The Good Life

I don't know about you, but during these monotonous study days sometimes I think of the incoming exams and feel like running around like a panicked animal. After all these exams determine the rest of our lives don't they? What happens if we don't do well? What happens if we don't succeed? And then I read this story, and realised that it's all a matter of perspective in the end.


An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

The businessman then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, señor."

The businessman scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise."

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" To which the businessman replied, "15-20 years." 
"But what then, señor?" The businessman laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions." 
"Millions, señor? Then what?" The businessman said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."


This story always reminds me that success looks different to everybody, and to appreciate the simple pleasures. And even though I'll always have this desire to succeed (why James Ruse why?), I think that as long as I have God and those I love with me, I'll be happy.


So what about you? What do you want from life?


Always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)

It's Tea Time!

So due to my psychic mind-reading-ness (is that a word? I am sure it's a word), I know the question you've all been wondering:

Where on earth have our favourite beauties been?

 If it isn't the question you've been wondering, please pretend. Sometimes we like to feel wanted. And on behalf of us both, I apologise for the lack of action this page has seen in the last few weeks. Were we fighting off ninjas in the streets of Japan? Were we wrestling wild bullfrogs in the lakes of Izkabam? Even worse, were we studying?

No, we were not. Oh alright the ninja story is true. And yes, Izkabam is a made-up country. But Lindy and I have really been working hard to bring you all an amazing store of delicious treats to come! More on that later though,

And speaking of delicious treats, on the 27th of May Lindy and I combined our brains, brawn and baking powder to bring you what we did instead of May Project - The Biggest Morning Tea. 

A Cancer Council Initiative, The Biggest Morning Tea called for people all over Australia to - you guessed it -   sling teabags around our shoulders for a day!

Okay that was a bad joke. But somewhere in almost every part of Australia, people gathered their friends, food and family to enjoy a morning tea and raise money for a worthy cause. And what more worthy cause than for cancer research? To most of us, cancer is just a scary word that we rarely think about. Personally, I found it really hard to empathise with fighting against cancer. By the way, it's really important to research and understand completely the cause you are fundraising for, if you ever plan to do something like this. Tabbing your actions as for 'charity' can only get you so far. If you don't understand what you're spending precious hours for, enthusiasm and motivation eventually go out the window.

But here is something that gave me an incredible kick up the ...er... elbow. 1 in 2 Australians will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.

One in two. Not ten percent, or even twenty percent, but a whopping fifty percent of us will ultimately suffer from cancer. What's to stop cancer from attacking my mother? Or my father? What will stop it from affecting your loved ones? It's frightening but even though you may be reading this right now with a perfectly healthy body, one day it could be you dying from cancer. Think of the people who are facing that fear right now for their families, friends, or themselves.

That is why cancer research is so vital right now. Also why Lindy, I and a bunch of our friends decided to use our skills to earn a few precious bills - bills that will certainly contribute something to a brighter future.

So what was the plan? Simple! All we needed to do was hold a retroed-up bake sale - the biggest, baddest back sale James Ruse ever saw!

Every person on our team was assigned a morning-tea goody or baked treat to wrestle with. Nick chose the murderous Mars Bar slices. Janet selected the bodypunching brownies. Flora decided on killer quiches. Nayoung grabbed the slashing scones. Everyone else made their dangerous choices with great fear (or enthusiasm - I couldn't tell!)

And I decided I could handle the lovely lemon slices!

This above was the 'after' picture and it looked simply scrumptious - a soft-looking, angel white icing peppered with slivers of coconut on a marvellously crunchy base (the recipe is here). The ingredients were easy to get, the process simply a 'mix it all together'. The fact that last time I tried to bake, the oven exploded (I kid you not) didn't faze me at all. Nothing could possibly go wrong! 

Well.

At first, everything seemed to go wonderfully, mixing smoothly together. I punched my first in the air triumphantly - perhaps my dreams of auditioning for MasterChef were not entirely in the gutter! Even my brother gave me a (literal) hand in pressing the yummy condensed milk/biscuit base into the tray, and we totally bonded in true sibling style. And then, as I was spooning the warm icing on top, I noticed something strange. The icing had begun hardening already.
"Well that's convenient, it'll need less time in the fridge," I said cheerfully, and thought nothing more of it.

The next morning my father kindly offered to help slice the slice (hehe) while I brushed my teeth. And when I finished, I came back to find my father red-faced, wielding a HUGE steak knife over my poor lemon-coconut slice.
"I don't know what you've done, but the icing is as hard as concrete!" he informed me, before hacking away happily at my slice..

"Stop! STOP!" I cried, and salvaged what precious little I could. But he was right - somehow the icing had hardened into a toffee-like consistency and the slice I'd poured my love, sweat and blood into (oops you weren't meant to know that) was ruined.

Luckily, we had thought to organise a test run beforehand to judge the taste and improve on mistakes, so that was only my practice slice. Still, I cried many bitter tears over that hardened icing :(
A shout out however, to a special friend of mine who bit into the slice, disguised his look of horror, and bravely continued chewing. You better get your teeth checked Paul, I'm pretty sure I heard a crack.

My baking fiasco aside, the James Ruse Biggest Morning Tea was a raging success! The afternoon before, we gagged and bound the canteen lady (just kidding Mrs Ferguson, you were lovely!) and overtook the kitchen to whip up an amazing range of quiches, muffins, scones, slices, brownies and wedges. And true to form, James Ruse did not disappoint! Drawn by the smells, the crowd was hungry, eager and very generous and we completely sold out by the end of lunch. Even my de-hardened and improved lemon slices were wanted and afterwards, we looked across the empty trays with a sense of absolute happiness and real accomplishment.

And one of the best things? We exceeded our expectations - WAY, way, way exceeded our expectations!We had tentatively hopes to hit the $1000 mark, but thanks to all of you who supported us, we fundraised over $1500 for the Cancer Council!

But to me, the highlight of this whole experience wasn't raising all that money, or the thrill of organising something fun and exciting. It was giving something I was terrible at a go, and not letting failure stop me from trying again. Ever think you'll never be able to do that something? Whether it's applying for a job, or transforming your room into an epic fake Hogwarts, always remember this foolproof way to increase your chances:

The odds of succeeding go up significantly when you actually give it a go.

Thanks to Flora, Nick, Lauren, Janet, Nayoung, Ling, Bryan, Wilson and Paul for their awesome culinary talents. Budding Adriano Zumbos, anyone :D?And of course, Lindy. You are an angel.
Also thanks to you, reader, for still reading to the very last line of a very long but of course entertaining and witty post! Photos up soon!
Always remember, Happiness Equals Bracket =)