Saorrento

The swift stroke of the second hand past midnight on the 31st of December will bring to close the first decade of the new millennium. Looking back on this decade one could easily sum it up by ‘we survived’. The millennium bug, the latest of doomsday scenarios in the late 90’s didn’t turn out a single light bulb. Satan didn’t waltz through the streets of New York City Gabriel Byrne’s style (as portrayed in End of Days) in search of a bride, nor was time itself sucked through the heart of the TARDIS by the Master’s great design (the Doctor Who Movie), no, the sands of time simply slipped through the beginning of an even larger hourglass and a new millennia began.

December 31, 1999. 11.50PM:
Having just completed watching Final Destination and End of Days, my sister, along with our lifelong friends Clinton and Adrian began the countdown into the new millennium. Clinton and Adrian lived with their parents in Canning Vale; my Mum, Dad and sister made the trip up to Perth from Bunbury for the New Year celebration. We had a lot to celebrate, not only didn’t we all catch up nearly enough, perhaps once a year if we were lucky, Clinton had just completed his first year of upper-school (year 10), and I had successfully completed year 11, my first year at a new school, having moved from Esperance at the beginning of the year. My first year at Australind Senior High was a good one, I made many friends, some of which I recall meeting on the very first day have turned into some of the closest friends today. Well, by some I mean really mean one, but I do keep tabs on a few others every now and then.

As I reached toward the VCR to push in another cassette (the movie things we used before DVDs) my eye caught the LED time display, it was 11.55pm. Quickly we scurried around making sure our cups were full and the party poppers evenly distributed between the four of us. From 60 we started counting down, the momentum and excitement building up as we left the 50’s for the 40’s and then the 30’s. we counted down till about 25 where we were then flooded with ‘Happy New Year’ cheering and celebrations by our parents in the lounge down stairs – with that, we did a quick 10, 9 , 8, 7 , 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and joined in the celebration, toasting each other and popping our poppers; the big 2000 was upon us.

Since then nine New Year celebrations have gone by; none are remembered more clearly than the night of 1999 – just four mates celebrating together, no wild parties, girls or alcohol that I can recall. In fact perhaps it is because all the other new years’s since have involved copious amounts of alcohol that I simply cannot remember them? I can only recall a few; one camping at a Dam outside of Mandurah on the scarp – at midnight from our altitude we could clearly see the fireworks from Bunbury, Mandurah and Perth. Another on a farm, one at my rental in Eaton (which got quite messy) and a few more in Perth at various mate’s houses.

So at a glance, life after that night went a little like this; graduating class of 2000 from Australind SHS and enrolling into a four year Software Engineering course at Edith Cowan University in 2001. Entered a local website design competition, the result of which lead to more work and therefore the catalyist for launching my own business ‘Equinox Website and Graphic Design’ whilst still studying. By the end of 2002 I made purchase of my first NEW car, a metallic blue 2002 Kia Rio. In the years that followed the business grew and an appropriate renaming took place and the more generic titled ‘Equinox Studios’ was born in 2003 servicing not just websites, but other aspects of business, including IT support, stationary ie Letter heads, logos, business cards, magnets etc. In 2004 Equinox Studios came runner up in the Telstra small business awards. At around that same time I employed my then girlfriend of 2 years into the business to further expand the company into the Education department and development of a sports management system for sporting facilties to use to draw up fixtures for various sporting events. We took the prototype as far as Queensland. Later in 2005 we broadened our horizons with a trip to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Not too long after this, my grandfather had to give up his car, a 1989 Mitsubishi Magna Elite. Being one of my all time dream cars, I bought it off him, selling my Kia Rio. Dispite the 13 year age downgrade, the Magna had more electrical features than the Rio ever did, not to mention a bigger engine and cruise control.

April 2006 saw me relocate to Perth, to begin work for a R&D software development firm having graduated with a degree in Software Engineering the year before. Months into the relocation my 4 year relationship came to an end, not able to withstand the long distance, and with it the future of Equinox Studios slowly but surely faded away. I closed down the company in 2007.

I stayed single for almost the better side of a year, avoiding women, instead getting my social life back on track that had been suffering, along with having plenty of time to spare to take up any projects I saw fit. Around this time I decided a few changes were in order, so getting my priorities right, I got a new car, then a new girl. My second new car ever; fourth overall; a 2007 red Mitsubishi Lancer Limited Edition sedan. Breaking up due to different life interests (ultimately we had nothing substantial in common, not even a TV show) I once again found myself single in early-mid 2008, but in a far happier state than I was in the prior breakup. For one, I didn’t avoid women and quite happily enjoyed the fruits of a single man’s lifestyle.

But life wasn’t all fun and flirtish, drifting between girls and cars; 2007 brought forth its fair share of shattering wake-up calls. On the sunny Saturday, the 27th day of January at 2pm, my Nanna passed away. She was the last of my grandparents, outliving them for a few years. I was very proud/honored to be able to be there in her final moments and the days leading up to it. When she breathed her last sigh her nursing home room suddenly fell very still, impervious to the 12 or so people, sons and daughters, grandchildren and cousins that surrounded her as she left this mortal realm for the next. She, like all my other grandparents will be missed.

A few months on my mum phoned me one evening, crying over the phone as she told me she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, my life at that moment stopped. For that whole evening, silence filled my surroundings, blurring everything out other than the uneven rhythm of my beating heart. I remember vividly talking a shower, and scrubbing myself down as someone with OCD would, never feeling clean. I wasn’t anywhere ready to go on with life without my mother. That year had to be the hardest I had ever lived through, though what I was feeling would of been nothing compared to what Mum was having to endure, throughout the treatment. I only wish that I spent more time at her side, to comfort her. I thank God every day for her making it through such a terrible year, and for her ever improving health.

Time, being the healer of all things, I eventually found myself at the end of 2008 on a paintball skirmish field, arranged through Renee, the high school friend I stayed in touch with and her co-worker friend. On the 30th of December that co-worker friend and I met up at the Broken Hill pub and shared quite a few drinks getting to know each other. Flirting wildly across the table; discussing exotic travel ideas of the likes of Russia. The evening ended by what I could only describe as fireworks – the most passionate and wild goodnight kiss in the car park. That was my new year’s kiss, for the very next day she set off on a week’s vacation to Singapore.

2009 brought on even more travel, with three overseas trips carried out; 9 weeks of annual leave. The first of which being a couple of weeks in Vietnam, the next a few days in Singapore followed by a mammoth 6 week trip around the world, including Russia.

So from starting out as something of an entrepreneur, to owing a handful of cars, skiing in Melbourne, various relationship pitfalls, supporting my mother through her cancer treatment, to traveling around the world, being at my grandparents sides, watching as they all moved onto the next realm, a lot has happened, a lot of life experiences some good, others horrible, all of which shaping me into who I am today..

I started this decade with three grandparents, no debt, not much travel experience, having owned one car and lived in zero houses by myself, no business experience nor that of love and ended with no grandparents, a bit too much debt that i am currently rectifying, having owned 4 cars, lived in 5 houses outside of home, a fair amount of travel and business experience not to mention the affairs of the heart.

Just what will this next decade bring?