One of my core beliefs in life is that the destination doesn’t matter as much as the journey and the people you have around you on that journey. However when that journey involves a long drive, I better like being around the people who’s coming along. Luckily for me, this trip was just like that. Most of the time anyway.
Tham had wanted the trip so that we can bond. My initial reaction was why couldn’t we bond right here in the city, and if we must be by the beach and wineries, we got it here too. Yeah that didn’t go down too well. Hahahah!
Something noteworthy: a few days after we left Margaret River, the control burning by the Department of Environment and Conservation got out of control and ended up destroying 40 properties in the general vicinity that we were staying and visiting. Luckily, no one was hurt or killed.
On to happier thoughts, these were the merry bunch of the trip – Kayo, Selina, Howe Chern and Tham.
First stop of the journey was Busselton and the jetty for lunch.
The weather was beautiful and after lunch we proceeded to walk the entire length of the jetty (1.841 km).
At the end of the jetty was an underwater observatory. Since we didn’t pay for that, there wasn’t much else to do but do silly poses and entertain the people on the slow moving tram. Yup – if you didn’t feel like walking, there’s a tram.
Less than a hour later, we finally arrived at the place that we will be spending the next two nights in. It was a beach house and it was awesome.
It was a fully furnished 4-bedroom house with TV, WIFI, dishwasher, fireplace and a BBQ. At $300 a night, I thought it was comfy but some of the others thought it slightly creepy at night. Though that was probably because we were watching a few episodes of American Horror Story.
After we dropped off our stuff at the house, we explored the area around the beach. It was too cold to swim though.
The next day and a half revolved around food …
wine …
wineries …
pretty gardens …
and more alcohol.
Oh and there was bonding. More or less. We did the same activities that we would have done if we’ve had hung out together here in Perth. I didn’t say that but I thought it. Hahaha! But honestly, thanks for the memorable trip guys. It wasn’t that bad after all. Next time we can save the long car trip and rent a place near Cottesloe eh?
On the weekend, a group of us (Me, Kayo, Tham, Sel and Howe Chern) went down to Margaret River for a little getaway. I would have blogged about it by now have I not lost my camera on the way back here. I didn’t realise it on the 3 hour drive back when I was the designated driver, and I didn’t realise it when I got home and dropped my stuff on the floor and slumped down on the couch for the next few hours. I only realised it as I was falling asleep and the thoughts of how I was gonna blog the trip popped into my head.
I jumped out of bed and began to look around frantically: the front door, the kitchen and the laundry; my bags and my dirty clothes and I couldn’t find it. I then texted the group asking if they had seen it amongst their stuff or in the car. Everyone said no. I then messaged our friend CC who works at Avis where we got the rental car to see if she can look for it when she gets to work the next morning.
What bothered me most was the thought of losing the photos of the trip and not so much the camera itself. Worried but exhausted I managed to fall asleep. The next morning CC said that she looked everywhere in the car and couldn’t find it. This was when I more or less accepted and came to terms with the fact that I have probably lost it for good and I tried to not think about it anymore, even as I was looking around the house and my bags repeatedly expecting it to miraculously appear.
Then this morning as I retraced my steps one more time, I decided to call the place that I knew we last stopped at before the drive home, Simmo’s Ice Cream in Dunsborough. To my great relief, they did find a lost camera and it fits the description of my camera.
So I’m gonna be driving down south this Saturday again to pick it up – a 510km round trip. A few people asked me why I didn’t arrange it for it to be mailed back to me. One, I wanted it back as soon as possible. And two, I wanted to do the drive down (those who know me well would understand how this is a big task for me ‘cos I hate long car trips!) so that this life lesson to be less careless is strongly reaffirmed in me. Heheh.
The other lesson that I learnt: when one has a laptop whilst on holiday like I did, one should upload the photos to the laptop at the end of every day so that if the camera was truly lost, then at least one would still have the photos from the days before.
Anyway, photos and write-up of the trip will follow after I get the camera back.
Me: Hey mom, how long did you breast feed me for?
Mom: Never.
Me: What?
Mom: Never.
Me: Not even once?
Mom: Nope.
Me: Maybe that’s why I like boobs so much. I’m making up for lost time.
Mom: No, you like boobs because you are a dirty old man.
Me: Heyyyyy … 37 is not old.
Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you the company of your friends who may be too cash-strapped to hang out. I believe that money is nothing if it doesn’t bring people together in a good way. But there’s a fine line between being generous and being used.
My mom have told me this before: you can’t take your money with you when you die so there’s no point hoarding it. There’s a difference between saving for a rainy day and being a scrooge.
Plus I think that making your descendants expect a big inheritance is only going to make them lazy and complacent and they would not know the true value and hard work involved in earning money.
Bill Gates was asked about being super-rich and he said this:
“I can understand about having millions of dollars. There’s meaningful freedom that comes with that, but once you get much beyond that I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger. Dick’s (a burger joint in his neighbourhood) has not raised their prices enough,” Gates said.
I agree with his sentiment. Once you have financially taken care of the basic things many times over, chasing for more money is just ugly and obscene if that extra money was not used to help people and advance society in meaningful ways.
After all, the simple and important things in life cost little if anything, and those are the things that give the most long-lasting happiness.
