#31. I Love This Time of Year

It has been a bit over a week since my last post, and what a week it has been!  Work has been absolutely flat out, but the weather here has been outstanding!  I love the change of season from summer to autumn probably the best of all the season changes.

The majority of the heat has gone out of the days and night temperatures are perfect for sleeping.  The sun is not streaming in through the window particularly early, so that luxury of the weekend sleep in is spot on at the moment.

The grass is not growing so fast, so the mowing duties have begun to slow.  The winter crops can be planted in the garden now while it is still warm enough to get them off to a great start.  This truly is an amazing time to be alive.

The diet begins to take on a different feel with the BBQ's slowing down a bit, to be replaced by casseroles, stews and soups.  The beer gets replaced a little with dark ales and red wines - all together just perfect!

And then there is AFL!  The cricket season is all but over and the AFL season is about a week away.  I am an unashamed and long suffering Fremantle Dockers fan who has eternal optimism at the beginning of every season that this one will be our year!

And I guess that is what the changing of the seasons signifies for me - change and optimism.  The change from summer to autumn brings the promise of relief from the hitherto unrelenting heat and dryness from the sun  A promise of much needed rain and a break from the heat with chilly winter days and nights.

Getting out of bed on cold winter mornings is hard admittedly, as is getting to work when it is still dark.  But at the end of the day, getting back into that warm bed is undoubtedly a highlight.  But this is still months away.

The rain thundering down on the roof on a Friday night is an absolute delight - especially knowing that you don't have to get out of bed and go to work on Saturday morning - you can just ay there and relax, listening to it tumble down and recharge the much depleted water supplies of Perth.  But this is still months away.

I love this time of year!  Just for right now, everything seems in balance (except for work/life maybe).  For me, this is how it should be.

What are your thoughts?  I would love to read your comments.

Until next time,

CfB

#30. St Patrick's Day Thoughts, and a Recipe

I love St Patrick's Day - it is right up there with Day One of the Boxing Day Test and AFL Grand Final Day.  In fact, it is almost exactly the same as the other two, just with Guinness.

The only drawback that I can see this year is that it falls on a Tuesday.  No all day celebration this year.  So, what to do?  After some considerable thought, I decided to combine two of my loves, Guinness and cooking and made a Beef and Guinness Stew on the weekend in preparation for the big day.  The recipe is at the end of this post if you are interested.

On St Patrick's Day, I think everyone is a little bit Irish.  It's a bit of a stretch, but without a word of a lie, my great grandparents were Mary and Joseph from County Cork.  They emigrated with a great many of their countrymen to Australia, and the rest is history.

So "Happy St Patrick's Day" to all of those suitably qualified, wherever you are in the world.  If you are at a loss as to what to cook for dinner, and you have the time, I thoroughly recommend this stew.  I have perfected it over time, and as such, it is a Chooka original.  Please consider it my gift to you all on this St Patrick's Day.

Enjoy.

Until next time,

CfB

Chooka's Beef and Guinness Stew

Ingredients:

6 Beef Cheeks (or other stewing beef if cheeks are hard to come by)
4 Tbsp Seasoned Plain Flour (seasoned with Salt and Pepper)
2 375mL stubbies Guinness (or your preferred Stout)
2 large brown onions
6 carrots
6 Bay Leaves
1 Tbsp Mixed Herbs
3 Cloves Garlic minced (more if preferred)
3 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Tbsp Beef Stock Powder

1. Coat beef cheeks in seasoned flour and brown in a fry pan.  Place browned beef cheeks in large casserole dish in a single layer.
2.  Peel and slice onions and spread evenly over beef cheeks.
3.  Cut carrots in half lengthwise and then into chunks.  Spread evenly over beef cheeks and onions.
4.  Mix last four ingredients with the remaining seasoned flour and stir/whisk until combined. Pour into the casserole dish.
5. Evenly distribute the bay leaves and poke into the casserole dish.
6.  Cover the dish with either a lid or foil and place in the oven (preheated to 160 celsius)
7.  Coo for 3 - 3 1/2 hours.

Serve with mashed potatoes and boiled/steamed/microwaved cabbage.

Serves 6

#29. Sleep is Great!

For regular followers of this blog, you will know that #2 plays cricket.  His season concludes this coming Saturday, which means that not only will Saturday mornings be reclaimed, but Tuesday and Thursday afternoons will be as well. WOO HOO!!!!

Coupled with this long season, I have been more seriously under the pump at work over the last week or so than normal.  I'm not complaining about this - I have no problem with hard work, but for the last week or so I have been coming home from work absolutely exhausted!  Exhausted, but knowing there is no choice but to get done what needs to get done in the time available.

I have discovered over time that when I can finally see light at the end of a tunnel, whatever it was that has been keeping my energy and motivation up to that point tends to abandon me and I fall into some kind of funk hole.  That's the hard part.  You know you have to keep going, but lack the energy to do so.  Some folk call that "whatever" adrenaline.

I call it sleep.  I love my bed.  The memory foam mattress has been the best investment I ever made I think.  When sleep washes over me, it is a beautiful relief from the world.  As for everyone else, that relief is all to brief.  I know that the alarm is going to go off at 5.38am, so for some as yet to be identified reason, I have tended to wake at about 4.00am forever, and not really get back to sleep after that.

Lying there in that twilight haze between sleep and awake is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing on Sunday mornings when I do not have to get up at a set time (soon to be Saturday's as well.  Did I mention WOO HOO?), a curse most weekdays when I really want that extra sleep.

I have found lately that the closer I am getting to 5.38 in the morning, the closer to getting back to sleep I am.  This is the best bit.  The cares of the world do not exist at that point - the world is in perfect balance.  Soon enough the reality of the day will kick in, but just for that now, time is distorted and life is perfect.  Soon it will be time for the shower and shaving, but for now - bliss!

Does this waking early phenomenon happen to you too?  I would be interested to hear your thoughts on it.  Feel free to comment.

Until next time,

CfB

#28. It's Just Not Cricket

I have sat on this post for a couple of weeks now to decide whether I really needed/wanted to post it, or am I just having a bit of a rant because it is natural to want to protect those nearest and dearest to you?  Whilst I have decided it may still come across as a bit of a rant, I still feel compelled to post it.  This would have to be version 5, I have rewritten it that many times.  So here goes ...

During this time of the ICC Cricket World Cup, a goodly portion of the world is focussed on the competition currently being played in Australia and New Zealand.  There are many other cricket competitions going on throughout the world at the moment too, and #2 plays in one of those.

#2 is in the local Under 12's cricket competition.  He trains twice a week formally, and plays on Saturday mornings.  His coach is fantastic and his team try their best, recently however, without much luck.

Not too long ago, there was a district competition and he was selected in one of the 'A' teams.  Without a doubt, this was the highlight of his life so far.  With this selection comes the opportunity to be selected for the district development squad, which has been his goal since picking up a cricket bat for the first time 18 months ago.

Undoubtedly, he was in a side with 11 other talented young cricketers, playing against other talented young cricketers from surrounding districts - competition was going to be tough.  So how did he go?  He played three games over the long weekend and was dismissed for 3, 7 and a duck (zero for the uninitiated).  Bowled two overs which resulted in a runout, kept wickets for 10 overs and affected a 'direct hit' runout from his fielding.  Not a bad first effort at district level.

Each of the three games consisted of 36 overs per side (a total of 108 in the weekend).  The coach saw fit to sit #2 on the sidelines for 22 of these overs, far more than any other player (some of which were not sat off at all) - you are only allowed 11 players on the field Katy any time, and this team had 12.  Every other player bowled at least 3 overs per game, and every other keeper had at least 18 overs behind the stumps to prove themselves.  His batting positions were 9, 7 and 10 respectively.

What explanation did the coach offer #2 for this seeming lack of opportunity?  None - hence this post.  All the coach could offer me was that he was a "polite young man".  Now, he paid his fees like everyone else, turned up to training more than some of the others, so I can only be left to draw my own conclusions as to this inequitable behaviour on the part of the coach.  It must be that #2 is simply not up to district standards.  either that, or the coach was all about the win.  Unfortunately for the coach, the "Coaches Code of Behaviour" for the Association states in black and white 3.6 - "Avoid overplaying talented players; all young players need and deserve equal time, attention and opportunities".  The coach was unable to provide an adequate explanation (indeed any) as to why he ignored this rule.  I have taken it up with the association, and am awaiting a response.

For the record, statistically, #2 is ranked 10th in the competition for all players (about 130) this season.  He averages 22.7 with the bat and 18.3 with the ball.  He has scored over 130 runs this so far this season.

Now I know I am a proud dad, but when your child is sat out for the fourth time in the weekend and says in tears, "What has this bloke got against me?",  you have to act.  If a 12 year old can see the inequity of the situation, then surely the adult coach must as well.

Well that's my rant, should I ever hear anything back from the association, I will update this post.

Until next time,

CfB

#27. OK Hannah, your turn ...

As I said in my last post, the next one will be focussed around Hannah.  I believe I am a man of my word, and another key tenet of leadership is to follow through on what you say you are going to do.

So for what it is with, here I go ...

Self perception a big issue for most people, if not all.  At some stage of our life, I feel we all succumb  to negative external and/or internal factors that create doubt for and about ourselves.  I know I certainly fall into that category.  Given that all of our circumstances are unique, it would be wrong of me to generalise here with what I about to write, so I will try not to.

Let's take Hannah for example.  In her late teens, tackling what I would consider to be a pretty tough uni degree, so clearly we have here a person of considerable intellect.

From what I have seen of her artwork, we have a seriously talented person here, considering she is self taught.

I had cause to ask her a question about my blog and she was straight onto it with help and advice.  For me, this says I am dealing with a person who has compassion, empathy and genuinely likes to help others.

I could keep going, but this will suffice for a snapshot.

So let me summarise what we have so far:

• intellect
• talent
• creativity
• compassion
• empathy
• selflessness

Not a bad list to begin with.

Finding time to make all of this happen, as well as being a daughter, friend, and probably a colleague would challenge most people.  So I think I will add excellent time manager to the list too.

In all of this, I see one thing missing - Hannah having time for Hannah.  I could be wrong, but here could be part of the self perception issue - not investing time in yourself.

Investing time in oneself is absolutely essential to keep you in balance.  Taking a bit of personal time to take stock of where you are going, and not neglecting where you have been is just so important!

If I can see these qualities, those people Hannah associates with certainly will too.  Some will be supportive, most ambivalent, and some jealous.  It is this last category that we all tend to focus on.  So much negative energy wasted when we could be doing something more productive.  The challenge as I see it is to rise above the negative self talk, and maybe that from others as well.

To do this, I look back at the list of qualities that I have made about myself and tell myself that I am a good person.  When the negative self talk kicks in, I try to use that as a way to improve myself.  All in all, the message here is to not be too hard on yourself, and treasure the things about you that make you you.  Others treasure those things about you - why shouldn't you?

Until next time,

CfB

Solidarity with Precious

One of the unexpected joys of joining the blogging world was meeting amazing people.  I naively thought that I would post my posts out there into the ether and folk would read them.  How much richer I have become because this is so not the case!

Two young bloggers in particular have caught my attention, one I shall call Hannah, and the other Precious.  There is nothing special about this in and about itself, except that within hours of each other (on opposite sides of the world) posted on their blogs about very similar themes.

Precious posted about bullies and Hannah posted about self perception.  I thought it would be appropriate to support them both publicly as I have privately.  In this post, I will focus on Precious, and in the next, Hannah.

First and foremost, they are both strong young women in their own right, making their way in the world as best they can, and the have my respect for that as everyone who makes the most of what they have does.  What connects them for me is the concept that they either have and/or are having feelings of inferiority (for want of a better word) because of other people.  And quite simply, that sucks!

I have never met either of these ladies personally, but what I read in their posts (and between the lines) is that they are strong women who will go far in their worlds, and all power to them.

The rest of this post is directed at Precious, but Hannah, it is for you too if you think it has merit for you.

I have had my share of self doubt which was encouraged by others (as no doubt we all have), but I got through it because I had a strong, but gentle person in my life who was my father.  It is from him primarily that I believe I developed my inner strength.  Now Dad was a member of the elite Australian SAS Regiment during the Borneo and Vietnam Wars and rose to be a very senior NCO.  As such he was a recognised special leader, and a tough one - except he did not lead as a tough guy, he led his troops by building them up.  He had no time for those who led by bullying others, he took them down instead.

Now Precious is a leader in the making, of that I have no doubt. Leadership is not something you are born with, I would quite happily tackle anyone on that issue.  Leaders either lead because they have to, or because they want to.  I think if you want to be a leader, you need to be damned sure of what and why you want to lead.  I feel that Precious has a pretty good idea about this, just feels she is too young to be effective.  You are never too young to start honing your skills.

For everybody out there reading this (as well as Precious) if leadership is what you aspire to (as I do, and have achieved), my advice (via my father) is to make your sole focus is to "Look after those smaller than you".  That advice can take on many forms, and it should.  I am still learning what it means.  Ultimately, you are there to lead people, not use them as a step ladder to the next promotion.  Give credit to your subordinates - that only ends up making you look good and them perform better.  The piece of advice I would give personally is "Make sure others can do your job as well as you can".  This means bringing on your subordinates and making yourself redundant in your job.  Others may call it "Succession Planning", I call it demonstrating trust and faith in others.

If you aspire to be a leader because of the "power" it gives you, you are not a leader, never will be, forget it - forever.

Precious, you are you, and you are the only you there ever will be.  Make sure that when you get up in the morning to face whatever challenges the day may present, you face them as the best version of you that you can be.  When times get tough, as they will, stay true to yourself and remember that "This too shall pass".

You are amazing and will make your way in the world, as you are doing now.  When walls are put up in front of you by others, either go over them, under them or around them.  If all else fails, blow them up and go through them.  Remember that you have friends and they will always be there to support and guide you.

Oh, and Rule #1 of being a leader?  Be a good follower.

Until next time,

CfB

The Joy of Online Shopping

Like most people on the planet it seems, I am a very time poor individual.  I am at work by 6.30am and don't get home until 4.00pm or after on most days.  Once at home, I need to wind up for the taxi service for the kids' sporting commitments, organise dinner and so on.  Then on the weekends, lots of time is committed to the kids' sporting commitments again, just in time to hit Sunday night to collapse into bed and start it all again the next week.

Sound familiar?

I don't begrudge doing any of what I have just relayed, and as such, I am always on the lookout for ways to save some precious time.  This is why I am so surprised that I had not discovered online shopping before!

Sure, I am familiar with eBay and the like, I have been using the Internet to make purchases for years.  I saw an ad on TV the other week for online supermarket shopping, and thought I would give it a go - what could it hurt?  If I didn't like it, I have lost nothing.

About 30 minutes later, the weekly shopping was done and my delivery window booked for the next day.  I was like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for the delivery to see if it met all the expectations the online supermarket had set.

On time the next day, the shopping was delivered.  Everything was there, the frozen goods were frozen, the bread packed separately, the fruit and veg were as I would have chosen in the supermarket and, oh, did I mention that they also delivered beer?

No standing in the checkout line, no dodgy shopping trolleys, no having to drive there and back so no car park hassles - this seemed too good to be true!  So I gave it another go - same results, but this time, the eggs arrived with all 12 in the carton intact.

I am now officially hooked and I would estimate that online shopping saves me at least two to three precious hours a week  Two hours a week to mow the lawns and do the multitude of other little jobs around the house which have been neglected - much to the other half's delight.

Thank you Woolworths Online, you are a time saver without doing someone out of a job - I cannot recommend you highly enough!

Until next time,

CfB