Greetings truth seekers,
I hope this message find you all happy and well. Here is my latest blog posting for those of you who like to keep up with what I have been doing lately. It's a long one so you might want to get a cup of tea and put on your slippers before you settle back for a read. I hope you enjoy "Tales of Asia - Part 6 - Lost in Melbourne, Australia"
Recently, I made a quick trip back home to Melbourne, Australia to visit my family, my business and my friends for one week. The motivating factor in my quick trip was a car accident that my daughter recently had and also because my son was having a birthday. I decided not to tell anyone that I was coming down to Australia for the quick visit as I wanted to see the looks on their faces when I turned up unannounced.
Leaving Hong Kong International Airport on the evening of Friday the 28th of April 2006, the plane made a quick stopover via Singapore's Changi airport on the way to Australia arriving on Saturday morning the 29th of April.
It would not be fair of me, having been through Singapore's airport five times in the last six months, not to say something about this beautiful island country. The Republic of Singapore is an island city-state and the smallest country in Southeast Asia. It is located on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula south of the Malaysian state of Johor, and north of the Indonesian Riau Islands. The site of several ancient port cities and a possession of several empires in its history, Singapore was a Malay fishing village when it was colonised by the United Kingdom in the 19th century. It was further occupied by the Japanese Empire in World War II, and was later part of the merger which formed the Federation of Malaysia. More than 90% of Singapore's Chinese, Indian and Malay population lives in housing estates constructed by the Housing Development Board and nearly half uses public transport . Singapore is a clean, safe place to visit, its amenities are second to none and its public places are smoke-free and hygienic. Much of the country's fascination springs from its multicultural Chinese, Indian and Malay population. The entire state is compact enough to be explored exhaustively in just a few days. Forming the core of downtown Singapore is the Colonial District , around whose public buildings and lofty cathedral the island's British residents used to promenade. Each surrounding enclave has its own distinct flavour, from the aromatic spice stores of Little India to the tumbledown backstreets of Chinatown where it's still possible to find calligraphers and fortune tellers, or the Arab Quarter whose cluttered stores sell fine cloths and silks. Singapore is just 136km north of the equator, which means that you should be prepared for a hot and sticky time whenever you go there.
After arriving at Melbourne Airport on the Saturday, I spend the rest of that day relaxing at my home in Coburg and trying to get my cat, Stussy the Incredibly Amazing Wondercat to remember who I was. I had thought when I arrived home that there would have been one of those " slow motion, slightly out of focus, people running towards each other on the beach, arms open" moments, but Stuss merely glanced in my general direction before turning and walking away. Stuss is 15 years old now and has been a constant companion of mind all of her life. Being in her elder years I guess it is little wonder that memory sometimes slips away. Before I came to Hong Kong last December, I had to make sure that somebody could move into my house and live there so that the cat could continue to live in a manner that it had become accustomed to, like a queen. I think the old saying " dogs have owners, cats have servants" has some validity to it, don't you?
On the Sunday I went over to visit my daughter Alana in the afternoon. I had previously told Alana that a guy would be coming over to her house that afternoon to look at her damaged car. Can you imagine the surprise on my daughter's face when she opened the door and he was her dad standing right there in front of her. My ex-wife Susan was also there, so soon we were all sitting around the kitchen table having a nice chat and catching up on recent events. My daughter had mentioned that she missed me and I know that I missed her as much as I did my son and it was very important for me to go back to Australia to see both of them.
Later that evening, I pulled a similar stunt on my son when I rang him from the driveway of his house using my Hong Kong cellphone. My son Dylan thought I was calling from Hong Kong and so I engaged him in conversation while, at the same time, I knocked on the front door of his house. His girlfriend Carla opened the door and let me in without my son knowing. Can you imagine his surprise when I asked him via my cell phone as to who was visiting him at that time of the night and he turned around and I was standing there right in front of him.
A similar situation occurred on the Monday when I dropped into my office unannounced. I didn't tell them that I was coming, not because I wanted to see what they were up to when I wasn't there as I trust my staff implicitly, but I did want to see the looks on their faces when I just walked in. I must admit that I was extremely pleased about the reactions of I got from my staff members and it was an absolute delight to see them all again. I am very fortunate to have the type of staff members that I do. They are all completely trustworthy and professional in every way. They run our company as if that was their own and take ownership and pride in everything that they do. I know that when I am in Asia that the business in Australia is in very capable and safe hands.
On the Tuesday I was pleased to accept a lunch invitation from my friend Mark Navin. Mark is a chiropractor and I first met him a few years ago when he started doing adjustments on my spine, hips and neck following some physical damage that I had caused to myself. As with anyone that I would see every fortnight for 13 years, the nature of my association with Mark has turned from a professional service to a great friendship. Mark is one of those really decent and nice guys who lives a fulfilling and wholesome life and who it is a pleasure to know.
On Wednesday, I was thrilled that some of my musical friends accepted an invitation for a rehearsal at my sound stage in Brunswick. The band was made up from a number of people from various bands including the Screaming Teabags, Don't Fret, Time Warp and Loose Connections. Players included accountant and businessman Mark Bailey on lead guitar and backing vocals, lawyer extraordinaire Joe Forlano on bass, IT specialist Greg Hayward on percussion and backing vocals, trainer Dennis Syrett on drums, and myself on the rhythm guitar, slide guitar and vocals. Songs done on the night included Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Mary Had a Little Lamb, a funked up version of John Fogarty's Fortunate Son, our favourite Paul McCartney song No Other Baby, Stephen Stills Love the One You're With, Drive by the Cars, and finishing off with a very loud and piercing Choirboys tune Never Gonna Die. As the main vocalist in most of these numbers it was little wonder that I can hardly talk on Thursday which was probably a blessing in disguise for some people.
The guys that I played music with are part of an organisation called Weekend Warriors. Weekend Warriors seeks to nurture mature age musicians back into playing music live with other like-minded musicians. A couple of years ago an association was formed and was named Warriors Victoria and I was pleased to be the inaugural president for the first couple of years. Although I step down some months ago as the President, I am happy you continue my involvement by being the Webmaster and maintaining the website. I am also pleased to say that this year Warriors Victoria held another Good Friday appeal concert for the Royal Children's Hospital and was able to raise $1120.00. For more details of Weekend Warriors and Warriors Victoria please refer to the website at
www.warriorsvictoria.com
Thursday was a fairly laid-back day and in the evening, following a spinal adjustment by my friend Mark at the Hartwell Chiropractic Clinic, I was able to catch up with some friends in Burwood and spend the evening there. Those of you who understand the saying "I'm a friend of Bill Wilson's" will know my type of friends.
Friday was similar to Thursday, just catching up on most things before having dinner with my Chinese friends Sam and Lucy Han in Victoria Street Richmond. I have known Sam for about nine years from the time he originally started supplying computer equipment to my then fledgeling business in Brunswick. Over the years Sam's business, SPC Consulting located opposite Barkly Square in Brunswick, has continued to supply my business with computer equipment and we have formed a lasting friendship. In recent years same married Lucy who is also a delightful lady. I am happy to report that at the time of writing this blog entry that Lucy is around five months pregnant and everybody is looking forward to the arrival of a healthy baby sometime in August.
Saturday came around far too quickly for my liking. I had not caught up with as many friends as I had wished to, but I had really enjoyed the time that I had spent at home in Australia. I really do feel fortunate to have friends and people in my life like Melissa Ding who has taught me so much in the last 12 months and been such a great friend, Dennis Syrett who is looking after my house, friends like Nick Dwyer, Peter Jones, Alexandria and Spiros my Greek housekeepers, all my friends in Melbourne, my new friends in Hong Kong, a great team in my office in Melbourne and, well, and just everyone.
On Saturday night I was able to catch a quick dinner with my friend Peter Jones who had visited me in Hong Kong recently before heading out to the airport and getting on the plane to come back to Hong Kong again via Singapore.
Arriving back in Hong Kong at midday on Sunday and having had very little sleep on the plane, I was glad to have a couple of hours sleep in the afternoon before heading back out to the airport to meet my friend Hugh Kilpatrick who had come to stay with me for a few days. Hugh had been in Singapore for a conference and had a couple of days to spare and thought it might be nice to come and visit me. Hugh is also from Melbourne and I met him when I trained him to be a crisis counsellor at Crisis Line\CareRing back in 1998. Hugh and I became good friends after that training session and it was a delight to have been here in Hong Kong. He was more interested, like myself, of being immersed in the culture rather than going around doing tourist type activities. I was pleased to be able to take Hugh into Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan and Olympic. His couple of days were over far too quickly and by the time that I accompanied him out to the airport on Wednesday morning for his trip back to Australia.
After Hugh left I needed to catch up on the music course that I had been doing. Some of you may remember me mentioning in an earlier blog posting that I had been doing another online music course from America. While I had been away in Australia and while Hugh had been visiting me, I had not been able to undertake my music course so this week on Thursday I knuckled down and did two weeks of course study and eight musical assignments in one day. The assignments involved me having to play guitar and record myself, and then send those assignments off to America for assessment. You might imagine how relieved I was at the end of the day when it was all over. Phew.........., long day.
And so this brings me up to the present, of Friday 12th of May 2006. I am currently exploring travel arrangements for Japan and Vietnam and hope to go there in the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be a Tales of Asia about those adventures in coming weeks.
In closing, I wonder how many of you know that for many years I had a chronic fear of flying. Admittedly, I had always been a little bit anxious about flying but, following an incident on an airplane coming out of Sydney back in September 1995 on my way back to Melbourne, that really cemented my phobia and I thought that I would never fly again. It's really amazing how after a long time and lots of effort, some neurolinguistic programming, some hard work on my part, the support of good friends and a firm belief that one day things would again be fine, I am again able to fly. On my last trip to and from Australia and I couldn't wait for the plane to take off and get up in the air. Most of my former fears have gone and I only experienced the normal anxiety that any person might feel being in a strange and unfamiliar situation from time to time. Many of you may think this is nothing, but to me this is an absolutely amazing experience, to be able to travel and not be trapped in one country. My message to anybody out there who suffers from any type of anxieties or phobias about anything is that if you just keep chipping away at your phobia and couple that with a belief that one day things will be okay and, well .....one day things will be okay. That has been my experience anyway, so I hope that's helpful to some of you readers out there.
Bye for now. Take good care.
Alan
