Call them quiet days...
Lately I started to work on my observation skill: getting more from little things, people around, strangers on the bus and whatever... good results are still to come, but meanwhile I have the impression even quiet days can offer a lot...
In this post :)
Riding Classy Pie
Socceroos and... AFC!!
Yea, yea, yea... personal development...
First sunburning
Riding Classy Pie
I already mentioned in this blog the Australian passion for horses' races... well... I decided it was time for me to experience it on the field: I went horse riding for the first time ever in my life!! It was great!!
Left home in rush we (Selim, Anja, couple of her friends and I) reached our destination a couple of hours later: a green hilly place nice enough for a horse riding and 1h away from Sydney centre: enough to get the feeling of "middle of nowhere"...
When the leader of our group asked the around 20 people there to split between unexperienced and experience, I felt lonely... I was alone: guess in which side?! By default I got Classy Pie (or something like that) a lady horse of respectable age... (as I found out later when I asked why my horse was barely moving!) Well, definitely not an horse I would have bet too much money, but that eventually, after 3 hours of warming up, well performed in the final rush!!
In fact it took a while to me to understand how strongly I could kick her, and an even longer while for her to understand who was the boss!! But when we got closer to our finish point I kick her well enough to take over everyone else by cantering... maybe she was just looking forward to getting rid of me!
Soccerros and... AFC!!
The Socceroos, as the Australian soccer team is nicked, made it to the world cup: as Italian for once it has been nice to watch the match being decided at the penalties lottery: Italy doesn't have the best memories with that!
So Australia-Uruguay, a not too exacting match that I started to watch only from the extra times, will probably be one of the few soccer matches I?ll ever remember... Australia qualified for the second time and after 32 years to the world cup, an event that, although soccer is not at all the first Australian sport, deserved the first pages of all the newspaper: the point here is that Australians are way into sport, no matter what: now is Cricket, next soccer and... here the reader must pay some attention: the original version of this post used to say "I wouldn?t be surprise to watch fox hunting on TV one day!"...Well, pointless to specify, that version has been edited: while watching TV on a Sunday morning a came across an unbelievable combination of sport broadcasted in different channels: First came Cricket: A game could last one day or 5... they take lunch break... and, most shocking tea breaks... yes, around 4 or 5 in the afternoon they go for tea!!!! Beside I counted the presence of more seagulls quietly and happily chilling on the ground than players actively involved in the game... I believe cricket is the challenge of any TV or radio (YES... it is broadcast on radio too, a concept that goes way behind my understanding and therefore I better don't comment!)... yeap, the challenge of any speakers... they spend their time between the nothing happening on the field and the still nothing happening around the field, giving out statistics of any kind... ball speed, direction, rotation, revolution... player history and family background, quoting matches of long and short past? wow!!
But, shameful as it could sound, that Sunday morning Cricket was my TV choice. Another option was golf, a sport I've never tried (unlike Cricket) to understand too much... those few minutes spent watching it suggested me that golf is not just a matter of position and stick (or whatever you call the tool to hit the ball) but includes a good understanding of wind and grass condition... there is probably more, but my finger was quick enough to zip on the next and definitely most shocking event on that Sunday TV experience which has now led to such a long editing of this post: in curiosity and disbelief I was now watching AFC... Australian Fishing Championship!!!! I got there probably on the climax: the fish weighting... followed by some kind of ranking which included some weights and extra points of unidentified nature... then a long spot to Ford, proud sponsor of the AFC, which cars are used to move from one beach to the next... It was soon enough and my dream of seeing a fox hunting show broadcast soon became first boring and then forgotten!
Anyway... back to soccer: Australia got into the same group of Brazil, Croatia and Japan... all in all a good draw which is going to make the whole thing even more interesting! Italy got Czech Rep, Ghana and USA... will be tough to move on the next stage and even tougher to wake up that early in the morning: but it will happen!
Another positive consequence of the Australian qualification is the increased number of soccer balls around and soccer games shown on TV... clearly not on Sunday morning!
Yea, yea, yea... personal development...
Recently I went to the info evening of one of those organizations dealing with personal development, something, I must say, I'm pretty interested in... it was a fine experience!
Give me a small opportunity to stand in front of an audience and make some fun starting with myself and I'll be there. So when Rafhaea, our leader in the small group, asked the first volunteer to present him/herself and say what brought them there, I didn't hesitate that much... well I managed to make people laugh and have fun myself... I thought it was a good beginning!! 3mins later and by the time the 3rd person was talking, 3 people were already in tears: in fact 2 were the people presenting themselves and the 3rd Rafhaea... soon I realized why she had previously told us how she easily get moved: in tears... she knew it was coming!For pure statistics: in 1,5 hours 5 people (out of around 15 there) managed to cry; definitely an appreciable result.
Reasons of those tears were the different motive for those people being there: to improve the relation with her daughter, husband, mother... or whatever relation and life situation!
If their selling strategies had been softer and if Rafhaea had not said "yea, yea, yea" with a facial expression saying "yea you are right, good point" to any answer given to her questions, I would now be more into it... one of the exercise was to complete the sentence "I believe in my life is possible being? "I believe in my life is possible being? hmm? being tolerant towards the affecting consequences on the potatoes market of the oil price's raising" "YEA, YEA, YEA!!!!!"
However there is this concept, about past and future, that seems to be one of the basics of what is offered by this organization and that particularly fascinated me:That we are, in our present, the result of our past experiences is something I had formulated by myself... what I haven't thought is that even our future is our past: we project our past experiences in our future because we determinate future actions and reactions on the basis of what we learned!
It sounds kind of scaring... but on the other hand I think that's perfect when you are able to re-formulate all you past and present experiences in a positive key... I do believe there is something good, even the smallest thing, in whatever happens to our lives.
I really think what this kind of organizations offer is something good. Although there is an increasing literature dealing with topic (personal development, changing yourself, emotional intelligence) the idea to have them in a weekend course and a big group of people is appealing to me... life is all about sharing.
First sunburning
Recently I spent almost the whole day (a Sunday, but not the AFC one) open hair, which has been great since the weather was perfect: I was mainly alone, which is something I often appreciate.
In the morning I went to Bondi beach to quickly see a small photography show. There I met the author of the pictures, a girl in probably her early thirties that seems to have a perfect life made of traveling, discovering, taking picture and still maintain a place in her life she can call home and refugee every time she wants!
I then headed to the beach for the start of the Bondi-Bronte sea swim... I was not part of it but just curious: there where actually quite a lot of people swimming and there I learned the distance was about 2.2Km and the winner would cover it in around 22mins... therefore I went to my swimming pool (as it was in my plan) and started my laps: I did 44laps...44*50m=2.2Km... Great... but it took me almost an hour!!! Beside I cannot swim in the sea: had not been for pools having lines drawn on the floor underwater, I would get lost in there too!!Anyway... swimming with my back facing the sun was only part one of my sun burning day!!.. After a quick break home I went with Alenka and Asia to the beach... there we meet other girls... but scared of being the only guy I decided to leave... and so I went once again for the walk Bondi-Bronti which I really like (hmm... it saves some nice memory for me: I walked it first time when the sculpture show was on... ah, nevermind...) my final target was Bronte House, a small house of the 19th century with a big garden well maintained: I liked it! I'm not too much into plants but I appreciate the diversity in there!.. and it?s funny to see how an house of the 19th century, which would be in daily usage back to Europe, become a kind of museum in the short history of modern Australia!
Eventually I walked back all the way home to realize I had actually got too much sun and complaining the rest of the afternoon about my headache!! But I really enjoy that Sunday!!
In this post :)
Riding Classy Pie
Socceroos and... AFC!!
Yea, yea, yea... personal development...
First sunburning
Riding Classy Pie
I already mentioned in this blog the Australian passion for horses' races... well... I decided it was time for me to experience it on the field: I went horse riding for the first time ever in my life!! It was great!!
Left home in rush we (Selim, Anja, couple of her friends and I) reached our destination a couple of hours later: a green hilly place nice enough for a horse riding and 1h away from Sydney centre: enough to get the feeling of "middle of nowhere"...
When the leader of our group asked the around 20 people there to split between unexperienced and experience, I felt lonely... I was alone: guess in which side?! By default I got Classy Pie (or something like that) a lady horse of respectable age... (as I found out later when I asked why my horse was barely moving!) Well, definitely not an horse I would have bet too much money, but that eventually, after 3 hours of warming up, well performed in the final rush!!
In fact it took a while to me to understand how strongly I could kick her, and an even longer while for her to understand who was the boss!! But when we got closer to our finish point I kick her well enough to take over everyone else by cantering... maybe she was just looking forward to getting rid of me!
Soccerros and... AFC!!
The Socceroos, as the Australian soccer team is nicked, made it to the world cup: as Italian for once it has been nice to watch the match being decided at the penalties lottery: Italy doesn't have the best memories with that!
So Australia-Uruguay, a not too exacting match that I started to watch only from the extra times, will probably be one of the few soccer matches I?ll ever remember... Australia qualified for the second time and after 32 years to the world cup, an event that, although soccer is not at all the first Australian sport, deserved the first pages of all the newspaper: the point here is that Australians are way into sport, no matter what: now is Cricket, next soccer and... here the reader must pay some attention: the original version of this post used to say "I wouldn?t be surprise to watch fox hunting on TV one day!"...Well, pointless to specify, that version has been edited: while watching TV on a Sunday morning a came across an unbelievable combination of sport broadcasted in different channels: First came Cricket: A game could last one day or 5... they take lunch break... and, most shocking tea breaks... yes, around 4 or 5 in the afternoon they go for tea!!!! Beside I counted the presence of more seagulls quietly and happily chilling on the ground than players actively involved in the game... I believe cricket is the challenge of any TV or radio (YES... it is broadcast on radio too, a concept that goes way behind my understanding and therefore I better don't comment!)... yeap, the challenge of any speakers... they spend their time between the nothing happening on the field and the still nothing happening around the field, giving out statistics of any kind... ball speed, direction, rotation, revolution... player history and family background, quoting matches of long and short past? wow!!
But, shameful as it could sound, that Sunday morning Cricket was my TV choice. Another option was golf, a sport I've never tried (unlike Cricket) to understand too much... those few minutes spent watching it suggested me that golf is not just a matter of position and stick (or whatever you call the tool to hit the ball) but includes a good understanding of wind and grass condition... there is probably more, but my finger was quick enough to zip on the next and definitely most shocking event on that Sunday TV experience which has now led to such a long editing of this post: in curiosity and disbelief I was now watching AFC... Australian Fishing Championship!!!! I got there probably on the climax: the fish weighting... followed by some kind of ranking which included some weights and extra points of unidentified nature... then a long spot to Ford, proud sponsor of the AFC, which cars are used to move from one beach to the next... It was soon enough and my dream of seeing a fox hunting show broadcast soon became first boring and then forgotten!
Anyway... back to soccer: Australia got into the same group of Brazil, Croatia and Japan... all in all a good draw which is going to make the whole thing even more interesting! Italy got Czech Rep, Ghana and USA... will be tough to move on the next stage and even tougher to wake up that early in the morning: but it will happen!
Another positive consequence of the Australian qualification is the increased number of soccer balls around and soccer games shown on TV... clearly not on Sunday morning!
Yea, yea, yea... personal development...
Recently I went to the info evening of one of those organizations dealing with personal development, something, I must say, I'm pretty interested in... it was a fine experience!
Give me a small opportunity to stand in front of an audience and make some fun starting with myself and I'll be there. So when Rafhaea, our leader in the small group, asked the first volunteer to present him/herself and say what brought them there, I didn't hesitate that much... well I managed to make people laugh and have fun myself... I thought it was a good beginning!! 3mins later and by the time the 3rd person was talking, 3 people were already in tears: in fact 2 were the people presenting themselves and the 3rd Rafhaea... soon I realized why she had previously told us how she easily get moved: in tears... she knew it was coming!For pure statistics: in 1,5 hours 5 people (out of around 15 there) managed to cry; definitely an appreciable result.
Reasons of those tears were the different motive for those people being there: to improve the relation with her daughter, husband, mother... or whatever relation and life situation!
If their selling strategies had been softer and if Rafhaea had not said "yea, yea, yea" with a facial expression saying "yea you are right, good point" to any answer given to her questions, I would now be more into it... one of the exercise was to complete the sentence "I believe in my life is possible being? "I believe in my life is possible being? hmm? being tolerant towards the affecting consequences on the potatoes market of the oil price's raising" "YEA, YEA, YEA!!!!!"
However there is this concept, about past and future, that seems to be one of the basics of what is offered by this organization and that particularly fascinated me:That we are, in our present, the result of our past experiences is something I had formulated by myself... what I haven't thought is that even our future is our past: we project our past experiences in our future because we determinate future actions and reactions on the basis of what we learned!
It sounds kind of scaring... but on the other hand I think that's perfect when you are able to re-formulate all you past and present experiences in a positive key... I do believe there is something good, even the smallest thing, in whatever happens to our lives.
I really think what this kind of organizations offer is something good. Although there is an increasing literature dealing with topic (personal development, changing yourself, emotional intelligence) the idea to have them in a weekend course and a big group of people is appealing to me... life is all about sharing.
First sunburning
Recently I spent almost the whole day (a Sunday, but not the AFC one) open hair, which has been great since the weather was perfect: I was mainly alone, which is something I often appreciate.
In the morning I went to Bondi beach to quickly see a small photography show. There I met the author of the pictures, a girl in probably her early thirties that seems to have a perfect life made of traveling, discovering, taking picture and still maintain a place in her life she can call home and refugee every time she wants!
I then headed to the beach for the start of the Bondi-Bronte sea swim... I was not part of it but just curious: there where actually quite a lot of people swimming and there I learned the distance was about 2.2Km and the winner would cover it in around 22mins... therefore I went to my swimming pool (as it was in my plan) and started my laps: I did 44laps...44*50m=2.2Km... Great... but it took me almost an hour!!! Beside I cannot swim in the sea: had not been for pools having lines drawn on the floor underwater, I would get lost in there too!!Anyway... swimming with my back facing the sun was only part one of my sun burning day!!.. After a quick break home I went with Alenka and Asia to the beach... there we meet other girls... but scared of being the only guy I decided to leave... and so I went once again for the walk Bondi-Bronti which I really like (hmm... it saves some nice memory for me: I walked it first time when the sculpture show was on... ah, nevermind...) my final target was Bronte House, a small house of the 19th century with a big garden well maintained: I liked it! I'm not too much into plants but I appreciate the diversity in there!.. and it?s funny to see how an house of the 19th century, which would be in daily usage back to Europe, become a kind of museum in the short history of modern Australia!
Eventually I walked back all the way home to realize I had actually got too much sun and complaining the rest of the afternoon about my headache!! But I really enjoy that Sunday!!
2 Comments:
This is a message from the girl who'd
a) Spend time blogging about some volcanoes
b) Read your novel-length blog entry
....instead of replying to you
Prophecy: It will arrive... hold on to your faith. :)
By Yat Wan, At 10:13 AM
Hi Augusto,
seems you are doing quiet well! While browsing the blogs of my friends, I also stumbled over yours. It seems also that you are having a good time with Selim and Anja. Tell my greetings to them!
Greetz,
Verena
P.S.:(LC BErn, Switzerland)
P.P.S.: I hope you remember me!!
By Anonymous, At 7:06 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home