What Is A Didgeridoo?

Last Christmas I was given two tickets from Boeing to attend a Christmas concert put on by the Queensland Orchestra. Marce had come down with the flu, so Michelle and I enjoyed an evening Brahm's concert. The highlight of the concert was a piece played by William Barton, one of the most prominent didgeridoo players in the world. You might be asking what a didgeridoo is? A didgeridoo is an approximately 3 foot long branch from a tree which is hollowed out by termites. By blowing into the end, one can make some interesting sounds from a hollow branch. The real trick is something called "circular breathing" where you breath in and out at the same time. I still haven't figured that one out! After the concert Michelle and I had the opportunity to meet William, a 26 year old Aboriginee from Mt. Iza in northern Queensland. We exchanged business cards and kept in contact. At some point William told me he wanted to develop a corporate speaking program to compliment his orchestral playing. One thing led to another and we invited William to our house where we had dinner and laid out the strategy for his first coporate speaking event at Boeing. Following that session we had a few planning sessions with my Australian friend, Brendan Croucher, who is truly world-class at developing corporate strategy events. William was the surprise guest speaker at my groups' annual offsite, which was held at the Twin Water Resort on 9-11 Nov on the famous Sunshine Coast, about 90 minutes north of Brisbane. During our offsite William played both modern and traditional didgeridoo pieces for both dinner meals, and led an afternoon session where all of the Boeing team learned to play PVC pipe didgeridoos. Marce and the girls came up for the end of the event, and we stayed one extra night at the resort which gave us time to swim, hike and play on the Sunshine Coast. It was a great weekend for all!

Marc

On our way to Twin Waters ...

Earlier this week, my dad had a leadership training program at Twin Waters, a resort located about two hours north of Brisbane. He proposed that we all meet him there once he finished so that we could spend some time relaxing, swimming, and bike-riding. So, at this moment, we’re driving to Twin Waters along the freeway. Bing Crosby’s Christmas album is keeping Madeline and Marina occupied (they’re singing and bopping like crazy!), and I can’t help but think that “White Christmas” is a ridiculous song to listen to in Brisbane. Right now, the sun penetrates through the white cumulous clouds floating in the baby-blue sky, and would cause our car to feel uncomfortably hot if we didn’t have air conditioning. Whoever invented air-conditioning, we thank you with our whole hearts! This year, the weather is actually quite a bit cooler than we remember last year, but we all know that in just a few more weeks, the mercury in the thermometer will touch the 35* Celsius mark (which is about 95* Fahrenheit).

Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere … it just doesn’t feel right. While browsing through the malls (they call them “shopping centres” here), we’re bombarded with miniature Santa Claus toys, fully clad in jackets, boots, and scarves. Anyone wearing that in the middle of December would practically die of heat stroke! Australians should realize that Santa ought to change into a different costume before giving gifts to Aussies. Maybe he would be decked out in shorts, flip-flops, and sunnies (Australian’s nickname for “sunglasses”). He definitely would receive tim-tams and ice-cold beer from the kids instead of the traditional cookies and milk. But one nice thing about having Christmas in summer is that the dads are given about two weeks’ holiday to spend traveling with their family, relaxing, etc, instead of having only one week in Christmas and one in summer. That last option doesn’t give much time for traveling overseas or relieving all the stress from work (of course, I don’t really know much about occupational stress, because I’ve never had a job other than picking up pine cones...).

Last year, around this same time, we vacationed at Twin Waters, and found it to have a never-ending list of activities. In the middle of all the hotel rooms and restaurants sits a rather large, manmade lake filled with an enormous floating trampoline, sailboats rented by vacationers, and numerous pink and green colored kayaks, bobbing up and down on the gentle waves. On land, even more activities abound: bike-riding, bungee-jumping (it’s really small, though, and more for little kids), tennis, and trails to and from the near-by beach. I don’t think we’ll suffer from boredom this weekend! We’ll try to write about our time here soon.

Thanks for reading!

~Michelle

Marina, up and running again

What a relief to have Marina back to her perky, cheerful self after this past week! The case of gastroenteritis she contracted at the end of our trip to South Australia was a real doozy! She was so sick and lethargic by Wednesday that we took her to our doctor who promptly told us to get her into ER. We were extremely impressed with the staff at Wesley Hospital, a private hospital about a 10 minute drive away. As Marc was paying the bill, he jokingly commented to the Receptionist that it would cost that much just to pay for parking in a hospital parking garage. The cost of Marina's ER visit? Less than $100US--amazing! I guess that's a result (or some would say benefit) of living in a socialized country. Fortunately Marina didn't have to stay overnight, but we were told to force the liquids down and monitor her closely for the next 12-24 hours. By Friday, she had turned the corner and today she's thankfully back to normal.

Marce