Indelible Adventures

This week I want to talk about two really important parts of who I am and the ah-ha moment that followed…(oh no, not a deep philosophical rant) :-)  Hardly, but its important to get inside the guy’s head who writes his annoyingly addictive weekly blog don’t you think?   I guess I’ve always been a passionate guy….   My passion is centered on doing the best I can no matter what the situation, whether it is my personal life with Zach and Sami, perhaps playing sport and particularly at work.  Some might say that I’m just “wired” that way.   Sometimes its confused with being overly competitive and “pushy”, but I like to think of myself as just someone who cares a whole lot! EQ - Emotional Intelligence No matter how advantageous you think this might be, the pitfalls are many!   This week was a prime example – working with a new team at work, and my focus and drive seemed to either intimidate or piss off the people around me....

I still remember when Brain Chase (Vice Principal) came to find me one muggy morning (aren’t they all in Darwin ?) - I was teaching at Nightcliff High School in the early 1980's.   Brian was one of those people that you had a very hard time saying “no” to, he was chock full of energy and verve and more often than not he had a huge grin on his face – now you trying saying no to that!    He found me with one of my classes and asked to see me in the corridor, not really thinking too much of it I got the class working on their next science experiment.   He leaned in closely and said that one of the teachers had called in sick and that he needed me to step in on a particular assignment that he had to deal with.  My initial response was “sure – no problem”.  He stared into my eyes and said that it wasn’t a conventional class but something special and that I should go to see him just before the end of lunch to discuss it further.   ...

Writing for the love of the written word had taken on a new meaning for me personally since I first sat down to write about my adventure trek in Papua New Guinea last year.  Your encouragement has been amazing, hearing from many of you in comments or emails especially when I’m late in publishing my weekly blog :-) yes, I know I usually publish Friday nights! A young TW captured waiting for a train at Myrdal - Norway - circa 1985 So I wish I could have been a better observer earlier in my life particularly during my year backpacking around the world, but at 26 you’re hardly able to look at much past the thing that’s directly in front of you, “if I see another bloody church or museum….seriously”.  I can’t tell you how many cathedrals, churches, museums or historic sites I saw and experienced in my year away, but after a while you become numb, as they’re so overwhelming in number and similarity.  Yeah sure they are stunning but after the first twenty or so the...

Let me tell you about my travel week - this week was a classic, first week back in the air and all I could muster was a middle seat - bulkhead (for those who fly regularly you know what I mean!)    To add insult to injury the flights was completely oversold, taking off late in the day for a four-hour return flight to Toronto and landing around midnight.    Aaahhh home at last I thought…. Actually arriving at midnight was not the worst part, oh no, not by a long shot!   Mother nature had to add a little salt to the wound – “hey, let’s add a couple of hours of thunderstorms to mess up the already overloaded air traffic control system”; why not park all the planes in the de-icing staging area of the airport and make them wait for an additional two more hours until we find a gate for them...   Hell, while we’re at it let’s turn down the air-conditioning to save fuel while we sit here – does the concept of a Turkish sauna mean anything...