When an old tradition is branded new

39 degrees, a beautiful white sand beach... already sunburned but looking forward to the day after, we are now back from our first beach volley challenges and the Polish are cooking dinner!

The annoying salt on my skin before the shower, the satisfying tiredness of my body and the rich mysterious smell of the summer vacation remind me of holidays in Sicily, where nothing but carefree thoughts belonged to my mind and I could not possibly enjoy more a day spent with old friends... but today an oddity is all around... ... ... It's Christmas eve!

It's my first Christmas away from home... in Switzerland first and Estonia later I hadn't hesitated a moment about going back home: but that's Australia... could life be that good to put Sydney's easy life so close to your homeland?!.. And so Australian Christmas came as a default when I first had a look at the flight ticket's price to reach Sydney!

The celebration started a couple of weeks before when the finance team of GE went on a few hours boat trips: drinks on board and sea food, Santa Clause and the gift exchange... the whole emphasized by a hot sun made pleasant by the breeze, the ness and gulf of Sydney and surrending and the blue water we eventually jumped in!
But GE is definitely a company that knows how to take care of its employees... so a second Christmas party followed one week after: the Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the whole GE people in Sydney for a Chicago '20 themed party... pointless to mention food and drinks, it's always a positive surprise to see colleagues, managers and bosses enjoying their time on the dance floor... white ties on black shirt, a speaker who claimed to be my beloved Don Corleone and I (probably the closest, at least by birth destiny, to the original Mafioso many tried to imitate) in my striped pants, suspenders and a brown cigarette I eventually smoked... Merry Christmas!!

However the Christmas feeling, rather than the party atmosphere, only arrived a couple of days later where we spent a Saturday night on the grass of The Domain park, surrounded by thousands of people and listening and watching the Christmas Carols show... actually listening and watching was not that much of a success, due to the distant point we settled (many family had had picnics and spent the whole day there)... but laying on the grass, the many red candles, the fireworks and the music made it feel like Christmas... I eventually realized I was celebrating an old tradition in such a new branded way!

I have been missing the nights looking for and eventually participating to cards' game nights (giocate a carte!!), the thousand of SMS received in any tone (from "Christmas porn" to poetic), the useless presents... even the gathering with relatives: yeap, I missed all that!
But this Christmas I probably reached the highest sense of spirituality Christmas should be all about: the dinner at our flat was a simple night, which I enjoyed so much!

Few days before, urged by the need of spending a Christmas eve with those we have closer to a family, Alenka, Jerry (my flat mates) and I decided to organized a dinner where some "orphans" friends of us were invited: Sid and Kunal (our Indian guests), Geida and Ilker (Turkish Christmas virgins), Roman and Hana (great Czech helps) and Emma (Swedish without her Indian, Rajat, who missed so much!).

I believe that the diversity of religious and cultures we are all surrounded is something we got accustomed and often fail to notice and keep on appreciating. That was not the case that night!!

It has been wonderful starting a Christmas evening (it was actually 3 days before) with some Mexican food and finishing it with a Czech apples tradition... and in between learning how Christmas is honored even in India, observing Turkish celebrating it for the their first time, learning about the 3pm cartoon TV show in Sweden, comparing when does baby Jesus gets to the Nativity's cave in different cultures... and then getting crazy with games that, no matter where from, made us all laugh in a feeling of unity...
All emphasized by our toasts, the sharing of gifts and the simple and great contribution of each every single of the people there...

Australians must enjoy their life: and that's almost an official statement! It's unfair that an official day off (Christmas, Australian day or whatsoever) happens over the weekend... so even the following Monday is off from any working duty... this made Christmas a 4 days event (24th to 27th). Already on Friday 23rd we were "forced" to leave the office earlier... I headed to Hawk Nest, about 3 hours north of Sydney and where this post actually began!

Ahhh... what a stress it has been: beach volley, synchronized swimming, body surfing, kayaking, eating, chasing the dolphins... puff... tough days for my injured knee!

The Christmas dinner was all polish made: no complains about that, but I was happy to see a Pandoro (Italian traditional Christmas cake) showing up for desert!

Well... Christmas is differently celebrated in every culture... among us there were also not Christian people, which, once again, added load of fascination to the evening... so the gift exchange was already running by 10.30pm in a funny way: stealing each other's presents... it may sounds not too much aligned with the spirit of Christmas, but it turned to be good fun!
Almost everyone was asleep by 11.30, but I, accompanied by a couple of friends, decided to wait for midnight... and here you go, now it's really Christmas!!

Back home the Christmas day would have been a very late wake up, huge lunch and cinema of cards game in the evening... hmm... Now we woke up at 7am to go and see the dolphin (bad luck on that very morning!!) spent the rest of the day between two beaches (the one 20m from home and the waving one) playing competitive beach volley, eating fruit salad and ice-cream for lunch... and eventually in the evening celebrating the Australian way (no Australians among us!): we had BBQ!
After dinner, I'm afraid I infected everyone else with Mafia (a game!!)... once learned they were difficult to stop: killing, blaming, judging, executing... we all enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere!

I liked Andy and Fung for their simplicity and sense of humor, Kaisa and Bartosz for their constant smiles which let me think "Hmm, s/he must be the killer" even while playing volley ball, Pranati and Sri for adding my beloved Indian flavor to my Christmas, Adrian and Laura for their effective translations and because I always liked Romanians, Aysel for her delicious Kebab no matter what it really was, and last but not least Mike, Kamilla and... what's her name?! Kaisa or something likes that... for being mates on every kind of possible fun and for inviting me over!

And so the days spent by in such way that makes work so hard that I need a vacation... oh well, new year eve is coming soon: 3 days off to celebrate my first NYE and Birthday away from home... ohh, home sweet home!

Dear Selim,

Although dedicating you a post on my blog sounds gay, I know for sure 2 things: first I know you are actually looking forward to reading it!! The second thing, as I got it from you (via skype) when perhaps even the idea of me coming down under was remote enough, is my very first Australian learning point: "But that's Australia, so it's ok!"

I don't really recall when we first met, but it definitely was on top of that Swiss mountain in April 2003, when AIESEC in Switzerland decided to make me your team-mate... when, after one year of XPS and measurement, I left Switzerland I knew I had left at least one friend, but I was always wondering if our friendship was due to the particular situation of being two foreigner in need of supporting each other to cope with the Swiss culture.

However I was already glad of it.

Then you suggested me to apply for GE traineeship in Australia... I thought: I want to go to Latin America... so, why not?! I made my way through and, meeting you, I had the positive feeling I face back home with my closest friends: as if no time has been put in between... Thanks for pulling me in Sydney: it was great to find you here!

Well... I told you already one thing I admire of you: looking into deeper than appearance since the very first time you meet a girl: I guess that depends a lot if you get electric or not, but we know how often that happens, despite them be nice to everyone... Ohh, and thanks for not behaving like Victor with me!!

But if I keep thinking a long while I can find more: you are easy going with people, which is great... till the moment you feel someone doesn't like you: automatically you won't like him/her too... but what's wrong with that?!

Thanks for your sense of humour... the times I appreciate it the most were the several I had the impression I was the only one actually getting it!

The way you used to play with your security pass fits at the very best your yo-yo walk, which seems to be your way to smile and jump on the world... keep walking like that!

However Selim... stop pushing people: about your beloved Swiss snuff, drinking, or even leaving the office... not doing it, or not when you say to do it, it seems to be such an offence to you... easy Selim... and easy with some jokes people may do on you and you won't like, be consistent: those are the same jokes you have done plenty of times!

But what a hell! Even when you pissed me off... what a cool thing!! Because only those I really care of are the ones able to piss me off the most... and you can manage pretty well!

Good luck my friend: by the time I eventually posted what you are reading, London seems much closer to your next future... and now I have met you a second time in a second country it feels like many other times and countries could easily come...

So, till the next...
Hug

Augusto
What?! You don't believe we'll meet again?! Ahh... Kebab?!?!

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!!