Well Ladies and Gentleman, We are now safely two months into the year that is 2013! The Myan's did not actually predict the end of the world, as Hollywood had us believe, they did however suggest the earth and its inhabitants would experience a significant change/shift at this juncture in the cosmos. My yoga teacher (yes, I have indeed started yoga specifically for mind relaxation and also as I am still playing competitive football in my 30’s for Alleyn Old Boys) explained that our galaxy has spent 2000 years below the equator of the universe (I am not sure how they know this) and has now moved above it and in doing so ventured out of the 'Age of Pisces' into the 'Age of Aquarius' where it will stay for the next 2000 years!! Which is a bonus for this Aquarian !!!! Wikipedia - Astrological ages occur because of a phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. There are two broad approaches about the effects upon the world due to the astrological ages. Some astrologers believe the changes upon Earth are caused and marked by the influences of the given astrological sign, associated with the Age, while other astrologers do not follow the causative model and believe it is a matter of synchronicity. You may or may not buy into the idea that the planets and their cosmic alignment can affect our planet; our spiritual destiny; our decisions; and fundamentally our lives, but what you have to concede is that the moon controls the tides. TANGENT ALERT - > Which the Yeehawww gang still claim to have stepped on (one leap for man blah blah in your dreams Neil) as if it isn’t made of cheese – haven’t you seen Wallace and Gromit! Now that’s definitely more realistic than their attempt. So if the moon has the ability to control masses of water on earth and we are 70% water, then there is a significant possibility that the said little ball of cheese and the other galaxies could have unseen impacts on our bodies of water - agreed!? Well whether you’re with me or not, there has been a significant shift in my life over the last few months that has coincided with the 2600 BC prophesy – I must stress here, I am not suggesting that the mystical Myan predictions were entirely written to predict the coming of the new Lee Edge! I will leave this for you to decide…. but the evidence is convincing no?! After 12 years, I made the decision in October to leave the 9-5 corporate world in order to follow my dreams…. About time I hear a few of you say! … There are too many superlatives to describe how I am feeling at present, so I will chose just one. You know when you lose yourself in the moment, when nothing else matters; you’re focused in the present on something that just feels right for you and time and space doesn’t exist?! Well that’s the feeling I get when I am being creative. We all know breaking out of a habitual routine is extremely difficult and many of us in the present chaos can easily get lost and hanker for a new journey. Some individuals find contentment early in their lives, others remain unaware of the potential within them and live in an almost ignorant bliss (I am not including the benefits scroungers and teenage chav couple with 4 kids in this category – but that said they are a creation of modern society and not themselves completely to blame). There were times when I was jealous of these two predicaments but I wouldn’t change the way my journey has panned out. I learnt a lot of invaluable lessons in my twelve years in the corporate world, which will stand me in great stead for the future. I have known since a was a young whipper-snapper that my calling was creativity, ideas, innovation. Be it destiny or fate: Conduct me, Zeus, and thou, O Destiny, wherever thy decree has fixed my lot. I follow willingly; and, did I not, Wicked and wretched would I follow still. (Diogenes Laertius quoting Cleanthes; quoted also by Seneca, Epistle 107.) Whoe'er yields properly to Fate is deemed Wise among men, and knows the laws of Heaven. (From Euripides' Fragments, 965) O Crito, if it thus pleases the gods, thus let it be. (From Plato's Crito) While doing some flat administration over the Christmas break, I unearthed a sky diving dvd which was filmed in Mission Beach, Australia in 2003. This was taken during a holiday that came to be known as the 'Midas Touch Tour'. It is a widely known Edge FACT that unplanned events tend to be the most memorable! It is with that in mind that I start this short tale...... It was while weaving my way through the self-obsessed furore of the Clapham Junction masses, (after 12 years of London your peripheral vision becomes honed like an Olympic athlete, you're able to anticipate erratic movements / gaps and synchronise, but miss-time and you will receive the wrath of the locals... it is a little like Frogger when you get run over by a truck) on a cold March morn. That I bumped into the legendary ‘Acapello Vanilla Ice-man’ that is Colin Brett. Having not seen the Colin Brett-meister for a couple of years, it was by pure chance (or was it destiny, fate or that ball of cheese?) that we walked into each other in Clapham Junction. Due to Colin deciding to make a career change, into the world of law, and myself a little unsure about my career choice, we decided literally on the spot to do a 6-week tour of Australia. 2 weeks later Colin had an itinerary drawn up and I had a well-stocked rucksack ready for action. We landed in Perth and after one night headed up to Port Headland for 4 days in the Karinjini National Park. After 3 amazing nights sleeping under the stars and having our ears well and truly chewed off by pleasant but persistent English girl we headed down south on the Greyhound bus to Exmouth! Exmouth is a picturesque town on the West Coast of Oz, which was at the time largely untouched by tourism. Diving and swimming with the whale sharks was out of this world, my dive under the pier where the American’s used to anchor there fleet was amazing. Never again will being surrounded by reef sharks and gorgeous fish, while inadvertently failing to control you buoyancy, floating away from the group and bashing my head on a barnacle ridden girder seem like bliss!!. We also met some awesome people in the hostel and Colin enjoyed a 5-person Birthday tent pile-on (no childish giggles here – no innuendo intended After forcing ourselves to leave Exmouth we headed back to Perth for what turned out to be a very interesting / bizarre / fantastic night in a local Jazz club. After recovering we took an internal flight into the heart of Australia, Alice Springs. It was here we saw Uluru at sun rise before the iconic photo below was taken, it was only a 30 minutes after dodging old chinese tourists, who for some reason kept passing out, that myself and Keets (Colin) became fully fledged Aborigini Men. Granted the elders usually expect the youngster of the tribe to climb unaided but we bribed them with Manchester United shirts. This accolade now entitles us to free membership of the Rolf Harris supporters club; a complementary wobble board and the ability to carry a didgeridoo and a can of VB at all times!! – on a serious note we need to take a look at how their society and country was taken from them ! Give me the dream world and its connections to nature, over our hunger for possession driven existence any day!! After a quality night getting to know a mental Japanese friend, we took a flight to Cairns with a couple of girls we had met in the hostel. Following more scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and a mini bus trip to Cape Tribulation (on which me and Colin dually enforced a 3 hours non-stop Oasis tribute, including vocal accompaniment), we arrived in Mission Beach. The message I wanted to convey (although it has turned into another Dostoyevsky novel) with the post is encapsulated within the sky dive video above. The adrenalin before the jump was exhilarating, this could have been due to me being last into the plane and having my leg hanging out all the way up to 14,000 feet. The experience was AMAZING , falling through and inhaling cloud vapour while shouting lines from Point Break … I am taking you to the edge Jonny…. Was an experience I will never forget! But the freedom and happiness I felt during and after the jump don’t have to be exclusive to such events. We create our world with our thoughts and taking time to step back and re-evaluate our lives should allow us to access these feelings more readily. On a lighter note, I must confess that Colin and myself were seen doing Sky Dives off and into anything we could for the next 2 weeks (Colin even Sky Dived a snake!!). The mad party at the instructor’s house, with people jumping 3 stories into a pool, 5ft snakes crossing the road, and the most lethal cocktails just topped it off. We also managed to acquire some Gallagher Brother hats and I pulled off the funniest joke ever invented FACT !!! .. If you look closely I am ‘A-Salting’ Colin in the photo above top right!!! Frazer Island, the Whitsundays, awesome crown green bowling and pool performances from Brett followed and the ACTUAL Midas Touch can been seen below, as can Team Defender and Team Frazer! If you made it this far, I thank you for staying with me as I realise this is yet another lengthy prose. Aren’t blogs supposed to be short ???
In summary though, the Midas Touch tour of 2003 was an amazing Goonie-esk jaunt through the out-back; a time of freedom; booby traps and pirates; creation; contentment and happiness!! Which is why this story is so poignant, as this is how I feel in the present moment and will increasingly feel by embracing all opportunities and challenges that come my way in the future. On that bomb shell, I once again bid you adieu Edge…… Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99...... please let me welcome to the stage ....MR ...... B...... A...... Z ..... Luhrmann!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen… Take heed !!! Shammoooonnnnn muffa feckersssss Edge |
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