2014 - another very special year!

Ever dreamt of living in a place that feels like a summer holiday place, with endless beaches, cloudless skies, wind and waves on demand?

The Seabreeze.com.au 7 day weather forecast for Perth Metro says it all – and best thing – we’ve got it here in our front yard! I can’t hold writing that we’ve had exactly the same conditions the last week, in fact, since the start of my summer holiday. Now our plans are typically weather dependent: So we go catch some waves surfing with the kids in the morning when offshore winds create a nice glassy surface and the sun is still shining out to the sea, bringing out pristine turquoise colours. Then go back to the cool home for a sumptuous Mediterranean lunch feast and a dip in the swimming pool before heading back to the beach for a downwinder kitesurf session and a beer by the beach to watch sunset over the Indian Ocean. Not much time and energy left for anything else…. even catching up with friends becomes too much – sorry guys, I hope you’ll understand ;-)

Looking back to 2014, we’ve had a pretty eventful year. Aside from getting married at the Ningaloo Reef and buying our first home half way between the city and the beach, we’ve had our first trip back to Switzerland in five years to attend Anh-Dao’s brother’s wedding. I also had a short trip to Hong Kong with the kids to be part of my eldest cousin’s wedding and see all my mother’s side brothers and sisters reunited. This year, our holidays were more focussed around social events. Nevertheless we did start our year with a nice 4WD trip to South-East WA. I fondly remember climbing Bluff Knoll with the whole family and Laura, our ultimate nanny. WA’s tallest mountain offers breathtaking birds views over hundreds of kilometres and isn't that easy for small kids, nor for people with a broken knee... And now we end the year with a humble, but at least for me very satisfying holiday back home. This time it's just the four of us which feels quite luxurious as well!

The girls are six years old now and keep growing ever more beautiful. They have settled well into their new local primary school at Churchlands. It is a privilege to bring them to school by bicycle, a short kilometre ride on the nature trail along peaceful Lake Herdsman before crossing the only road which is well guarded by Lollypop Ladies. Their mind is like a sponge and I am starting to rely on them for remembering things to do, or even to correct me with more accurate expressions. What gives me the most joy, is their growing physical and arts skills. They are lucky to have a pool just 20 metres outside our backyard and have developed great confidence in swimming and splashing, and also playing with the frogs who occasionally seek refuge in the cool pool. Oceane is a real natural when riding waves on her surfboard, while Laetitia’s strengths are more developed in singing and role-play using her Barbie and Lego figures. Both enjoy everything that has to do with the Disney movie Frozen, are very creative in detailed drawings, and also love dancing ballet which they recently demonstrated in the annual show, this year presenting Mary Poppins. The picture below is yet from another show - the christmas celebration at their school.

Anh-Dao has had her first two months back kitesurfing after a long eleven month period of recovery from her anterior cruciate ligament surgery in the left knee. It is a delight to watch her kiting again. It is still a mystery to me how she manages to juggle meeting her duties of a fulltime work position with managing kids and household. She even has the energy to create wonderful meals day after day, using ingredients from all over the world as available here in Perth. After moving into our new house, we’ve resisted calling for help from an au-pairs, which meant we often picked up our work computer again once the kids were in bed and dishes were washed. Strangely enough, since the Fremantle Doctor picked up end of November, we still squeezed in a couple of kitesurf sessions every week after work.

While I have contributed to home and kids wherever I could, things have been pretty rugged on my jobfront. I survived two waves of reorganisations with number three Australian construction company John Holland but finally got myself a strategic national role to develop more consistent approaches to sustainable resource use across all operations, starting in pre-contracts and extending over design, procurement and delivery of road, rail and maritime infrastructure, civil and building projects. I feel very proud about having developed a powerful tool for our tenders to quantify environmental impacts of major materials, energy and water use and waste generation and assess benefits of initiatives to improve the outcomes towards industry leading practice benchmarks. Another key highlight this year was the achievement of a 70 points 5* Green Star rating for our commercial high-rise development at Perth City Link’s Kings Square. This involved delivery of the first certified comprehensive life cycle assessment of an office building in Australia in collaboration with eTool. Now that worldwide number four China Communication and Construction Company has taken over John Holland, the future journey looks rather exciting as it potentially opens up whole new dimensions to my work. In the same time, it’s not all just about work. I also had the pleasure to attend a New Warrior Training Adventure weekend with my dear friend Tom. This initiation to mankind has given me effective direction in realigning myself with what matters most and discovering more effective ways to deal with emotions and break through the common barriers to myself and others trying to advance through life.

Looking out to 2015, there’s not much in my agenda yet (something I appreciate since I arrived in Australia now over seven years ago). Aside from trying harder to rest present with the kids and nurture the skills they are longing for, I feel it will be important to work on maintaining health, increasing happiness, and watching out for new opportunities crossing our way. Till then, it looks like the wind will continue to blow throughout the summer season, so we may have another two or three months of awesome kitesurf sessions in the evening after work. In the end, this is what we’d come to Perth for first of all…

That’s it for 2014! Now we wish everyone a happy new year!

And if you have some time to spare, and wish to see few more pics, below our flickr collections for 2014:

• Holiday at home in Perth
• Christmas Celebrations
• Switzerland
• Ningaloo Wedding
• Wedding Preparations
• Hong Kong and Sydney Trip
• South-West WA: Pemberton-Two People's Bay-Stirling Range