Bucket List Items Achieved So Far

For Christmas this year I have received a brilliant little black book. Not a little black book in the adolescent sense, rather a bucket list book with the caption, "If not now, then when?"

The bucket list is prospective, and I will add to it along the journey, however in reflection I will recap briefly some of the best bits of the journey so far. Whether this is of interest to anyone else, or helps promote bucket list items for readers remains unknown to me at this point. Here goes in no particular order:

a) Play a season of cricket in UK - Achieved in 2002 and 2008 in the North West of England with Barnoldswick and some guest appearances with Todmorden, Colne and Atherton. Happily I managed to make a hundred and take a five wicket haul in foreign conditions.

b) Play footy at the MCG - I was lucky enough to play with the Geelong Falcons as a young person and played finals in September at the MCG. Whilst it was not the AFL, and the crowd wasn't 100,000 strong early in the morning, it was very exciting and gave a great taste of what it must be like for the warriors in the AFL to play at the "colosseum" of Australian sport. For an exceeding short time I even had the opportunity to be one out in the 50m forward arc. I have my private suspicions that this only occurred as the coaches thought I was someone else. I changed onball with some very accomplished players who went on to have AFL careers so I suspect it was merely a case of mistaken identity but I'll take it!

c) Make a hundred on the MCG - Achieved twice, once with a triple hundred for Australia Under 19 v India and once for Geelong v Melbourne in Premier cricket.

d) Captain a cricket Team - Achieved a few times with Geelong, Victoria Under 17, Victoria Under 19, Australia Under 19, Victoria Second XI, Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy, South Barwon Cricket Club, Geelong College Cricket Club and probably a few others

e) Travel - I have been very lucky to travel to each state and territory of Australia through sport, and outside of sport. I have travelled to New Zealand north and south islands, Fiji, Bali, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, USA, Canada. Whilst difficult, my top few travel destinations in the journey so far are - Banff in Canada, Lake District in England, Havasu Falls in Grand Canyon in USA, Rome city and Florence in Italy, Whistler in Canada, Queenstown in New Zealand, Paris and country France are both brilliant, St Ives in England, Noosa in Queensland, Barnbougle in Tasmania, Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and a ripping holiday at Falls Creek in Victoria. This will continue to build hopefully over my next 40 years!

f) Business success - I am not sure this is ever achieved as you can always do more however in my journey to date I have progressed to being a director in our business and am currently in the managing director role having moved from being the CFO in recent years.

g) Getting married and having kids - Any bucket list without this on it is arguably incomplete. In current society opinion may vary on that assertion but it is important to me. I proposed in botanic gardens in my hometown having resisted temptation to do it in a cliche way on a gondola in Venice or at the Eiffel tower... both of which were visited in the lead up. Being in my hometown we can visit anytime! I proposed over fish n chips having seen Alex Papps do this on "Home and Away!" Luckily Sarah said yes, and then we were lucky enough to have two gorgeous happy, healthy little boys who keep us on our toes.

h) Learn a language - In fact I learnt two - being French and Latin. Latin was a wonderful four years with a brilliant teacher in Michael Keary. The man is a legend to all his pupils. Kearisms were a feature. When we went to Pompeii I sent a post card as probably a hundred before me had. My life has been shaped by the significant mentors of my adolescence of whom Mr Keary was definitely one. French was also a wonderful language to learn. Whilst I was far from mastery, I was able to survive in France reading and speaking poor french and the combination of the two allowed travel in Italy and Spain as well to be fairly comfortable.

i) Make lifelong friends - I am not a social butterfly, however I have been unbelievably lucky to retain friends from primary and high school as lifelong friends. My cricket family at Geelong Cricket Club have been a constant in my adult life and our extended cricket family of wives and girlfriends have become our circle of trust for over 20 years.

j) Learn to be mentor and to mentor - As discussed earlier, I have had brilliant mentors over my journey. Andrew Dunbabin within a work context, Terry Bright was a seminal football coach who had a bigger impact than games played under his leadership would suggest, Craig Considine at school was a larger than life figure who hardened my competitive nature very well. Mark Seeckts at school was amazingly knowledgeable and gently pushed my cricket expectations. Ian Redpath, Ken Davis and Jason Bakker along with Peter Cox were brilliant mentors at Geelong Cricket Club. Rod Marsh and Richard Done were exceptional at the Cricket Academy and transitional level cricket. It is often said that you need to find good mentors for your kids to complement your parenting. My Mum and Dad were great parents and mentors and complemented the people mentioned above. The problem with lists is you always miss people which I am not trying to do so for other significant people in the journey - I'd like you to be included here as well without specific mention.

Once my career was likely to be done and dusted at about 21 years of age, I turned my mind to mentoring others at Geelong. Some appreciated it, some didn't. Some progressed and some didn't. Hopefully those people know who they are. I loved the challenge of mentoring which was first suggested to me by Ken Davis. For those who it didn't work for - I honestly did my best. For those who it did work for - I get great pleasure when I see them in turn mentoring others and continuing the circle for the next generation and the one after that.

k) Run a marathon - I ran the Great Ocean Road Marathon. I had done a number of half marathons which were fun starting with an "Enduroman" challenge again set by Ken Davis when I was in my early 20's at Geelong Cricket Club then intermittently with an older sister Kym who loved to run providing much motivation from time to time. The marathon process was really interesting with an intermediate program googled and compared to a program provided by Kym. Essentially the premise is that a person who can run 30 minutes reasonably easily can train for 12 weeks and run a marathon. I charted the program and didn't miss a beat. The intensity and duration in the build up were very satisfying. The fatigue levels were not easy, that being said, it was very manageable. I didn't do the "extras" like massage so got a bit tight and sore at times. On the day, my whole family drove me down the great ocean road early in the morning then kept going down to the finish line. I watched the sunrise with all the other runners and did lots of nervous stretching. Taking off from the Lorne Hotel was slightly uphill. The first 10km passed with genuine excitement watching the waves breaking on the shoreline and the headwind kept the body temperature nice and cool. At 20km I needed to do a toilet stop which was a little embarrassing but probably not surprising with the amount of water and nerves. At 30km I had a chat with an older gent (aged 50 plus). I was amazed that the fitness levels got to the stage where it seemed my body would tighten and restrict me more than my breathing. I imagine a bit like a drunk drinking themselves sober I suspect. The feeling of peace as the road stretched out ahead and the drifting of thoughts across much of my late adolescence and adult life played out whilst I kept putting one foot in front of the other. At 38km another weird thing happened with a steady pressure building in my quads and hips. The pressure turned to tight and kept getting worse. It was almost like rigor mortis setting in. My mind started playing tricks but my determination to finish was very strong. I channelled every image I could of climbing a mountain, swimming with the current, running with the wind (even though it was in my face). I counted steps, I worked to the next corner and generally gritted my teeth. At 42km I passed the marathon mark in a tick over 3 and a half hours. My mind shut down as the job was done. The actual run is pub to pub so 45 km. The last 3 km can only be described as agony. My mind was not up for it. When I hit the final straight, my eldest boy came out to greet me and wanted to run the final little bit with Dad. I think I had tears running down my face, both of joy and exhaustion. I struggled my way through and finished. An amazing experience I will never forget though I have absolutely no desire to do another one. Job done, page ticked. It was never about time for me, just embracing the struggle and by god in the last few km I struggled!

I think that will do for the journey so far. My little black book will record the journey to come which might form future posts if and when bucket list items are achieved.

Bucket list suggestions are welcome at any time.