Rog42

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All that is left to be said from my crazy initiative of “raise $20k in a week for Leukaemia Foundation” is thank you.

I didn’t manage to raise $20k in a week, it’s true. But the team did raise a whopping $6,750!! with some money still in the “promised but not yet banked” category I reckon all up we’ll hit the $7k mark. Which is not a bad result for a week’s effort – so thanks for all your support.

Of course, everyone on the team has thanked their sponsors individually, as has the Leukaemia Foundation. But my appeals have been so public, it seems only right that my gratitude is public too. For privacy reasons, I can’t see the sponsors of other members of the team, but in our shave video, I have called out those who sponsored myself, Charis and Amanzi. Enjoy:

Over the week-end Amanzi and Charis joined the Virtual Shave team as well. They didn’t shave, as mentioned in the previous post, but coloured their hair instead. So it was only fair to join them to the Intro Video.

The girls have both all but made their targets of $250 and currently I’m a mere $68 away from my target of $2,000.

So thank you to everyone for your generous giving. If it’s slipped your mind, or you just haven’t got around to it yet, it’s not too late.

Well we had “The Big Shave” yesterday, and whilst I’m still collating all of the photos and editing the video(s) for everyone, I did throw this quick video together to introduce (most of) the team…

As you can probably tell from the brief snippets, the whole event in the office canteen, was a lot of fun. So much so that we had 4 “ring ins”

• John Kaleski – who joined at the request of his team. They promised to raise over $500 for him
• Paul Murray – who just wondered in and signed up (awesome) – and then another two -
• Boris…..
• ?????

I think these last two were influenced by “The Baldernator” and it all happened so quickly I didn’t get their details.

So, people are still joining and sponsoring the team, and you can do so up until Sunday midnight, so don’t be shy.

Thanks so much

I do need to give a special shout out to a couple of organisations, and people:

• Leopard Systems – who sponsored $1000 for Rick’s hair (you can see from the video why)
• Motorola – who sponsored in excess of $250 for the same
• Andre Bergman – who sponsored me $250

But whether you joined and went bald, gave $1000 or $2 at the coffee shop, I want to call you out and say thank you so much. As a team we appreciate your support of us, and more importantly, for this great cause.

But wait there’s more...

This adternoon Charis (currently on $155) and Amanzi (currently on $115) will both be colouring their hair. So there’s still time to sign up, and plenty of time to help us reach our (admittedly ambitious) target. So if you haven’t yet, please do give generously, head over to http://tinyurl.com/VirtualShave and this will redirect you to our World’s Greatest Shave Team page.

Amanzi cooked tonight – a Pad Thai – which was scrumptious. This was followed by jelly made by Charis. You ask why I share such inanities on the blog? Well it was my last supper! My last meal prior to shaving my hair to raise money for the Leukaemia Foundation in tomorrow’s World’s Greatest Shave!!

I quizzed the family on their thoughts, and was surprised

Two new recruits. Who’d have thought? If you don’t want to sponsor me, please do sponsor the girls.

When you decide upon a course of action, I believe it’s best to put 100% into it. So every part of our shave effort should be just right. The environment, the equipment, the people. Which is why we’ve recruited the best shaver we know this side of the Nullabor…

…the “Baldernator”

Also, since this morning, we’ve had a couple more sponsors:

• Darryl L
• Kean M (yep – Kean sponsored twice)

Thank You

Has agreed to part with his shoulder length locks. He’s put his money where his mouth is and for the first time will take the plunge to bare his noggin for a good cause. Nay. A Great cause!

Fan of the Smackdown? Fan of Rick? Wanna see him bald? Help us by being the first to donate towards his $1000.

Also, I’d like to shout out my good friends:

• David B, Melbourne, Vic. Australia
• Phil W, Carlingford, NSW, Australia
• Lucy L, West Pennant Hills, NSW, Australia
• Karen Seargeant, Wentworthville, NSW, Australia

For being the first 4 people to sponsor the team. We’re at just over $200, so 1% of the way there. W00t. Thanks.

Need to mention that the Team is now 4 strong. Besides Rick, both:

• Andrew Parsons, Central Coast, NSW, Australia
• Aaron Saikovski, No idea, NSW, Australia

Have joined the team!!

….Or the way the world views you.

We’ve all heard it, and know it to be true:

“Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity.”

And yet we all continue do the same thing again, and again. I think partly that’s because we don’t tie the intangible results to the repeat of our tangible actions. E.g. the tangible result of driving the same route to work every morning is getting there on time. But the intangible result is to become slowly bored over time, or to constantly arrive at work frustrated (with traffic). We know we’re bored, we just don’t tie it to the drive to work in the morning.

So the only way to get a different result is to change what we do. And everything is up for grabs. Maybe you “don’t” give to charity, or you only give a certain amount, or just to certain charities. Lord knows, there’s enough out there. Well, feel free to change that.

Maybe you use certain ‘product’ in your hair. Well, feel free to change that.

Maybe you feel that a huge change (like e.g. shaving or colouring your hair) will make people view you as a fanatic, an odd ball, somehow ‘less professional’ – yep, our concern for other’s perceptions is a huge driver in what we do.

So my challenge for tonight is to “Change the way you view the world, or maybe just the way the world views you.” Be brave and Shave Come and join the Virtual Shave Team You can do it from wherever you are in the world. Just:

• Commit to shaving or colouring your hair this week-end
• Join our team online
• Raise some sponsors

And if shaving your head is, well, a tad too much of a change – please sponsor us – any amount will do.

• Sponsor the team online
• Pay it forward – ask just 3 people to sponsor us as well

I went cycling yesterday, just 2 days after surgery, and upon reflection this week-end considered just how much technology has advanced. Not only in the last decade with micro-surgical techniques & non-invasive procedures; but over the last 3 decades; the last 10.

In 1909 both of the conditions I’ve suffered from: Ulcerative Colitis (which is what finally killed William Wilberforce of slavery abolition fame), and Renal Colic; would have been life threatening, if not debilitating. A kidney stone of the size that I had would just block the ureter, back up the waste and cause the kidney to fail. Even 20 years ago, I would’ve required an incision.

Yet, here I am, 3 operations within 3 months, up and about within 48 hours.

But what about those diseases that still have no cure? Those diseases where organ transplants offer some respite to some portion of the population, but in themselves are not a cure. What about Leukaemia?

Even here we’ve seen great strides in treatment, early diagnosis, and far better prognosis for patients. But there’s more to be done. Much more. If we could just raise the funds and get it to the research organisations.

It’s a cause which is close to my heart. Partly because I’ve experienced the impact of phenomenal change in medical technology myself. I certainly wouldn’t be biking, waterskiing, scuba diving, travelling, even living in Australia, without the intervention of technologies and smart doctors over the last decade. But also because people close to my family didn’t get that opportunity. My biological father, Tom, died of cancer just 3 months before his only son got married. His wife, Jenny, died some 4 years later, of cancer. Lucy’s sister Penny, died of Leukaemia at the age of 6, when Lu was 2.

Even now, a cousin and good friend, Ian, and my father-in-law, David, live with cancer.

I do understand in the current environment, with the bushfires in Victoria, the floods in Queensland, and other causes, (many of which I donate to myself): CanToo, Starlight, World Vision, BeyondBlue, OxFam, Salvo’s, Movember, etc. that people have given so much. Often beyond their means.

So I’d like to propose a fun week. Just one week. No lengthy training, or recruitment drive. No repeats. Just a week where I invite you, my friends and family, colleagues, and complete strangers (aka Internet Friends) to do one of two things:

1. Sign up to the VST (Virtual Shave Team) – and commit to shaving or colouring your head, and raising as much money as you can in a week.
2. Sponsor the VST – give what you can of course. I’d love it if everyone sponsored just $10.

I commit to tweeting, commenting on Facebook, my blog, and creating a daily video to let everyone know how we’re doing.

If you do join the team, please take photos and videos of your progress. We’ll co-ordinate the shave next week-end.

C’mon join us – let’s see if we can create the world’s biggest virtual bald community – Be Brave and Shave!

Last Sunday, I had a great opportunity to get wet again. Only 2 of us, as Amanzi went with a friend to Jambaroo (a Water Theme Park) and Lu looked after Charis.

As Em hadn’t dived for 5 years, since she qualified, she was naturally a little apprehensive. So we jumped in the pool on Saturday and ran through her Basic OW skills again.

Then Saturday morning, we were the first ones at the beach. Walked into the water and had a brilliant dive. We came out at breakfast time to see about 3 groups of divers descending on the beach. Bliss.

R42

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That’s high on drugs.

I decided to do a quick vidblog of how I ended up today. The operation went very well, thanks for asking (by proxy of reading this :-)). Although they found more stone in there, forming around the end of the Stent, they blasted it and removed everything.

So tomorrow I’ll sleep in, connect to the office peripherally through technology and ease my way back into full activity.

R42

Tomorrow I’m heading into hospital for the 3rd time since late November, and I thought it probably fair to explain what’s happening with me. Whilst I do want to explain everything that’s happening, I don’t want to sound like a victim or hard done by.

So here’s my poor attempt.

First, we’ll go the kidneys. This has had the biggest impact:

As many readers will know, last year about this time I kicked off a “Biggest Loser” weight loss competition. In my eagerness to win the comp, I started a life-changing course of exercise, which involved high impact Boxercise some 3+ times per week. The Boxercise I love. Absolutely and unequivocally. Every part, besides the improvement in my health and fitness, I enjoy the release of stress, the friends and social aspect. There’s just something really satisfying about smacking the crap out of something.

In July I started feeling abdominal pain, which increased enough for me to visit the doctor late September. Initial diagnosis was an abdominal strain due to the Boxercise. But no amount of reduction in ab-work reduced the ever increasing pain. This all came to a head one fateful Saturday in November, when I felt that “oh so familiar” nausea inducing pain in my back. Kidney Stone! Renal Colic! Acute Discomfort!

I should know, it’s my tenth over 15 years. Of the ten, only 3 have required hospitalisation, and only 1 other needed removal surgery.

This time, however, I didn’t go through the usual “lie on the floor and throw up for 3 hours” pain whilst I passed the stone. I was in ‘discomfort’ but not debilitatingly so. An x-ray identified the culprit: a 15mm Calculus lodged at the base of the left ureter (that’s the tube which feeds the bladder from the kidney).

Given the ureter is a couple of mm’s in diameter at best, you’re really ‘fortunate’ to pass anything up to about 8mm. But you’re just not going to pass a stone that size. So given the stone is just sitting there and growing, what’s causing the pain is the backing up of urine putting pressure on the kidney. Simply put, someone with great skill, not to mention credentials, has to use some pretty cool technology to remove the stone.

Right about the time I was diagnosed, was Lu and my wedding anniversary, which we celebrated by diving over in Vanuatu (very cool). The urologist didn’t want to risk the trauma of the surgery to remove the stone a week before the flights, or impact on a romantic week-end. But he did need to do something to stop the pain. So the 1st op was scheduled in mid-November to place a J-stent. As the name implies, this is a J-shaped tube, which hooks in behind the calculus, and allows the fluid to drain away. No fluid build up, no pressure, no pain. (Well almost).

When he went in, the Dr discovered that the type of stone I make (or at least this one) is one of the soluble sort. This is good news, and he prescribed a course of Sodibic (Bicarbonate of Soda) to dissolve said stone. The next x-ray was scheduled for late January and as you can see, the medication had minimal effect on the stone.

Actually, that’s not quite accurate, as little bits of stone were coming off, resulting in an abrasive gravel in my bladder, causing a mild UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) and some discomfort.

Anywhoo, we scheduled the “big op” for the 9th of Feb.

This was a roaring success. Well, mostly. Total success would be: Shatter the stone with a laser, remove the large part, remove the stent, allow the rest to flush away. What actually happened was: Discover the stent was too small (despite being a universal length – apparently I have a longer Ureter than most. Not intentionally bragging or anything.) So this had shifted below the stone. The stone had then shifted further down, bending the end of the stent. This in turn meant the scope hit the end of the stent and could get to the stone.

So, remove the scope; remove the stent; reinsert the scope; chisel away at the larger than estimated stone with a laser (look at your thumbnail here for a more accurate estimate); until it’s a size that can be removed. By now the ureter is a touch on the inflamed side from all the to-ing and fro-ing in there, so insert a new (longer than universal) J-stent to allow the inflammation to abate and the debris to flush away. The planned 45 min procedure saw me on the table for a healthy 2 hours.

Interestingly (at least to this geek) the surgeon didn’t use Sonic Therapy (ultrasound) to shatter the stone, but a laser. I mean, really cool tech. They also didn’t use keyhole surgery, or any form of incision, but used naturally placed entry points. By now the men reading this are crossing their legs and sharing “tears of solidarity” – I’m just glad I was asleep.

I’m also glad that Lucy forced me to stay overnight rather than come home. Her logic?

“They can give you morphine in there. At home we have Ibuprofen”

Good logic I thought – and yes, they did need to give me a shot of morphine over night.

The impact of replacing a J-stent, however, means that there is still a foreign body inside my urinary system that needs removing. Hence tomorrow’s procedure. Am I looking forward to that? Nope. Am I glad that in 24 hours this should all be over? Resoundingly so!!

The biggest impact of this is I’m that I’m not able to fly this week. Which in turn means that I’m not able to go to South Africa for my little brother’s wedding. As it turns out, my other little brother (but the older of the two) is getting married in South Africa next week, and I’m missing that wedding too.

But it’s not only the kidneys that have affected my exercise routine. After all, I should be able to run and hit punch-mats, even with a stent in. Enter the Ankle:

After a much needed break from training over the summer holidays, not to mention the Christmas stuffing, we decided that January was going to be our “Month of Power” with training 5 days per week. A time to start the year strong, and kick metabolisms into gear.

As part of that, we decided to mix up the training. Inject some fun, and keep our bodies from adapting to routine. So, 2 weeks in someone came up with the hare-brained scheme to have Bacon sandwiches on the BBQ and play a game of 3-on-3 on the Basketball Court. Some of you will know my friend Rohan, aka “Slam TAM,” who used to weigh almost 140kg’s! He’s much less than that now, but still an immovable object to the irresistible force that was me coming in for a tackle.

My ankle was in the middle, made a horrifying “snap” sound, and I collapsed in a heap of curses. In the picture I look somewhat relaxed with my ankle on a bag of ice, and smothered under a towel filled with ice.

Six weeks of physio, and I’m still experiencing pain. Although not too much anymore. I’m certainly not up for running, or anything high impact. But as the physio did use the exercise bike as part of the rehab, so I figured cycling to work was probably not going to harm the ankle anymore, and would give me some exercise.

Hence starting that crazy scheme yesterday.

Still, considering the total lack of improvement after 6 weeks, I ha an x-ray on Monday, and should see the results tomorrow morning.

Finally, there’s the shoulder:

Slowly, since about the beginning of December, my right shoulder has been gradually getting more and more painful, to the point that for the last month or so I haven’t been able to lift my arm much above shoulder height.

For someone who hasn’t lost more than about 2 days of sleep in my life, I’ve been kept awake by both the ankle and shoulder.

Ultra-sound, interferential, exercise, nothing seems to work. And to top it all, I don’t know whether it was doing 50 push-ups, or RSI from my seating position in the office. Or perhaps something else (arthritis, gout, cartilage damage?)

So, from my right shoulder, through my midriff, to my left ankle, I’ve been a ball of pain for the first couple of months this year!! It’s stopped me exercising, and I’ve noticed how that has flowed through into every other area of my life – my work, church-life, family, relationships, overall happiness.

I refuse to let it stop me from doing what I love and enjoying life. But, if I’m honest, it has constrained camping (0 times in 2009 to date), boating (1ce this year), waterskiing (not since October), even diving (only 3 times this year so far). Grrr….

So there you have it. Medically, I’ve taken a bit of strain in 2009. I’m looking forward to the removal of the J-Stent, getting back into “light duties” at boxercise next week, and increasing my cycle to work regime.

R42

I have to say, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Almost a month in fact, well hey ho, you get to see some of the things we’ve been up to in another post. But I couldn’t resist this little snippet.

I’m a relatively ordinary guitarist, as members of the churches I’ve attended over the last couple of decades will attest, and I love Guitar Hero. For some time I’ve been wishing we could combine the game, with actually learning to play the instrument for real, like you can with drums in Rockband.

Well, it seems that soon, you will be able to – check our what wired came across at this years Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.

Guitar Hero that teaches you to play the guitar | Negative Approach - CNET News

Now there’s a Disney Product I will be buying.

R42

Bet that caught your attention. :-)

Em (18) and Leah (20), have finished Uni for the year, and decided to take-up a rain-checked visit to the UK (and hopefully Europe) for the next 4 weeks. Of course we’ll miss them terribly, especially over Christmas, but they haven’t had the opportunity to visit family and friends up north for a couple of years now. I’m sure they’ll have a ball.

Here they are, checking in at the Virgin Atlantic (which by the way, now flies all the way to Oz) desk this afternoon.

They should land in Hong Kong, where they’re overnighting, sometime in the next couple of hours or so.

Have a great trip girls.

R42

It’s known as the “Silly Season.” Y’know this time of year when your calendar is filled with Christmas Party for this group, and Presentation Day for that one. As a parents of no less than 4 girls, we’ve had our fair share of the latter. This year, however, for the first time ever, we have daughters in 4 different educational institutions.

Usually this doesn’t mean much more than an extra busy schedule. But this week for the first time ever, we had a Presentation Day on the same night at two separate schools. Talk about a dilemma! The only way to choose fairly was to draw names out of a hat. So I found myself being awoken by Charis at sparrowfart on Wednesday morning, bleary eyed, drawing a piece of paper from an old icecream carton…

I drew Amanzi, so got the privilege of watching her play in the Strings Ensemble. You can check her out here, be sure to click through to the YouTube page and turn HD (High Definition) on if you can. In this video, the Ensemble is playing a variation from “Titanic.”

In the second video the Ensemble play a medley from Mission Impossible and James Bond.

Totally apart from seeing and hearing how the Strings Ensemble have improved this year, and Amanzi being part of that, she also awarded one of the Year 7 Strings Scholarships. Usually these are only awarded to one Year 7, and includes all of their music tuition for Year 8. This year, however, two were awarded.

Just while I was watching Amanzi get her Scholarship award, Lucy SMS’d me to let me know that Charis also won an award, for being “A talented and outstanding musician.” So no sports awards in the Lawrence Tribe (like there’s a surprise) :-) But both the younger girls are really enjoying school, and doing so well.

Leah and Em also sent text messages with their brilliant results. All in all, a great week and end to a good year.

R42

I’m disinclined to complain if I can help it. So although this post may come across as whingeing, it really is intended as a way of improving things if at all possible.

I’m currently on Air Vanuatu NF34, en route from Port Vila, after what, I’m sure you’ll agree, was a fantastic wedding anniversary week-end with Lucy. Just as with NF33, the flight we flew to this idyllic hideaway on Thursday, NF34 flies via Melbourne. I.e. this is a Sydney – Port Vila flight, with one stop, Melbourne!!?!?!!

It doesn’t take a genius at navigation, especially nowadays with GPS and Virtual Earth, to figure out that this is a peculiarly obtuse way of getting to Vanuatu. The islands lie pretty much North-East of Sydney, about 3 hours flying time, and Melbourne is about 1hr30 flying time South-West! So the flight has 3 hours added to it, even without the mandatory “clean the aircraft” stop of roughly an hour. If it were a Melbourne-Port Vila flight, with a stop in Sydney, it strikes me that passengers from Melbourne would suffer the inconvenience of the stop in Sydney, but no extra flying time. It also means that Air Vanuatu would save Melbourne-Sydney returns worth of fuel for both NF33 and NF34. The planet would have that much less carbon pollution, and our children would all be saved the horrors of global warming. So I’m guessing there must be a reason for this idiocy! Most likely a commercial one, that costs more than Syd-Mel return, the inconvenience to passengers, not to mention the wear and tear on the aircraft and crew. I just can’t figure out what….

Are aircraft parking fees that prohibitive in Melbourne? Could they just not work out a landing slot for Sydney? (Remember these flights are scheduled about twice or three times per week – so it’s not like they couldn’t change the time to suit a Sydney landing slot)

To add insult to injury, I booked this flight using frequent flyer points. So I was bemusedly prepared to accept a 7 hour trip time, including an hour in Melbourne International Transit. But what I didn’t notice, or figure out, was that today’s return flight, has us transferring to a Qantas domestic, that only leaves at 20:30. We get into Melbourne at 16:40. Yep, Qantas have us waiting (no lounge pass) for four hours because, wait for it, “There are no frequent flyer seats available on the flight.” AND “There are no frequent flyer seats (economy) available on an earlier Qantas flight.” WTF!!! I’m on NF34,and there are easily more than 40 free seats! 40! So we’ll be checking customs and immigration in Melbourne, transferring to Domestic, and hanging around, for 4 hours because of some computer code. This to me is a process/system just gone stupidly wrong. Surely it makes sense to keep us on this flight, in the seats we have, rather than take two “frequent flyer” seats of a Qantas domestic flight, denying some other poor souls who actually want to get to Sydney from Melbourne later this evening… I really can’t see there being 40 people (or 42 with us off the aeroplane) who want to check-in 90 mins early to catch an Air Vanuatu plane from Melbourne International, to fly to Sydney today.

When I pointed this out (not quite so vehemently) in Port Vila, capital of the happiest country on earth, they apologised and mentioned that the flight catering was already done, and as our names weren’t on the list, they would be in the unfortunate situation of not having refreshments for us. In vain I tried to explain that we would go without. In fact getting to Sydney earlier would mean that we didn’t need an extra meal anyway. But to no avail.

So, being a Silver Frequent Flyer, I called Qantas Frequent Flyer and asked if at least they could shift us to an earlier Qantas flight. I’d already been assured that the Qantas domestic flights had “plenty” of availability. Rob, the call centre operator rather tersely pointed out that there were no “frequent flyer” seats available. I explained that I understood this. But surely an empty seat, is an empty seat, and is costing the airline money, at least in opportunity cost. I offered to use points to upgrade to a Business Class Frequent Flyer seat. Rob explained that as I’d commenced travel, he couldn’t change my class of flight, but I should ask the staff upon arrival in Melbourne. I bit my tongue, resisting the temptation to ask why. After all, if the Air Vanuatu staff couldn’t avoid flying A about F to get to Sydney, and they couldn’t do anything on a 3rd empty flight about two passengers already holding ticketed seats, and Rob himself couldn’t magically change the code in the system (because that’s all it would take) to bump us to an earlier flight, what possibly can the staff in Melbourne do? I await with baited breath.

So Air V get the route wrong, at least in convenience and cost, not to mention crew workload. Qantas get it wrong with ensuring maximum ROI on their flights, not to mention customer satisfaction in their frequent flyer program. After all, ask me, do I really feel like a valued customer right now? Perhaps just an irritating annoyance for someone who has to work the centre on a Sunday? Did I feel that they would go out of their way for me, a valued customer, to ensure my satisfaction, or keep my business?

I got it wrong too. I really should’ve paid more attention to the itinerary when I booked it, and tried to change things a week ago before we left. I suspect that I wouldn’t have gotten very far, and perhaps would’ve just been irritated by the 12 hours of travel I was submitting my beloved to in order to dive this week-end. But hey, I totally missed the details on this, and that’s my bad.

On the flight, which I mentioned is hardly full, I’m seated in row 22, out of 29, and took especial note of the lunch trolleys as they trundled past. Food – drink! Superb. Leaving the resort at 9:30 this morning, I was starving by the time lunch was to be served. When the steward did get to my seat, however, he’d run out of trays…. Pardon? I was just assured that you catered for all the passengers on the list in Port Vila, and I’m not even flying with you to Sydney, can’t I have lunch? Please? Turns out that his colleague had the last couple of trays, “You can have vegetarian Gnocchi sir.” Great, all those years of evolution, or all that omniscient creative power, and my canines are going to waste. Apparently the chicken was finished. Yeah I bet, everyone else on the plane wanted vegetarian gnocchi! I didn’t even know gnocchi had made it to the New Hebrides! No problem, could I have a Coke Zero please. (I’d noticed these on the trolley earlier) Nope – all out of Coke Zero too. “I’m not having a particularly good day am I. Any chance of an extra roll?” This sparked a furious debate between the two flight attendants, some remnant of primal struggle (good thing there weren’t spears) but I did in fact get an extra roll, a beatific smile and an offer: “Can I get anything else for you sir?” The 2nd flight attendant really was trying, very hard.

“Well yes actually, I’d like to say on this seat all the way to Sydney, if that’s ok with you.” Apparently not.

I wonder what would happen if I tried to use the same boarding pass in Melbourne to get back on the flight? I mean apart from ditching our luggage, including 2 sets of scuba gear, at Melbourne airport.

As I finish this post, I see the Harbour Bridge outside my window. Doh!! See you tonight, sometime. I mean there can only be about another 6 “helpful” service oriented people between me and you.

We’ve had over 70 years of commercial aviation (my grandfather - Eastern, grandmother - KLM, biological father - Pan Am & United, step-father – SAA, and mother - SAA all flew for commercial airlines), we have increasingly automated computer systems, we’re in the information age. How is it that in 2008, we can still get it so wrong?

R42

As most of my readers will know, I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled a fair bit. So when I comment on today being another day in paradise, it’s from the perspective of having sailed in Antigua, taught scuba diving in South Africa, and skiied in the Rocky Mountains.

For both Lu and I, this is our first venture to any of the islands of Melanesia. To be fair, my expectations were high, but all of them met with aplomb.

We’d set our alarms for 6:30, so we could breakfast at 7, and be ready for the dive tour at 8. Actually we both woke a lot earlier, and just enjoyed the peace that comes from gentle surf in the distance. Breakfast was interesting, it’s going to take a while to get used to the pace here. Some would call it laconic, or laid back. But just one day into a week-end break, we were still attuned to our Sydney sensibilities and struggled to “go with the flow.” By this evening, that wasn’t a problem.

Then it was “sign your life away” diving disclaimers, kit up and hop on the dive boat. Actually Mel, the chap who runs the dive operation, arrived late, and even so we were giant striding before 9:15. That’s after signing up, briefing, swapping the high pressure hose on both our regs so we could use a dive computer, carrying the kit to the boat, and boating out to the dive site.

Our guide for the first dive, in “Gotham City” (so named because of the bat fish that live there) was Donald. The dive itself was absolutely spectacular. Everything those dive videos promised, in spades and then some. The water was a 25m+ crystal azure, a balmy 28C, with absolutely no current, surge or anything else untoward that would upset a perfect dive. We free descended to about 9m, then headed off around the reef, gradually deepening the dive to about 25m. Somewhere at the 16m mark, for the first time in 17 years of diving, I couldn’t equalise my left ear. I was ok at 16m, but just couldn’t go 30cm deeper. So I just floated above Lu and Don at 16m, trying to equalise, until suddenly I managed to squeeze some air through. I didn’t have any problem for the rest of the dives, just those 4 or so minutes.

Lu cramped up towards the end of the dive. Essentially because she hadn’t clipped her fins on properly, so the straps kept coming loose. The combo of Lu trying to fin without losing her fins, and repeatedly tightening the strap just caused her to seize up. But apart from that, and some buoyancy issues, she too had a great dive for her first time in about 6 years.

The life on the reef is prolific, no really big stuff (turtles, rays, groupers etc) but plenty of Triggers, Anemone fish, Butterflies, Wrasse and the odd Angelfish. Together with the great conditions, it was hard to continue following our Dive Guide. I was all for just hovering in one place the entire dive, and enjoying the teeming abundance.

Before I knew it we were back on the line and in the boat ready to head back to our Hideaway. Next up, Dive two at the wreck of the mighty “Bonzer”

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Is of course something we’ve not known in the time Lucy and I have been together. But we always manage to get away for one week-end a year by ourselves. At least once. There have been years when we’ve managed another week-end or two, perhaps a birthday, or a church retreat. But we’ve made it a non-negotiable imperative that for our wedding anniversary, we spend a week-end without the girls.

It’s not always been easy. There have been the times when we’ve had babies needing looking after. Times when we’ve had no money. Times when we’ve had to rely upon goodwill of new friends in an adopted country to look after 4 children. But somehow we’ve always managed it.

This year Lu mentioned she’d like to scuba dive for our week-end away, and I found we could come to Vanuatu using the rest of the frequent flyer miles I had. So here we are, night 1, on Hideaway Island, in Vanuatu. There’s no Internet, no 3G or even GPRS, and no phones. No TV. No loud music. No kids (or at least, not ours). Just the sound of a fan whirring in an attempt to keep the 30C heat and 85% humidity at bay for the night.

It’s usually at this time of our week-end, every year, that we play a game and try to remember where we’ve been. The rules for the week-end are: I organise the even numbered years, Lu organises the odd numbered years (this started with our honeymoon in ‘94). The organiser has total control over the entire week-end, including (if necessary) packing bags, transport, activities, accommodation, and arranging for the kids welfare. That means the week-end is a total surprise for the other partner. It’s remarkably hard to remember each year accurately, hence the game, but it’s always a nice reminder, not to mention a starting check-point for how far we’ve come, and how much we’re grateful for. Here’s what we’ve remembered so far:

So there we have it, the potted history of our extended honeymoon. The first week-end was when we got married, and was a surprise only because we’d planned our main honeymoon for South Africa in the January. Since then we kind of fell into a rhythm, but one which is fiercely guarded to this day.

Of course, every year has had it’s own story too. Like the year we went to Oxford and stayed in a hotel just like Fawlty Towers (with it’s own Basil Fawlty proprietor). Or in Sydney staying in a friends yacht on the harbour and going to dinner by boat essentially because of pecuniary strangulation. In all though, this means we’ve had a total of 28 days over 14 years of kid-less honeymoon holiday. Actually it’s a little more because I’ve kidnapped Lu for her birthday a couple of times as well, and of course we had our “real” honeymoon, 12 days in South Africa too.

On balance, would I have the 28 days in one long holiday before kids, or rather have it spread out over the 14 years (with more to come)? Second option is by far the one I’d choose. Just look at the variety of places we’ve been able to visit. The experiences we’ve enjoyed, and the relationship revitalising injection every year of organising or being treated to a great pampering surprise.

Of course, that’s not a binary choice. You can have both. Kids have friends, you have family, and people are remarkably resilient. Sporting events can be missed, even work events. We should spend more time together just the two of us. After all pretty soon all of our girls will be grown ups and we’ll just have each other. But if you can only organise one a year, do it! It’ll be the best investment you can make in your marriage.

Life without kids, eh? Who’d have thought it?

But it’s late, and I must away. Coming here on a tuppence, using Air Miles meant flying from Sydney via Melbourne (then overflying Sydney). With travel to the airport, check-in, flying, transit, customs, and transfer time, it took us over 10 hours to get here. All I can hope is the diving is worth it.

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I’ve been reading Steven Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” over the last week or so. I say reading, actually I’m listening to the Audiobook on my Zune. But the point is that, in the book, Dr Covey talks about getting back in touch with your core. Being centred. Well at my core, it seems, I’m still a little boy…

Here I am on the new Qantas A380 and I’m loving every minute of the experience. The size of the plane, the new and shiny on everything, even the view out of the window on takeoff. More on that in a minute.

Of course there is a lot to enjoy and admire on this feat of engineering. Despite travelling in economy there’s on-demand video, audio, TV, even Business programs. Over 1000 choices in fact. All this on a mammoth 10.6” touch screen. Of course it would be really good to be able to plug the laptop or personal video player into a premium screen like that, but I suspect we’re a little way from that foresight. Nevertheless, there’s no lack of things to see and do, and it’s almost not worth bringing anything with you. Of course in these days of personal entertainment devices, it’s very likely that most passengers will, in fact, have any number of gadgets.

But uniquely, and inestimably more helpful for the technophile of today is the in-seat power, USB charging and Ethernet Network. The theory is that there’s Internet connectivity too, but I haven’t been able to connect beyond the LAN yet.

The take-off was impressive, just watching the massive wing as it lifted in response to the acceleration. We also discovered the “skycam” to watch the flight from the in-seat screen. Yeah I know it’s probably just a $50 USB webcam stuck on the tail but it’s amazing (little boy in me again) to watch the plane you’re in, as it taxis and then takes of from above.

One other thing is the noise of this titan. Or rather, the lack of noise. This has to be the quietest take off I’ve experienced in almost 40 years of international air travel. Noise cancellers still do make a difference, but less so than before. In fact the whole experience inside the aircraft, muted lighting, slightly larger seats, and missing roar, makes for remarkably comfortable travel.

Economy though, is still economy, and you’re not going to be able to open a normal size laptop on this plane. But with the 10” Asus EeePC for sale in duty-free for just $599 (or the 9” for an incredible $480) or this little 7” RAON Everun Note I’m using, you can happily compute for the entire flight.

I eagerly anticipated this flight, and so far, I’ve not been disappointed. Here’s hoping I can get an upgrade to premium economy for the flight home.

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In diving there’s one of those “golden” sayings. Ostensibly to keep people, well, alive. The saying goes “Plan the Dive, Dive the Plan” and it’s one of those fail-safes which ensures that people are considering all possible variables prior to subjecting themselves to risk, and then adhering to the contingencies they’ve planned. The idea is that if anything changes, everyone aborts the dive at that point.

It’s actually a pretty good philosophy for life. Plan ahead, and if anything changes, stop, rethink the plan, and execute.

Which of course is the antithesis of what happened for our holiday. :)

For some time we’d promised Amanzi that she’d qualify as a diver this holiday, our original plan was to head to Magnetic Island for a couple of weeks. Then we realised that we’d committed to attend a friend’s wedding in the middle of the two weeks. Well, we couldn’t afford to fly, and driving some 2400km (one way) for one week was impractical to say the least. So we changed our plan at the last minute to head to Coffs Harbour. At some 6 hours from Sydney, it’s about the furthest I’d want to drive in a day, and at 30 deg South, it’s about as far South as I’d want to dive – at least for qualifying dives.

Well, our first week in Coffs was ok. Amanzi completed her theory, her pool sessions, and 2 of her 4 dives. Unfortunately, despite completing her first 2 dives on Wednesday, the Thursday blew out completely with wind, and all dives were cancelled.

That meant that we had to return for her final dives. But we’d already planned to spend the second week waterskiing at Wiseman’s Ferry – a nice local haunt, very familiar for us. I’d also made arrangements for Stuart, my currently unemployed, itinerant, backpacking brother, to come waterskiing with us. So we had to find a place where we could take the boat, and still be close enough to Coffs to complete the diving.

All of this found us phoning around campsites, motels, and holiday units, on the Thursday night before heading home to book a week in some of the most popular holiday coastline in NSW, for the 2nd week of the school holidays!!!! Mike Davey, of Jetty Dive Centre, suggested Nambucca Heads. We followed his advice, and secured a great little cabin at the Foreshore Caravan Park. I have to say – this was absolute bliss. Here’s a Windows Live Photo Gallery stitch of three sunset shots I took from the front of the cabins on our first night.

The Nambucca River was to all intents and purposes empty of boating traffic, and it seemed no matter what the weather did, the water was gorgeously flat – ideal for skiing. To top it off, we were only 40 mins from Coffs.

So we returned up North on Sunday, and Amanzi and I went out on Monday for the final two dives. Yet again her ears let her down. She simply couldn’t equalise and get down. Tuesday and Wednesday saw unfavourable weather again. Which left Thursday, our last day in the area for her final qualifying dives…

….fortunately, she did it!!! So she is now a qualified PADI Openwater Diver.

And that’s the last time we leave planning our holiday so late :)

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I’m not one for chain mails or multiple petition signing websites. But when an organisation that I respect, and value for significant value in my own personal and professional life, such as TED, promotes such a campaign, I’m happy to share.

The thing about XDR-TB, and the images you see will move you, is that it’s treatable. Easily treatable. We just need to move away from our hollywood produced movies and TV myopia and use the remarkable power of the technology we love to see the real picture of human suffering in the world today. Then we should act.

I don’t believe that acting means everyone should give up their lifestyles and all their possessions and become poor themselves. Although I’m sure some are called to that. I do believe though that those of us “haves” should give, sacrificially, to the “have not’s.” This isn’t only financially, but also your time and talents. Often it’s giving your effort, skills, and time that has a greater impact than the money you’d earn in that same time.

Anyway, onto XDR-TB. Watch. Share. Sign Up.

Change the world.

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As ever I had great ambitions to blog and post short video clips of each day this holiday. As it turned out after a marathon pool session, two dives on Monday, a day out at the Big Banana on Tuesday, and another 2 dives yesterday, each evening saw me totally knackered and in bed early. Far too fatigued to edit and upload video. Especially considering the treacly slow uplink on the WiFi here.

However, I did manage to purchase a small digital still and video camera with an underwater housing, so did put together some clips of her first couple of dives. These were meant to be on Monday, but unfortunately Amanzi’s sinuses were clogged and she couldn’t equalise, so had to abort both dives :(

We took a break on Tuesday to give her ears time to heal, and tried again yesterday morning. This time to success.

Dive one is about getting comfortable underwater, and Dive two an opportunity to practice those scuba skills so hard won in the pool.

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Yawn! I’m absolutely cream crackered, and Amanzi is asleep.

Today we hit the second phase of PADI Openwater scuba diver training – Confined Water Dives, a.k.a. Pool Session. There was a 200m swim to complete, a 10 minute float, then entry, donning and doffing gear (in the water and out) and some 20 other skills.

Whew – time for bed.

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