Our Fijian Holiday – Treasure Island

Our arrival on Treasure Island heralded the start of the portion of our holiday that would be truly relaxing.  It was stunningly beautiful and postcard perfect. There were white sandy beaches, crystal blue water, swaying palms, white clouds in a baby blue sky and soft Fijian music.

We experienced so much in our week on the Island so I am just going to take you through the highlights.

Each morning we met our beautiful grandchildren, along with their mum, dad and Leeanne for a relaxed continental breakfast.  For most of our meals we chose to sit outside on the decking which afforded a stunning view of the ocean and a gentle breeze.  We were never short of choice when it came to food and I tried many new, interesting and tasty dishes whilst we were away.  For the first day or two Terry and I lined up for breakfast, dinner and tea – because that’s what’s expected, but we quickly worked out that eating such a late breakfast meant that we could get away with two meals a day easily.  Of course there was always some type of homemade “nibblies” served at happy hour each day which were scrumptious, and just HAD to be eaten.

Playing with our grandchildren came easily and we shared many wonderful, happy moments together collecting shells, swimming, feeding the fish and iguana’s and snorkelling.  It was after watching the kids snorkel one morning that Terry and I decided to hire some snorkelling equipment and have a go ourselves.  I CAN SNORKEL – WHO KNEW!!  It was the most amazing fun snorkelling over the edge of the reef and Terry and I have been busy looking for other holidays we could take where we could snorkel again!

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I threw myself into the Fijian culture as much as possible.  I attended a Fijian language lesson with Lucas and Cooper, a Fijian cooking lesson with my daughter-in-law  Alisha, and a Fijian herbal medicine lesson just to name a few.  The lessons provided an opportunity to learn about the culture, but also to mingle and get to know the staff who were the happiest and friendliest people I have ever met, without exception.

One of the most moving moments for me was when the island Choir sang traditional music, which included some sacred songs.  The music was truly wonderful, and was appreciated by everyone, as not a sound could be heard whilst the choir sang.  The music and voices were reminiscent of my childhood when we would have Fijian Islanders come to church sometimes and sing.

Terry and I enjoyed early morning walks along the beach, looking into rock pools and taking pictures along the way.  We just loved every minute of our time on Treasure Island, and what a magical opportunity to spend time with our son and his family.

Our Fijian Holiday – Navala Village

 This trip was a trip of a lifetime for Terry and I.  We shared the experience with our son Lucas, daughter-in-law Alisha, Alisha’s mum Leeanne and our 2 beautiful grandchildren Cooper and Charlotte.  With passports in hand we arrived in Denarau  to the sound of a Fijian group singing traditional music.

Fijian Singing – Nadi Airport

Our first adventure came the following day when we boarded a mini bus and headed into the mountains (Ba Highlands) to visit Navala Village.  Heading out of Denarau the roads were busy and our bus driver explained one of the local road rules – that of tooting your horn.  The first toot is to let the person in front of you know you are thinking of passing, the second toot is to let the person in front of you know you are not happy you can’t get around them, and the third toot is to let the person in front of you know that you are going to “mow them down” if they don’t get out of your way!

We stopped at the village of Ba to visit the local produce markets which was a lot of fun.  The vendors produce was displayed on long wooden tables and included fresh fruits and vegetables, local spices and herbs, and of course – Kava root.  Then it was back into the bus and heading through stunning scenery along a very rocky, bumpy road.

Navala is situated by quite steep mountains with a small river close by for fishing and the scenery is spectacular.  There is a supply of fresh drinking and cooking water from springs at the top end of the village.

Once we arrived at Navala Village we were shown into the Bure of the Chief and his wife where there was the opportunity to partake in the traditional Kava Welcome Ceremony.  The people were friendly and welcoming, and after the ceremony they took us on a tour of the village, the highlight for me being the visit to the village school.  The happy faces of the children in their school uniforms and bare feet running around the play ground, or sitting in their classroom, was such a heart warming experience.  They readily came up to us wanting to dish out “high fives” and get their photo’s taken.

Washing Hung Out to Dry

The Creek Bed

Cook House

Creek

Goats

High Fives

The New Church

Cooper & Charlotte with the local school children

Mountains

Bure

Lucas wearing traditional Lei

 

The rest of the village was truly an eye opener.  The one and only cooking hut amazed me: an open fire with a pot boiling away, covered overhead by palm fronds.  The church, which had to be rebuilt after a recent cyclone, was beautiful – and is now built to cyclone standards.  Washing was hung over single lines strung between trees, goats were tethered near bures and chickens roamed freely.  An open hut which consisted of poles in the ground with a palm frond roof stood in the centre of the village, and as we walked passed it all the men of the village were seated on mats in the shade talking “business”.

After our tour we were treated to a traditional Fijian lunch which consisted of taro, potato, curried chicken, rice, pineapple and water to drink.  The food was really quite yummy having been made freshly by some of the women of the village, and I finally got to try taro which I had wanted to do for many years.

After returning to our rooms at the Gateway Motel we all went for a swim in the pool.  Everyone agreed that the experiences of the day had been wonderful, the scenery spectacular and the local Fijians had been most welcoming and friendly.

Pool at the Gateway Motel

Happy 4th Birthday to Us

 

 

 

Can you believe that it has been four years since I started The Keeper of Stories!!  I’m amazed, as the time has passed so very quickly.

I haven’t been posting in the last few months, as I’m afraid that life has just gotten in the way.  I have been having such a marvellous time with travel, family & friends, and cooking, but I will be starting back to blogging next month, November, with an account of our trip to Fiji.  This will be following by a month long blog in December of all things Christmas,  and how to save money but still have a blast.  We will then return to family history stories in January. 

I have re-vamped the blog giving it a fresh new look so stay with me folks, it’ll be great fun.

Julie

Source:

Photo:  Photo taken from : http://www.passportmagazine.ru/article/914/

Creating Memories

Each day of our lives

we make deposits in the

memory banks

of our children

Charles R. Swindoll

Author, Educator & Radio Preacher

The Preston Family abt. 1985 – Creating Memories by spending time together

I remember about 33 years ago my dad, Ronald Norman Di Salvia, came to stay with us for a couple of weeks, and some of the time he was with us I had to go to work.  One evening I arrived home late after a tough day with a cantankerous 15 month old son in tow.  All I wanted to do was sit quietly for a few minutes.  My son had other ideas though, and the upshot was that I yelled at him to keep quiet.

Dad came out to us and picked Lucas up from the kitchen floor. Tuning to me he said   “Just remember Julie, every minute of every day you are creating memories for this little fella.  How he remembers his life is actually up to you”. 

When I saw the above quote by Charles R. Swindoll it immediately took me back to standing in the kitchen of our old house with my son and my dad; if I really listen hard I’m sure I can still hear dad’s voice even though he passed away not long after this incident took place.

Preston Family – All Dressed Up! 2014

The words dad spoke all that time ago are still vivid in my mind and it made me think about the memories I had created for my children during their lifetimes. Have I added precious memories to their “memory banks” that built their confidence and moulded their character positively?  I do hope that each of my children can claim at least a few memories that will be uplifting, and will cloak them in happiness for just a short time during a dark, cold day. I realised that it is never to late to add precious memories to their bank account and sometime in the earliest hours of this morning I came to understand that adding to our children’s memory banks is a lifetime role.  For all of your breathing days you can add to your child’s perception of self worth, perhaps influence their point of view on an important issue, and teach them.  These things become memories!

Your Memories From Your Early Childhood Seem to Have Such Purchase On Your Emotions.  They Are So Concrete – Dana Spiotta 1966 –    Author

I am lucky enough to have some beautiful photo’s of my children which I just love to look over every now and then.  It reminded me that I have some lovely portraits of children, with or without their parents, in my family history collection.  I cannot imagine that these children were loved any less than I love my own children and thought that Mothers Day would be an excellent time to share just a couple of my favourite photo’s with you all. 

The Allsopp Women – Left to Right: Mabel Alice, Ada Ellen, Rhoda Margaret, Sophia Eliza and Lucy Elizabeth

L to R: Edward, Sarah & Herbert Bailey

Madeleine Standing In Front of her Adored Father, with Mother and Brother

Thevenet Family – Madeleine standing to her father’s left

Joseph & Christina Di Saliva with Frances (standing), Keith (sitting) & Walter (baby on mother’s lap)

The One Thing I need to Leave Behind

Is Good Memories

Michael Landon (Eugene Maurice Orowitz) – 1936 – 1991

Actor, Director, Writer, Producer

Our Easter Celebrations – 2017

Well, it has literally been months since posting to my blog – how did that happen!  So – to get back in to the swing of things I have chosen to start with a piece about my Easter celebrations. 

Our family is not a religious family and to us Easter has become much more about spending some fun time together.  It has almost become a tradition to sit around together in the sunshine, laughing whilst the children play in the backyard and enjoying the gorgeous weather of autumn.  It is such a joy to see the four generations – great-grandparents, grand-parents, parents, and grand-children – enjoying time together.  Typically, the weather will change in Tamworth any time from the end of April, becoming increasingly cold as our winter draws in, and Easter is our last chance to get together and enjoy the outdoors for a few months.

Just such a day happened yesterday – Easter Sunday 2017 – a day of perfect sunshine, warm temperatures, a few fluffy clouds in the sky and the hint of a breeze.  We had a lovely time together with lots of laughter and games with Cooper and Charlotte – my two eldest grandchildren – and of course – there was plenty of chocolate!

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As with any “Preston” get-together, one of our focuses was food, but this Easter I kept it very simple.  This gave everyone the best chance of having time to enjoy themselves.  The menu was as follows:

Nibbles – Just a bought dip and crackers (I love Coles supermarket)

Main – American Hamburgers with Potato Crisps (the recipe book said it was American, so I guess it was)

Dessert – Chocolate Cake with Cream (thanks Donna Hay)!

Our Easter Chocolate Cake

I put the burgers together in the kitchen and Cooper & Charlotte delivered them to the adults sitting at the table outside – and they did an excellent job.  As we were eating, our newest grand daughter Lexie (just 3 weeks old) made her presence known from her capsule, but went back to sleep again quite quickly, allowing her mum and dad to finish their lunch.

Lexie in her Easter Bunny Outfit

It was a lovely time together; a great opportunity create memories and gather more family photo’s which are just so important, I think.

Link to Donna Hay Easy Chocolate Cake  It was Sooooo.. Yummy!

The Old Fashioned Hope Chest

I am going to tell you all about being a teenager who put together a Hope Chest! In “the olden days”, a girl would take years to put together a Hope Chest, so that when she married, she would have a lot of the normal things needed to start her home. When I was about 19 years old, with no boyfriend in sight, Granma decided that I needed to start a Hope Chest. I have got to tell you – I had a fantastic time filling the box which was an old “low boy” cupboard owned by Grandad. A low boy was a small wardrobe for men, designed to hold suits and shoes, with drawers for undies, socks etc. and I filled it to the absolute brim over the following few years.

A Hope Chest very much like the one I used

I had nothing else to spend my time, or my money on, as my only social activity at the time was going to church! I would hunt around, mainly in shops in Parramatta, for things that I thought I would like. Some of the items I had in the box by 1977 were:

• A beautiful stainless steel coffee set, consisting of a tray with handles, a tall coffee pot, and a sugar bowl and milk jug. I still have this as it was one of my favourite pieces, and it sits in the display cupboard in the spare room
• A couple of sets of towels in pale pink and pale green. Back then pink and green were very cool colours for a bathroom so don’t raise your eyebrow’s! Sadly – these are long gone.

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• A set of copper based saucepans which were very expensive as I recall. I paid about $600 for the set way back in the mid 70’s, as copper based saucepans were very new technology then. That set lasted me over 30 years though, and was only replaced a few years ago!
• Two sets of beautiful heavy satin sheets in gold and very dark green – Man!! Were they fantastic to sleep in! Absolute luxury.
• Another coffee set – but this one was a Royal Albert Country Roses one. It consisted of the coffee pot, little milk jug, and 2 types of sugar bowl – one with a lid and one without – as well as 6 coffee cups and saucers. I got the whole set on two separate layby’s from a jeweller in Guildford (Sydney) and it cost me around $98.00. Over the years I have added many pieces to my country roses set as you know. These days I have a full 6 piece dinner set which takes pride of place in my glass cabinet. One day I will be able to pass this valuable set on.  Each piece is English made. When the Royal Albert factory moved to Asia I stopped collecting, as the colour of the crockery was a different white. Pieces from Asia are not as valuable as the English made dinner ware
• There were tea towels, washers, table cloths (some of which were beautiful), a water set in copper coloured glass, entertaining dishes – 2 of which I still have. Both dishes, also in copper coloured glass, are used on the odd occasion and sit on the shelf under the dinner set in the kitchen cupboards.

Cutlery

Stoneware Dinner Set – Mine was Brown & Burnt Orange

Tea Towels

• An 8 piece, stoneware dinner set in a brown colour, with a thin chocolate brown ring and edged in burnt orange. I’ll have you know – these were very cool colours back then! If you think back carefully, you may just remember them. We had people up one Sunday and I used the entire dinner set. I chose to wash and dry it myself (before we had the dishwasher). After washing and drying the dinner set I stacked the dinner plates, b & b plates and dessert bowls on top of each other, and then lifted them to put them into the cupboard – and dropped the lot!! I did manage to save about a 4 piece setting out of the rubble.
• A lovely 12 setting stainless steel cutlery set which actually had the same design – in miniature – as the stainless steel coffee set. This cutlery set lasted most of your lives to date, and I only replaced it with the current one about 4-5 years ago.

Table Cloth – Mine was very similar to this !

The cupboard was filled to overflowing with boxes of all different sizes, parcels in brown paper and moth balls dotted here and there. On the odd occasion, when I wanted to fit something else in, I would have to take everything out, go through it (just for fun) and repack it so that I could eke out a small place to add my latest purchase.

I used the contents of my hope chest long before I was married, as that’s just the way life turned out. When I lost my job in Sydney I moved into a flat with Aunty Kellie in Belmore Street, just up from the Family Hotel, and we used some of the things from my collection in our flat. I then moved into a house in Carthage Street and filled it with the rest of the gear from my hope chest. Not long after that, your dad moved in with me!

Do you know – I think girls should still put together a “Hope Chest”, just because it was so much fun. When I had no other monetary commitments beside paying board and my car payments, I could spend money on getting special things that just aren’t affordable later on.

Just so you know – Aunty Nony and Aunty Gwen both had them I think, but I think Aunties Kim and Kel only had the odd thing put together by the time they moved out of home.

 

Picture Sources:

Sheets: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=pictures+of+sheets&biw=1366&bih=673&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCJCmy6jPrscCFYQcpgodfFUFKA#imgrc=d35y-58aRyzcsM%3A

Towels:  http://prodaval.co/bathroom-towels/bathroom-towels-tblsr

Crockery:  http://www.beckyscakeboutique.com/wp-content/gallery/vintage-crockery/vintage-crockery.jpg

Hope Chest:  http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mdH5FN5gEzzhwXHap7FDfWA.jpg

Tea Towels:  http://www.purlbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/stitched-tea-towels-600-1.jpg

Cutlery:  http://www.uniquecutlery.pk/products/8_7_ikea_cutlery_svit.jpg

Dinner Set:  http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41sN-PwJCuL._SX300_.jpg

 

 

The Highs and Lows of Retirement – 3

One month down and a lifetime to go!!  And just how am I doing after my first month away from work?  Just brilliantly, thank you.  The truth is – I feel calmer, happier and free-er than I have in all of my life.  I truly feel liberated.  It is as though I have just now become the person that I have waited a whole lifetime to be.  How very lucky I am, but let me try to explain.

Peacefulness

Firstly, I have a new found calmness that  is the most deliciously warm sensation – one could easily become addicted to it!  As many of you will know, I am not known for my calm nature, preferring to be a person that lives “on the ceiling” or “at the edge” for most of the time.  This calmness, or perhaps it’s actually peacefulness, just sits inside of me all the time and helps guide the very flow of my day.  I have used this new calmness to help me organise myself, so that I can feel like I have still achieved something positive each day. To others, these chores may seem trivial but to me they encompass the very style of life that I have always yearned for – that of a housewife.  Every few days I have set aside time to do the very things that I was never fully able to cram into my two days off.  Simple things like cleaning my laundry, tending to my herb garden, taking down cobwebs or going through all my family history paperwork, have become tasks filled with joy and purpose, and chores to take pride in.

Happines

The “happiness” side of things took me a little by surprise.  I think beneath the surface I really was a little concerned about how happy my retirement could be.  I have found that my happiest of days in this past month have been the days that I have been at home on my own, or the time I have spent with my family or friends – and lets face it – that’s the way life really should be.  Before retirement though, it was difficult to fit “everyone & everything” into a weekend, whereas now I have the time to decide that I will go visit my children or grandchildren, I have the time to sit with friends and while away a couple of hours having a casual drink and laugh.  The truly big discovery here though is that I am quite happy in my own company, I don’t miss the “press” of people from my working life which was filled with the noise of constant chatter, tears and raised voices.  That is not to say there are not some specific people that I don’t miss.

Being a calmer and happier person has brought with it a freedom that I absolutely did not expect.  The fear of trying new things has largely slipped away.  Of course a fear of trying new things is really all about the fear of failure – honestly, what was I thinking?  I have branched out with my cooking – a thing that I have always loved, but have never had the time to fully investigate. My hubby and I are enjoying at least one if not two new savoury recipes each week or fortnight and I am baking our own cakes and biscuits. We have always been adventurous eaters, but this has taken it to a whole new level.  Lets face it, what’s the worst that can happen?  If we decide we don’t like the recipe I just won’t make the dish again.  I have also started learning to decorate cakes and although I have huge room for improvement, I have found that I love it. Who knows, maybe I’ll get good at it.  This new found freedom has also allowed me to help my kids who are working hard, purchasing homes, raising children and finding there own way.  As a young married woman I always thought that if I had just a little practical help that I wouldn’t be such a failure at “wife and motherhood”.  Long story short – I can do ironing or clean a house to within an inch of life.  This I can offer them, and it gives me such great joy to be able to help them.

“Helping others is the secret sauce to a happy life.”

Todd Stocker – Writer, Speaker and Pastor

So you see, these last few weeks have truly been an eye-opener, the best part of which is that my family have noticed a positive difference in my nature and outlook.  I can only finish this by saying – retirement is nothing to fear, but something to jump feet first into!

Sources:

Quotes from http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=peacefulness+quotes&view=detailv2&&id=0CC4F67F39A2757A7BE523CDA0F5FD30873864A5&selectedIndex=17&ccid=hR4QYu5C&simid=608053733535844381&thid=OIP.M851e1062ee42d3beee25b9558c48c645o0&ajaxhist=0

The Highs and Lows of Retirement – 2

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. –

Alan Cohen – Author

Well, here I am on the last day of my working life – 10 July 2015.   Wow – has this been a roller coaster ride – or what!!  Before we opened for business this morning I sat at my desk looking out over the waiting room and had such an overwhelming sense of excitement filter through me that I could hardly wipe the grin off my face!  But immediately the smile appeared the thought occurred to me that I would never again walk into this familiar office, turn on the lights in the waiting room, start up my computer, greet patients or welcome the doctors as they come into the office, laugh with Cath – who not only worked beside me but has kept me sane all this time – and I experienced a split second of true and gripping fear!

The unknown has always been scary to me, being the creature of habit that I am, but I just didn’t have time for these feelings this morning as I had so much to do! I was nowhere near ready to hand over to Kierra, and I hadn’t told, or shown her nearly enough for her to get by. I don’t think I have ever put so much of my soul into any one day in my life, and I powered through the work. Do you know though – I’m not sure if I smiled at the patients, help them as fully as I should have or wished them well! I was so focused on the other facets of my work that I just can’t remember who came into the clinic today at all. I find that a bit sad.

There were many wonderful distractions throughout the day though: beautiful flower posies & arrangements arrived, well-wishers popped their heads through the door wishing me much happiness and voicing their envy of my leaving, chocolates and gifts were added to the counter behind me and cards with warm and fuzzy messages were handed over! I found the day embarrassing and humbling, filled to the brim with the well wishes of my friends.  Funny though – over the years I have seen people cry on their last day – but not me – not a tear was shed, but it still does not seem real.  What does retirement look like anyway – I have no clue.

In the end I was ushered out the door over a half hour early by these wonderful people. The days’ work had not been completed. Kierra had not been given the attention, nor the full information that I would have liked to have passed on. But my desk was cleared of my belongings, the closed drawers and filing cabinet sat tidy and surprisingly empty, and every surface was spotless.  I had just a fleeting sad thought that my desk looks very bare.

As I added flowers to vases and placed arrangements around the house this evening retirement still does not seem a reality. To my utter surprise there are no tears or unhappiness to cope with, and the only true feeling, as I snuggled into my warm and comforting bed at the end of this very long day, is contentment – a quiet calm, which is ever so slightly covered by a wafer-thin layer of excitement.  I am not afraid.

I think the concept of retirement hasn’t “sunk in” yet because it seems more like going on a holiday to me, but as I move forward it will be very interesting to see what emotions present themselves and what challenges lay ahead.

                                                                   Rosanne Cash – Singer/Songwriter & Author

The Highs and Lows of Retirement

Retirement may be looked upon either as a prolonged holiday or as a rejection, a being thrown on to the scrap-heap

Simone de Beauvoir – 9 Jan 1908 – 14 Apr 1986 – French Writer, Intellectual, Existentialist Philosopher,Political Activist, Feminist and Social Theorist

Nobody ever told me that retirement would be an enormous upheaval in my life, and in any case, I would never have believed them. Today is 30 May, 2015 and I am almost a retired woman!  For quite a number of my 43 years of working life I have actually looked forward to the day that I would be able to slow down, but now that I am “staring down the barrel” of that gun it is an entirely different matter altogether.  I chose the opening quote expressly because it hints at the turmoil involved in coming to the decision to retire, but it is really representative of the extreme points of sentiments involved.  There are many mid range emotions on the topic of retirement which sit snugly between those two poles, and I think I have experienced most of them.

Everyone retires at some point in their life, but on the whole that choice is theirs, and ultimately they are resigned to that fact.  Perhaps my difficulty has come from needing to retire a little earlier than than I, or my hubby, had planned, not by a lot of time – only 12 – 18 months – but earlier none the less.  It has not been a clear cut decision.  There is no life threating illness, no life changing event,  just a need to spend less time in front of a computer screen due to arthritis – how very inane!   This single point leaves me in the unfortunate position of not being able to see through a number of plans I had for my career, and that really annoys the devil out of me!

My career has always been incredibly important to me.  I chose to work in the Administrative field, putting into that choice all the thought and commitment that someone would show when deciding to study medicine, open a business, fly a plane or become an organic vegetable gardener. Every student or trainee that has ever come under my wing has been told that they should not “fall into” a job just because there is no other, and that they should truly think about where a career in Administration could lead them. Paper trails have always fascinated me, I thrive on contact with the general public, I am able to capably deal with crisis situations and I love working with children.  These facts saw me leading a team of Administrative Officers in an Outpatient Clinic at our local hospital for the last 12 years, and they truly have been the most challenging yet satisfying years of my working life.  I’ve loved every minute of it!

So, a fortnight ago the decision to retire was made after almost a year of increasing problems with arthritis.  I have spent two or three days teary and crying, and I have spent a number of days filled with excitement, but there is a specific day that I should tell you all about.  It was the day that I woke up thinking – What Was It All For. 

The truth is – I haven’t saved lives, I’m not a political activist (actually I find politics a bit boring), I’m so far removed from being an intellectual it’s ridiculous and I have no idea about social  theorems.  I will have to leave those critical careers to others. What was it that I had achieved during my working lifetime that could possibly be seen as advantageous to anybody, seen as helpful. The funny thing is, it wasn’t a “poor me” type of thought, it was more a reflection, and the answer plagued me for a  week or more before the answer presented itself.  During that week or two I felt like I was in crisis, I was at a very low point which resulted in me being teary at the drop of a hat – something that does not sit well with me.  I was devastated to think that I had spent nearly a lifetime, and may not have  achieved anything.  I simply needed to feel that I had contributed and made a small difference.  That is only normal, isn’t it?  I hope it’s normal anyway.

The answer came in the form of an urgent yet relatively simple problem that needed to be solved and it was almost a “light bulb” moment.  How very daft I had been, not being able to see that this was the very reason I was doing what I was doing!  Leading a fantastic team through difficulty, changing processes for the better, providing what we all  hoped was a quality service to the general public under difficult circumstance, and finally helping parents organise the best healthcare outcomes for their children. Of course I had contributed!  Organisation, Planning, Assistance – I have always known these are my strengths.

Knowing that I have worked towards a better service helps immensely, it fills in the hole.  It will be interesting over the next 6 weeks leading up to my retirement to see what other emotions I will find lurking beneath the surface of my composure, what other thoughts will come to mind, and how I will deal with the transition to retirement – stick around – take the journey with me, and find out what retiring is all about.

Julie

The Challenging Conversation

I want to thank my eldest son, Lucas Brent Preston, for the most amazing discussion which took place in our kitchen last night.  My husband Terry, Lucas and I discussed a wide range of topics from Gay Marriage to Politics and Boat People, and it was a wonderful thing to find that all three of us could have such varied ideas, opinions and beliefs and still respect each others point of view.

Lucas Preston 2006

I was amazed to find that Lucas believed that it was time for the topic of Gay Marriage to be taken to the people of our nation through a referendum which was totally opposite to my view that Gay Marriage should not occur at all and which I base on my personal religious beliefs.  Terry had another point of view altogether – that Gay Marriage should not take place, but from the point of view that – as a generational concept of the “the baby boomers”, it was not a socially accepted practice.  Three opinions based on three viewpoints and none of them entirely wrong.  Interestingly, we could come to a common ground – each of us thought that if the leaders of our country took the issue to the people we could live with the outcome.  The benefit of a referendum would be in knowing that the people had spoken, and not a politician that was looking to further his career.  I don’t believe a referendum could change my point of view on this topic, but it took strong discussion of this topic with my son and husband for me to realise that the power of this decision should be placed into the hands of the people who will have to live with the outcome.

We could come to no agreement on the topic of Politics, but on the length of time it takes to process the application of Refugee/ Boat People we did agree.  It is inhuman to keep people, especially children, locked up in detention centres for years, but we could find no common ground on how to achieve quicker processing times, or in fact, a way to stop the boats from coming to our shores. What this topic did stir in me though, was a thought that we should be more vocal as a community about the processing of Refugee/Boat People status.  Whether we believe that they should be sent back to their own country, or welcomed into our country does seem irrelevant, if we cant first decide how to treat their applications.

It has been fascinating to me to watch my child grow into an adult (a process which I firmly believe takes a lifetime), but it is profoundly humbling to have that adult challenge my view on the world with good and solid evidence to support his argument.  What more could his father and I have hoped for in our son.  He challenged me to think from a different point of view, to examine why I believed what I believed and to evaluate whether my belief “stood up” to critical argument.  I love to listen to what others have to say on today’s important issues because I always learn something new.  Sometimes that knowledge leaves me no other option but to change my way of thinking and other times I find that someone else’s thoughts support my own, but from a different view point.

My greatest joy in last nights conversation was in seeing Lucas strongly believe in things, but allow others to have their own opinions and listen to their arguments – wow!! what a night.