Well Being (2015)

Total:  7.0

Spiritual Connection (2015)

Total:  7.3

Synchronicity: Here Now

I was driving home after a weekend away. As I drove, the mind became active and I got lost in rumination.  Suddenly the insight arose, "Be Here Now"  I immediately became present and a beautiful sense of peace came over me.  At that exact moment, I looked up and saw an enormous billboard on a building.  Emblazened on it were the words "Here Now".  The full set of worlds was "Here Now: the  new Samsung Galaxy" but the words "Here Now" were in bold and caught my attention.  A beautiful sense of wonder arose in me at the extraordinary synchronicity. It felt like the divine was winking at me.

Discomfort (2015)

Total:  4.1

Event highlights (2015)

Create

• Compass makeover
• Wisdom Trove (on Evernote)
• Home Rennovations
• The Ultimate Experience

Home renovations

• Start June when get back from South Africa

Travels

• Tasmania (Cradle Mountain, Lake St Claire, Mount Field, Freycinet)
• South Africa (Garden Route, Addo, Jeff Bay, Cinstha, Port St Johns. Hogback, Drakensberg, Joberg, Utopia)
• Cape Town with Chrisel (Kirtenbosch, Cape Point, Hermanus, Lion's Head, Table Mountain, Franschhoek)

Weekend away

• Mount Kuz
• Kayaking Shoalhaven Gorge

Hikes

• Cradle Mountain
• The Tarn
• Cathedral Rock
• Tsitisikama
• Tugela Falls
• Sani Pass
• Manly Dam & Scenic Walk
• Loura
• RNP Lake

Social

• New Years fireworks with Jilly
• North Sydney pool swim with Elna
• Jilly's 80th birthday party
• Jilly's music concert
• Eat out with Serena
• Close sharing with Srini
• Mndful dinners with Srini
• Meal with Chris, Craig and Peter
• Meals with Chris
• Botanica with Yogi

Hospital

• Hospital (x2)

Wisdom Trove

• Awakening experiences, mania
• Start of Life is God’s experience and Life is God's movie (The ultimate experience & God as space)
• Wisdom Trove to Evernote
• Mac computer
• Life dashboard (Compass)

Spiritual Moments (2015)

Spiritual Moments

• Mindful DIY, cooking, photography
• Isira session "Consciousness wants to be ordinary."
• Experiencing Inspiration beyond the mind (photos, solving problems, inspired ideas)
• Deep, deep, deep love after Ally. 
• Joy in emergency & at spiral in ward. Nothing to be feared. 
• Wonder looking at mist from river in camp site.
• Healing for Michael and Yogi.
• Chills to music & more
• Eckhart's eyes

Lead up

• Create through this form (DIY)
• Miracles
• No lies. No boasting. Nothing in support of identity.
• No mirror. Loss of identity.
• Looking into pupil of eye.
• Mindful photography (Kalk Bay, Harbour Bridge, Manly dam, Ella's birthdy)
• Massive cry, massive Love - then write. "Consciousness through this form."
• Consciousness speaks (Sunrise vision. Here Now.)
• Emotional catharsis and insight after movie: Amy
• Self realisation under swirling clouds on balcony to What a Wonderful World. (jumps)    "Sensory portal"
• Love. "Oh God."
• Use this form - a DEEP hunger. Anything it takes. (floors)
• Eyes (animals too). Birds, flies twirling
• Love from my eyes at Kmart (not 1st time)
• Balcony - feel vertigo
• No boasting (Chris, floors) or lies.

Spiritual Mania

• John Lennon songs.  Oh My Love.  Mooji.  From random jumps.
• No fear or shame.
• Run out of petrol twice. Get to Chris's speech.
• Mania: "Enlightened" oneness.  All an experience of Consciousness. Movie experience, sit back and enjoy the show.
• The moment as a field, the past existing just as context
• No need for dex.
• Hospital visit with Jilly, feeling love and healing, lie under sky
• Balcony looking to sky, sensing eternity
• Matt in computer game. Love Space.

Photography

• Bridge Meet Up photography. Crying at beauty and creativity.
• Mindful editing of photos.

Mystical experience: Waking up to life as God's movie

One morning in 2015, I woke up in a state of the most profound peace. I could see my entire life to that point stretched behind me and the utter perfection of its unfolding. I could see that my life was a kind of movie choreographed by a genius movie director. The movie of my life to that point and going forwards was already in the can and there was nothing I needed to do to influence it.  For the next week, I existed in a kind of blissful, enlightened state, sitting back on the sofa of awareness, watching events unfold.  Actions, choices, thoughts, perceptions all choreographed and arising perfectly. I was in a state of constant awe and wonder and a state of curiosity too as to what would arise next.  After a week, my enlightened state slipped away and I got lost, once again, in my sense of being a conscious agent living my life. But the sense that life is a kind of movie still remains.

What impact has this had on me?  Some fear that waking up to the “non-reality” of the world will make them lose interest in life.  In my experience, the opposite has been true.  Even if the physical world is not real, the experience of it is indisputably real.  In fact, the experience of it feels far more vivid and intense for me now.  I have awoken to the fact that life is a wondrous, mysterious, joyous experience to be embraced.  It still has its ups and downs and challenges, for that is exactly how life on this planet has been designed to be.  But I no longer take it all so seriously. I have realised that Graeme is no more than a kind of movie character that God I Am is experiencing the world through.  And all I need to do is sit back in the seat of awareness and enjoy the passing show.  I find myself playing more and laughing more and loving more and creating more, because knowing who I truly am somehow opens the gate to amazing spiritual creativity and power.  Also, I am no longer afraid of death. Death is but the end of the movie. It is waking up from the dream to become more truly yourself.

I have also been able to embrace my humanness and my limitations, and this has been immensely healing.  I am now able to love every part of being this character called "Graeme" especially his foibles and imperfections.  I no longer think of myself as a human being trying to become perfect like God.  I am God wanting to have a human experience.  And this character; this temporary form, including its body and its mind, is perfect in every way for the experience to be exactly as it is meant to be.  All is well, and all is as it is meant to be.

Most wonderful of all has been the blissful recognition that God is not just experiencing being “me”.  God is experiencing being everyone. God is experiencing being my loved ones and Mack, my dog. God is experiencing being everyone I meet and have ever met. And God is experiencing being every ant and every plant.  Everyone and everything is God.  God is experiencing nothing but God.  It is all God.  And I Am That.  With this realisation comes a love and a joy so deep and explosive, it is beyond description.

Priceless moments (2015)

Hiking

• Cradle Mountain
• The Tarn shelf (Tasmania)
• Cathedral Rock in the mist (Tasmania)
• Main Track bundu bashing (Mount Kuz)
• Hanging Rock day
• Tugela Falls hike
• Sani Pass hike

Photography

• Macro photography at Sleepy Bay (Freycinet)
• Editing Tasmania photos
• Editing Manly Dam photos (mindfully)
• Joy of new 18 - 300 lens
• Tokai & Kalk Bay with Jo
• Harbour Bridge photos - cry

Connection

• Buying Mac computer and screen
• Setting up Macs (mine, mum, Jo)
• Realising Chris cleaned front yard
• Making Compass Apple beautiful
• Hiding Easter eggs in car
• Going to award presentation for Chris's photo.

Swims

• Leap into Tugela Falls and Sani pass
• Storms River waterfall swim
• Xmas eve swim
• North Sydney pool

DIY

• Realise I can do bathroom cheaply.
• Realise I can rent out small room.
• Courtyards - bed raising
• Plants galore for my balcony.
• Calmness at Botanica after floors acceptance.
• The Botanica with Yogi
• Money back for floors

Movies

Insights (2015)

Spiritual

• Reading the Mystery Experience.
• Cast of characters in head & dialogues
• Radical letting go and surrender.
• Letting go of psychic tension (rushing, striving, physical tension).
• Churning for order blocks creativity and inspiration.  I let my mind be alive, untamed, free.
• Give it space to breathe. Not smother it.
• A change will require a radical change (Radical Letting Go)
• When present, it's Consciousness that experiences wonder. Sees out of eyes of this form.
• Movie: Amy leading to universe as art.
• Life is Consciousness’s epic masterpiece of art, each of us a brushstroke.
• Slow and easy, my friend, All is Well.
• Am I here now?
• Test for truth: What expands the soul.
• God is experiencing Life through each living form. A symphony.

Other

• Stop avoiding and face it.  (leak)
• Plan ahead to avoid last minute stress (balcony)
• Power of a bit at a time (SA blog, Evernote migration)
• Need to be more decisive (state preference)
• Need to let go of need to impress (Chrisel)
• Not rushing into floors solution - evolved

Gratitude (2015)

Computer

• Got my Mac computer
• My Mac not destroyed by concrete

Safety

• Didn't hurt myself in DIY.  Blade closed on finger. Stand on blade. And more.
• I didn't hurt myself during mania. Could have, so easily.

House

• Balcony ended up ok
• Chris cleaned yard
• Balcony done before storms

More

• Mum's gifts of flight, shoes, cash
• Feet let me hike
• Memory cards and car keys not lost
• Millie peed, taking pressure off floors.
• Didn't waste money on useless purchases

Reflection on the movie "Amy"

Why did it effect me so much?

I resonated…  with her pain.  With her being driven to create through the pain.  Also the amazing “art” that her life story creates.  No less beautiful and precious because of its sadness.  The director created a beautiful piece of art out of her life.  So you could with all our lives.  Perhaps that’s what consciousness is all about.  An artist creating art out of life stories.

Maybe when we die, we will get to watch a highlights reel of our life: our moments of grace and transcendence. What art! A cinematic masterpiece. Comedy. Tragedy. Triumph. Drama. Beautiful. Ugly. Light and dark. Brush strokes. Off screen, there is nothing but love. All well. 

Each of us is a brushstroke in a vastly epic masterpiece created by Consciousness.  Life is Consciousness’s epic masterpiece of art, each of us a brushstroke.

The way the press created a caricature of Amy. Merciless. Mocking her.  Making fun of her tragedy.  Using it to sell newspapers.  Making the shallower songs into the wildly popular ones and making her sing them when she no longer resonated with them.

I have a huge ocean of pain. Vast. So did she.  She called it “The Black.”  The source of her creative genius and her depth.   “My life and I are falling apart but these lyrics are still flowing through me."

The way she used her pain to create. Only thing that made her feel better.  She used her most painful experiences as a catalyst to sublime songs (e.g. Fade to Black.)

I felt like an outsider looking in.  Then I realised her life was not her experience - it’s Our experience.  She experienced what she did for us.

The devastation of her deeply needy love affair with Blake. How they dragged each other down, so mutually destructive.  Him using her to keep drugs coming.  Trying to use each other to fill the hole using form.   You cannot fill the hole inside you with any form.  Only by going within and being that hole, filling it with Consciousness.

She was totally authentic emotionally. Herself.  Open. No airs or graces.  Humility.  Never thought of herself as famous.

The huge effect of dad leaving, spent rest of life craving for strong, protective male character.  Her inherited script.

Blake, who played the villain. She loved him so much.  He treated her so badly at times.  Dad also villain.

When she won the Grammy. Told friends: "It’s boring without drugs."

Tony Bennett said "It's different every time with you when you sing, each song sung feels unique." She so felt her songs.  Sang with such emotional intensity.  Her way of pure feeling.

Having to sing old stuff when no longer relevant.  Trot out stuff that had become meaningless

The shackles of success. The opposite of freedom. Enslavement. Obligations. Vested interest. Others on your gravy train., pressurising you to fill obligations that they can get rich on.

Clarity just weeks before she died. Sorry to friends. Time at wedding. 

Refusing to sing in front of thousands. I saw it as a kind of triumph. Fuck you to expectations of others. Didn't want to sing old stuff.  They saw it as letting down her friends in the music industry.  No!!

I don't want to be famous. Just create peacefully. No pressure or expectations. Quietly contribute to raising in Consciousness.  Be a space. Relish in my connection with Consciousness. Enough abundance to do this and be fully alive.

 

Mystical experience: Awakening on the balcony

I lie on a deckchair on my balcony under a vast sky swirling with cloud. My eyes look up into the heavens in a profound sense of thanks to God.   Wonder arises.  Wonder for the pure beauty of it all.  Love arises.  Love for God.  Love for everyone and everything.  Love so strong, it feels like it will surely tear me apart.  Love so strong surely it can only be divine.

And that is when the deepest realisation arises; the deepest knowing I have ever experienced.  It is Consciousness itself that is looking up through my eyes.   It is Consciousness itself that is delighting in the sight of the sky above.   There is no separate me here on this balcony. There is only God here.

God I am. God I am sensing the breeze through human skin.  God I am hearing birds sing through human ears.  God I am feeling love and wonder through a human heart.  God I am having a human experience.  God I am experiencing a world of form through this living form.   God I am, experiencing this world of form.

---

I lie on a deckchair under a vast sky swirling with cloud.
   
I let all things be, all things go, all things flow.     

I disentangle from the attic of my mind and awaken to a wondrous world of senses.       

There is the sight of clouds passing overhead. The sensation of the breeze on my skin. The sound of birds twittering. A sense of how wondrous it all is.  A feeling of of aliveness and sacredness in all I perceive.     

There is a surrendering to a deeper and deeper sense of being the aware space in which these experiences are arising and subsiding.     

I realise I am that space...     
… an infinite, formless, timeless space in which all things arise and subside.     
… an all perceiving space.     
... an all experiencing space.     

I realise I am not what arises in awareness, but the awareness itself.

I realise I am not what I perceive, but that which perceives; that which itself cannot be perceived.     
I realise I am not my experiences, but that which experiences them; that which makes experience possible     

I realise that Pure Conscious Awareness I Am.     

I realise that the all perceiving Perceiver I Am

I realise that the eternal Subject of all experiences I Am

I realise that God I am ...   
... God I Am, looking out from human eyes ...   
... God I Am feeling the breeze through human skin ...     
... God I am hearing birds sing through human ears ...     
... God I am feeling love and wonder through a human heart ...     
... God I am, experiencing through the sensory portal of a human form     

God I am …   
… appearing as form     
… experiencing through form   
... expressing through form   

---

I experienced a revelation below in an extraordinary burst of joy, looking out into a world of swirling clouds from my deck chair, listening to sublime music.  I laughed with pure joy, couldn’t stop laughing.  And cried and cried. I felt like I woke up for a while, that for a moment I truly knew and experienced who I was.

---

I am Consciousness.


I am on a journey of awakening to myself through form.


I experience this world of form (a vast, extraordinary, wondrous, sublime, infinitely vast work of art) through the portal of this form and all other living forms.


This form called "Graeme" (its body and mind patterns) is simply a kind of sensory lens for experiencing the world of form. It actually doesn’t even exist, mostly space with the illusion of form. Just a temporary "sensory portal".


Mind patterns seem almost like characters. Mr “I’m not enough". Mr Spiritual Hero. Mr “I Need Control”  Mr "Driven to Succeed".  I get sucked up (hypnotised) by these characters and imagine myself to be them, my attention consumed by them.


When I become purely aware, free of the mind patterns, the lens becomes totally clear and I really see. That’s when the love and wonder and peace and joy flows.  And inspiration and creativity.


When I become sucked up into the characters, my pure flow is stemmed. Insight and love are blocked by the illusion of anger, jealousy, shame, pride, guilt, fear etc.


I lie behind it all, behind the eyes of each and every living form, looking out into the world of form, sensing and experiencing it. When I look out of the eyes of this form into the eyes of another form, in a state of pure awareness, free of mind patterns, I recognise myself and pure love flows.


What an extraordinary creation this world of form is!!!   What a wondrous thing to experience in so many different ways, through so many different lenses and sensory portals. What an adventure!  What insights!  Waking up to myself through so many forms in so many different ways.


Right now, I’m looking out of the eyes of this form called Graeme, typing into a computer. I’m going to enjoy experiencing the world of form through this form. Exploring through this form.  Creating through this form. Helping myself to awaken through other forms.


I don’t just experience this world of form through human forms.  But also through animals and birds and trees and flowers and fish and insects.  When I look into a dogs eyes, I can see myself too!!

---

"Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web."  Marcus Aurelius

---

Progress (2015)

Mac and Apps

• Buy Mac and Dell screen
• Learn Mac set up & do for mum & Jo
• Todoist
• Evernote
• Wisdom Trove to Evernote
• Faster Internet (Gateway)

DIY

• Realise I can get new bathroom, flooring for not as much as thought.
• Painting
• Courtyards
• Demolition (doors, air conditoning)

Photography

• Lightroom Universe
• Tamron 18 - 300 lens
• Mindful editing
• Canon 70d

Media

• Netflix
• Music while work
• Bosch Headphones

Compass

• Facelift (Apple simple and beautiful)
• Fluid structure in Compass (guiding principles, insights, gems, humour)
• Home page dashboard
• Week view
• Quarterly focus (especially expenses)
• Evernote links from Excel
• Quarterly wellbeing graphs with pointers
• Data validation
• Wisdom (combined gems, insights, principles)
• Checklist filter
• Expense - Big Items

Connection (2015)

Friends

• Chicken soup for friends
• Srini friendship conversation, mutual support, sharing
• Organise Jilly party
• Organise Jilly music concert
• Jilly appreciation letter
• Chris cleaning yard and my thankfulness
• Family
• With Matt:  Lazer, pretend shot, GTA, Siri fun
• Get Jo into Lightroom
• Jo "I love you."
• Tokai & Kalk Bay with Jo
• Talk to Ant re case in car (art, not science)
• Sharon at Eckhart
• Joanna (brother)
• Chris - photo, painting, speech, meals, Eckhart at his place
• Craig - support of me in HDU & friendship
• Chris, Craig, Graeme: The Three Musketeers

Service

• Help Lydia - prototype
• Sue - declutter
• Heather - Kindle
• Set up computer for mum & Jo
• Jo Gmail skills
• Srini - mutual support

Affirmation (2015)

Proud

• Setting up mum and Jo's computers.
• Jo. Everything suddenly feels right with world now Graeme is back.
• Lamb meal for family
• Chrisel: Snap back quickly
• Being present shopping with Chrisel (difference!)
• Lazerquest & Volleyball
• Telling stories (Brendan & Eva, Eckhart)
• Help with Chris speech
• Editing Chris's photo

Photography

• Just went through all the posts from this trip, and it is perfect in every way.  Love the photogenic rocks at Sleepy Bay and Wineglass bay (great use of the wide angle!); the humorous shots; interesting fauna and flora; amazing coast and colours at Cape Tourville; dramatic and moody misty effects at Cathedral Rock; Tarn Shelf remains a big favourite for me - great use of reflections and beautiful compositions; still think the wombat can win a beauty contest (and cute photo scratching its butt!) and Dove Lake boathouse reflection also a favourite (but not my only one!)  Awesome effort.  Elna 
• Wow, these photos and the layout really are amazing.  Definitely worth the time and effort.  I now really want to set up my blog (and of course copy all these photos into it). I must get onto that soon.  I've started learning french online so that's one new years resolution started. I'll have to get onto this one now.  Elizabeth  
• Elna on Cradle Mountain:  Just gorgeous, stunning, breathtaking. Words are totally inadequate.
• Srini on The Tarn:  Time and again you come up with classic stuff and a great inspiration for the next one's !!!!
• Hubert Widjaya:  Mate your photography is STUNNING! Have you ever worked as a photographer? (Tarn Shelf)
• John William (on Kuz)   Graeme I just read your Blog and nearly wet myself when you described your middle of the night puddle  Your photos are unbelievable.
• Sara Modirzadeh (on Kuz)   Thanks Graeme for these nice photos, I can watch them again and again.

Mystical experience: The form I temporarily take

I had such a deep, profound experience tonight while listening to music. I felt so much love that I thought my heart would burst. I just cried and cried. Then, I felt moved to write down some of what I sensed so deeply. 

---

Consciousness is timeless and formless. Consciousness is no-thing. Consciousness is everything that is.

This form named "Graeme" is a creation (expression) of Consciousness. Just as this time based universe of form is a creation of Consciousness ...

- A way for Consciousness to experience itself through form.

- A way for Consciousness to delight in the universe of form it has created.

- A way for Consciousness to experience itself in a world of duality...  to experience itself as the light it is in a relative world of light (it) and dark (absence of it).

- A way for Consciousness to create; for Consciousness is infinitely creative.

- A way for Consciousness to awaken to itself.

Consciousness is pure Love. Underneath this world of form, there is nothing but PURE LOVE.

Knowing this is to fall into a sense of pure trust and peace that All is well, that All is perfect, that All is as exactly as it should be.

The "I" named Graeme is an illusion. A fantasy created by the mind. Letting go of that illusion allows Consciousness to wake up through this form named Graeme.

When the mind of this form lets go and pure awareness emerges, it is Consciousness itself that is aware through this form.

When the mind lets go and there is a deep wonder and love for it all, it is Consciousness itself delighting in the world through this form.

When the mind lets go and creativity and inspiration flows, it is Consciousness itself creating through this form.

This form named Graeme (including it's mind and ego) is perfect for Consciousness to experience what it is here to experience.

When the mind of this form loses itself completely in thought, judgement, fear, pride, guilt, shame or anger, Consciousness becomes trapped in that and "falls asleep"  until awareness re-emerges and it wakes up again.

This form named Graeme is not unimportant or immaterial.  Quite the opposite.  It's a perfect expression of Consciousness.  Perfect in every way for the divine purpose of Consciousness to unfold.  Wondrous and miraculous. Vital and precious beyond words. Honour this form.  While letting go of all attachment to it and identification with it.

The intention of this form named Graeme is to let go of the mind and ego to become pure awareness.  To allow Consciousness to wake up to itself.   To become an open space for Consciousness to flow into the world.  A space for Consciousness to delight in the world.  A space for Consciousness to create.  A space for love, compassion, kindness, wonder, inspiration, peace, and joy to flow.

---

One of my intentions on my spiritual journey is to let go of the mind-made sense of "self".  The "story of me" that the mind creates. After all, it's just a carefully edited, selectively remembered fantasy.  An illusion that exists only as thoughts. It is not Who I Am. And in my experience, the more I attach to that story and get my identity from it, the less Consciousness is able to flow through the form.  Because with it inevitably comes energies like guilt, shame, desire, pride and fear, all of which "suck up" Consciousness rather than allowing it to flow into the world.

To give up the mind made sense of self is to become a Space that allows Consciousness (The real Self that I Am) to flood through.  And with it flows inspiration, wonder, compassion, peace and most of all, Love, for the benefit of all.

Having said this, "I" have temporarily taken on a form. The form "I" take has a body and a mind.  All inherited. All perfect creations and expressions of Consciousness. All created for the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.  Especially for the purpose of Consciousness to awaken to itself in this world of form.  Even the ego I have inherited (seen by some as the "enemy") is perfect for Consciousness to experience what is wishes to experience, until I am able to let it go.  And as  Eckhart says "Without the ego, there would be no awakening."

When I am able to honour the form I temporarily take, and feel a sense of wonder in it, as a perfect expression of Consciousness and a way for the universe's divine purpose to unfold - but without getting my sense of identity from it - then letting go of the little self and awakening to the real Self becomes easier.

Challenges (2015)

Housemate

• Body corporate car issue (Matt parked in visitors)
• Millie falls & Xanax and pee on bed & eating plants.
• Matt showering

DIY stress

• DIY not fast enough]; self conscious with Matt
• Trying to do the floors while Matt away
• So unsure: Eva's help
• The floor debacle
• The concrete on the floors

Run up to South Africa

• Hospital with weak legs
• The leak and putting it off
• Overwhelm with balcony and; going away
• Going back to Sydney
• Feet tight and hot
• Jury duty
• Mermaid Falls - lose people

Chrisel in South Africa

• Self conscious with Chrisel, especially restaurants
• Port St Johns talk
• Chrisel - few, perfunctory messages
• Thank you note humiliation

Melancholy

• Zyprexa withdrawals
• Dani on Facebook - see her partner
• Long for relationship
• P feeling

HDU for mania

• Fear I am a sacrifice of God.  Hell
• Depression after mania (extreme low energy)

Non fiction books read (2015)

Idealism

• Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe (Robert Lanza, Bob Berman)
  
  

Releasing emotions

• Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender (David R. Hawkins)

2015 Highlights

Hiking in Tasmania, Cape Town and Garden Route, Baz bus travels in South Africa, house renovations, "enlightened" mania

Priceless Moments

• Sydney Fireworks from Kiribili with Jilly.
• A beautiful new year's swim at North Sydney pool with Elna and managing to track down Wendy's Secret Garden.
• Getting a Canon 70d camera to replace my 40d.
• Climbing to the summit of Cradle Mountain and the amazing views of Dove Lake as we did. 
• The sublime reflections in the series of alpine lakes along The Tarn Shelf in Mount Fields National Park.
• Singing happy birthday to Matt with my back up singers from Cradle Mountain.
• The towering trees at Mount Fields.
• Hiking along the narrow ridge with Srini at Cathedral Rock above the mist and getting somewhat lost.
• Climbing Mount Rufus at Lake St Claire.
• Feeling hugely inspired taking macro photos at Sleepy Bay in Freycinet.
• Buying my new Macbook Pro. So fast and sexy!
• The raging wind at the top of the Main Track Pass with Srini and Gavin in The Snowy Mountains and then bundu bashing our way back to civilisation. 
• Organising Jilly's 80th birthday party and music concert. 
• Introducing close friends to the spectacular Hanging Rock in the Blue Mountains, and venturing out onto the ledge with 300 metre drops on both sides. Then surprising Zante with a birthday cake.
• Doing three days of the Tsitsikama Trail in South Africa and discovering that my weak feet were ok to hike it.
• Diving into a rock pool at Storms River with Chrisèl and swimming under a waterfall.
• A mother elephant and calf coming within metres of our car at The Addo Elephant Park.
• Climbing Lion's Head on a beautiful, clear day.
• Discovering the Hermanus wine route.
• Walking for miles along the beach at Cintsa and playing volleyball.
• Lazing by the fire and eating the best pizza in the world at Away with the Fairies in Hogsback.
• A sublime hike in The Southern Drakensberg including an exhilarating leap into an ice cold mountain pool.
• One of the best hikes of my life to The Tugela Falls in the Northern Drakensberg, 2nd highest waterfall in the world, and even icier leap into a pool at 3400 metres.
• Inspired by Jo to buy a Tamron 16 - 300 mm lens that would revolutionise my photography.
• Sharing my photographic passion at Tokai Forest and Kalk Bay with Jo and showing her the power of Lightroom.
• Millie arriving on the scene and relations gradually thawing with Mack.
• Home renovations.
• Really feeling the photographic muse on a ramble at Manly Dam.
• Walking across The Harbour Bridge with a Photography Meet Up. 
• Photographing Balls Head with Ben.
• Photographing Windsor with Sue.
• A Walk in the Woods with Sue and seeing Bill Bryson.
• A weekend at The Hawkesbury for Sharmista's 30th birthday.
• Taking photos at Manly Scenic Walk for Ella's birthday.
• My 45th Birthday party.
• Anything Goes with Sue for my birthday and getting book.
• Letter to Carpet Court.
• Helping Srini to declutter his flat and erect a chair and desk.
• Chris wins an award for his photo that I helped edit.
• A couple of days of peaceful mania when I felt enlightened,
• Buying my iPad and Bosch headphones.
• Meals, often with Craig, at The Botanica restaurant.
• Xmas barbecue with Matt and Sharmista, showing off the courtyards.
• A lovely swim at Curl Curl beach with Chris.
• Swimming at North Sydney pool.
• Xmas at Paradise in The Blue Mountains with two mindful friends.
• Boxing day in Coogee with the Wise Guys and finding out about the origins of the Haka.
• New Year's eve at Satyananda Mangrove Mountain.

Special Connections

• Setting up mum and Jo's iMacs and learning loads in the process.
• A letter of gratitude for Jilly .
• Some amazing meals with Srini and lovely walks near his place.
• Srini and I supporting each other with my DIY and his job interview - and really opening up to our real selves.
• Indian dinner with Elna.
• Some amazing mindful meals with Srini and inviting him to Eckhart.
• Chris helping me paint and me helping him with his speech.
• Helping Heather to publish her book on Kindle.
• Craig's amazing support while I was in HDU.
• Lunch with Peter to say thanks for our support of Jilly.
• Helping Sue declutter her home.
• Making chicken soup for Jilly, Yogi and Craig before Eckhart.
• Helping Lydia do a prototype of her site.

Less happy moments

• Spending time in the hospital with numb feet.
• Liza's mum passing away.
• Hospital for bipolar

Purchases

• Macbook, Dell screen, Canon 40d, Tamron 16 - 300 mm lens, iPad, Bosch headphones, DIY tools

Top Movies

• Selma
• Birdman
• Kingsmen
• Game of Thrones S5
• Headhunter
• Ex Machina
• Mad Max - Fury Road
• Amy
• A Walk in the Woods
• Inside Out
• Far from Men
• Star Wars "The Force Awakens."

Culinary delights

• The Edge of the Bay. Seafood chowder, scollop liguine, choc mousse.
• Lamb salad with Liza (Jagos on Miller)
• MaryAnn meal (pap starter, feshwado, granadilla mousse.)
• Cattle Baron (sirloin with bacon, avo, camembert), chocolate mousse
• Hogsback pizza
• Lamb potjie (Amphitheatre, Utopia)
• Lamb in slow cooker with red wine for family.
• Steak and chips at Brendan and Eva
• Thai restaurant with Srini (Duck curry)
• Chicken soup (Made for Chris, Jilly, Craig).
• Kirribili meals with Srini (lamb shanks, ribs)
• Botanica with Yogi - Almighty, lamb skewers, ginger drink.
• All Mighty at Botanica

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2015 Index of Links


Trip to Tasmania

• Cradle Mountain
• Lake St Claire
• Mount Field National Park
• Mount Fields Tall Trees Walk
• Cathedral Rock  
• Freycinet  
• Daily life in Tasmania
• Leaping in Tasmania

Trip to South Africa

Cape Town

• Reunited with the family again (Mar)
• Fun with Matt (Apr)
• Easter with family (Apr)

Garden Route

• Tsitsikama Trail (Apr)
• Storms River (Apr)
• Addo Elephant Park (Apr)
• Mosselbay (Apr)
• Harold Porter Botanical Gardens (Apr)

Cape Town with Chrisèl

• Kirstenbosch Gardens (Apr)
• Franschhoek (Apr)
• Lion's Head (Apr)
• Beach crawl (Apr)
• St James to Kalk Bay walk (Apr)
• Climb up Table Mountain (Apr)
• Hermanus wine tasting (Apr)
• Cape Point (Apr)

Baz bus

• Jeffrey's Bay (Apr)
• Cintsa (Apr)
• Away with the Fairies (Apr)
• Port St Johns (May)
• Southern Drakensberg (May)
• Northern Drakensberg (May)
• Utopia (May)
• Joberg with Chrisel's family (May)

Cape Town

• Rhodes Memorial (May)
• Tokai Forest with Jo (May)
• Kalk Bay with Jo (May)

Hikes  (19 hikes)

• Cradle Mountain (Tasmania) (Jan)
• Mount Rufus (Tasmania) (Jan)
• The Tarn Shelf (Tasmania) (Jan)
• Cathedral Rock  (Tasmania) (Jan)
• Freycinet  (Tasmania) (Jan)
• Hiking at Thredbo  (Snowy Mountains)  (Jan)
• Hanging Rock (Blue Mountains) (Jan)
• Kayaking through Shoalhaven Gorge  (NSW) (Feb)
• Mermaid Pools (Bargo) (Mar)
• Tsitsikama Trail (Garden Route) (Apr)
• Lion's Head (Cape Town) (Apr)
• Climb up Table Mountain  (Cape Town)  (Apr)
• Storms River waterfall  (Garden Route) (Apr)
• Port St Johns (Wild Coast)  (May)
• Southern Drakensberg (Southern Drakensberg)(May)
• Tugela Falls (Northern Drakensberg) (May)
• Utopia (Near Joberg) (May)
• Leura to Katoomba (Blue Mountains)  (Jun)
• Waterfall to Heathcote (Dec)

Walks  (6 walks)

• Collaroy to Manly (Sydney) (Jun)
• Manly Dam to Manly (Sydney)  (Jun)
• Ball's Head  (Jul)
• Le Perouse (Sep)
• Manly Scenic Walk for Ella's birthday (Oct)
• Manly Scenic Walk with Hiking Gang (Nov)

Outings and Events

• New Year Fireworks at Jilly (Jan)
• North Sydney pool and Wendy's Secret Garden with Elna (Jan)
• Watching Limbo at The Sydney Festival (Jan)
• Farewell to Lauren (Jan)
• Sue's birthday treat at The Oaks (Jan)
• Music concert at Jilly (Feb)
• Whiplash at North Sydney outdoor cinema (Feb)
• Jilly's 80th birthday party (Feb)
• David's birthday party at Bondi Pizza  (Feb)
• Vivid Festival 2015 (Jun)
• Photography Meet Up across the Harbour Bridge (Jul)
• Photographing Balls Head with Ben. (Jul)
• Photographing Windsor with Sue.  (Jul)
• Anything Goes with Sue. (Sep)
• My 45 the birthday party (Sep)
• Chris's photo award  (Nov)
• Xmas barbecue with Matt and Sharmista.
• Gavin's annual Xmas party. (Dec)
• Swim at Curl Curl beach. (Dec)

Home life

• Getting little Minnie
• Mack's life with Liza
• Mack photos

Family

• Sam, Matt and Antony in Dubai (Jan)
• Granny Sheila visits family (Jan)
• Gavin's new car (Jan)
• Essay written by Sam (Feb)
• 20th anniversary of dad's death (Feb)
• Jo's photos used in newspaper advert (Feb)
• Jo's fire photos feature online. (Mar)
• Mike spends 8 weeks in Europe (Mar)
• Jo's dew shots (Jun)
• Matt, the pancake King. (Sep)
• Kyle gets married to Elana (Nov)
• Mum, the fashion model (Nov)
• Matt doing trampoline.
• Portraits of Sam. (Dec)
• Beautiful Xmas family portraits (Dec)

Friends

• Sue triumphs at camera club (Jan)
• Little Amy growing up fast. (Jul)
• Gavin in his grandmother's frock.
• Gavin's penguin story book (Sep).

Related

• Spiritual journey (2015)