I’m grateful that I spent Day 99 in my hometown, celebrating the Cooee Festival, which commemorates the World War One recruitment march from Gilgandra to Sydney in 1915. In 1987 my dad was one of a group of men who re-enacted the march, from Gilgandra to Sydney, marching for 3 weeks.
I’m grateful for the reminders of those who have gone before, sacrificing all for our freedom. I was grateful to stand today and sing the National Anthem, and to see Ethan marching with Lyndon, along with others dressed as 1915 recruits. When they play the bugle, “The Last Post” and say “from the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them. Lest we forget” I get tears in my eyes. Every time.
In the Cooee Museum there are displays relating to the town’s history, and one of the models is dressed in my grandmothers (Dad’s mum) uniform from WW2. (She’s is nearly 95 now) The photo’s not good due to the reflection on the display case, but you get the idea.
Ethan interviewed Grandma a couple of years ago about her role in the Women’s airforce, so I’ll link it here for those interested. It’s pretty cool, a 7 year old interviewing a 92 year old about her life.
In other news today, Lyndon came third in the Cooee Calling Competition (the judges are on one side of the river, the contestants on the other, calling out the bush call “Cooooo-ee!” as loudly as they can), so he won $50, then Ethan, aged 9, feeling that he’d outgrown the kids cooee calling, entered the 11 – 15 year olds competition, and won with flying colours, winning $30, so he’s very excited and we’re all grateful for a wonderful day!
Day 100 tomorrow – gosh it’s gone fast. I’m hoping to find some friends in town, not already booked up with Long Weekend activities, to come for a BBQ. Who’s free?
Cheering you on,
Love Kerrie
Tonight I’m grateful for the energy to stay focused on the final edits and layout of my book, Lifting the Lid on Quiet Achievers, and grateful that Lyndon and Ethan decided that tonight would be a good night to go out for dinner and celebrate the completion of the book. We’re so close we thought we may have finished this afternoon, but after a few technical glitches slowing things down, we realised that tomorrow is more realistic. So Lyndon and I were discussing leaving the celebrating until tomorrow night, but when Ethan came into the office looking gorgeous in his Sunday best we decided we’d go. We celebrated that we’ve come this far, and I acknowledged Ethan for his patience throughout the book journey, and Lyndon for his ongoing support and all the work he’s done in layout and managing files, such as photos, quotes and images for the book.
The next person I’m grateful for is my accountability coach Jo Harrison, who is supporting us in our business as we develop the speaking and website side of things, which all ties in with the book of course… which was inspired by my years of coaching inspiring regional entrepreneurs. I love having such an enthusiastic cheerleader and I’m so grateful for Jo’s support, beautiful attitude and technical know-how. This photo was taken at the Gold Coast earlier this year. Jo’s on the left, holding my right hand, and we’re surrounded by other beautiful women I’m privileged to call friends too. Since connecting in March, we’ve met up at Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast – and plenty of times on skype!
The most fascinating part of the day was the whole day tour of Fletchers International Exports, which is a featured business in my new book. It’s an incredible business, a significant business in the sheep industry, not only in Australia, but also globally. I’m grateful for the opportunity to see the inner workings, and to meet some of the staff and hear their great attitude toward excellence, quality and customer service.
Sometimes you need to look at things from a different perspective.