A simple step

A funny day. I have my three boys here for the holidays at the moment who are all under 11, and today we decided to get the ferry from Devonport to Auckland City to have lunch with my Partner, Ali. We drove to Devonport and I duly parked the car in the car park, tried to buy a ticket (the machine wasn't working), ran to get on the boat and off we went on the 11.15am ferry towards the Sky Tower and Downtown Auckland. A couple of hours later, well fed and watered, we arrived back at the ferry terminal in Auckland and waited for 20 minutes for the ferry back over the water (it's only a 15 minute trip). The ferry arrived, but this time it was a different type of boat and much busier. We hopped on, checking with the ferry man that the ferry was the right one and going to Devonport (as I had reservations), and off we went.. As we neared the Devonport ferry terminal, Sam, my eldest pipes up .. 'hey Dad, this doesn't look familiar at all. This isn't where we left the car...

I'm reading a book by Richard Dawkins - unweaving the rainbow and have just read the chapter on coincidence. Richard argues that all coincidences are really in our imagination or the result of a desire to want to believe in a force outside our control that brings things together. This reminded me of the fact that 'like attracts like' and that this is a scientific argument - molecules of water when close together will draw together to create a drop of water - basically that seems to me to be the reason why everything 'hangs together' rather than blending together. (Of course things do 'blend together' - putting two chemicals together often creates a new substance although some things just do not go together, they cannot 'blend'). Coincidence can be scientifically proven - the book talks about the fact that in Britain, there are likely to be 38,000 people (out of the 55million odd) with the same three initials, so finding a watch with your initials on ...

In times like today, with change happening unexpectedly, we all find ourselves wondering how we are going to handle the things that are altering - we have all heard the words of Charles Darwin on the fact that for a species to survive it has to adapt .. if only it were that easy? Well maybe it is. Recent changes for me, that were outside my control, left me standing still - possum in the headlights (or bunny if you're not from round here!) kind of wondering what was going on .. then frustration set in (who moved my cheese - which by the way is an interesting book if you havn't read it) then a bit of panic and finally tiredness. So I slapped myself on the arse and set about restructuring and reorganising the way I handled my businesses and my cash and after a few hours I managed to find a recipe that not only kept me moving forwards, but which also created opportunities that were not there (or which I had not noticed) before.. the result, well it's cool - yes, handling the c...