Monday 22 June 2015

Juggling...

Learning how to Juggle... I'm not quite sure how this one got on the list but it may have something to do with at every Christmas dinner we have every year, our family friend Guy has a new and improved skill to treat the kids with... this last year it was a magic show, and even my Gran was impressed... Ha.
So to learn how to juggle was the trick as he has not done this before.  Did you know that juggling can be perfomed with just 2 balls?  That is officially juggling?  Well it is.  I bought a set of juggling balls (made up of 3 balls) - I have practiced on and off for the last 6 months (to be honest it was more on than off) but in the Margaret River I seem to have found my groove... most potentially never to be repeated again... but I do have a non-biased witness and adjudicator and the task has been passed!!


Tess

My Granddad "Da" gave me a book in 1986, Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles', and it has sat on my bookshelf since then un-read.  I think I tried to read it once but the language was a little to old-worldy for me and I just didn't get it. 

Having read it now, I probably wasn't ready for it as an 11 year old.  I actually just read it in around 5 days... I must say it is an amazing book although I was right in saying it is oldy-worldy... a lot of words ran past me and I think I need to read it again to pick up on a lot of other things in the story that I probably missed reading it so quickly.  It is a tragedy and I can understand why it is a classic. 

Definitely a great read for any girl / woman and guy (in fact the guy I sit next to at work read it twice in high schoold for English) and don't let the old words put you off... this book started as a series of newspaper submissions from the author that he peiced together for the book... a mish mash of quite a few chapters that he designed - it did all flow together nicely.

 

Wednesday 17 June 2015

The Overhaul

My bedroom has been a shambles for a very long time... since I was a child really and into my teens and now my adult life as well.  I often don't let my friends into my room as it is quite messy.  Not dirty or dusty (I have a cleaner who does all that), but cluttery - lots of old paperwork around, clothes that I don't wear, the usual suspects.

So the task was to tidy, clean and organise the bedroom.  It has taken a few sessions to do so, but I am now very happy with the result!

Before and after shots:


Tap-tap-tapping

I thought this was the task that  I had failed and had originally posted this to be so.

I bought a ticket to the Sydney Dance Company which you can  use at any time within 6 months. And of course I have left this task right until the last minute and the last possible night I had available to go to a lesson I missed getting into it...

So I still have the ticket and it is still valid so I will make it to a class in July instead... just not before I turn 40.

However I have just been spending my last couple of days in my 30's in Margaret River in Western Australia and I completed an online Tap For Beginners course during this time!  So in fact I have completed this task now....

 

Paying it all off

For this task I had to pay off the below big ticket items which have all been successful!
Car Loan - I sold my car!  So the loan got paid off :) and now I am on a new plan where I lease my new car and save money doing so.
Credit Card - luckily for me I got a bonus at my new job this year which means a portion of it went straight onto the credit card to pay it off.
Flights to Hawaii - the same bonus gave me enough money to pay for my a large proportion of the Hawaii trip I am taking later this year in September (including airfare, hotel accommodation, car rental and race fees).  The only thing it doesn't cover is shopping!! Although I haven't purchased the tickets as yet, the money is set aside in the Hawaii fund.

Task complete!

Moving canoes

This task has been a long time coming. I have been President of my paddling club now for 3 seasons and at the start of that term we lost the spot where we had been storing and launching our canoes from for around 10 years!  

So many members of the club and myself set to work with the City of Sydney to get a storage spot at the new site once built.  They had been proposing a foreshore walkway for a number of years and finally it was coming to fruition.  

Photos below are of the opening day at the foreshore where the club was invited and well represented at the racks, handing out flyers etc.  And we got to meet the Mayor.  

I am pleased to write that I received last week confirmation and a contract advising we had been successful in obtaining storage for our canoes back over at the site!  Move day hopefully at the end of the month cross fingers!  

A really big thank you has to go out to everyone at the club, both past and present, who helped at some stage to make this happen...



Tuesday 16 June 2015

Being a Vego

My sister Jacqui suggested this one... to be Vegetarian (including no seafood) for a month.  So for the last 31 days I have done so.  

I left this one to the last minute as we had a lot of racing to do from February to April so I decided to do it after that.  Being Vego is hard!  

Because I do so much exercise I had to really think about what I was eating to make sure I got enough of all the food groups to help aid in my recovery, particularly iron and protein. I did make some yummy food at home to keep my going and Cath and I discovered an awesome Vego restaurant just next to her house.  We went to a cool Indian place in Perth and found one in Sydney as well. 

However, I have decided that I will go back to eating meat and seafood... I missed it all too much and had a lot of food envy moments.  I still love eggplant which is good because I ate a lot of it, and eggs.  

Bacon is very high up on my agenda to be eaten very soon..... Fakin' Bacon unfortunately tastes nothing like the real thing.....  One thing I have noticed is that when you eat out and are vego, more often than not you are offered white pasta or lentils, so I have spent much of this month bloated!  Ha.

Pics are of a couple of yummy meals I ate as a Vego who is looking forward to being a meat eater!



Ringing Gran

My Gran lives in New Zealand and she just turned 93.  I decided that I don't call her enough so this task was to call (or Skype) her every month.  My Uncle's Skype unfortunately is not working so calling it was.  I did miss out on one Month (February) but did call twice the following month!

I will definitely be keeping up doing this one...


Roar & Snore

Taronga Zoo is a fantastic zoo - it not only is on prime real estate and has the most amazing views of Sydney city, the zoo itself is a great organisation.  

I experienced this first hand with Cath and Caitlin at our recent Roar & Snore adventure... we arrived at the zoo having taken the ferry after work at around 6:15pm. Met with the group and our leaders for the night and the we went for a walk (it was dark!) around the zoo to the camping area which turns has fantastic views.  The official part of the evening starts with cheese and wine, a look at some animals, a great dinner and a night safari.  Then you sleepover at the zoo (woken in the middle of the night by some monkey like animal noises) glamping style.. luckily for me my camp bed had an electric blanket.  

We woke to an awesome sunrise over the harbour and then breakfast and then onto our close encounters where we fed the giraffes breakfast, had a local native animal petting encounter and watched the new seal show training.  

I had to go to work after that but everyone has the option of staying at the zoo all day - and you get 30 minutes of the zoo all to yourself before the masses enter.  What a great experience and well worth the money that goes straight back into the zoo!


the Big Issue...

This is another one of my charity tasks.  I had to by a copy of the Big Issue every month.  It gets published every month and is sold by people who do not have a job and they get the profits of selling the magazines.  

What ended up being my main challenge was being out on the streets when the magazine was being sold!  Recently I have been going into work quite early (before the guys are out selling) and rushing home after work to get to training on a route that doesn't have anyone selling them!  But I have now found a couple of guys that I like to buy from and will continue to buy the magazine when I can.  

It is actually quite a comprehensive magazine full of good articles and well worth buying.  A great initiative and a great publication.


10 Chin Ups??

Chin ups are quite hard for girls, especially taller and bigger girls - there is a lot of weight to lift up! 

2 years ago I did my first unassisted chin up but never really got very far with the development of them. Even though I loved being able to say I can do chin ups, the most I could ever do was 2 or 3 in a row, then I would have to stop and regroup and then do 1 or 2 more, and never really more than around 5.  So I set this challenge to do 10 unassisted chin ups.  

I actually didn't start training for this properly until mid-April when most of our racing season was out of the way and I was able to fit a 2nd and 3rd gym session in (before then I had been running as well as doing both DB and OC and I was finding it hard to do more than 1 gym session a week).  So with the additional sessions under my belt, my improvement curve went up fairly quickly. 

With adjudication of my awesome PT Alani, who helped me get there, I have successfully completed this task!






Monday 15 June 2015

Learning impossible new skills

I have never been able to click my fingers or whistle, not properly.  Sure I can do it, but not with any solid or audible sound, every time, consistently.  I have discovered however since revealing this lack of skillset that there actually are quite a few people who cannot do this. And there are people who cannot wink.  So I don't feel so alone.

However much I tried to improve my skills in this area over the last few months, all were to no avail - I still can't do it. 

We worked out what I do wrong with my clicking (it's all in the technique), but I can't change it - I cannot change my hand, my fingers, or my thumb so clicking is just a skill I will continue to live with limited abilities.  Whistling is the same - if I concentrate hard and be patient, I can whistle.  But I cannot carry a tune and no matter how much I tried I still could not improve (I would say it would take years, not just a couple of months).

So the co-creators of 'The List' came up with a replacement challenge of their liking (my friend Cath is currently in protest about this)... To perform a short skipping routine in front of a small audience.  We did an OC1 session on Saturday morning out around the Sydney headlands which was great and afterwards a small group of friends stood around and watched my do a short skipping routine.  Some of it was captured on video and some photos as well... it was pretty funny.

(Warning: video contains coarse language, parental guidance is recommended): https://vimeo.com/130607786


Tennis anyone??

I played tennis a lot when I was growing up - mainly in Hong Kong at the Ladies Recreation Club (LRC) where I spent many a Saturday morning playing with my friends.  I was good at it, not great but good enough to play a couple of games, have long rallies and win shots.  I could serve, volley, and I always hit straight shots (never spinning the ball at all).  

So I discovered that a couple of my friends here play tennis semi-regularly!  So I asked them for a game.  Adrian set up the court and on a lovely winter's morning we played a game.  Hit the ball around for a bit of a warm up, chose our teams and then played a set and a bit.  It was great fun!  It all came back to me after a while too.  I think we all produced some winning shots, we all hit a ball over the fence by accident and we all had fun.

Followed by a recovery breakfast, what a great way to spend the morning, I think I might do that again!


Giving Blood

It has been around 14 years since I have given blood - for around 3-4 years I was a regular donor and then stopped for some reason (can't remember why).  There is a Red Cross near my office and so I decided to start donations back up again.  Compared to before, I don't smoke and I do a lot of exercise so I figured my recovery would be a little different but wasn't sure.

My first attempt to donate again unfortunately did not go ahead... I had an upset tummy the day before so they told me I could not donate :( 

Then I went to India and unfortunately India is on the list of countries that needs a buffer before you are allowed to donate... 4 months!

So May it was - however it was the height of my race season so I decided to wait until after our final race of the season to donate so the recovery didn't affect my paddling.  I just must remember not to do a heavy weights session the morning after as it is not good!!

It was exactly as I remember it, and I do highly recommend it.  It takes a long time the first time if you haven't donated before, but subsequent times are a lot quicker.  It really is a great thing to do and I received an email to say that my blood had gone to Westmead Hospital and had helped to save someone's life.  How cool is that?


Mothers Day

This challenge is a running challenge.  I have done a couple of runs over the last couple of years but my sister Jacqui had just started running.  So we thought we could do the Mothers Day Classic together (originally Mum was going to walk it but she decided to go to Mexico instead!!).  I don't think I have run in a race with my sister before so I was quite excited.  And she had been training well and getting her speed and distance up.

So I attended my friend Steve & Jenny's wedding on a Saturday in Sydney, took the last flight out of town and landed in Melbourne with a ride to Mum's and a quick sleep to wake up in rainy Melbourne on Mothers Day!  It was cold!!  But we did a good warm up walk to the start line, did some stretching and hydrating and then before we knew it we were off!  The race was 8kms and we had set a goal of 55 mins to do it in (with me fairly confident we would do it quicker) and we smashed it!  Woohoo - go us :) 

It was great racing with you Jacqui - hopefully one day we can do it again - we should make this an annual race and it is for a good cause.


Aloha Hawaii!

I love Hawaii.  It is a fantastic place to go for a holiday - you can make the trip as relaxed or as adventurous as you want... there is so much or so little to do!  The shopping is amazing, as is the food and they paddle... there are outrigger canoes on every beach available.  It's a cool place where everything is on island time and everyone is so friendly and welcoming.

My paddling club is lucky enough to have Hawaii on the agenda again this year for some fantastic racing in September and what a trip we have now planned...

4-7 September: Queen Liliokalani

  • 4 days of flat water racing OC6, OC1, V12 races on the Big Island - the main race is 29kms
8-11 September: OC1 Camp

  • 4 days of technique and ocean skills playing in the beautiful Hawaiian waters on the island of Oahu
13 September: E Lau Hoe

  • A 50km one way race from Maunalua Bay to Nanakuli Beach Park on the island of Oahu
14-18 September: Free Time!

  • Likely to spend this time on Kauai, an island I have not spent any time on yet, maybe cruising the Na Pali coastline... 
19 September: Pailolo

  • A 42km one way big ocean race from the island of Maui to the island of Molokai 

And I can't wait!  We are going with a great group of people and some special friends of mine who I have travelled and raced with for a few years now... I am very excited!

Aloha :) 





Sunday 26 April 2015

The Song

So this task on the list I was looking forward to the least... Sing a Song, Video it, and Post it on YouTube.  My sister Jacqui's suggestion of course :) 

Luckily, there was the option of it being a family affair with my beautiful niece and nephew joining in and my brother in law Adam playing some kind of instrument.

My nephew Jasper chose the song, his favourite of the time and off I went to learn the words (not very well mind you).  I was in Melbourne for a weekend and it was all over in a flash, 2 takes which are the 2 different views...

You can see the finished version below and judge for yourself... Jasper and Lily basically save me!! Ha.  Thanks to Kate for cutting the video and making me not look quite as pained as I was and Jacqui who somehow managed to not be in it at all.

Quite the experience really and a good test of character.


Taming the dragon

I have wanted to learn how to steer a Dragon Boat for a couple of years by the timing is never right... But a couple of weeks ago (thanks to Darren and Julia) I was able to get on the back and have a go!

We didn't take a photo unfortunately (but I am sure it looked something like the below!).  It was an interesting experience!  Obviously a lot bigger than an OC and I didn't feel like I had as much control, but I am sure after a few more sessions it would start to come more naturally and I'd get the hang of it!


Learning to fly on water

Thanks to my sister Jacqui for this Christmas voucher!  I have wanted to do a jetpack session ever since I saw a cool video of these guys gracefully flying over water and dolphin diving in and above the water... so cool!  The real thing is not quite the same :) 

This was an adventure alright... it starts with the attractive wetsuit, and then the instructions and practice on how to face plant the water as when you land you are going to land on your face because you have a 40kg jet pack on your back!

And then you go out and learn to fly... 2 bars to move your hands up and down with, up for up and down for down, this one for right and this one for left... sound easy enough until you put it into action!  You are attached to the jetski and they control the force of the water coming out the pack, so you wont go flying high into the air before you are ready.  I was thrown around like a rag doll however with the pack shooting me off left and then right, up and down, I face planted the water a lot! It actually was easier with no hands as you could control it with the body movement. 

It was all good fun and video to be added soon to show you how ridiculous I looked!  A chiro appointment the following week to realign my broken body and all is well :)

And there is also video evidence: http://youtu.be/qLfit4dpbMk 


The food delivery

My friend Karen has recently finished up a chemo stint, has had an operation and is about to start radiation treatment.  She is amazing, so strong and an inspiration to see her come out of this with such a great outlook.

My aim was to cook and deliver 2 meals to her, but today she ended up coming over and collecting them instead! 

I made fennel, leek and potato soup with chicken (it is really cold in Sydney now so this will be great for lunches), and sugar free chocolate mouse icy poles for dessert.  Hopefully she likes them!


Saturday 25 April 2015

Stretching canvas

After the World Club Crew Champs in Penang back in 2008, my friends Julia, Todd, Gavin, Dave and I went to Vietnam.  It was an awesome trip that we all loved and has the famous 'Avocado' story linked to it.  

In Hanoi I picked up 2 canvas paintings that I loved... however when I got back to Sydney I discovered  how much it cost to get them stretched and it was around triple that of what I paid for the actual artworks!  So they stayed rolled  up in a corner until now.

Very pleased that I have finally done it as I still love them and they look great hanging up in my room!




Food from the farm

One restaurant I have been meaning to eat at since it opened in Sydney is Chiswick.  It is Matt Moran's restaurant and the meat comes from his family farm and the veggies are all grown on site in a cool veggie patch they have.

So a group of us headed there one rainy night - it was the perfect weather to have a hearty home cooked meal and reasonably priced as well!  Highly recommended.


The crackling

The only roast that I have never attempted to make is a roast pork, I can make a mean roast lamb, beef and chicken.  I love pork but I love crackling even more and I had no idea how to do it and didn't want to stuff it up as I have such high expectations of it being right!

So the task was set.  We have a good butcher at the shopping centre here so I went and chatted to the guys, they were fantastic.  They scored the skin/fat for me, I looked up Jamie Oliver's slow roast pork leg with bone in and off I went.

I do love a good dinner party and this one was no exception!  8 people in total, and on the menu for the evening was: grilled haloumi with pear for appetiser; grilled prawns with butter sauce for entree; and then the roast pork with veggies for mains.  Eugene and Cath bought over dessert (apple pie and cheese platter).  I did matching wines for entree and main, then proceeded to empty the wine stocks!  

Wow, were we full at the end, the night went on until 3am so it must have been a success... and I absolutely nailed the crackling :) mission accomplished!


Long time friends

One of the countries I grew up in was Hong Kong and my sister and I went to an English school there called Island School.  I had a good group of friends and a couple I still keep in contact with happen to live a long way away... Angie (who lives in the Caribbean on the beautiful island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands!) and Emma (who now lives in Perth).

Luckily for me, our Dragon Boat National Championships were held in Perth this year!  This meant I got to catch up with Em which was great... we haven't seen each other for around 5 years, and have been friends for 29 years... but one thing I do really appreciate about having been friends with someone for so long is that whenever we see each other it's just like I just saw her the other day.  So good to see you Emma xx

For the catch up with Angie, this one is a little harder.  In September I will be in Hawaii and that turns out to be the location that is around half way between us.  So, Angie now knows the dates and timings that I will be there and she is going to try to come and visit with her family... I am crossing my fingers that she is able to make it as that would be awesome to see her - it has been around 12 years since I have seen her!


View of the world

One of the things on the list I was most looking forward to was to eat at a top 10 restaurant in Australia.  My sister Jacqui and I thought we should do Vue de Monde at the Rialto in Melbourne as I already had a restaurant task in Sydney on the list.  We had to book 3 months out so it was a long wait but boy was it worth it!  

We had a fantastic table near the kitchen which was fully open for all to see the smooth running of the evening.  Everything was extravagant and it really is an 'experience' you are going for as well as amazing food... fine dining at it's best.  


We had to make one of our own dishes by crushing leaves once dry ice had been poured over them. The wine decanter was a spectacular, the cheese selection was out of this world. We chose 7 dishes (from memory it was a choice of a minimum of 5 and maximum of 9 or 10).  Jacqui and Adam are vego and their dishes were amazing, as were my meat counterparts.  And yes I ate the chocolate souffle and loved every bit of it.

If you go, make sure you have around $350 per head ready... so worth every cent.


Getting fishy

Thanks to Mum for this Christmas present... to attend a cooking class at the Sydney Fish Markets. The list of classes to choose from was great and they have an amazing line up of chefs who run classes.  Kay, Cath and I went to a class run by Phil Wood who is the head chef at Rockpool.

What a great setup the Fish Markets have - a really cool auditorium with cameras set up so Phil could cook all the dishes we were going to do (with the most amazing seafood) and then we went into a massive kitchen with work stations where we were split into groups and we all had to make the dishes... then we went into another room and had to set the table, pour the wine and eat all our food!  

It was an excellent experience and amazing food, I have even cooked 2 of the dishes since the course. Highly recommended!


The 2nd date

This task was to go on a date (of which I have not done for a long time) and then a subsequent 2nd date with the same person (unless the person is deemed to be a bit crazy)... 

A big thanks to my friend Adrian for setting me up on a blind date with one of his friends, with whom none of my friends had ever met before.  He was a nice guy and the conversation flowed fairly smoothly and I got the guts to ask him on a 2nd date, which we went on.  And then that was that.

Then at the Dragon Boat National Champs in Perth this year, I met a friend of a friend - a very awesome guy who I have now been out on a few dates with and hope to go on many more dates with for the foreseeable future...

Task complete :) 

Being single in a big city...

There are many ways to meet singles in this modern age and having failed dismally at  'internet dating' couple of popular websites, I decided to have a look at the App dating game instead.

So my profile was set up on Tinder and the aim was to swipe right / yes to a minimum of 10 people. I did do that and chatted to a couple of people but nothing came of it... oh well! 

Then my friend Naari managed to get tickets to the launch party of Hinge... the newest sensation in dating, where it takes your friends' friends on Facebook and matches you up! Cath and I went to the launch party which was a bit of fun and a couple of drinks... didn't meet the love of my life there either.

Task complete :) and still no dates!



 

Sunday 1 February 2015

Life of a steerer

Today I steered our chicks crew in an OC6 short course race in Cronulla.  I have only steered 2 races before and it was over a year ago so a bit out of practice.  Although, I have been steering a bit at training and had a great ocean session a couple of weeks ago which gave me a bit of confidence.  

Today it was an outgoing tide; a 8kt SSE wind; and a S swell.  Our course was 8kms long and had a variety of angles both with and against all conditions... a great day for a race!

We rigged canoes, went to the race briefing, did a warm up, showed the crew where we were going on the race course and got in the canoe.  It all happened quite quickly, although that all took 2 hours.

We got into a good spot at the start line and had a great start, avoided a collision and were on our way.  We had a mixed crew on one side of us and another womens crew on the other.  During that time I found it challenging getting the line that I wanted, the wind was pulling the canoe over to the right quite strongly so I found myself for a good 15-odd minutes only on the left poking and paddling, my shoulder started to feel it.  

Then just before we went around the buoy that was off kind of near Jibbon Point, I took my top hand off the top of my paddle and then smashed the top of my nose with the paddle - Owww!  It Hurt!  I knew it would bleed so I kept washing it with salt water until it stopped (trying not to attract any sharks with my blood in the water!) pretty much for the rest of the race at different times! 

And then after the next turn, one of the crews that had been on us the whole time (the steerer kept cutting me off a bit and getting on my line, which had been starting to annoy me), slightly in front, started to push us down a bit too close to the rocks around the headland, I shouted at the steerer to move left a couple of times and then the support boat also told us all to move left, but she didn't, she kept pushing us right - I wanted to jump out of the boat and slap her - anyway a big wave came and pushed her away but we were in a tricky situation so we had to back paddle quickly and then move away from her (which the girls were great at).  Then at the next turn she cut us off again... well... it was then the last stretch home and I was on a mission... and the girls in the boat with me were too... let's beat this crew!  We all dug deep and pushed all the way to the finish line, I think I screamed a lot and we were all stuffed at the end but... very satisfyingly, we beat them, by about half a boat length!  Yay!

Well done to the awesome chicks crew: Drena; Kelly; Lisa; Kirsi; and Alison.


Saturday 31 January 2015

Spitting it out

Today I learnt a few new skills at my wine tasting course.  Hosted by the Wine Society, I went to a fairly intensive course called Introduction to wine - Level 1.  

It was a 6 hour course starting at 10am (which I had thought was a little too early to start drinking!). The course included learning about how wine is made, different types of grapes, learning what goes with what food, different harvesting methods, what regions produce what types of wine best due to their climate.  The course presenter was great, he has been in the industry for 35+ years, working at wineries, working in the industry, being a sales rep, being a taster and a judge, his knowledge was fantastic and he ran a great day.

And there were 36 wines to taste!  We had 6 chapters and each one had 6 wines.  We were advised that they encourage when learning to taste wine, to use the spittoon and literally swivel and swish the wine around your mouth and then spit it out like the professional tasters do. As I'm racing the next day and had to drive to dinner, I decided that it would be a good idea, I was also intrigued on how the wine was going to taste without swallowing it.  The answer... it tastes exactly the same except it doesn't affect your mind and body... I tasted 36 different wines and was sober!  We got to take home leftover wines from they day so I took my 2 favourites from the day - a Pinot Noir and a Merlot.

Thoroughly recommend doing the course, whether you think you know a lot about wine already or know nothing... we had a range of all in the room!


Monday 26 January 2015

Racing in the rain

Well this is officially my 10th thing completed on The List!

Today, Australia Day, I participated in my first ever ski race.  I borrowed a ski from Steve and a paddle from Annett (I have done a few training sessions on the craft but really not very many).  The event is the Cockatoo & Cupcake Cups (I competed in the Cupcake Cup - the short course event), which is a good & fun handicapped race that has been an official race now for around 6 years now, hosted by my paddling club the Pacific Dragons.  I raced at pretty much exactly the speed I had been handicapped at (luckily I changed my group with the handicapper the day before!).

It was a good race and when I had someone catch up to me from the starting group behind, I managed to keep up with him until the end of the race which I was happy with.


Astrology

I asked my friend Kay for the name of her clairvoyant recently as she had been to a lady a couple of years earlier who she believed was fairly accurate with some of her reading.  I looked up the website ready to make a booking and it turns out that this medium and clairvoyant was taking a sabbatical... literally starting the next day!  

So, by chance when I was in Agra, India recently for a work trip, and I saw the words 'Astrologer' near the lobby of my fancy hotel, and a nice looking older Indian man sitting at a table with no clients, I thought - why not!

My Astrologer read my palm, talked about my past, talked about what he saw in my future and we had a good chat.  I asked a couple of questions and he was fairly accurate about big events in my past. I have kept the piece of paper and hidden it in my drawer to let the universe take it's course. 

So... let's see what happens in my future!


The Bonus

When I started writing The List, I asked some friends to help come up with suggestions as to what I could put on it.  One of my friends, Michelle, suggested I added 'visit a country I have never been to'. It didn't make the final list as I already had a point to book and plan a trip to Hawai'i in 2015 which meant really there was no additional time (or money) to add another country within the 8 month period.

As it turns out, work decided to send me to India to visit a company we do a lot of business with and a couple of areas I work closely with, for introductions, relationship building and training.
I went for 7 days of work which also included a weekend, and then onto Hong Kong for a couple of days before coming home.

India is an interesting country... 
I was in a city that was regional of sorts (not the type of regional town you would find in Australia... it still has 4-odd million people in it) and as I was there for work, so I spent a lot of my days in a car to and from the office to the hotel.  I did eat out a couple of times, and everyone thought I was very brave, India is just not safe for women to go out by themselves, especially after hours.
On the weekend, I took a flight to Delhi where a driver picked me up and I went to Agra, the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal (you can't go to India with out going to the Taj if you haven't been before!!). The weekend was great, the Taj amazing and all the people I met were great.  I was quite lucky in that I didn't get sick, I didn't get harassed, I ate lots of Indian food (and put on 2kgs), I stayed in nice places but I was ready to leave when I did.  India reminds me of old school Asia: dirty; crowded; poor in some parts (although there is also a cast system in the slums and the more fortunate than some have satellite dishes on their slum for cable tv); but also very fascinating, it's hard to describe.

I was very glad to land in Hong Kong, which was great as usual, and I got to catch up with Greg who I haven't seen in a few years. Working in our HK office was also good, and so was the food and shopping!  And I could have a shower with my mouth open without fear of getting sick... you would be amazed at how important this little bit of luxury is.