Due to technical complications I am 3 days late to start this years A-Z challenge but I will start anyway and see how we go. Here’s hoping we can catch up by next week.
Beer is important in both Australian and Japanese cultures. So, it’s no surprise that when we went to Japan for my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding, our families bonded at the Asahi Beer Factory in Osaka.
The free tour was interesting and taught us how beer is made, bottled and packaged. I loved the colourful display of old beer cans and bottles from around the world.
However, the real fun came when the brewery tour ended and the beer drinking started. We had 20 minutes to drink 3 freshly brewed beers of our choice if we dared. Challenge accepted. No problem.
In Australia, we will be going into our second month of autumn on Wednesday. On the last day of summer, my son and daughter-in-law had their Australian wedding. It was a beautiful day. Since then however, I haven’t spent anytime out in nature. So I thought I would go for mindful walk around the neighbourhood to see what had changed. As I headed down the driveway, my first surprise was the budding camellias.
Then around the next block I found flowering frangipani trees. I love frangipanis, especially the pink ones.
Halfway through my walk the skies opened and in true autumn in Australia fashion, it started raining. No warning, just rain. Then I saw the first changing leaves of the season. In our cities you don’t get the amazing amount of leaves that change colour and drop to the ground that you do in the country areas. When we lived in country NSW, we spent many days playing in and with the autumn leaves everywhere we went.
Another change I noticed was the growth of berries and nuts on the trees.
On returning home slightly damp, I ventured out into our backyard to find the citrus trees are full of fruit. All in varying shades of green through to yellow.
And lastly I discovered the trees my husband had severely trimmed in summer were full of new growth.
I love this quote by Brene Brown. It puts simply everything we always knew without realising it. Coming back to blogging after over a 2 year break, I feel as vulnerable as I did when I posted my first blog post – Mother’s Day 2014. Each day however it got easier. As I connected with more people, my feeling of vulnerability lessened and I found my voice.
At present in most of the world we have an unprecedented way of life with restrictions that can change daily. In Australia, life last Friday week was so different to life yesterday. As a result, we accept that next Friday it could be very different again. We are all feeling vulnerable. But we are using the current situation to get creative and focus on what we can do and how we need to change things to get through. I’m a huge believer that many of the innovations that we put in place will become the new norm after the crisis as they will make everyday life better.
What are some of the innovating changes you have made lately?
Australians love visiting big tourist attractions. They are large sized versions of what the town or area is known for e.g. the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour, the first big thing I ever visited back in the 1970’s. Today in Australia there are over 150 big things.
The latest big thing I visited was the Big UGG Boots at Mortel’s Sheepskin Factory at Thornton in the Hunter Valley. They are the world’s biggest UGG Boots weighing 600 kilos each. They were designed to be 13 x women’s size 8 UGG boot. Mortel’s have been making UGG boots in Australia since 1958. I can’t believe that they made the concrete look so soft and comfortable just like Australian UGG boots.
The Japanese also love our UGG boots. So when our Japanese family visited last year, we surprised them with a visit to the Big UGG Boots. They loved them. Communication was interesting but the ladies in the gift shop did a great job of explaining that sheepskin changes shape so the shoe sizes that they needed to purchase varied. Overall the visit was an excellent experience for everyone.
Attached to the gift shop is the sheepskin museum. It explains the history of Mortel’s as well as showing how UGG boots are made. My favourite was being able to shear a sheep.
If you are ever in the area the Big UGG Boots are worth a visit.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that I can’t believe that it is over 2 years since our last catch-up. Where did that time go? It seems like only yesterday but so much has happened.
Today would have been my late father’s birthday. Next week will be the 1st anniversary of his death. This time last year was a weird mix of sorrow and celebration as we all wanted him to become an octogenarian. And he did. He was 80 for 5 days. Tonight my family is celebrating his life with a Bob party in his honour, like we did every year for his birthday.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that my son recently got married again. His original wedding was in Japan in April 2018, and last month he and his wife held their Australian wedding to celebrate with friends and family here. It was beach styled, overlooking beautiful Merewether Beach. Like the Japanese and Australian cultures, both weddings were different but amazing. and blended together, made a complete celebration of their love.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that my husband and I have been designing extensions to our house that we are now waiting on permission to build. We have never designed anything before and after nearly 18 months of tweaking we are happy with how it has come together.
If we were having coffee I would tell you that during a 6 month period in 2018 we moved ourselves out of our Sydney home, our daughter to live on campus in country NSW and set-up a new home for my son on his return from Japan, prior to his wife arriving a few months later.
If we were having coffee I would ask you whats been happening in your world. Let me know in the comments.
I like to get cozy everyday. Taking time for myself, alone with no other distractions, is something I like to do at the start of the day as well as in the evening. Sometimes I am lucky enough to have some added cozy time after work before I start my nightly routine.
For me, cozy time is sitting in my very comfortable lounge chair focusing on what I want to do. In the morning it’s thinking about my goals and planning out my day. At other times it might be reading, blogging or slowing my mind down by watching a movie on Netflix.
In the above photo you can see the love we have shared over time by the creases in her folds. She has been a dear friend for nearly 2 decades now and if she could read my mind the stories she could tell.
Sometimes it only takes 5 minutes but my cozy time is my favourite way to centre myself.
In January 2014, our family planted this frangipani tree to remember our cat, Yoda who had died days before. Last Thursday when I arrived to visit my daughter at our Sydney property, I noticed it had bloomed for the first time. I was so excited. I rushed over and took a quick photo to show my husband on my return home. However, when I got home I was so busy with Christmas I forgot but fortunately my daughter was also so excited when she noticed the beautiful flowers that she shared her photo with us. One thing we all agreed on is that our frangipani’s beauty was special and a great choice for Yoda’s garden.
Today we have decided to take this quote about not cleaning up mess seriously. As we near the close of Christmas day in Australia, our lounge room is still littered with presents and shredded paper, which is the remnants of what turned into a ‘snow fight’ during the opening of one of my presents this morning. Even looking at the mess brings a smile to my face remember the fun my husband, daughter and I had throwing shredded paper over each other this morning. A classic Christmas moment that couldn’t ever be planned or choreographed.
Personally I love Christmas. But as we get nearer to the day itself, let’s consider why we put all the effort in to make our Christmas day special. I agree, it’s love. Let’s face it, if we didn’t love the people we spend Christmas day with, we wouldn’t be bothered putting in the time and effort to create our Christmas every year.
