Being Connected - Our Next US Adventure 2012

I write this from a chilly grey Sydney as we prepare and pack for our next US visit.

Being a family of dual citizens, we feel it's important to maintain the connectedness with our US family and friends by making the trek across the Pacific as regularly as possible.

While it is an expensive undertaking (two adults and two children traveling to and around the US at peak time), thanks to structural changes and competitive forces, international travel has become comparably far less expensive than it was, say a decade or two ago.

What awaits us in the US?
Grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends... warm weather, "american" food, hugs, stories... connectedness.
It's perhaps the greatest motivator of all. Belonging, being connected, loved and understanding where you've come from.
So as we gear up for 18 hours of flying time with a five-and-half-year-old and an almost three-year-old, we will focus our attention on the promised outcome. See above.

The steps we all take to be connected

Oh, and if you see a family that includes young kids on your next long-haul flight, please cut them a break, maybe even smile or offer them a hand. It might be us! And we're all just wanting to be connected, after-all.

I will try to post a blog or two while we are on our travels. In keeping with the theme of this blog, it's about living in a cross generational age.

The Great Adventure

Reading with interest Travels with Mel and Mic and jealously flicking thru their pics on FB... Tuscany, Syracuse, Sicily.
The great adventure, really. Priceless moments :-)

Wishing you all happy safe travels and lots of moments to build the story of the great adventure over many glasses of moderately great wine.

How easy is it to break a leg?

In my previous post, I reported that I broke my leg. Well, technically, ankle, the bottom of my left fibula.

The question always comes up: "How did you do that?" The answer: "Quite easy really."

Nothing heroic or adventurous... playing with our daughter at one of the local public play grounds.

Recently refurbished, this playground's centre-piece includes a dual slippery slide - just right for our thrill seeking toddler. However, it is set on a mound that is covered by a durable surface, intended to be safer to play on or near.

Toddler placed at the top of the slide; Dad decends the mound to assume the classic catching position at the bottom... slips, grips, falls forward, twist... CRACK... flat on face with shooting pain in ankle and up leg.

Toddler, waiting at the top of slide for me to crawl to the position, slides down; playtime unexpectedly cut short. I will keep the ensuing details and remind her when she is old enough to feel a little more sympathetic.

The thing is... it's THAT EASY. Analogies for life, experiences, ups and downs, good breaks and bad flow here. For now, when you are next playing with your play mate, keep in mind that you may be just a short slip away from a trip (apologies!) to the orthopaedic department.

[With many thanks to the wonderful and caring staff at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital]

Catching a Good Break

So my first post in a year and a half... and a pretty poor pun for the title.

1. I have had a break from this blog while living the Gen X and Y thing on FaceBook, Linked In and so many other parts of the Web-sphere

2. I recently broke my leg, so find myself awake a little more, unable to sleep in a comfortable position without waking myself with a painful twinge up as I turn in bed

3. As fractures go, though, I am told it was a "good" one; "Normally," the orthopaedic doctor at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital told me, "this kind of fracture would require a plate to be inserted to fix the bone... but you are lucky, it has not shifted..." So I can say it's a "good break."

4. I reckon that I catch good breaks often, I just don't often recognise them. In my current work contract (I build and manage enterprise type websites) I'm working with a great cross section of the generations - just how I like it - and they share their language, lives and culture with this boomer, in return for which I happily help them learn some useful stuff.

Catching a good break, I'd say.

BTW, our latest twenty year project is now a full-on toddler (20 months) and fills us with joy - and breaks - as she powers towards becoming the next gen. (No name for her generation has been popularised yet!)