You beaut!

<OBJECT id=ieooui classid=clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D></OBJECT><STYLE> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </STYLE>It was a long weekend for hubby as he took off from work on Monday 25 January. I had been nagging him for a while about the fact that it was time we cleaned up our house. We seemed to have stuffed all corners with rubbish and junk. It had become an OH&S issue at times as when I tried to open a cupboard to pull out something, along with what I needed, everything else inside would also fall on to my head. We had been putting off this exercise for a while now and the only reason was PURE LAZINESS. But we just gave it different names like "Oh its too hot today", "feeling a bit unwell this weekend", "I had a pretty full on week so lets relax over the weekend"…... and many more.


So over this long weekend we decided that we will finally get into the act of de-cluttering the house. And OMG!! With just the two of us in the house, the amount of rubbish we had was incredible. Some documents dating back 10yrs, a couple of very old mobile handsets that looked like one of those walkie-talkie receivers, so heavy and huge, a couple of old modems, umpteen number of and kinds of cables, mobile accessories, so many floppy disks (1.44MB ones – we have kept one for old time sake), copies of my old resume, old training course material, endless amount of junk articles and newspaper cuttings, paperwork for this that and everything, different types and colours of filing folders….the list was endless. The variety was amazing. While hubby looked at them and passed them over to me as TRASH or KEEP, I was trying to separate them accordingly to discard them the right way. Many went into the shredder, many into the recycle bin and some into the waste bin. It was an endless activity. In between all this we also decided to move the furniture around a bit, so the house was pretty much a grand mess over the weekend.


Every time we did this cleaning exercise, we ended up finding something really fantastic hidden away for a long time. This happened again to us. As we looked through piles and piles of paperwork, I spotted some paintings done by kids (my nieces and nephews) which I had kept along with the rest safely. They were beautiful. Of course all the kids are now grown up but these were paintings they did when they were little and had just about started going to school. We both sat for a while admiring them. So colourful and very neat they were and the imagination was unique on each one of them. I immediately stuck them on the doors of the cupboard in our study. Then in the pile I found a few pencil drawings, which were a bit more neat and structured. Those were the results of a one off crazy moment my hubby and me have had at times where we used to sit down and try a hand on sketching. The sketches were pretty basic like a cartoon character or some animated figure etc. Of course I can only copy something simple, but hubby is many notches better than me in sketching. This fever used to last only for a day or two but I had kept the drawings safely and had totally forgotten about them until we saw them this time. It really brought a smile to our faces. I decided to KEEP them. Then we found an old business cards book. It was interesting to go through the names and to try and recollect them and recollect a few memories with that person. Soon after, the cards went into the TRASH pile. Hubby and I took turns in reminiscing old memories. Some were hilarious to recollect and time went by swiftly but our work before us never seemed to end. The TV was ON too at the same time to give us company – some noise in the midst of confusion and paperwork spread all over the floor. It looked like we were in an island surrounded by an ocean of paperwork.


As we worked our way through the piles of folders and papers and junk, hubby came across a small scribbling pad. He surfed through it and gave a smile and told me “OK, now listen to this”. He began reading and here is what it said:


1 May 1926, Greatest General Strike in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 /><st1:country-region><st1lace>Great Britain</st1lace></st1:country-region> by British Coal Miners – warning of things to come.

Nearly 40 years later on <st1:date year="1965" day="1" month="5">1 May 1965</st1:date>, a bright star was shining in the sky. Was it a star, a planet, superman? I don’t know. A boy was born in a town called Palghat in the state of <st1lace><st1:city>Kerala</st1:city>, <st1:country-region>India</st1:country-region></st1lace> and was named S. That was just the beginning.

1967 – As I was releasing the movie “You only live twice”. S was learning to talk. I heard him question “Mama, where is the Statue of Liberty?”

Next I saw S in 1969 when he was seen sitting on his father’s shoulders watching me set foot on the moon. From up there I heard his whisper “A great step for mankind”.

Back to Earth, year 1973. I was with Henry Kissinger signing off the ceasefire agreement in <st1:country-region><st1lace>Vietnam</st1lace></st1:country-region>.

S was studying in the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> grade, doing it tough – poor chap.

There were a few eventful years that followed
-Jimmy Connors won his Australian Open in 1974
-Bee Gees released “ Saturday Night Fever” in 1977
-Mohammed Ali retired from Boxing in 1978

Then things changed. As I helped Bjorn Borg win his 5<SUP>th</SUP> <st1lace>Wimbledon</st1lace>, fate had dealt a trump card for S. He scored enough marks in Math and Science in his 10<SUP>th</SUP> grade and forced himself into Engineering.

It was a sad year. A legend had passed away – Bob Marley

1982-1986 was a tough grind for S as he wrestled with the force of gravity in his Engineering course. He got through!!

1986 ends in triumph for S as I sat shocked and distressed in the control room of NASA – Space Shuttle Challenger had just exploded. God be with all those who lost their lives.

S entered workforce in 1986. 3 years into this work and in 1989 I saw him at the cricket match against <st1:country-region><st1lace>Australia</st1lace></st1:country-region> in <st1:city><st1lace>Madras</st1lace></st1:city>. Was it the first tied test in history of cricket? I am not sure. I ensured that Dean Jones was not dehydrated as he hit his 200. I was the 12<SUP>th</SUP> man for <st1:country-region><st1lace>Australia</st1lace></st1:country-region>.

Next few years were filled with action:
-<st1:state><st1lace>Berlin</st1lace></st1:state> wall was brought down after 30 years in 1990.
-Mandela was released in 1990
-Apartheid ended in 1991
And S was to be dealt his best card yet.

Thanks to his father that S got an opportunity to do his Masters in Business Administration in <st1lace><st1:city>Brisbane</st1:city>, <st1:state>Queensland</st1:state></st1lace>. That was the year Shane Warne was introduced into the Australian side against <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region>. I remember belting him for 6’s and 4’s scoring 111 runs off him in the first test.

Two wonderful years ensued until he returned to <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> for work – a year he will never forget.

On <st1:date year="1994" day="1" month="5">1 May 1994</st1:date> Ayrton Senna died on the F1 Grand Prix Racing Circuit. I was the first paramedic to reach him. I prayed and hoped in vain.

1995 the inevitable happened. S was married. I was the one who arranged the wedding between the two families.

S returned to <st1:country-region><st1lace>Australia</st1lace></st1:country-region> in 1996, the year when I was elected as Prime Minister of Australia. I still remember the “never never” promise I made. But what the heck!

St Kilda Saints lost to the Adelaide Crows in 1997

Mick Doohan won his 5<SUP>th</SUP> Championship in the 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix

And I was expected to pay my GST (Goods and Services Tax) in the year 2000

As I sit basking in the morning sun by the bay, watching the ships go by, I see the statue of S standing high in <st1lace><st1lacename>Morton </st1lacename><st1lacename>Bay</st1lacename></st1lace>. By the way this is year 2075!


[FONT=&quot]As hubby finished reading, I heard this huge roar from the crowd applauding, as Andy Roddick took a 3-0 lead in the third set of the match with Marin Cilic at the Australian Open Tennis.[/FONT]

 

Good Morning Jaya!

You are nice and early here on IL. Lovely to see you. I was just trying to edit the post as it had some funny formatting issues and the net was painfully slow while doing that. Quite surprised to see your reply when I refreshed and saved the changes. Thank you very very much I have to say. I wonder why many are suffering from injuries this year. Roddick had issues too but he did well to fight back, although he lost. Thank you for the update on Nadal. I did favour Andy Murray and glad that he won. I quite loved your DS' scribble .

I am accepting your lovely words of praise on behalf of S, who actually wrote that piece of journey through time. It was his first speech when he had joined the Toastmasters International. I fell in love with it the minute he read through it all and sad that I did not remember any of it because I was the one who helped him note down the pointers on that scribbling pad. It was a sweet surprise for both of us to go through that again and I asked him if I could share it with all my friends here on IL. He did not mind and so I sat down to pen it. All I did was add a bit of meat before and after. Very happy to know that you loved it. I will surely convey it to S.