Back to basics

These days I am doing the weeding and seed planting. That involves a lot of miles on the road. Been to many industrial areas lately .... Dandenong, Hallam, Braeside, Rowville, Knoxfield, Kilsyth, Scoresby, Bayswater, Clayton, Thornbury, Heidelberg, Thomastown, Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Laverton, Derrimut, Truganina, Hoppers Crossing and the list goes on ....

I popped into Jean's Bakery Cafe in Braeside one morning for a cup of coffee and could not resist ordering a beef pie as well. I think I must have put on 1 to 2 kgs in the last few weeks .......

One thing I am 110% sure; there is no shortage of cafes in industrial areas!

Northcote has had a minor renovation done to remove the existing rear staircase and to have a new, more "wheelchair-friendly" staircase built. This time it incorporates a landing area and less steep steps.

Queen Victoria

Last Sunday we went to Queen Vic market to buy some seafood and fresh produce. It happened to be a "Festival Malaysia" at the market and there were some 20 stalls selling Malaysian/Indonesian food. There was a large crowd there being a Sunday and a bright sunny day.

This was the first time we experienced a Malaysian Festival in Oz. However the cultural exchange was limited to just the food...... I didn't feel much of a "festival" at all. 

We bought a Bratwurst and coffee for a brunch meal. Bananas were cheap that day, only $1.99 a kg for "lady finger".

New wheels

King of the roast

Darren Smith took me to this "King of the roast" in Clarinda one day when I went out to attend some sales calls with him in his area.

It was indeed some roasts! I ordered roast pork and he had roast beef. Aussies love their beef. I love pork crackling. The roasts were served in a huge quantity (one would say in huge truckloads), they were tender and juicy. DS gulped it down in less than 5 minutes whilst I struggled to eat it all. Best of all the roasts were only $7.50 each.

I said to DS, "Mate you sure eat fast!" and he replied' "I was in the real estate business and I learned to eat fast or else the food would be gone!"

DS's a nice chap, he worked as a butcher for 15 years and then spent 12 years in the real estate business. In the car he was calculating how much money that King Roast guy would be making a week....Tony the owner would use up to 1 ton (1000kg) of meat a week.

Find it at 111 Clarinda Rd, Clarinda (Oakleigh South) Tel 9551 8610

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It is the process of flying and the air journey that counts ....

LOOKING BACK ON ONE'S LIFE JOURNEY from time to time is always a good thing to do. It is in looking back and reviewing our life events that we derive personal satisfaction of knowing how we have fared on that section of the great journey. 

FOR ME IT'S LIKE FLYING FROM POINT A TO POINT B and I have done all my pre-flight planning of marking the way points on the aeronautical charts, working out all the flight time, fuel and heading requirements, getting the latest weather forecast and correcting my course for wind, and then off I go flying; believing that all my preps will work ....

And all along the flight route I will be looking out for my heading and compare that with my track made good, and making decisions to bring the airplane back on course when necessary. At the same time I have to be able to multi task cockpit activities such as looking out for conflicting traffic, taking care to avoid restricted air spaces, making a conscious effort to keep my heading and height, constantly calculating fuel and time spent; apart from the basic thing a pilot's got to do that is to navigate to my intended destination. From time to time I will look back to review where I have flown to make sure I am not boxed in by any weather should I need to turn back to base.....

AND WHEN I FINALLY LAND IN MY DESTINATION I almost always feel the immense satisfaction & elation of having done a good job of making a series of good decisions that enable me to get to that point. It is not to say that along the way I have not made mistakes or errors. I might have missed a radio call, I might not have spotted a nearby aircraft that I have to avoid, I might have been blown off course by wind before realizing I ought to do something about it.... But the main thing is I have made it to my destination and I have enjoyed the process of getting there.

In the analogy of flying I realize that the "process of flying" & "the air journey" are so rewarding to the man and his spirit; often times more enjoyable than reaching the destination. What I do and don't do in this process and journey have a 100% effect on the outcome (arriving at my destination).

          Process of flying

                     +

           Air Journey

                    =

           Satisfaction    >>>>>  Destination

Similarly, what I derive from my day-to-day life journey is more important than its destination. What I do and don't do in my life's journey have everything to do with my outcome in life.

I KNOW MANY PEOPLE DO THIS REVIEW CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY .....

From March 2008 till now I have had a tumultuous but interesting journey of sorts. At an age 4 months shy of 48 y.o. I was confronted with a stark reality that my life's "sabai sabai" or "que sera sera" attitude had come to an abrupt stop.

Bang! the phone stopped ringing, the laughter subsided, everyone had left the room, and the eerie quietness was deafening ..... .....   

When a man is faced with future uncertainties he either gets dragged down by the circumstances he is in or he rises above the ashes or he does nothing. It's the old adage of "yes, no or indifferent".

IN ANTICIPATION OF THE STORMS ahead of me I changed course and diverted for the relative safety of a calmer, smoother, more predictable flight path. During the process I deliberated, I agonized, I read widely, I prayed, I looked at my "aeronautical charts of life" and made a decision I would make the best of the diversion and find an alternate "destination of life" to land.

I dug deep.

It has been 1510 days, 36240 hours of life journey since I faced the storms of life that day .....

My "flight diversion" has not been an easy one.  Just when I thought I had dodged the storms there was another storm cell in my path, and another one, and another one .....

In those 1510 days I had to do so many things during the "diversion" exercise  - to work out fuel remaining in the tank, to peel my eyes out the windscreen for other possible threats (weather, aircraft, terrain), to fly the airplane and to find the next available safe landing area, . BUT I WAS REMINDED AGAIN AND AGAIN THAT it's the process of flying and that air journey that determine the outcome of the flight. Whilst I was on that life journey I made the most of it ...... I counted my blessings and enjoyed the good things and experiences that I could create for me, my friends and my loved ones.......

And now I am starting another distinct phase of my "air journey". A seemingly calmer, smoother path ahead is in view. But who knows what life will bring on the next section of my journey? Who can say that the flying weather ahead is better than the one I had traveled on?

THE ANSWER OF COURSE LIES IN THE LESSONS LEARNED. it is what I will make of my life journey that truly matters. After all, no matter whether it is storms ahead or it is the promise of a blue sky, ultimately it is the "process of flying" and the "air journey" that will count for me .....