Note to self: Tough times don’t last.
A great day
There are good days, and there are great days. Then there’s incredible days, and then there’s days like yesterday that only happen once every 4 or 5 years.
I’m not gonna lie, but I’ve done it tough mentally since retiring, especially during the pandemic when the Dock had to close. But yesterday, all that pain melted away as we celebrated
3rd b’day, the Dock’s 8th b’day, I wrapped up work for the year, Jen got a much-deserved promotion at work, and more!
And despite sleeping like crap from eating too much cake, I’m still buzzing and want to savour how incredible yesterday was, and not celebrating the highs enough is one regret from my Rugby career, as I was always too focused on “What’s next?”
The day started with a much overdue catch-up with Canberra hospitality legend Omar Muscat, as we and another good mate Ben “Big Red” Greentree went for a walk up Red Hill, then Omar kindly shouted us brekkie at his cafe in Deakin called Doubleshot.
On the walk we discussed Bitcoin, the impact AI will have on our kid’s futures, and most importantly, to savour time with our kids as he said “I only have 8 more summers with my son before he’ll want to do his own thing”, which hit home for me as I spent all of last summer working on Alfred and being depressed. The best way to start the day.
Next was wrapping up work for the year at KPMG, a place that’s helped me to believe in myself again. At the start of the year, my confidence was shot to bits after stupidly selling our home to fund the rebuild of Alfred. But when Alfred failed to reach a point where I could pay myself and I checked how much of our savings I’d spent, I spiralled into a depression and had no idea how I was going to fix things and had no backup career. But thanks to a conversation with a fellow Brumbies board member, I got an interview at KPMG, and before I knew it, I’d joined the Change Management team!
I’ve made lots of friends and learned so much about the nature of change, plus having some much-needed structure and routine to my week has helped relight the fire of my self-belief that was extinguished during the pandemic.
Then I got news that my wife Jen got a promotion. I know she’ll hate me talking about this here, but if you’re reading this babe, I want you to know how proud I am of you, and I’m glad you’re starting to realise what you’re capable of.
Then I got some more great news that Alfred received the second half of a government grant to help people understand how what they eat impacts on how they think and feel. Then a few minutes later, I received $5000 in AWS credits from Blackbird’s start-up mentoring program! A much-welcomed Christmas gift as Alfred uses AWS to store all our meal database and count the calories in users meals for them.
Then it was down to the Dock for Running 4 Resilience 3rd and the Dock’s 8th birthday parties, and was blown away by the turnout! We’ve been getting close to 200 people rocking up for Wednesday’s run, but last night was incredible as we had close to 250 celebrate 3 years of exercising with friends.
Breeny if you’re reading this, who would have thought this was possible when you emailed the Dock back in 2019… and I truly believe that R4R’s potential is only limited by our imagination, as so many people are getting behind your vision of a suicide free ACT. LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!
Once the R4R community left, I headed inside the Dock to have drinks with our regulars, the people Shooter, Jane, Fards and I will be forever indebted too. We weren’t sure the Dock would survive the pandemic, but thanks to their support, we’ve bounced back and had our best month in nearly 4 years! Getting to know them and the community is what makes owning a pub so special, and I can’t bloody wait to head to Paris with a few of them for the Rugby World Cup!
Then 2 more awesome things happened, but I’m running out of time to share them as I can hear the kids getting up.
So all in all, an incredible day and one I never thought I’d get to experience when I was in the depths of my depression.
Tough times don’t last Ben. Enjoy.
Fantastic, Ben. I can feel the excitement fizzing in your words.
Won’t it feel great when you no longer even think about the house sale, let alone refer to it? I’m sure that time is not far off 😊
Hooroo! Always reading mate!
Swings and roundabouts, bout time you had some good things happen considering all your efforts.
It’s a pleasure to share the R4R path with you and I’m excited to see how we’ll go!