The Best Day of My Life?

Hi Readers,

Another few days and he's belting out another post. It seems like it's either feast or famine with my posts, I punch a post out and think I'm going to be Mr Regular, and then nothing happens for a few months. Then I whip a few out in quick succession. However, I have no excuse from now on as I just don't have the competition from trying to get school work done.

Speaking of which, school holidays finish in about a week and it's only now that I'm actually starting to realise that I am really retired. There is still that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should be doing school preparation, especially when I see all the 'Back To School' stuff in the shops and on tv. I suppose the habits of 38 years are hard to shake!

Now to the topic of this post. 

I was out on the bike this week and listening to a podcast. They were talking about the good things that had happened in their lives, when one speaker asked the other "What has been the best day in your life?"

The other person gave a bit of an answer, then the person who asked the question did likewise.

This question really got me thinking, as whenever I thought I had the answer, another moment would come to mind that was just as good. I was finding it incredibly hard to prioritise one over the other, and some of you might already be thinking "How could you not see..................... (an example you may be thinking of)...... that as the best day of your life?"

So Readers, stay with me and I'll try and explain why I found it so hard to pinpoint one particular moment, but I think I may have found THAT moment on THAT day.

Often we will hear people say that the best day of their life was when their first child was born. I was in that boat as well until we found that we were going to have another child. The day of that birth was just as good as our first son being born. Then a few years later came number three and, you guessed it, this day was just as good as the other two. There is no way that I can seperate the joy experienced on each day, as I was just as happy when each son was born.

I'm sure that each of the boys might try to convince me otherwise, but to just have 3 healthy additions to our family was something to behold, and I just can't rank them.

For sure though, as a collective, if I could wrap these three days into one you'd have my answer there. After watching what Jen went through on each day, I'm not sure that each of those days were the best of her life, but I'd say that the outcomes would be the the best she experienced. Easily our greatest achievement in our lives ♥️♥️♥️

So what other big days were there?

Our Wedding Day? By far the one event that resulted in the beginning of the best years of my life, but in a way it did not feel like a great day at the time.

Why?

Picture this. It's an hour before the wedding and I'm stressing about remembering my vows that I'd need to say during the ceremony. Jen insisted that I was to have them perfectly memorised, which I assured her would be done. Trouble was, I left it to the last minute, so here I am in the pool with a bit of paper frantically trying to learn them. It didn't help that some mates who were staying at the motel with me had just cracked their first beers and were doing their best to distract me. There were lots of other organisational things that I needed to get done, all which contributed to making it a somewhat stressful day for me.

Well Readers, you'll be pleased to know that the rings did not get lost and the vows came out perfectly.

But there was one more thing that was really bugging me, and it wasn't happening for a few hours yet. It would just continue to gnaw at me, something I was dreading not for what it was, but how I'd look doing it.

The Bridal Waltz 😫

When I dance I am Captain Uncoordinated, totally unable to match any moves with beat, rhythm or music. If anything, I look like someone trying to change the wheel on a car that is still moving!!

Anyway, Jen, in her wisdom realised this well in advance, and a few days before the wedding. organised a practice session with a dance instructor.

In the words of Julia Roberts in the movie "Pretty Woman"...BIG MISTAKE!!!

This lady kept telling me "Just keep counting to 4", to which I'd reply "How is that going to make my feet go where they are meant to go??!!"

After an hour or so of me swearing under my breath ( and out loud at times) counting to four, standing on Jen's toes and basically getting nowhere, the instructor calmly tapped us on the shoulder and said "Good luck on Saturday". Even she gave up on me.

So for the next few days I had this simmering volcano inside bubbling away telling me how bad I was going to look during the Bridal Waltz.

To add to my frustrations, for the week leading up to the wedding I had a throat infection which meant I could hardly eat or drink, adding to my annoyance.

Fast forward a few days, I've nailed the vows, got the speech done no worries and cut the cake.

Now I hear the music starting and all thoughts of "Perhaps they've forgotten about the Waltz?" soon flew out the window.

I still vividly remember standing in the middle of the dance floor looking like a hot dog on a skewer as I was so bolt upright. The music starts, and so do I..."1,2,3,4...1,2,3,4..."

I know I have trouble walking now due to injuries, but that night I must have looked like I had all injuries rolled into one as I looked like a person on stilts trying to dance on a 5 cent coin!!

Anyway, the crowd did the right thing and ""Ooohedd" and "Aaahed" then joined in, thankfully providing me with some camouflage to hide behind.

Don't get me wrong Readers, it was a truly magnificent day now when I look back on it, but at the time I was finding a number of things hard to get through!

So these days were undeniably brilliant, but are either too hard to seperate or are remembered as being organisationally stressful. It's when looking back and seeing how they added to the future that I really see how enjoyable they really were.

So I have been thinking for days about this, and it's through this writing that I gain greater clarity with my thinking. I'd often tell the kids who I was teaching that when you write you can get to understand your ideas a bit more as you have to slow down and think about them more clearly.

This next anecdote does involve a bit of vulnerability, but I hope you'll understand and hang in there while I try to explain it. It's pretty much our love story.

Back in 1984 I was at Aquinas College in my 2nd year of my Teaching Course. I was cashed up at the start of the year and having a ball to begin the year. There was even some study happening...or so I thought. More about that later.

At our house one night we were sitting around having more ales than were probably needed and decided that we should host a party. It needed a theme though. so after considering multiple suggestions, and ditching just as many, we settled on our theme.

Yep, we were going to have a Toga Party!!!

We had this party organised in less than a week I think, and everyone at College was invited.

If only we had the same dedication to our studies at the time!

Anyway Readers, to cut a long story short, this was the night when Jen and I hooked up for the first time.

The next 2-3 days we were a bit shy with each other as we were trying to figure out if we really liked each or not. There were lots of deep discussions about what a relationship meant for each of us, and how we might make it work, especially as we came from opposite ends of the state and that our first teaching jobs would be hours and hours apart. Plus she was very organised study wise and I was just having a good time.

After a week or so of this we realised there was definitely something there between us, and Jen was heading home to Port Fairy for a few days. She said that she'd have an answer for me when she got back as she needed some time to think before becoming involved in a relationship, especially with a fruit loop like me at the time.

As I dropped her off at the bus station I can still remember the flood of emotions I was feeling, hoping for all money that she'd come back with a "Yes". Remember, there were no mobiles at the time, so communication was limited. We did however write a letter to each other beforehand that we promised to open one hour after the bus left, giving the other our thoughts about beginning a potential relationship. I was very open and vulnerable in what I wrote for her, and I was amazed that Jen did likewise. It did give me some hope, but no certainty.

For the next 2-3 days I was in a blur, just hoping for the outcome that I was wishing for. I just couldn't concentrate on anything, so I just went for run after run around Ballarat to kill time.

The weekend is now over and I have no lectures at College until later in the day, so I laze about at home. Not doing any study though!

Then there's the sound of the door opening ( we didn't bother knocking at each other's houses, just go in!) and Jen walks in and up the hallway. The look on her face didn't give me any clues as to which way she was thinking. My heart was in my mouth as we stood and looked at each other, then she just gave me the greatest hug ever and said "Let's do it".

So for me Readers, that was the best day of my life because of everything that has happened since. I remember it like yesterday. As well as being such a joyous occasion for me, it is also so emotional thinking about it now that she is gone.

So as I said earlier, that's our love story.

Now back to the study issue.

A few days later I went to collect my 1st semester results, only to find that in the envelope there weren't any results. Just a sternly worded letter from the College Boss, George Pell requesting a meeting where I needed to "Show cause why your course should not be terminated".

Great.

I'd just managed to snag Jen, and now I might be getting kicked out of college, meaning I'd probably have to leave Ballarat and find something else to do. I didn't want to go back the bank where I'd worked the year before that was for sure!!

As things turned out, he gave me a bot of a roar and told me to pull my finger out, and said I was staying by the skin of my teeth.

The dressing down I got from Jen was even more sterner, and this one I listened to!!!

We did graduate the following year, she went to Edenhope and I went to Wodonga, only 7 hours apart!! After a year I moved to Ballarat and Jen followed the next year. We got married and the rest is history, but none of this could have happened if it wasn't for the Toga Party ( which won Party of the year in 1984!!) and that fateful meeting in our hallway a week or so later.

But do you, like me, have things that happen from time to time and you think "This is the best day of my life!!"

Until the next day when something else happens and you think the same thing again.

What I'm trying to explain here is that our lives are filled with moments that we think are the best ever, because at that time they are.

Back in the day this was my first car. Every time when I got into it and it started, I'd just think it was the best day ever! I always joked to Jen that it was my car that attracted her to me in the first place!!

It was 2017 and my team Richmond was actually winning games. I was as happy as the proverbial "Pig in S&$T". Because our wins in the previous 32 years were few and far between, stringing a few wins in a row were the best days ever!

And then they topped it off by winning the flag!! I watched the first half on my own in a bar at Calgary Airport, then had to watch the final half in our room upstairs on the iPad while Jen slept soundly behind me. Clearly one of my best days!!

My place of peace. I know it is noisy, but every time I go for a spin I just get the feeling "This is the best day" This is where I do so much of my thinking.

Regular Readers would know that I have loved my running over the years, and wherever I have been I have explored by going for a run. Hills were my passion, and I stumbled across this set of steps in Barcelona that were far too irresistible to ignore...

Because this is the view that awaited me at the top.

And this pretty well sums up my attitude towards sport and running in particular.

And as a result of so much running over a long time, inevitable injuries. Despite the fact that I can no longer run, this picture always reminds me of how much joy each run gave me. Some days it would be hard to put one foot in front of the other, other days I'd feel like I could run forever. I'll always remember those days as some of my best.

Most mornings when I get up, or when I stand up after sitting for a long time I can barely walk as my ankle gets so stiff. On those rare mornings when I can get up without hobbling, my immediate thought is "This is going to be the best day", and it usually ends up that way as I start with such a great mindset.

I'd just landed in Helsinki, Finland, as part of a 3 week scholarship trip I'd been awarded. My first trip overseas on my own, in a country where very little was in English. It forced me to be more independent and learn from my mistakes. Each day was an achievement, especially for a person who only learnt how to do internet banking 2 years ago.

I'd go to bed each night thinking "That was the best day"

Over the past 2-3 years, I have thrown myself into reading more, and now writing. This is how a good text makes me feel, and how I feel when I'm punching out a post, especially ones that expose vulnerability such as this one.

On the same scholarship trip, this time in London. A few years ago our closest friends tragically lost their daughter. We had a movie night at the Bendigo Cinemas where we we watched her favourite movie, Mamma Mia. I was totally enthralled by it and just loved it so much. A few years later and I see it in London (twice on this trip) Jen and I also saw it twice more on subsequent trips, then again in Melbourne. When I watch this movie I always get the feeling of "How good is this day?"

The joy of being with our Grandsons. Whenever I'm with them nothing else matters, every day is the best day with these two.

And the best is saved for last.For years it had always been a dream of mine to travel overseas. Jen, being the rational one was able to cool my jets as we had far more pressing issues to take care of, such as paying off a house, educating and supporting our boys and basically keeping things together. We eventually did take our first overseas trip in 2014 I think and I'd always wondered what it would feel like flying into London. When that day came it was worth every bit of anticipation that had been building for years, and the culmination of putting more important things first. Here we are outside Buckingham Palace (very English photo), just one of hundreds we took over subsequent years where we travelled extensively. We have been so fortunate to have done it while we could, for if we waited until retirement it may have never happened at all.

Each day overseas was always the best day because we just knew how lucky we were to be doing this together.

Well Readers, a bit more of a soft touch to this post, it's just where I'm at right now. Too hot to be outside and I've been waiting all day for a phone call to say to come and collect my caravan which is being serviced. What better way to kill time than punch out the rest of this post. I know I have mentioned vulnerability a bit in this post, that's mainly because it is foremost in my mind today after reading someone's thoughts around it this morning. People sometimes mention it to me and talk about it further, others make fun about it, but either way I'm always prepared to open up about it.

And as much as I try not to think about it, I still have this nagging feeling that I should be doing things for school!! Help Me!!!!!!

Until my next post,

Cheers😀