This morning....

Just imagine that you are in the Hot Air Balloon over Melbourne. You would be thinking "what a beautiful day it is today...the sun is shining and the weather is just gorgeous"

"I'm so lucky and happy...a great day to be alive"

But the world is full of disturbances both economic, social and political. At the same time there are just appalling images of famine in Africa where the poorest of poor are struggling to just stay alive.

There is so much to be grateful for and we all take everything for granted.

Let me ask all of us to picture ourselves way above it all and that just might help many of us to look beyond our own circumstances.

Borobodur - what you see when you really examine closely....

Borobodur is the largest tourist attraction in Indonesia (a Buddhist Monastry in a Muslim country). It is indeed an incredible structure of Ancient Stupas from the 8th century.

What you see is clearly magnificent and monumental it has detail and is shaped into the form of a Mandala - a Sanskrit word meaning "circle". By definition a Mandala is meant to assist the process of mediation. We found that design to be quite poetic as the journey of circum-navigating Borobodur is in itself a journey and a pilgrimage.

The first time through we appreciate and notice 'shapes and forms'. But it is the return visit that we really start to understand the meaning and story. That was true of our own recent trip and on our return we started to examine the stone reliefs which decorate the sides of Borobodur. Like many things in life there is an important lesson to be learnt if one examines things more closely.

What is 3,430.5 Kilometres or 2,132 miles ?

That's the distance of the Tour de France.

Cadel Evans was the first winner of this race and the reason that I have some bags under my eyes (from the late nights)

Historically he has come his own journey and originally he hailed from Katherine in the Northern Territory. Where I also was born !

What an amazing race of strength and endurance. Regardless if you think in metric or imperial......just imagine how you would feel from sitting so so many kilometres.

These are just incredible athletes and his achievement is just such a feat of strong will after finishing 2nd on two occasions. Very well done Cadel !!

Google +

Google +

I wanted to write a few words about the latest offering from GOOGLE. This is their latest social networking play and I'm really impressed with the clean interface and speed of access. Scoring a invitation a day after it opened; I noticed that this was on sale on eBay for 99 cents through to $17 !

The features of Google + are impressive and I think it is a winner. In particular I like the Circles and the privacy that this provides vs Facebook.

It was a little strange in those first days..when my connections and their content was not in place. Now when I look and see the content (whoa) That's incredible....how quickly there are photos and the number of connections (despite my reluctance to accelerate these)

After downloading their iPhone app which was released a whole week after the launch...it's amazing how quick we expect things to be put in place.

Lessons from my neighbour.

Over the last 3 days one thing is clear.

[I've learned so much...but realise that I know so little]

His holiness the Dalai Lama has been teaching Shantideva Way of Boddhisattva and along sharing from his endless set of stories of life. There is just so much to learn and the depth is not always easy to comprehend. The message is at the same time simple but complex.

Now I really understand what a blessing means.

He is the most amazing person that I have ever met - the most compassionate and humble individual that I have met. In many ways he defies description.

An amazing individual, but not an individual. He often he calls himself a simple monk but it is clear that he has wisdom that is 'uncommon' and he is knowledgeable and across nearly any subject he brings a sense of humanity; he is always about giving and not receiving.

He is a man that is easy to admire; he is transparent and generous - a real role model. His holiness can talk about any subject and any question does not seem to provide any angst.

The Dalai Lama tells everyone to do their research; he does not want anyone to follow blindly and I'm amazed how much he talks about how every religion shares the same basic principles and that he has great respect for Islam, Hinduism and Christianity.

I'm in awe and feel so inadequate and I just want to learn more......

His holiness has inspired me and I realise that this will be a long journey.

The Dalai Lama is my neighbour

For the next 3 days the Dalai Lama will be living within a few hundred metres of my house. There are times in your life when a moment or an event sticks in your memory for some time. This weekend is going to be one of those incidents and an incredible experience to always treasure.

His holiness the Dalai Lama will be conducting a workshop at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, which is a casual 5 minute walk from our apartment.

First, we feel very special to be attending the 3 day workshop and to be in such proximity has a 'warm' glow.

Will be sure to report back in the next blog entry a more wiser person from this life changing experience.

Full Circle

We have just returned from a 2 week trip to Kobe and Shanghai, two cities that I lived. Hence is really a full circle moment to and reflect on what's changed. In addition we visited Beijing where we also had not visited for 4 years. And a new destination Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain)

On this trip it was remarkable that firstly we managed to meet with so many friends who were coincident happen to be in Kobe. That was such a great treat for us to enjoy again their company.....

Staying with Mike and Laurie in Kobe; then Carsten & Michelle in Beijing we were spoilt with fantastic hosts. I even had a number of reunions with old Lilly staff members and that was also a highlight.

Now for my observations -- Kobe has hardly changed, while Osaka has had some noticeable improvements around Umeda. The price of items has not changed and that was quite remarkable....Allow me to compare Japan which seems have hardly changed to that of China.....

The rise of the middle class was so obvious with KFC on most street corners, plus new models of (local model) Mercedes and BMW cars


Beijing
Pollution - dramatically reduced (the sky was blue!)
Spitting - saw one person only
Lines - people line up and also wait to cross the road
Traffic - horrific

Such a cultural change, I'm sure that the olympics had alot to do about these shifts.


Shanghai
Pollution - also radically less
Spitting - zero
Lines - people line up and also wait to cross the road
Traffic - much much improved

However no-one seemed to have adjusted their smoking behaviour, despite the recent legislation....I guess that is the next challenge for China?


Huang Shan is probably the most beautiful mountains we have ever visited. Previously we have been to three other of the famous religiously famous mountain ranges. The walk was treacherous -- up and down, slippery and wet. But amazing breathtaking views.