It’s strange to think that the people you know may not actually be the-people-you-know.  I wonder if it’s always been like this throughout time.  Humanity consisting of the walking wounded, the guarded, etc.

As we get older it seems that we learn to be more guarded with our personalities.  Through our experiences we learn to hide and change parts of ourselves in order to “fit in”.

I assume it’s a survival instinct that we all have that has become a necessity in modern life.  We have to keep up appearances in order to survive.  It also appears that those chameleons, who are able to change instantly to suit their environments, appear to be the most successful.

However, there are some people that I have observed that don’t appear to be guarded or held up by the things I normally witness in others.  Instead they appear as free spirits.  They exude freedom in everything they do.  Nothing appears to hold them back.

I would like to know how these people do it, and whether all it is all appearance,  or if it’s true freedom.

I guess the only way to truly understand someone is to witness the world through their eyes.

Note:  The above thoughts are not a reflection on the person depicted in the image, but on humanity in general.

It’s so easy to miss the little things.  I think that if we celebrated every little win, and every little bit of happiness we would all be better off.

A sunny day, a warm breeze, the smell of freshly cut grass.  These are all things that make me smile no matter what I’m feeling.  They bring enough happiness, that for a moment, I forget all the things that trouble me.

For my Mum’s birthday a few weeks ago, we all went to Berowra Waters and had a seafood lunch beside the marina.

Mum, Dad, Amanda, and I all got seafood baskets (that took forever!).   The drive out, the time there, and the drive back were all awesome.  I would like to buy a car purely to enjoy that drive with!  But that would be silly.

I owe everything to my parents.  I wish I could do more to make them happy.

Time seems to fly when you’re having a lot of fun.   It’s hard to believe that it was  five years ago when we met, but I remember the day like it was yesterday.

I can still remember Amanda’s first car, a Proton, and how she scared the absolute bejeesus out of me the first time I got in the passenger seat.  Picture this, old car, old suspension, crap tyres, automatic gear box, front wheel drive, and a 90 degree turn attempted at over 60km/h without a hint of touching the brakes.  I laugh now, but boy, was I furious at the time.

I can also remember the day Amanda bought her first “real” car.  An R32 GTST.  It was also her first manual.  It was my job to teach her how to drive it.  As you can imagine, we had a very long night that night.   I can still see the look on Amanda’s face when we stopped to take photos after her first drive.

A combination of disappointment, anger, and fear washed across her face as she stared at the expensive piece of machinery in front of her.  I don’t think Amanda knew I was looking at her, but I could almost hear the dialogue she was having with herself,

“I can’t drive this thing.  What have I done?  I’ve just wasted a lot of money.  What am I going to do? Wil won’t stop yelling at me.”

(I wasn’t yelling! HONEST!!!)

I think the thing that freaked her the most were hills.  Both the fact that manual car’s roll back on a hill start, and that the gearbox doesn’t automatically kick down if you’re going up a steep hill.

So I took her to an empty car park that I knew of.  It was perfect because it had a long straight bit of road, very wide, with 3 inclines and flat areas in-between.  It was here where she learnt where the friction point of the clutch was, how to hold the car on an incline using the clutch and throttle only, and where we took maybe 5000km’s off the life of the clutch.

Amanda picked it up incredibly fast.  Before we knew it we were attending track days.  Amanda even hit the track before I did.  Oh, and as testament to how well she can control a clutch, an acquaintance of ours told her she’d never be able to move his car without stalling it  (it had some dicky on-off twin plate clutch).  Amanda took off without even a bunny hop.  The look on the car owner’s face was priceless.

We’ve been through so much together.  So many firsts.  We’ve both matured alot too since knowing each other.  (Well, I think I’ve matured :p ).  Here’s to many more years, and more growth.