If you don't like something, change it!

Just look at Kevin Rudd! He was sent packing three years ago when he was shown to micro-manage his staff and the cabinet and make all the decisions without really consulting anyone. What a huge blow to his ego to be sacked by his own ministers who accused him of all sorts of things relating to not being competent and capable of being a leader. His behaviour let him down. Have a look at this video. Its title is "Julia Gillard did not knife Kevin Rudd (he did it to himself)".

 

 

 

Of course, Rudd didn't like not being in the top job, he even wept whilst giving his farewell speech.

 

 

 

So what did he do? He changed it. He spent the next three years destabilising his own party, and therefore the country, so he could be the Prime Minister again. It took three goes, but he did it. He finally worked out how to get rid of Julia Gillard and did it. Take a look at how gracious she was in her speech, compared to the blubbering backstabber above.

 

 

I'm no fan of hers, but this is a very good speech. She showed a lot of class.

 

She didn't like what happened, but she is going to change it by doing something positive. She won't spend three years plotting her revenge, like her predecessor who is also her successor.

 

I don't like some things either, so I am going to change them. I can remember about 20 years ago when I was a school psychologist I couldn't stand the job any longer so I applied for other jobs and got lots of interviews. A lot of the teachers at the high school where I worked three days per week thought I was a real guru. They all complained about their jobs all the time, but none of them did anything about it. In the end I said to them, "if you don't like it, do something about it". I did, they didn't.

 

So, a friend and I started a business marketing management consultants, which has now been in operation for 19 years. I can't believe that it has been that long. Anyway, 19 years is a long time and now it is time to move on.

 

I don't like it anymore, so I am doing something about it. Some people complain all the time that they don't like the way things are going for them, but don't do anything about it. Well, what's going to change if you don't do something different? I am doing something about it. I am looking for a new role in the not-for-profit sector in an organisation that could gain some benefit from my skills.

 

Another interest that I have always wanted to have an on-line business. It has taken me two-and-a-half years to figure out what that might be, but now I have a fairly good idea of what I am going to do. Stay tuned!

 

What have you done to fix what you don't like?

 

 



Aging Parents

Now that I'm 50 something, my mother is 80 something and we both aren't getting any younger. She took herself off to Dallas, USA, about three years ago all the way from Perth, Western Australia. She is off on an adventure of sorts.

 

She lived in Bunbury, 160kms (100 miles) south of Perth, for 30 years. Her husband, Doug, was the most delightful man in the world and they used to travel quite a bit. Doug died about four years ago. About 15 years before that he started getting macular degeneration and didn't want to travel much anymore because he couldn't see well enough. My mother went on one or two small trips without him, but it wasn't the same. So now she is making up for lost time!

 

After Doug died she moved back to her house in Perth, but because she hadn't been living here for 30 years she didn't really have many friends. Also, the house is big with a lot of yard. She said she was lonely all the time - playing bridge online instead of going to a bridge club and playing with real people didn't help. We tried to get her to move to a retirement village, but she views those as 'old people's homes', like we all used to think of them 20 years ago. She was just not even going to think about it.

 

Cross to Dallas and where do you think she is living? A retirement village of course!

 

And guess what? She loves it!

Retirement village, Dallas, Texas

I couldn't help myself once when she came back here for a visit - I had to ask her "What's the difference between living in a retirement village in Dallas and a retirement village here?". She had to answer "Nothing". She just needed to get her head around it.

Now, here's the thing. She will be 84 in a couple of weeks and although she is fit and capable right now, it won't be long before she won't be able to do what she wants to do, or to be able to travel. That's right. Travel. She will need to come back here at some stage of the game, but will be have to be able to do it. She is starting to talk about IF she comes back here, and believe it or not, she doesn't want to live in her house. She wants to live in a retirement village. My how the worm turns!

The hard thing for us is do we insist that she comes back while she is able? Do we wait until she needs to be escorted? Do we bring her back in a body bag? None of this she is willing to talk about (not that we've broached the subject) but it is what we need to think about.

What do you think we should do?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



What is it with the USA?

Sorry, I haven't been paying attention to my blog as much as I should have done, but I'm back again now. I find I have less and less time to do things and I can't work out if it is because I am 50 something, busier than usual, or it takes me longer to do things. Maybe I'm just lazy!

 

Every time we hear of some outrageous thing from the USA (think massacres, think abductions, think gun control) I can't help wondering why they have got where they are. Why do people from the Middle East hate them so much? Why would anyone hate anyone else that much?

 

And then why would they shoot each other? I went to the USA last year and the very first day that I was there was the day of the massacre in the movie theatre. A few days later was the Sheik massacre at one of their temples. There have been a few more since then, the latest being the bombing during the Boston marathon.

 

We see on the news how some part of the US government is trying to strengthen gun control laws, but other parts don't want to. Then there is the NRA, who says that it's not guns that are the problem, but people. From my point of view, if people didn't have guns, then they couldn't shoot other people, in other words, no guns equals no massacres.

 

I gather that the NRA is a very powerful organisation and they are fighting for their lives. I came across these videos of a comedian comparing gun control in the USA and in Australia.  Have a look. They are very good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you think about those? I think they say it all! I'd be interested to hear what you think.

 



How embarrassing!

What an embarrassing week for Australia this has been. The political party (Labor party) that is supposed to be running this country is doing anything but that. They are fighting amongst themselves and knifing each other in the back.

 

I thought we elected governments, not that this mob was elected but that's a different story, to provide good governance, infrastructure etc and to govern for the long-term good of the country. Not this government. Their main concern is to maintain office for themselves and to run over whoever they have to to remain in office. I am sick to death of seeing reports of parliamentarians feeding some self-serving interest rather than being there for the good of the country.

In this video Julia Gillard says that they are leading for the good of the nation. I don't think so! Julia Gillard is leading for the good of Julia Gillard. A member of her own party, Kevin Rudd, has been actively destabilising her leadership from the very day that she staged a coup to divest him of the leadership. Ever since the Labor party was elected with Kevin Rudd as the leader they have been there for their own sakes and not with the interests of the country in mind. They just want to be in power and to be remembered by history.

 

Well, guess what? This mob will be remembered for all the wrong reasons - infighting, disloyalty, treachery, you name it.

 

It is so very embarrassing. What must the rest of the world think?

 

Actually, I think I'd rather not know.

No respect

It's confirmed! It's not just me! I thought that maybe I had become intolerant now that I am old (over 50), but it seems that lots of people are feeling the same way.

 

I know it's easy to say "we weren't like that" when we see young people misbehaving themselves. No-one seems to respect anyone else these days, especially it seems young people. They think that they should be on show all the time and that they can do what ever they like, even if it affects other people. Getting falling down drunk seems to be what you do these days. Sure, we got drunk, but not falling down drunk. Here's a case in point - two girls who have lost control because they are too drunk. They seem to think it's funny, but it has caused a lot of people in Perth to agree with the man who tried to stop them. Have a look....

 

 

 

Lots of people, me included, think that this man should be congratulated. We have lost tolerance with people who have no respect for anyone else.

 

Why is it that no-one seems to respect anyone else these days? It's not limited to young people. I don't know how many times an old granny has deliberately run into me with her trolley at the supermarket. Or people driving aggressively to gain one car's length. Or cases of road rage. The list is endless.

 

Is it because there are many more of us squashed into the same space? Maybe parents these days don't teach their kids manners. Maybe they think it should be the schools that teach social skills and manners. Maybe it's because kids don't learn social skills because they 'connect' with each other online and rarely go out and play when they're younger, or just go and hang out with each other when they are a bit older.

 

Who knows? I just wish that everyone had more respect for each other.

 

I'm interested to hear what you think.

I'm back

I can't fit into the day all the stuff that I used to. That's why I've been gone for quite a while. Is being 50 something to do with it? I don't think I am trying to cram more things in, but maybe I am.

 

What kept me very busy for the first two months of this year was the Rottnest Channel Swim. It happens during the last weekend of February every year. We have about 2,300 swimmers and about 10,000 spectators on the day. Some watch the start at Cottesloe

Beach, some are crew members on boats and some go to Rottnest Island to see the swimmers arrive.

 

Some solo swimmers ready to start. The lights in the background are their support boats.

 

 

I was the race director, which is a position that has responsibility for everything on the day. The buck  stopped with me! It involved a lot of meetings for the few weeks before the swim and maybe because I am well and truly over 50, I would just get home and not want to do anything else! Is it just me?

 

There is only one red T-shirt and it belongs to the Race Director - me!

 

 

I have researched being permanently tired and have found that it can be due to any number of things. Working long hours, then having meetings out of hours and trying to keep up my swimming training probably didn't help. Also, the stress of the week before the swim - the weather was really bad and I might have had to cancel the whole thing!

 

Imagine that - 2,300 swimmers who have been training for the better part of a year let down by the weather at the last minute. That is not to mention a few hundred international and interstate swimmers who have travelled a long way to participate in the swim. The swim has been cancelled only once before, and it was me who cancelled it. The weather was so bad that no-one complained about the cancellation. Some swimmers who had travelled from Japan were very nice and said that is the risk of open water swimming.

 

Anyway, all my thoughts were consumed by that and there was no space in my head for blogging or doing the assignments that I was meant to be doing for an online course (big mistake - I need the motivation of having to go to a class everyweek otherwise I don't do what I am meant to do. Anyone got any suggestions?).



We lost a remarkable Australian

What makes people what they are? Some people rise to challenges and do great things. Others do wonderful things without the initial challenge and some end up in a life of crime, or just struggling to get along. Is it our upbringing? The country we live in? The experiences we have? Or maybe just in our nature.

 

A few weeks ago, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch died at age 103. She truly was a remarkable Australian. I think she was probably our biggest philanthropist, but she alway said that anyone could give money, you have to do something too. She mentions this in the video below.

 

 

Dame Elizabeth was born into a privilaged family, went to a private boarding school and in 1928 married quite young to a much older man. This man was Sir Keith Murdoch a successful businessman. Unfortunately, he died in 1952.

 

Dame Elizabeth had already started her life of philanthropy before she got married. In fact, in the video above she says that it was at age 16 that she went to a children's hospital and was so upset by it, she felt she had to do something. Click here for more information.

 

She could have given up and mourned her husband for the rest of her life, but instead, she devoted herself to the service of others. Every video clip I have seen of her she is always smiling and laughing.

 

Maybe she had a very long and successful life because she was always happy and positive and she was serving others, not always receiving from others.

 

I read once that there are three things that people need to live a happy life. The first is to have something or someone to care for, the second is to have something to look forward to and I can't remember the third. Please let me know if you know what the third one is.

 

Back to us - do you have someone or something to care for? Do you have something to look forward to? Do you help others? Do you look on the bright side of things? I am looking forward to receiving your thoughts.





It's been one year

One whole year since I moved into my new house. When I got to be 50 and then over 50 I thought the time had come to demolish my old house and build a new one.

 

I had planned to put a picture of the old house here and the new one lower down, but the add photo function is not working! Sorry.

Houses are like relationships and just about everything else in life. They need work. I bought the original house about 25 years ago and had always intended to demolish it and build a new one. Because of this, I didn't do the work or maintenance on it that I should have. In the end I had to knock it down - only one hotplate on the cooktop worked, the hot water system broke for the third time in as many months (I didn't bother fixing it up in the end), the plumbago in the front yard had invaded the roof tiles and there was a big hole in the ceiling in one of the rooms! Clearly, a very unloved house.

 

So, it was time to start again. I had been designing a new house in my head for just about all of the 25 years before I demolished the old one, so I took this to a designer who turned it into something really good. Then I found a builder, built the house and moved in one year ago today.

 

Moving in doesn't mean it is finished. There are still quite a few things to do, for example, put vents in the roof to let all the hot air out and to connect the airconditioner up properly. I just have to keep on at the builder to make sure he finishes. I have heard that builders often forgo their last payment, because it is not worth finishing for them.

 

Back to relationships - I have made sure that I have a very good relationship with my builder so that he actually WILL finish, although things have been moving at glacial pace since I moved in. He keeps on saying he will do things, but keeps on putting them off.

 

I think now is the time to start ringing him every few days to keep him on task, but then again I have to do that while not losing his good will. I know he likes me and likes to meet, so that is one way to keep him on task. Then again, maybe he keeps drawing it out so we can meet more often!

Hot, hot, hot

How hot can it be? We've just had almost a week of more than about 37 degrees here (more than about 100F). That's hot!

Christmas Day was very hot and I was very lucky to be able to spend it in an airconditioned house!

For those of you who don't live in Western Australia, here is how lots of us start each Christmas Day. We go to the beach, have a glass of champagne with breakfast and cool off in the water. Marvellous!

It was very hot all the way through to New Year's Day. I survived in my beautiful new house with the airconditioning on. I am a bit worried about my next electricity bill! Still, it was beautiful inside and like a furnace outside. I read several books. The first and second best was "Catch Me" by Lisa Gardner. It is about a woman in her late 20s who approaches Dective DD Warren to find her killer - she is going to be murdered in four days' time. DD Warren becomes involved and tries to work out who it will be. It was riveting reading! I couldn't put it down.

Then there was "Oh Dear Sylvia" by Dawn French. It was a total change of pace - a little bit of humour, a little bit of nastiness and a lot of discovering that Sylvia was a multi-layered person, who in the end did things for the right reason. It made me think of why people do things and sometimes everyone else thinks that what someone else does is wrong, or mean, or horrible, but there may be a reason behind it that is none of those things.

Next was another dectective mystery by John Connelly called "Burning Soul". This one was about a man called Randall Haight, who had been jailed for murder as a 14 year old. He and a friend had murdered a 14 year old girl and now in the town he lives in another 14 year old girl has gone missing. Someone is sending him photos of the barn where they killed the girl and his secret is now out. Detecitve Charlie Parker has to find out who is sending the photos and who took the girl. Was it Randall Haight? This one only took a couple of days to read, it was so good. I find I always rush through good books like this because I want to find out what happens, but then I get let-down when I finish, because there is no more to read.

After that I went to the library and found another Lisa Gardner book entitled "Love You More". Boy! How good was that? Even better than the first one. I only took about a day to read this one. A mother (a State Trooper near Boston) witnessed the murder of her husband and at the same time found out that her four year old daughter had been kidnapped by the same people. To save her daughter she must confess to the murder! This book too shows that the things people do may not be for the reasons that we think. Detective DD Warren and her partner have to find out why she killed her husband. Towards the end they realise that maybe she didn't and they have to work it all out,

Yesterday I read "Old Filth" by Jane Gardam, which is about a retired international lawyer with a practice in Hong Kong. He was a Raj Orphan, a child born to English parents in the Far East and then sent back to England at the age of about four or five to be fostered and educated. It was a lovely story and completely different from all the others that I had read. I liked his name Old Filth because it stands for Failed in England Try Hong Kong! There is another book from his wife's perspective, "The Man in the Wooden Hat". I haven't read that one yet.

Every Christmas we have two weeks off work and every year I tell myself that I am going to do all sorts of things around the house and every year it is too hot so I just read lots of books. At least I enjoyed myself!