October 2023 (Collingwood wins the AFL Grand Final !!! and Palm Cove)
30 September 2023…a day that will live in Infamy ha ha!! Not only was it our anniversary of finishing employment but it was the day that our beloved Collingwood won the AFL Grand Final. Collingwoooooooood (as the crowd chant goes!)
WHAT. A.DAY!!
I have been lucky enough to attend three Grand Finals in my life – 1990, 2018 and 2023. I was 22 back in 1990 and only obtained a ticket because Andrew’s Mum had a work connection to Collingwood. Andrew had been to a few Grand Finals before 1990 and Collingwood had lost each of them so, when they won in 1990, he told me (repeatedly) how lucky I was! It was a fabulous experience. Little did I know that I would wait 33 years for a repeat!
Collingwood was in a few Grand Finals between 1991 and 2009 but lost all of them. We had no money and/or small children so we watched them all on TV. In 2010, we were in Bali on a family holiday as we watched the Granny on the TV and were stunned when it ended in a draw. We arrived back in Melbourne before the replay but, again, watched it as a family on TV. This time, Collingwood won!!!
Next Granny was 2018 and Andrew and I shelled out a pretty penny for tickets we acquired through a family contact. We had a great day until the last 2 minutes when West Coast kicked a goal and “stole” the win! We have never watched that replay!
Fast forward five years and here we were again. This year, we had bought tickets via the AFL mid year and were prepared to sell them if Collingwood didn’t make the Grand Final (we did that last year after Collingwood lost the Preliminary Final by 1 point. Ouch).
The day dawned. Hot which is most unusual for September in Melbourne and which suited our opponents, the Brisbane Lions. There was entertainment which we really enjoyed headlined by KISS and there was a full house – 100,024 people!! The match was a tug of war with many lead changes. No Collingwood supporter (Andrew and I amongst them) could really relax and enjoy the match as Collingwood never led by any margin.
With thirty seconds to go, Andrew said to me, “We’ve got this!” I elbowed him and the Collingwood supporter sitting on the other side of him hissed, “Don’t say it.” We are a superstitious lot!!
When the siren sounded, Andrew and I shrieked..and jumped up and down…and clapped…and shrieked..and jumped up and down…and clapped…you get the gist! It wasn’t the feeling of exhilaration that we expected but joy. Pure. Joy. And satisfaction that our team had won the tussle.
Collingwood – 2023 Premiers. It has a nice ring to it ;)
Our sons were lucky enough to snare tickets with a couple of hours to spare so we met up with them post game for a drink inside the MCG. A happy foursome were we! We then travelled home and watched the replay with our youngest daughter and her boyfriend. And then watched it again the next day with Andrew’s Collingwood mad Mum, sister and her kids.
OK…you get the idea. We are a bit Collingwood obsessed!!
After the excitement of the Grand Final, we had a couple of days staying at the RACV resort in Creswick. This was another RACV special – certainly an advantage of not being tied to an in office job is the ability to flit off at a moment’s notice. The day we arrived was beautiful but the heavens opened the next couple of days so the getaway was a bit water-logged! Nevertheless, we visited towns like: Creswick, Daylesford, Castlemaine and Maryborough. All have some beautiful natural scenery and grand, old buildings.
Our youngest child, G, turned 20 this month which promoted some reflection from me. We’ve had teenagers for 14 years so it seemed like a milestone to mark!
I was sad when the kids hit many milestones. Very sad sometimes. I was sad each time I finished breastfeeding, sad when I packed the baby clothes away, sadder when I gave away the clothes I would never need again, sad when they started school and sad when they first went on school camp.
Having said that, I don’t miss “The Amazing Race” that was my life for so long. Four children growing into adults in your house is a lot. A lot of driving, a lot of cooking, a lot of washing, a lot of cleaning, a lot of food shopping, a lot of learner driver hours and a lot of soul-searching. No matter how many parenting books I read nor how many topics I Googled, I continually worried whether I was parenting “right.”
What is parenting “right” anyway? More and more, I read that perfectionism is not only unattainable but unhealthy. I certainly was never and never will be a perfect parent but I tried hard! I remember when the kids were little and my Husband was often overseas working. I would be frazzled and feel like I was barely holding it together. In the midst of me trying to manage a toddler tantrum or me feeling particularly exhausted, someone (an older lady usually) would stop me at the shops with a smile and tell me to treasure these moments as they soon would pass. I tried. I really did. And I kept trying when those cherubic faces grew into (sometimes) sulky teenagers.
So, am I sad that I don’t have teenagers in the house any more? No, not really. After fourteen years of it, I have had enough of that stage and the relentless busyness of it. Do I wish for the days when the chubby hands slipped into mine and the trusting eyes looked adoringly at me and hung on my every word? Hell, yeah! But let’s face it, by the time they hit teenagerhood, those chubby hands and trusting eyes had long morphed into kids taller than me and minds than can out debate me! Well, they give it a good shot anyway!!
I can see now what those well-meaning people used to try and tell me - savour what you have and store it in your memory bank.
What can I see now as a parent of older children? Parenting is a journey from keeping a tiny creature alive through to setting it free in the World to function without you. It’s a journey of pride of watching what your child has become and is becoming. It is also standing ready in case you’re needed.
Time stops for no one and all I can do now is enjoy the current stage of young, interesting, opinionated adults and look forward to what’s to come.
After G’s birthday, we headed north to Palm Cove where I still am. Both G and L (our two daughters) were booked to come and join us for a week but poor G got Covid (bout #3) and was delayed a couple of days. We had a lovely time with them and were sad to wave them off.
We day tripped by fast cat to Green Island. Lucky for us, we had a picture perfect day! We spent the day on the beach snorkelling, marvelling at the fish in the water and just soaking in the beauty of this coral cay. What a magical day!
One of our sons, N (almost 26) and his girlfriend came up to Palm Cove for a few days. N couldn’t remember much about FNQ (he hadn’t been here for 15 years) and his girlfriend had never been so we had fun showing them around Palm Cove, Kuranda, Cairns and Port Douglas. We were sad to wave them off too but took the opportunity to go south to Townsville for a couple of days.
We stayed beachfront on The Strand which was lovely and we visited three museums – The Maritime Museum, the Museum of Tropical FNQ and the Historical Museum. Each had interesting displays and case studies of people who had shaped Townsville. We should have organised to stay another day to visit Magnetic Island but that will have to wait for another trip.
I enjoyed the history lessons but I can’t say I am a huge fan of Townsville (sorry if this offends anyone). I was glad to get back to beautiful Palm Cove.
For 3 weeks, the weather has been stunning (blue skies almost every day). It has been a bit windy a few days but, otherwise, perfect. When we were last here in February (Wet Season), we had a lot of overcast skies, tropical downpours and high humidity. I still enjoyed the break but the weather in October has been amazing.
I have joined morning beachfront yoga classes and really enjoyed the stretching and the quiet contemplation.I first took a few of these yoga classes in 2021 when we holidayed in Palm Cove for a couple of weeks. That holiday set us off on our path to buy an apartment here which we did in April 2022 sight unseen due to Covid and border closures!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the classes then but I struggled to clear my mind of all the business issues we had at the time. In another sign that I have changed a lot over the last few years, I now find it much easier to clear the noise from my mind. What noise??!!
It is a beautiful morning routine here – get up, yoga or walk, coffee overlooking the Coral Sea then start the day. Ahhhh….the serenity :)
Writing Wins for the month:
• GoWorld Travel Magazine published an article I wrote about the River Cruise we went on during the European Summer - https://www.goworldtravel.com/river-cruise-in-europe/?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
• I also had 3 x Flash Fiction stories published - https://impspired.com/2023/09/30/leonie-jarrett/ and another by Café Lit https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2023/10/birthday-balloons-by-leonie-jarrett.htm
I am writing a lot – short story fiction, memoir writing and travel writing – but I am struggling to get through the email door to even get a response from any editor. Oh well, nothing good comes easy they say. Practice makes perfect and I will persist!
I wrote the comment about persistence and then Googled “persistence.” This is a quote from Calvin Coolidge, a former US President, that resonated with me, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
^A local kookaburra visited us for breakfast!
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