re the Order of Service at a wedding :)) and he asked his Mum, my sister: “Is Ah-yee (meaning your mother’s younger sister in Cantonese) living with us?”

Now, for those among you who are cynics, he wasn’t asking the question in a whiny way. He was serious. That was a precious moment – he wants me to be there all the time.  Ah, that is a proud aunty moment, for sure, and one that I will treasure for as long as I can before he becomes a grumpy teenage boy! Lol

After receiving a phone call last week from an old friend’s sister-in-law to inform me that my friend had passed away suddenly from a motorcycle accident, then attending his funeral 2 days later, I needed some good quality family time.  My friend was only in his mid-30s and has left behind a wife and four young children.

So I am keeping this short and sweet.  Go and hug (and maybe kiss – if appropriate :)) someone you love. Tell them you love them and show them you appreciate them for being in your life.

Do it.  Now.

If you ever need a reason or motivation to do it, just watch this wonderful video – Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University.  I have watched this a couple of times and have also read his book.  It is powerful stuff.

I love youse all! xox

Footy and Meat Pies

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I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

Australia: the land of kangaroos, koalas and deadly spiders.  Back in 1904, just three years after the federation of Australia, poet Dorothea Mackellar wrote what became an iconic poem entitled “My Country” to describe her love for her home.  I’m a far cry from being a poet and am definitely not qualified to criticise such a legend, but I think there’s a little something missing from Mackellar’s tribute:  Aussie Rules and Aussie meat pies.

OK, we can forgive her for not mentioning the pies…according to Wikipedia (don’t we all get our facts from there?) the Aussie meat pie originated in the early 1900s, so maybe Mackellar had not had the privilege of trying one when she wrote her poem.  But Aussie Rules football has been around since the 1840s!

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September 11: A Decade of Pain, Faith and Healing

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Everyone has a story to tell of where they were when a significant news event happened: I was late to school the morning I watched the Challenger explode shortly after blast-off  in 1986; I was with my Dad and brother-in-law buying a new air-conditioner the afternoon news broke that Michael Hutchence (lead singer of Aussie band INXS) was found dead in his hotel room in 1997; I was with my parents driving into the city as news trickled in with reports of the car accident that eventually took the life of Diana, Princess of Wales that same year.

Of all the global tragedies during my lifetime so far, there is no doubt the attacks of September 11, 2001, will forever be ingrained in my mind.  I remember, as if it was only yesterday, that fateful day when the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (WTC) came down after two planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into those buildings in the heart of New York City.

It was late at night in Sydney when the first plane flew into the North Tower.  I had been working on an assignment in my study. My TV was on in the living room – I was waiting for The West Wing to start.  It was nothing unusual that programs regularly did not start on time.  I kept going out to the living room every couple of minutes to check if the program had started yet.  At first, I thought the TV station had changed its programming to some late-night disaster movie when I saw smoke billowing from an office tower.  Then I realised it was “Breaking News”.

Like everyone else, I was stunned and horrified at what I was seeing.  There was no real explanation as to what was going on.  Reports told of a tragic plane crash – everyone thought it was an accident.  It had to be.  How else could you explain what had happened?

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