Month completed: August 2011

I find it interesting to think about all the generations of Tully’s that came before me, and what their lives were like, where they came from and what they did with their lives.

Fortunately, Uncle John Tully was similarly interested, and spent years researching and putting together a quite detailed look back at the Tully family history, all the way back to the 1700’s.

It was really fascinating to see the family history, and hear the trials and tribulations of the different families, and to discover that it was in 1851 that the first of the Tully’s, Thomas Tully (my great-great-great-grandpa), moved to Australia from Armagh in Northern Ireland.

In 1857 he bought 20 acres of land in Doncaster in the east of Melbourne, on the corner that is now home to Westfield Shoppingtown (back then, it was known as Tully’s Corner). Click map to see full version.

I won’t bore you with all the details of the original Australian Tully’s life, but here’s a few of the more noteworthy points:

• He got drunk once and sold part of the land for a lot less than it’s value (must be where I get my bad judgement when drunk from!)
• He was a member of the Church of Christ, and once seconded a motion to boot out less pious family members
• He did a range of jobs, including building huts and chopping wood, as well as tending to the property
• He and wife Jane had 6 children
• When he died, aged 39, he was buried in an unmarked grave at Lilydale Cemetery, all of about 5 minutes drive from where I grew up!

There were several other interesting parts of the Tully family history worth mentioning, not all of them pleasant.

Manslaughter charges

When Thomas died, his widow Jane married Thomas’ brother David. David was a drinker who got violent with Jane one night and inflicted injuries that caused her death four days later. He was tried in court for manslaughter, but insufficient evidence meant he was convicted instead of grievous bodily harm, aggravated assault and common assault.

Amazingly, a member of the jury in the trial was one of David’s friends (could you imagine that happening today?), and David was given just 3 months in gaol, as the judge decided it was more important for him to care for the children (who actually testified against him in court). I imagine the dinnertime atmosphere would have been a bit frosty.

Missing the boat

My great-great-great-great-grandparents, the McAuley’s, came to Australia with nothing, bought a place for £9, which they later sold for £2,500. This was enough to get them on a boat back to Ireland.

They put everything onto the boat, went to say final goodbyes (as the boat wasn’t due to leave for several hours), but somehow managed to not get back in time and missed their boat.

It is interesting to think how different things would have turned out if they had not have caught that boat. If they had, their daughter Jane (my great-great-great-grandma) would not have met and married Thomas, and who knows what the family tree would look like now.

6 generations of Thomas

Of the 7 generations of Tully before me, 6 of them were called Thomas going back to the 1770’s. My middle name is Thomas, to sort of keep the tradition alive, but Mum wasn’t keen on having another Thomas in the family.

A famous photographer

Charles Nettleton, the man credited with the only photograph of the famous bushranger Ned Kelly, was a distant relative of the Tully family.

Frank does a Tully a favour

I liked this story, about my great-grandpa Thomas. While on a train with a friend called Frank he met a woman named Edith. Thomas was too nervous to ask her out, so Frank asked her out instead. When Edith arrived for their date, she discovered Thomas, not Frank, waiting for her.

After getting over the confusion, the two of them had a nice night and were married shortly after.

They were married for 35 years and had seven children, including my grandpa Thomas Tully.

Final thankyou

Thanks very much to my Uncle John for doing all the research into our history, and for sending me across a copy of your work for me to enjoy.

To everyone else – if you don’t have an Uncle John in your family, I would suggest trying ancestry.co.uk. I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks like a pretty good resource for starting to put together your own family history.

UPDATE: Reader Adrian sent me this link as well, as another website for tracking down relatives – http://www.genesreunited.co.uk

Month completed: July 2011

I admit it, this was a fun one.

It was late in the picture when I first decided I wanted to read Harry Potter and find out what all the fuss was about.

By this stage, all seven books had come out, as had the first five movies.

The last of which I finally saw part 2 of last night, completing this goal.

It was actually really handy starting when the books were all out, as it meant I could pick up the next one as soon as I finished the one I was reading. I feel for the kids who had to wait a year between books – that would have been tough.

I’m not sure what it is about the series, but I can definitely understand why they took off like they did. All of them were gripping, with great characters, a really good bad guy (I won’t mention his name) and a nice underlying message about working and sticking together.

If you haven’t read them yet, I encourage you to, whatever your age. You won’t be disappointed.

Month completed: May 2011

Not one of the official goals on the list (not sure why not really!) but one of my favourites so far. On a beautiful day two weeks ago in the Scottish highlands, Nat and I finally tied the knot.

It was a fantastic day, and all of our friends and family from Australia were there to help us celebrate (below is our bridal party, with Nat and I in the middle).

A brilliant honeymoon in Corfu (which I would highly recommend as a holiday destination) followed, and we are now experiencing the exciting first weeks of calling each other husband and wife.

Now that all that is said and done, I am ready to start getting cracking on some more goals off the list. A bungee jumping I got from my brother at Christmas might be redeemed very soon…

Month completed: March 2011

I love eating out.

Not only do you get to eat delicious food, and spend quality time with others, there are also no dishes to do when you get home.

Back in Melbourne, Nat and I agreed that we didn’t really do it often enough. Sometimes the effort of picking a place, getting in the car, driving 15/20 minutes, finding a park, etc etc, is all too much, and the takeaway menu and TV suddenly become a lot more appealing.

So, this goal was an attempt to make sure we went out somewhere at least once a month.

Something we have noticed since moving to London though, is that going out for dinner seems to be much more common here.

For most people, a main street with plenty of restaurant choices is only a short walk away (for us, Upper Street is that street), and there are so many different cuisines, plus what I think are the best pubs in the world. Also, the Tube is so handy that jumping on for a couple of stops to get into central London is so much easier than getting in the car.

We now go out at least once a fortnight, and have several firm favourites (Mem & Laz serves the best lamb chops I have ever had, and we just discovered an amazing Moroccan place around the corner).

It’s great just to spend some quality time with Nat as well – that is probably the best part of all.

Month completed: March 2011

Recently, most of the goals I have been completing have been ones that mainly benefited me (not that there’s anything wrong with that of course!).

So I thought it was time to do one of the goals that benefited someone else. And this goal is exactly that.

For those not aware, the Big Issue magazine is sold by street vendors who are doing it tough, with about half the sale price of the magazine going into their back pocket.

The magazine itself is actually a reasonable read, with an eclectic mix of articles, but the main reason I think to buy the magazine is to lend a helping hand to a person in need.

So I thought it might be nice to do something extra good for one of the Big Issue sellers out there, by giving them way more than the cover price of the magazine, for no reason other than kindness.

But actually, although this goal seems easy, it actually has taken me a while to do because:

• I wanted to find a seller that I felt really needed the cash
• I didn’t want to buy from someone smoking (Big Issue sellers, you make it much harder to convince someone to give you money if we think you are going to buy cigarettes with it)
• It is difficult to know how a seller would react to the offer of charity (some might feel insulted)

On the way home from an event last night, I walked past a seller working near the National Theatre in Southbank. It was a cold night, and he was not trying to sell the Big Issue he had in his hand. He was just asking anyone walking past if they could spare a penny or two, and I thought that this guy could really do with a break.

So I went up to him and asked what he would think if I gave him £20 for a Big Issue. He said he would be extremely grateful, and so I handed over my £20, he thanked me very graciously, and we parted ways.

Shortly after, I saw him leave his post to go home, so I guess he decided to afford himself an early night. I felt good in the knowledge that for one night at least, he could shout himself a luxury or two that he could not usually afford.

Here is the issue of Big Issue I bought:

Month completed: March 2011

For my birthday, Nat surprised me with an awesome present of a hot air balloon ride during our trip in Barcelona.

I will let the pictures doing the talking on this one, but suffice to say, it was totally amazing (and very, very relaxing).

Here is me helping out getting the balloon set up. To blow up the balloon, there was a massive fan (just out of picture) that blew big gushes of wind into the balloon. Took all of about 10 minutes to blow up.

Getting ready for take off…

After a couple of minutes getting used to being up high in a basket (we got up to 1,100 metres) it was really just a peaceful experience.

This is what you see when you look straight down. Feels like it should be scary, but it’s not.

Nat and I, and the clouds.

We took off and landed in the Barcelona countryside, surrounded by mountains like this.

After an hour in the sky, we landed, albeit a little rockily, on a gravel road. As a team (there were four other passengers with us for the ride) the whole thing from landing to being back on the trailer was about 15 minutes. Super quick.

Afterwards, the pilot cooked us all toasted sandwiches, using the fire from the balloon to heat them (took all of about 10 seconds per sandwich).

Ballooning is probably something I may only do once in my life (it is rather expensive) but it is definitely something I would recommend to anyone – and thanks Nat for the awesome present. I loved it.

Month completed: February 2011

As an Australian, I think it is in my blood to want to be a surfer. And despite living relatively close to the coast I reached the age of 27 without ever surfing.

Which makes me feel a little un-Australian.

Boogie boarding I have done plenty of times. And I love the beach. So this year one of my first resolutions was to start surfing.

Couple of minor issues though – I now live in the UK – and I don’t know too many people in London who like surfing.

That is when I discovered a website called Meetup, which has a London Surfers group with over 300 members.

I put out a message to see if there was any beginner surfers who would be up for a weekend away where we could all learn together. And the response was amazing.

After many messages back and forth (over 100!) we organised the location (we went to Porthtowan in Cornwall, west England), the dates, and who would travel in which car. Then off we went, ten complete strangers spending a weekend surfing. Awesome!

Here’s the beach we surfed on, in Porthtowan, Cornwall. Great beach with amazing views from the cliffs either side.

Here’s the surf school. We stayed at the Backpackers on the second floor.

Our room – proper backpackers style.

The beginner surfers, all ready to hit the waves.

Our instructor took a bunch of photos of us when we were out on the waves, but he hasn’t put them up on their Facebook page just yet. He did get one of me standing (amazingly, I did get up a few times but for no more than a couple of seconds at a time) so I am eager to see what that looks like.

If I was to sum surfing up, I would say it is much harder than I thought, but just as addictive as I thought too. Everyone on the trip was chilled out and great company, and we all loved it so much we are going to start doing a monthly weekend away.

The purpose of Project 183 was to try a whole bunch of things so that I could find the handful of things I want as long-term hobbies. Surfing, I feel, is going to become one of them.

p.s. We have a second beginner’s weekend at the end of March, if you are in the UK and are keen

Month completed: February 2011

Lots of countries are going through tragic events. But for some reason, the falling apart of Zimbabwe over a number of years is the one that intrigues me the most.

Perhaps partly because of the fact that despite all the condemnation of their president Robert Mugabe around the globe, he is still in power after 30 years.

For those not aware, Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980, and in his time the country has utterly fallen apart.

How he hasn’t been assassinated, or overthrown in a coup, or voted out democratically, amazed me, so I wanted to know more.

I recently finished reading a fantastic book on the rise of Robert Mugabe called Our Votes, Our Guns by Martin Meredith, which covered his life up to 2002, and how he first took an active role in creating a revolution, through to becoming the president, and the tactics he used to stay in power as long as he has.

Here are a few things I picked up:

• He spent 11 years in prison, and used this time to strengthen his resolve for a takeover of the country
• He was actually very popular with both the black and white communities in the months after his election, declaring the white colonial past a thing of history and showing a desire for unity and equality
• The democratic, rather than violent, way that he gained power (through an agreement with the British) seemed to leave him with an unquenched thirst for violence
• He is corrupted by power, in a very big way, as are those around him, and violence and intimidation, particularly of white landowners, is the key to his keeping power
• His rival parties have to deal with some really shocking, and scary, things just to get the chance to run around his party (murder being one)

A good book gets you emotional. And this one really got me worked up. It is disgusting the way he has turned a jewel in southern Africa into a destitute wasteland, and it reminded me just how lucky I am to live in a country where the biggest issues I face are a cramped Tube, or a bit of rain. Be thankful for what you have – that’s the message I take away from the book.

Month completed: February 2011

I have mentioned previously my interest in the philosophy of Buddhism, primarily around karma and the importance of being happy. So I thought why not combine that with some relaxing meditation at the same time. So I did.

Last week I went to a night class which combined meditation with hearing a few Buddhist parables, and thoughts on how Buddhism applies to the modern world.

We sat in seats, rather than on the floor, which was a bit of a surprise, and there was no chanting or background music or anything. Just the soft words of the teacher about how we should focus all of our attention on our breathing, and do our best to bring our mind back to that whenever it starts to wander.

I found it quite difficult actually. When you stop, and try consciously to stop your mind racing, you realise how much it really does race. I think it would take at least weeks of practise to start to get your mind to settle down, and perhaps going straight after a busy day at work means your mind races more than usual to start with.

At the end of the session, I did feel more relaxed, took away a couple of exercises to practise, and I will probably go back every now and then when I am feeling super stressed.

And no, I haven’t become Buddhist. But a religion based around the mantra of being happy in life can’t be too bad, can it?

Month completed: January 2011

My reading habits have been very set in their ways for many years. Pretty much all I ever read was crime novels by Jeffrey Deaver or Agatha Christie, or a business marketing book of some sort.

So this goal was my attempt to get out of my rut and try some new stuff.

Here are the five books I read, with a brief review.

1. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

This book is set in Melbourne, and revolves around the ramifications of one adult slapping another family’s 4 year old son.

I really liked this book, especially the fact that every chapter was from a different character’s perspective.

2. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

If you are stressed, over-worked, needing something to take your mind off things, read this book. The style of writing is really peaceful, and the story just followed, not with big ups and downs but with brilliant word play.

The story is based in Botswana, and Precious Ramotswe who decides to set up the first detective agency in Botswana run by women. There is a kidnapping, disappearance and other crimes to solve, but never are they really the central point of the book.

3. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Kafka was an interesting read. This story is his most famous, about a salesman called Gregor who wakes up one day to find he is a gigantic insect. But rather than being a story of high drama, it is really a story of how he and his family then deal with the situation.

I enjoyed how the story flowed, but it wasn’t the easiest reads and certainly not an easy story to summarise, and I felt quite sorry for Gregor.

4. Human Instinct by Robert Winston

This is a non-fiction book about evolution, and how the human instincts we all have are borne out of millions of years of human development, and certain things we do can be traced back to when all humans existed in the African deserts fighting for survival against bigger and stronger animals.

It was an interesting book, but it made me realise that when I want to read I want to escape into a fictional world, so this isn’t really for me. I much prefer to find out about things like evolution via a TV documentary as I find it much easier to remember things I see visually. That’s just the way I am. A good book for anyone who likes reading about evolution though.

5. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This book had all the ingredients of a book I would usually avoid. It was over 1,000 pages, it was set in the 11th century, and it was about the building of a cathedral.

But thankfully, Nat read it and told me quite insistently that I must read it too. I am so glad I did. Because I have to say it is probably the best book I have EVER read.

The central story is around the city of Kingsbridge and their attempts to build a beautiful cathedral. However, there are people with contrary interests who are constantly doing their best to ruin things for Kingsbridge.

I can’t do the book justice by trying to paraphrase 1,000 pages, so I will just say this – go and read this book. Now.

===

p.s. I got a Kindle for Christmas, so reading books has become a whole lot easier too. I would recommend you get one if you are an avid reader – they are just brilliant.