A series of unfortunate events.

Hey all.

What is supposed to be the upside of the year for me and the most profitable has so far turned out to be quite the oposite.

The vehicle used to tow the spraying rig around was put in for repair for about 2 months due to complications getting parts from America and due to the inexperience and incompetence of people in Australia working on Hummers.

Next was flu season. With the flu going around, the first victim was my wife, followed by my eldest daughter Sophie, then my youngest daughter Alicia. My father who has been assisting with the busy weed spraying season then got a nasty flu which became a viral infection. I took him for several tests with specialists and to a couple of doctors appointments. With medication the virus is now gone but the tests reveal possible blood in his bowels so I understand. Apparently, worst case scenario, my father may have early signs of bowel cancer. As my father has never bothered with private health insurance he is now faced with being out of pocket a substantial amount or going to a public hospital to have his bowels looked at. He opted public hospital (not like he had much choice). Now he will most likely have to be on the waiting list for a few months before he is called to attend.

Meanwhile, I had a bad bout of gastroenteritis, followed by my youngest daughter getting conjunctivitis, followed by my wife getting gastro also.

Finally, eveything got back on track. My father and I went out to work and a van slammed in to the back of my Fathers Hummer crumpling the back of it in. Now he needs to arrange it to be repaired once again. Just when we thought we couldn’t be hindered any more…

If it wasnt the accident holding us up then this never ending terrential downpour we are having most everyday probably would. Hopefully, when the weather clears up we have a vehicle to use and still have enough time to finish off the lawn spray season.

I told myself a few days ago that now it was time to step it up a notch and take my korean language study seriously, but with the ramifications of this series of unfortunate events, one can’t help but put things in to perspective, as disapointing as it may be.

My wife came home telling me about another white guy she saw at Sophies Saturday Korean Classes. She told me how he can talk Korean and how I can meet him next time and practice my Korean with him…no pressure!! -_-

NedsLads

So a few days just gone I went to the Perth Zoo with my two daughters whilst my wife was doing her University exams.

The zoo day was a group event that was arranged by my eldest daughters Primary School. As the primary school is seperated from the kindergarten section, there were only a few kids and their parents who attended from my daughters Kindy. The rest has children from the primary school whom I did not know. Therefore, when I arrived I stuck with those I knew and we went around in our own little group.

It was good fun, Sophie got tomhave lunch and pat snakes and tortoises etc with her friends whilst I got to spend some time getting to know the childrens parents better. It helped having my father there (Sophies grandad) as my youngesr daughter Alicia who is 1 1/2 years old was grumpy the whole time. By about 2:30pm or just after it became all too much for Alicia who was tired so we called it a day and left early, catching all the sites on the way out. As we got to keep moving while by ourselves, Alicia found it all the more easier to dose off with the motion of the pram.

All told it was a great day and thanks to ‘Jimmy’, the Father of Sophies school friend ‘Eliana’, I have some great photos to share.

 

Wifes Birthday.

Well…maybe a little early. 4 days to be precise, but I knew she couldn’t wait to see her gifts.

Previous Birthdays I have underwhelmed her with the Birthday gifts, she seemed happier with this years gifts.

Knew what wallet she was after but wasn’t sure if the winterwear would be a winner. So I went to Lululemon knowing that way I couldn’t go wrong.

She seemed happy enough. Well worth the spend 🙂

Busy busy

Hello readers.

The last two days has been fairly frantic so apologies for being absent

As for yerterday, I have been in a headspin getting things on track. The busiest few months of the year in my business have come up and I have not sent out reminders as per usual for past customers to have their lawns sprayed for weeds. Therefore, I have been up most the night as of late writing up personalised circulars for over 300 customers. The monotony of it all has become an unbeknownst dregory to those around me hence my absence. I have resorted to more Nootropics than usual and coffee to reverse the possible sleepy effect of excess Nootropics. 

As for today, It was a bit more relaxed. I spent the first half of the day as a volunteer worker at my eldest daughters Kindy. I have bern working in peoples garden for the latter half of the day and since have showered and got a new haircut. It was long overdue. Really happy with the job ‘Maurice Mead Hair salon’ in Claremont did. Will deffinitely go back.

Hope to improve my pictures and writing as I develop my blog. Thanks all.

Business automation

So far the plan to somewhat automate my business is on track.

I now have two workers who are bringing in money. The problem I have realised is that inly about 20% of the customers have invoices emailed and the rest receive them in the post. Which means I need to mail them off regularly and also archive the copies.

So I figure I will need to get in touch with all my customers and see whether they would like to receive email invoices instead and record to necessary details. All I will need to do then when I am in Korea late this year is email most of the invoices off, and the ones which I have emailed off I will record their invoice numbers in a notebook ao I may print copies out for archiving when I return to Australia.

Hopefully enough people opt for email invoices so i can keep cadh flow moving. The remaining invoices I will need to print somewhere in Korea and use their postal system to send out. That will be an interesting new experience for me…maybe even a new opportunity to improve my language in that area.

That is my plan anyway. Try to experience many things in order to not just learn the culture but to improve my language. So nervous about the trip…mainly nervous about leaving a business to run on its own, but to experience new things I’ll have to take risks.

Korea trip makes for expediated language learning.

Hi everyone.

So, after less than a year of running my small gardening business I took over from my father, I am already planning to do the unheard of.

Most small business owners who run a service/trade business can’t even dream of taking a holiday out of state, however, in late November this year I plan on crossing borders and visiting my wifes country of birth  (South Korea).

The trip is long overdue as we have been married several years now and her Mother and Father have only ever visited Australia. Now it is my turn…i’m so excited!

My plan as the successor or my fathers business to empower my wife by allowing her to study and have my children grow up in a nice area has been a success so far. Business is expanding and my workers are in the move bringing in the money. Ofcourse, an increase in paperwork results from more employees, but with a good sytem in place paperwork can be done from anywhere.

I have been self studying korean in a pretty laxed way for a while now, but as a trip to Korea is now in the cards, the urgency to become conversational has increased.

As I manage my own business, and care for my family, I don’t have any unrealistic expectations about becoming fluent beforehand. I will however be stepping my game up even if it means many sleepless nights.

(Fingers crossed) Hope this pays off and I will keep you all updated on my progress and the details of my visit.

Prison Officer to Gardener.

For those who have been reading my blog, I’ll give you some insight in to how I ended up where I am today. I’ll make it brief and readable.

I was training and fighting out of different gyms and then naturally took up a certification through TAFE in fitness/personal training. It is there that I met my future wife. Thing is she was neither a citizen nor a permanent resident. After a while of dating I knew I wanted to marry this woman, so I made the move and proposed.

The wedding ceremony was quick. We were made husband and wife in a registry office, however we made the most of the function by having it set up at the beautiful river side of the swan river.

I continued doing what I had been doing before, training as a fighter, however moved out of my small rural town to the city of Perth. A big move for a country boy. I started training out of a reputable muay thai gym in bayswater with past and future state, national and world champions. At the same time I started working for a security company as casual and quickly secured a permanent post and negotiated my contract with them to full time-permanent. I then got promoted to site supervisor after working under a year.

1 1/2 years later I was in talks with my Father who was considering retiring. I was asking if he would be happy for me to take over his small business. At the time he was not for it, and life was moving fast for me. As well as doing everything I was doing, I began online university study and shortly thereafter found out my wife and I would be having a child.

It is around that time I saw an advertisement in the newspaper for prison officer needed, no experience required, but must undergo 3 months of rigorous training. Upon successful completion of the training the applicant would become licenced to work as a corrections officer and their pay would more than double.

I had nothing to lose, and since I was not taking over my Fathers business anytime soon, decided to take the risk. It paid off and I passed training and graduated as a part of course 30. Just before the end of my training bootcamp I became a father to my first girl ‘Sophie’.

After 3 1/2 years of working in the prison environment and growing to love it as well as meeting many great people amongst my fellow colleagues, I decided to quit. My father was going downhill and started suffering the first stages of short term memory loss and dementia. He was retiring all of a sudden and now had a change of heart and wanted me to take over the business. My wife and I at the time had already been paying off a house in Aveley. As my wife and I had seriously been discussing the idea of giving her the opportunity to do university study, I quit my job at the prison and took over my Fathers dwindling business for the sake of being more flexible with my time and allowing my wife to enroll in her psychology degree at the University of Western Australia.

To do so I had to stop my study, which was not a huge deal for me. The last year had been almost impossible and I had been forced to drop out of my units each time as supporting my study had become too hard for my wife to bare. She had been suffering severely from depression on and off and though her mind would change back to wanting to support me, it would not last more than a few weeks.

I figured, she has been doing it hard for a long time and it is probably more beneficial for our future if she achieves something first and has a sense of happiness and satisfaction, therefore, allowing me to also continue my studies thereafter rather than vice versa.

So now with our first home in the wine region of swan valley on the market for rent, we have once again become tenants ourselves of a rental nearby UWA. My wife is walking distance from school, we are 5 minutes drive from the kids school and day care, and I am a couple of minutes drive from most of my work, plus the environment is much more pleasant than where either of us have ever lived before.

Business is booming and has more than tripled in profit and I am constantly trying to improve my knowledge and service delivery because I know my whole family now depend on my ability to deliver. I can no longer have a bad day and decide to take it easy and cruise through the day and still receive a pay check. Now I get out what I put in, and it sure as hell is giving back.

 

Harmony day

So today was harmony day and I was excited all morning.

Waiting for the sun to rise, I had my eldest daughters (4 years) ‘Hanbok’ 한복 out of the closet and ready to go. I stayed up later than usual last night and whipped out the crayons for some arts and crafts.

It was my responsibility as a parent to draw up a flag for my daughter to bring to harmony day. Harmony day, for those who don’t know what it is, is an Australian celebration of cultural diversity.

Though Sophie is Australia born, we were asked to bring a flag and possibly dress that represents our child’s ethnic background. As her Mum was born in Korea and I was born in Australia, we decided to draw up both the star spangled banner (Australian flag), and the Korean flag. Funnily enough, it was much easier for me to draw the Korean flag.

She looked adorable in her Korean dress. When she arrived, she was the only child in the class wearing traditional costume of any sort. Everyone brought their flags however.

Sophie didn’t feel out of place though because she looked so dazzling in her outfit and became the center of attention, which is exactly how she likes it. Everyone’s heart was melted, and out came the camera phones and I-pads. Click!

Shortly thereafter, a late comer arrived wearing traditional Mongolian outfit. The little boy didn’t steal Sophie’s thunder though. Instead, they became even cuter as the costume wearing couple of the day, standing hand in hand with smiles stretching from cheek to cheek.

 

Day out with Sculptures and friends at Cottesloe.

Well I was glad to have my first day off work and my wife knowing this already had something planned for us.

The sculptures by the sea event in Cottesloe is apparently held once a year, but having just moved to the area not long ago my wife and I did not know about this. Always good to see something new and exciting and it seems the others agree.

The Cottesloe beach and foreshore area were packed. Good luck getting parking or a bite to eat without waiting a while. Nevertheless, it was a great day out. The art was great to admire and the atmosphere was good. Lots of families and good for the children.

My wife and I had planned to catch up with some friends there but as we were early we too the chance to gaze upon the sculptures and stroll the beachside with the children before our friends arrived.

For anyone planning on going next year I highly recommend it. Bring a rug and a picnic and have a good time. ^^

#Cottesloe #beach #event #2017 #westernaustralia #summer

Follow me. Living and learning.

Welcome readers.

I am new to WordPress. So first and foremost thank you for visiting my blog. Please follow my journey and read as I turn my back on my past and follow an uncertain life journey. My goal – Hacking Life!

My name is Matt Bristow, I grew up in a small town by the name of Pinjarra in Western Australia. I am an avid martial arts fan, and ex-amatuer fighter. I have achieved black belt in Shotokan Karate under 6th degree black belt Sensai Phil Butler. I was a muay thai fighter for a brief period of 3 years and have dabbled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on and off for approximately 3 years. I grew up on Bruce Lee films and a dream. Love Mixed Martial Arts, and Wrestling, BJJ, and Muay Thai individually.

Stopped training contact martial arts when my kids started growing up and I had become increasingly interested in neuroscience and cognitive psychology. This is when the fear of brain disease such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) kicked in. Nothing else deterred me from the sport until then.

Now I focus on training my brain instead and making a better life for my family. I am very interested in education and the psychology behind learning. I have also become obsessed with language learning. 

The attractiveness of being such a great martial artist for me can be put down to 2 reasons.

1: Being a romantic of the sport: Considering it an art form and a way of life.

2. The thrill of the kill: Being attracted to the power of completely dominating another man in a fair contest simply by being superior.

This idea of superiority doesn’t seem so attractive though when you see these fighters later in life, living as confused individuals with dementia or CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy). It takes all your dignity.

I remember during my time in prison, working as a prison officer, I knew a man in his late 50’s who was a state boxing champion in his youth. He also has had his dignity taken and much more. He wound up in prison rather than a mental hospital, where he should have been, and the other inmates made fun of him and gave him trouble because of his slow mind.

Relying on a carer, being a burden to my children or winding up an inmate or a patient at a mental health facility is not how I wish to end my life. While leaving a legacy behind is a nice notion, I should have taken up my other favourite sport.. Tennis. Ive never trained this though.. ohwell, when I am rich and old and fat I can always do that as a hobby later and be one of those goofy middle aged men, still stuck in a midlife crisis as a senior, jumping around sporting fluro colours and a Rafael Nadal headband.

This is why I gave up on a sport I thought was the greatest thing. My purpose in life was suddenly gone. Now 28, I ask myself…what now?

I think now my family is more of a focus money has become more of a focus too. However, spending is not frugal because my wife and I want to give a decent standard of life to our two girls. A good education and good experiences.

So, while I don’t promise bling, exotic cars, lavish houses or amazing getaways. I do hope such things will eventuate as a biproduct of my actions.

Thanks guys and gals. Your the best. Hope you all can keep tuned for more blogs to come.

-Matt Bristow