What I Learned Last Week
Uncle Tom, sad about Rugby, and my sister's new business
Last week I shared the story how my wife’s Nan survived the Japanese invasion of Singapore thanks to a stroke of luck.
Then a few days later when I shared that with my Dad, I found out my great uncle, Thomas Whiteside, was also in Singapore during the war, fighting with the Australian Army when the city fell to the Japanese.
Tom was captured and spent years as a prisoner of war (POW) and only survived because he was “good with his hands”. Meaning he carved wooden pieces for Japanese soldiers who were impressed with his craftsmanship.
By the end of the war, he was down to 50kgs, which is nothing as he was a big bloke like me.
I never met Uncle Tom, but my brother is named after him. And when I asked Dad if he recovered, he said, “Uncle Tom never fully recovered, but he had a good life.”
His brother Ted had a building business in Melbourne and took him under his wing as a carpenter. Tom never had kids of his own, but he loved making things for Dad and his brother as kids, like go-karts and model sailing boats.
Turns out the same hands that saved his life kept building long after the war.
And this week when I’m in Melbourne, I’ll be visiting a great aunt who has Uncle Tom’s diary from when he was captured.
Would make for an incredible read and I’ll try convince her to donate it to the Australian War Memorial archives.
Wish me luck.
As for Rugby...
I haven’t written much about it here, and honestly, I doubt I ever will.
I was gutted after Saturday’s match.
I really wanted to believe we could punch above our weight and challenge the Lions, but the whole tour has been a letdown. It’s left me feeling flat and empty. No energy for rugby left.
Just sadness about the decline of Aussie rugby and a real sense of hopelessness, because I genuinely believe it’ll keep sliding.
I’m still heading to the test in Melbourne this weekend. Keen to reflect on that game 12 years ago, when we won and I got to lead the team out for my 50th.
But if I’m being honest, I’m more excited about doing Albert parkrun on Saturday (Australia’s biggest) and catching up with mates than the game.
Sad. But true.
Keen to finish this post on a high
My sister’s back visiting from Switzerland, and recently she launched her photography business.
Call me biased, but I think she’s incredibly talented and creative, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Here are some shots she took during a recent family weekend at the farm. Love to know what you think!
Love the farm photos! Especially the kids climbing on the termite mound. Should make a book of them to keep in the tiny home.
From the Lions side of the fence, it has also been flat. Until last night, no games (including first test) have any jeopardy or drama. I think it is a problem in other aspects of life. Our social media is drenched in content hyping things to such an extent that it becomes unlikely that it will be realised. After looking forward to it too much for too long, I guess it was always a possibility it would be an anticlimax. There are still 2 games left and let’s hope that the First Nations Pasifika lads have set a new benchmark.