It has always proved
difficult for me to spend any time on reflection. It may be easy to say that
there were highlights even as there were moments of angst. Margo and I have
just returned home having spent a week downtown in Denver at a HPE NonStop
(formerly Tandem Computers) Conference, the TBC 2023. When held at this time of
year these conferences are the annual big-tent marketing affair that draws
equally from the HPE NonStop team, the NonStop vendors as well as HPE NonStop
customers. With the audience and speakers drawn from all quarters of the globe,
these can be invigorating times even as they are exhausting.
For the event this year in
Denver, Margo and I had the opportunity to occupy the Hilton presidential suite
on behalf of the client. With ours and clients employees present in the suite,
it was also our task to entertain NonStop community members nightly which we
need to explain, meant late nights for the conference duration. All good fun
mind you – yes, the presidential suite came with a pool table that kept those
present entertained – while being the ideal forum to catch up with colleagues
we haven’t seen in quite a while. If there is just one thing these gatherings
represent is a continuation of community warmth dating back decades.
And talking of warmth, even as the summer draws to a close and with the end in sight, there are still days where temperatures climb well above 90F or the low 30s for those with a preference for Celsius. The ongoing warm weather meant that most nights ended with a thunderstorm. A short burst of intense weather events as if to remind us that fall might be on its way but no, not yet! However, on one occasion as the storm clouds lifted, we were treated to a double rainbow that appeared to end in the garden right in front of our home.
In nearby Ft Collins,
Colorado, there is a café called the Waltzing Kangaroo. It’s about as Australian
as you can get where the counters feature a collection of pies, sausage rolls,
apple turnovers, custard tarts and more. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that
stopping by to pick up a couple of pies and sausage rolls and just one apple
turnover, allowed us to enjoy the taste of home. Back home in Sydney, Australia
that is. If here is any cause to reflect then simply enjoying the smell and the
taste of familiar dining elements has to be right up there with the best of
reasons.
They tell me that it is the
sense of smell that is most likely connected to the deeper realms of your
memories and quite able to drag up images that have been long lost. Sitting
outside on our patio deck, enjoying a pie and sauce as thunder rumbles in the distance
quickly ensnared me in a fantasy like setting where I could easily be persuaded
that I was indeed back home in Lindfield, a suburb of Sydney, where the
bushland setting nearby created such bush centric fragrances whenever a storm
happened so reminiscing was almost preordained to take place.
It was a case of third time lucky. My first approach in 1976 to migrate from Alberta, Canada, to the US simply didn’t materialize and I returned to Sydney. A decade later, I accepted a transfer to Raleigh North Carolina but the visa I obtained didn’t allow me to seek employment elsewhere. When Tandem approached me with a job, it was back to Sydney to wait a year for a new visa to be granted. This time, I was off to California and to Silicon Valley. Three times and now I was where I had wanted to go from the days spent moving between countries. The even better news was that my manager at Tandem secured my green card and the rest is history. And yet, on reflection it has left me wondering what it would be like to be back in Sydney on a more regular basis.
It doesn’t take a
candlelight dinner to make me nostalgic for times past. It takes a lot more
than that, I have to admit. My life is truly based on living here in America –
family, work, cars, appliances and more. When I was still in high school, I
asked a young girl from a nearby high school to join me for a day’s outing at
our school’s fete. I have to say, in hindsight, that this would likely classify
as a first date.
While just a one-time outing
as a teenager, it is a reminder of how different life might have been. What a
different road I may have chosen to go down. I seem to recall her name was Anna,
but now, as happenstance would have it, Margo’s daughter is also called Anna
and it only helps bring back the memory. Fortunately, as life continued to
unfold before me, I suspect I dodged a bullet at such an early age as my time
at high school came to an end a short time later.
No, when it comes time to
reflect, I do a poor job. As good as my memory has been in the past and how it
has helped me immensely in my career development of late it has hindered me
more than provided timely help. With synapses being slow to fire of late
perhaps it is time to head down under. What better way to reinforce long
forgotten connections between these pesky synapses than to renew my love for
all things Australian?
For me, Sydney is a town loaded
with paradox. Simply put, I love the convenience so much of the city provides
and yet, even with the love I have for that town, with time it is now a place
that is inconveniently a long way away from my life in Colorado. Emulating the
Sydney scene anywhere in the US is next to impossible and in all honesty, there
is a blessing in that even as for me it comes in equal measures with a curse.
There is not a harbor in the world to compare with Sydney but then again, there
are few mountain-scapes to compare with the Colorado Rockies.
Through the friendship of my
father with another church member I was given the opportunity to go sailing
every Saturday afternoon. For four glorious years in the 1970s I was part of
the crew of a highly competitive Cole 40 inside harbor racer – a
fractional-rigged sloop with a narrow beam. As a for’ard hand it was my task to
set sails, unfurl and then pack spinnakers, and to ensure the required
halyards, sheets and braces didn’t tangle or otherwise cause havoc.
Our owner / skipper, John,
was very competitive and it only took a year or so before it was our yacht that
was the scratch yacht and the target of every other competitor. I so loved
those long runs down the harbor from Manly to Nielsen Park! Whether
working into the wind or on a single downwind reach or perhaps when the wind
was right behind us on a square run under spinnaker, it didn’t matter. Just to
be able to take in all the sights the harbor afforded sailors back then made
these times memorable beyond imagination.
And so, it will come to
pass. Shortly, Margo and I will be once again able to enjoy a sail into Sydney
Harbor. We have finalized plans for a working experience that will give us time
to enjoy as much as Sydney can offer in the time we are there. Just thinking
about it I am reminded of that very first luncheon on North Head the day we
arrived back in late 2018. Yes, it has been five years since Margo and I last
set foot ashore in Sydney. And those years have passed by so quickly with only
the poor firing of the synapses to remind me of just how much we enjoyed our
time down under.
It would be remiss of me not
to mention that we will be spending time with family. My daughter Lisa turns 40
and there was no way I would miss celebrating the passing of that milestone. I
have to think that there are times when Lisa wonders what her dad is up to and
when next he will stop by, but with this trip, Margo and I also planning the
next and it will not be another five years before that event happens.
For now, as summer turns to
fall, the nights are turning chilly. The sting of summers heat is no longer, so
times spent outside are lengthening. More time to grill and more time to simply
kick back and enjoy the evening. The harvest moon gave us occasion to step
outside and the way it illuminated the night was impressive.
I may be bad at truly
reflecting on the past and what is included here is a poor and very incomplete
snapshot, but with the moon waning as it is now doing it’s only fair to admit
that I am enjoying memories even more with the passage of time. Sydney may be
over the horizon but for now, there’s plenty of time to sit back, take it all
in, and look forward to the good times ahead.
Comments