Jordandchan

AUSTRALIA DAY 2010…

ok - i admit it - i have a mild form of addiction to lawn bowls. it is sooooo much fun and its doesnt matter if you are crap at it - and you can drink while you do it AND its outdoors which is awesome (except for the 30 something degree days we have been having).
Anyhow - i was thinking about what we should do for our first australia day back in Oz and Lawn Bowls seemed the perfect activity. So i found the local bowling club and turns out they were having an australia day party day and for $10 we could bowl for a couple of hours and have lunch. it seemed too good to be true so we grabbed a couple of mates and headed off - and it was the most fun i’ve had in i dont know how long. we are all pretty amateurish but that made it more amusing and the 3 ‘oldies’ we were teamed with were so awesome - giving us lessons and trying to explain how to play properly. we ended our time at the club having lunch and shouting beers (they can really put them away!!) and then back to S&K’s place to enjoy their air con, the cricket and the hottest 100.

It was a perfect way to celebrate our freedom as Australians.

you can learn something new everyday…

i took a call at work from a very elderly gentlemen the other day. He wanted to get a phone number - i very rarely think about how to pronounce numbers - except for 0. some people cant hear or think you are saying um so i tend to pronounce it zero.
so i was reciting the number back to the gentleman with the last 4 digits being 0600.
i started to say zero six and was interrupted by him stating “no no love - we shot all of them down in the war”
i was a little confused but went on with the number - now saying it as oh-six-oh-oh.
once i’d hung up i googled zero and war.
turns out zero’s were the name given to japanese aeroplanes used in the war.
so i’d managed to offend a war veteran simply by giving him a phone number.

i will never get tired of listening to the older members of the population filling us in on things that they have seen and experienced - and i wont ever use the word zero when giving phone numbers to people anymore.

i have been emplyed for a whole year.

at least at this job i have - hard to know what possesed me into thinking it was a good idea to move countries and start work the week after but i did - so now i look back at the year that was at my current job.

its been an interesting 12 months here and im sure it will continue in that stead.

i have met some lovely people and some others but thats what office life is all about - sadly one of my friends from here will be leaving soon to go back to uni - we started on the same day.

im thankful to the people who keep me sane and for those who are teaching me about graciousness and humbleness… and i look forward to making a difference this year.

Things in life are rarely black and white. They are grey, with fuzzy edges.

This week has been a pretty fair indication of the dichotomy of what life has been like living back in Sydney. We are having dinner every night of this week with people - catching up with friends and family.

On the one hand this is what we came back for - to see those we love and be closer to them. But on the other hand we have gone back to a life that is busy, perhaps to the detriment of spending time together.

It’s really good, but also kind a bad. Like I said - grey with fuzzy edges.

today marks a whole year since we flew back into Sydney after our time away…

and what a year its been.

Are you a person who likes lots of choices? Or does it make life more difficult.

Frank Chimero has an interesting post over on his site talking about choices. In it he cites a study by Dan Gilbert that found people who made a decision about receiving something, with the knowledge they couldn’t change their mind or swap, were happier with their decision than those who knew they would have the option to swap.

Keep reading…

bentley will be feeling a little sorry for himself tonight…

Yesterday we took him to the vet for his ‘man operation’ as i like to call it. i know its the best thing to do and it will make him less feral (not that he is really) - but it still seems a bit mean.

i missed him last night not in the house so am glad we can pick him up today… the vet tried to convince us we might want more as they do animal rescue there as well and have kittens they need to find homes for.

hopefully he will be back to his usual self in a couple of days.

Sorry little man.

a thought on new years resolutions

Its that time of year when people start to make, break or forsake their new years resolutions. Sometimes making them last but most often not. What ends up being left is usually a culmination of past and present failures and the overwhelming feeling that you cant complete anything, that you have no self control and that trying to change isn’t worth the effort or the future hurt when you fail…
I know people who make resolutions so that their primary focus is to break it and not have to properly deal with the underlying issue (such as addiction) or to use it as an excuse to fail or bring down their peers (im not as strong as you). Others use them as a manipulative tool to coerce people into conforming to their way of thinking (lets both give up coffee) or simply to try and change behavioural patterns of people they know (don’t watch more the 1 hour of tv a day).
Some resolutions can be good (and achievable) but on the whole – people ultimately will attempt something that they know is beyond their control or reach.
Be realistic. Commit. Make it happen.

Our Christmas tradition for the last few years has been to share a bottle of wine and some nice cheeses.

This year we had to forego our usual tradition, sharing lovely meals with both of our families. In leu of our usual plans, Chan arranged for us to spend a day up in the hunter visiting some wineries and cheese shop.

We hopped on a bus from Central along with a few others and were driven up to Cessnock by our friendly driver Shane. We stopped of at the first winery and tried a few nice (and a few not as nice) glasses before heading off to the second winery. We were met at the Iron Gate Estate winery by the owner, a kindly older british gentleman. He came from a chemisty background and was explaining to us how it impacted his work. We had a great an interesting time there, and tasted some lovely and unique wines.

We had a brief stop for lunch before moving on to the Smelly Cheese Shop. Mmmmmm cheese. Needless to say, this was one of the highlights, trying some nice fettas and buying some other lovely cheeses.

Our final winery was a jovial affair, with many bad jokes, and more wine. Once we were done it was time to load back into the minibus and have a snooze on the way home.

It may be that we were spoilt by Waipara and Malborough, or the fact that neither of us are great red wine drinkers - but on the whole we weren’t that impressed by the wines. We tasted a few nice ones, but on the whole were a little disappointed.

That being said, we had a good fun day - I would thoroughly recommend it. (You can see some photos here if you want).

Now that I’m back at work. I will give you my holiday summary in single words and in no particular order.

church

presents

blakehurst

home

family

glazed ham

austinmer

shopping

friends

fridge

dvd player

bentley

avatar

fridge

lebanese food

hunter valley

halo

driving

exhausted