Letting life unfold as it will…

What will happen, will happen and we can do nothing about it because we don’t have any control despite the illusion that we do.

This, to my understanding is the way of life. We live an illusion that we make decisions about all manner of things but the reality is every decision we make is based on the sum total of experiences that we’ve had in our life. At the most fundamental level we are our genetics and our totality of experiences, nothing more. And those two criteria are all that we are and every decision is based on those things. We make our decisions based on this criteria but who are we, if not our genetics and our experiences which drive our decisions?

Todays Your Story Addendum episode is from the departure gate just prior to boarding my flight to Europe.

I’m off on a trip to Europe for 2.5 months. Initially I’ll be in Megève in the French Alps as a guest of my sister and her family then I’ll be heading north to spend a couple of months in Berlin.

Did I make the decision to go?

On My Way to Europe

Well, I may think and feel like I did but the reality is I simply reacted to the situations as they presented themselves with the final upshot being I’m now on my way as I write this somewhere over Indonesia. But more to the point this trip is about creating situations that could provoke opportunity.

In my everyday life I have a routine of situations and people who are a constant with little variation and without breaking away from the status quo I’ll continue to have the same opportunities.

It’s crunch time!

For five years now I’ve been working on Your Story and Create Your Life Story, to learn the skills and develop the sites to where they may be able viable as more than just hobbies. I’ve tried a few things to develop them but to date these things haven’t worked and it’s time to see if there may be some other opportunities that I haven’t considered.

Staying in my home environment will maintain a similar situation to what’s been the case for these last five years but travelling to Europe may, just may, create an environment that is different and present opportunities that I couldn’t find at home.

Everyone who’s had any level of success will be the first to credit the good fortune in their lives that has lead to them becoming who they are (actually that’s the same for all of us, good and bad), and that good fortune could turn up anywhere. It’s just that if you get around, meet more people and be in different situations there is a greater chance of that good fortune turning up.

It isn’t choosing anything!

For me this is just about putting myself out there where opportunity may arise and allowing things to unfold. When we think about it, that’s how life is for all of us.

I don’t know or can’t imagine what may come of this trip. Maybe something, maybe nothing but as I said when I started on this adventure of learning how to podcast I’d rather give a red hot go, than stay in the certainty of routine.

What may come.

I’ve a few ideas for content for Your Story. We may get to revisit some past stories to see how they’ve developed over the last few years and I’m sure we’ll discover a few new stories. I’m hoping to produce both video and audio content and I’ll be putting it out in all the usual channels.

Since my last trip social networks have continued to develop and with the power of my new iPhone 4S along with the video, photo, audio sharing networks there is an opportunity for me to put out a variety of content through multiple channels.

If you want to find all the major social channels that I use go to About.me/IanKath where you can link across to see all that I produce over the next many weeks.

If you have any ideas for people to meet of place to visit in Berlin please let me know using the contacts above.

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Some people have a passion for food that goes beyond what most of us have.

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Do you love food?
I mean really love it, in all the different ways that it can mean. The history, the preparation, the eating, the sharing! Or do you just eat food because you have to, as the cooking is more of a task that has to be put up with in order to eat.

Charmaine O'Brien

For some people food is more than just simple sustenance and for Charmaine O’Brien food is far more than just that!

We all eat but it’s rare to find someone who embodies food in more than just the simplest body nurturing way. Occasionally I come across someone who eats, breathes and sleeps food, and recently at the Oral History Association of Australia conference in Melbourne, I had the good fortune to meet and ask Charmaine to come onto the show and tell us about her interest in food, based on the stimulating presentation and menu she prepared for the dinner.

What’s on the menu? – 100 years ago!

It’s not often that we get to taste a historical menu from post colonial, Australian cookbooks and discover that food reproduced from 100+ years ago is not just boiled mutton and lard with damper.

As we discuss on this episode of Your Story, the meal was a wonderful blend of different ingredients that we no longer think of using and a surprise to realise how well the people of Victorian Australia ate, despite the challenges of preparing food without all the modern appliances that we now take for granted.

Presentation @OHAA

Charmaine opened my eyes to how well they ate in the 19th century and some of the reasons for how things have changed over the last 120 years.

Her website is CharmaineObrien.com
Her email is Charmaine@CharmaineObrien.com

When have you meet someone or done something that goes beyond the norm of what most people think of food?

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Music is from

← If you want to record the Life Stories of others, listen to my other podcast at Create Your Life Story.com or on iTunes.
…Or have a look at some other great shows available at LifeStyle Pod Network→

Music is from

Argy
“Peace Of Me feat. POSH! The Prince” (mp3)
from “Fundamentals”
(Ibadan Records)
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More On This Album

David Starfire
“Indian Fever” (mp3)
from “Bombay Beatz”
(Six Degrees Records)
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Tycho
“Hours” (mp3)
from “Dive”
(Ghostly International)

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I’m not big into self promotion so I’ll let Adam do it for me!

I like to let the work that I do here at Your Story and over at Create Your Life Story speak for itself. But the way the internet works is that you need to be noticed, shared and recommended or else you disappear into the mire.

Fortunately for me there are people out there who appreciate what I’m attempting and are happy to blow the trumpet for me. One of these is Adam Daniel Mezei who we’ve heard from on Episode 25 and Episode 58 who I regard as a good friend but recently he produced this unprompted video that I thought I’d share with you. Yes it is a huge compliment that I appreciate and am humbled by his comments and if what he is saying is true it only means that I’m producing content of the standard that I strive for. But still I know that I continue to learn and improve

Thanks Adam

 

Using their pleasure for tango to help others who desperately need it

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We’ve all had the experience where we’ve gained so much value from people or an activity that we feel a need to return something. It called reciprocity  – the desire to do something in return.

Cheryl & John

In this episode of  Your Story we talk to John and Cheryl Lowry about how they have fulfilled this desire in themselves for all the pleasure that they’ve had from being involved in learning and dancing tango. They’ve returned the favour not to the greater tango community but by using that communities desire to dance tango socially as a means of generating income to support disadvantaged children in Argentina by setting up Para Los Niños children’s charity.

Internationally supported

The charity is supported internationally to enable income to be generated through milongas (tango dances) which is then used in Argentina to support many desperately in need children to have what we would call the necessities of life.

Here is an example of one of the Milongas that has been orginised in aid of Para Los Niños.

The charity website for Para Los Niños is paralosninos.net

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.

Music is from

Che Papusa
“La Milonga” (mp3)
from “Buenos Aires Tango Dance”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

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Juanjo Hermida and Gabriel Merlino
“Sauvage” (mp3)
from “Tangos En Duo”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

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Stream from Rhapsody
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One of the best Episodes Re-Published

It’s a rare world that we live in. I don’t mean you… I’m thinking of a few rare people that I meet from time to time and myself.

Stories of Our City

Most people are worried about what I call the noise of life. You know what I mean… All the stuff that is out there that we’re told to be afraid of or we need to be entertained by. Look at the news channels and reality TV, it’s all there… The Noise of life.

But there are a few of us who look for the substance of more important things. The stories that are real and live in everyone. “But normal people are boring”, I hear you say. NO! You’re the normal people and you have amazing stories. We all just need to take the time to turn off the damn idiot box and listen to the real stories that live in everyone around us.

That’s what I’m doing here on Your Story and what I’m encouraging others to do on Create Your Life Story. Get into real stories, not the media beat up that we’re familuar with.

It’s rare that I meet someone who has similar ideals in this regard. Sure, many people pay lip service to it but few (and I mean very few), actually do something about it. But there are a few…!

…and she has the personality to match the smile

Recently one of the previous episodes was picked up by another podcast. To my joy Stories of Our City has republished an edited version of the Episode 48 : Tiffany. Infidelity Investigator. It’s a brief example of what we’re doing here at Your Story and I encourage you to see what Katy is doing with Stories of Our City and listen to some of the other stories that she has published maybe even on iTunes, they’re eye opening to the life that she observes in the middle east.

Katy is one of us dear reader/listener. She knows the power of stories and how sharing them makes all of us much better to the greater world.

 

What is a Producer of Marketing and Distribution? – PMD

Welcome back everyone!

…And welcome back to Adam Daniel Mezei who we last heard of back in Episode 25 while mid-way through his 5 year European sojourn, living in Prague. I had decided to take up his invitation and drop in on this crazy Canuck who I meet on Twitter while I was spending a couple months in Europe back in 2008.

Adam at Toronto International Film Festival

As I mentioned back then, I had a wonderful three days with Adam as he showed me around the sights of Prague, looking after my every need as a tourist wanting to understand the city but also to understand this Canadian ex-pat making a go of it in the Czech Republic.

We’ve stayed in touch over the last 2.5 years since I was there through Twitter and Facebook and I knew he had returned to his home city of Toronto to chase down his new dream as a PMD for Hire, helping film industry professionals to grasp the dynamics of marketing and distributing films in this new era where the old systems aren’t holding up to the dynamic flux being created by the internet.

This is the same skill-set that Adam used in Prague, in a trivial way, to organise me to settle immediately and get to see the sights of the Golden City. The same skills he had been honing in networking to satisfy the desires of other ex-pats as clients who wanted to do business in The Czech Republic and didn’t know where to start. These skills of creating a network is what he’s bringing to film makers who don’t know the new playing field of marketing and distributing their films.

Bringing a new marketing skill set to Film Makers

Adam is the “Mr Wolf from Pulp Fiction“, who is called in to sort out the Marketing Issues for movie makers overwhelmed by the demand to be noticed amongst the white noise generated by many great movies that are never noticed and simply fade away to the discount bins where they can never return their funding.

In this Episode 58 of Your Story, Adam and I catch up (sadly not in person but on Skype) about what he’s been up to, why he left Europe and how he’s resettled into Toronto. We chat about the importance of family to him and the advantages of being in North America for his PMD work and what he can do for clients.

His website is PMDforhire.com

Email is info@pmdforhire.com

Here is a video of Adam with a little bit of philosophy on life…

ADM Videoblog #188 — “Don’t Bring Yesterday’s Garbage Into Today” from Adam Daniel Mezei | ADMTV on Vimeo.

…and if you want an opinionated Adam as a PMD about the importance of using more than just Facebook and Twitter:

ADM Videoblog #210 — “A Facebook page and a Twitter handle is not a marketing strategy!” from Adam Daniel Mezei | ADMTV on Vimeo.

…or watch the videos on his blog

Ian and Adam in Prague in 2008

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Support Your Story by commenting on this episode with one of the social network sites below or writing a review on iTunes

Music is from

Heyoka

“Micron” (mp3)

from “Marklar”

(Muti Music)

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More On This Album

Panik

“Their Unforgetable Things” (mp3)

from “Panik #5 Instrumentals”

(Molemen Records)

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Stream from Rhapsody

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More On This Album

 

If all the information is available, how do we understand it?

We have concerns with information, for some it others having information about us that we don’t necessarily want to share but for everyone it’s also having so much information thrown at us through the various different mediums, particularly the Internet, that it’s easy to be completely overwhelmed. So how do we deal with it? If everything is available as information how do we make any sense of it.

Ladies and Gentlemen the man who introduced me to the TED talks with the first TED Talk I ever watched and the joy and new understanding of statistics primarily through his enthusiasm, Professor Hans Rosling

 

Back on Episode 50 with Kate Foy I used a track from Nick Hollywood. I was just poking around the web and I found a few other tracks  that you may find interesting. Here they are:

This track is from Swing Republic just in time for Christmas Boogie Woogie Santa

SWING REPUBLIC – BOOGIE WOOGIE SANTA by FreshlySqueezed

 

What is needed to make it in music?

Sarah Collyer

How may people are performing, working their craft, doing all they can to be seen and heard, to make it in this world as an artist? How do they get noticed amongst all the noise and what do they have to do in the mean time until it’s their turn, if they ever have the chance?

Today on Your Story we chat with Sara Collyer about her world as a jazz singer. How she studied music and voice and her motivations along the way. We talk about what she has to do to be noticed and what she does between performances and her music.

Take the time to check out her website at SarahCollyer.com where you can listen to some of the music and purchase her EP This Way or on iTunes.

I reckon it great (just my biased opinion)

Cover Art – This Way

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After watching Matt Ridley’s talk, How Ideas Have Sex on TED, I’ve been thinking just how interdependent we are.

I remember when the first Gulf War started in 1990 I thought “OhOh here it is, Armageddon, nuclear war, WW3, what ever” and I started to wonder if it was possible to run somewhere and go 100% self sufficient. What would we take with us?   I composed a long list of what I thought was important and contemplated that for a while.   Fortunately it never came to pass and we all went merrily on our way.

But this talk has just made me realise that I was completely fooling myself.  There is no way I would have been 100% self sufficient.  I was taking society with me and eventually if we were the only community(for argument sake) we would have consumed and exhausted what resources we had taken with us.

Matt mentions that today no one knows how to make anything.  Bold statement I thought.  I know many people who know how to make things, I include myself amongst them, then I got thinking…

Take a piece of timber furniture.  Sure I know how to build a stool but do I know how to cut the tree or mill the timber?  What about the tools that I would use to cut, mill and dress the timber?  What about the chisels and hammer for cutting the joints and that is assuming that I don’t use any fixings or glue.

Try and think of one thing in our society that we can make 100% ourselves, without the input of someone else.  Anything that you do think of will be using the technologies of the stone age.  Spear, bowl, stone axe, that sort of thing.  Grow something and make a stone age meal sure but no more – fascinating!

I’ve heard it said that civilisation started with the advent of agriculture but this talk has made me realise that agriculture came about due to the exchange of ideas and that it was the trade of those ideas that was the start of civilisation.

Just today I heard of a new lost tribe living in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.  Hunter gathers from the stone age.  I’m not sure if they have traded from outside of their society but the limitation of exchange of their ideas has definitely maintained their existence in the stone age.  This is exactly what we would be like today without the huge interdependency that we have around us and our society.

Causes me to appreciate the web of influence that we all share.  Thanks

 

It’s funny how people who have similar interests keep revolving around each other and are constantly mixing in the same circles.  Even if they don’t necessarily know that they each exist.

Andrew and Trash Video

When I started Your Story on 2007 I modelled myself on Australian Story and Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope but before too long I started hearing about Richard Fidler’s Conversation Hour on Brisbane’s 612ABC radio. To my surprise I discovered that Richard and I are doing basically the same thing, conversations with people about their lives.

I have only listened to a few of his shows but I know that we happen to have had some of the same people on our shows.  Frankly with the resources of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation including a producer to help it’s not surprising that he has harvested all the interesting people who live in our city.  To that end, as I poke around to find some of the interesting people with my limited resources we are going to cover the same territory.  Today is one of those situations.

As I write this I am listening to Richard interview Andrew Leavold from one of the most enjoyable episodes that I’ve had the pleasure to produce.  You may remember Andrew as the passionate, hyperactive cult film video store owner, Trash Video here in West End where I live.

If you want to listen to my podcast with Andrew this is the episode and if you want to listen to Richard’s interview with him it is here on the ABC site.

 

It’s been a long time but welcome to Episode 25 of Your Story Addendum.

I was chatting to you from by the river.

I thought it was time to get you up to speed on what I’ve been up to with Your Story and the new podcast Create Your Life Story.  This is 18 minutes of me filling you in on developments over the last couple of months so you know that I haven’t abandoned Your Story and what I’m hoping to achieve in the next few months.

Create Your Life Story

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Inspired from Your Story a New Podcast is now Online.

I’ve been very quiet these many months here on Your Story.  I’ve been busy putting a few things in place, starting a new podcast and site.  I have been a little bit head down getting everything done so to speak.

I mentioned that I recently spent some time with my uncle, Bill Kath where I recorded our conversations and published them on his own site to share his Life Story with our family and anyone who may come along from the greater community.

This inspired me to start a new podcast to help explain how the average person can now record, edit and publish an audio Life Story, then share that story with family and the world if they choose.

I have always said that Your Story is a personal passion and I would love, one day to travel a lot more and record stories from around the world.  For three years now I have been learning and developing the skills needed to converse and produce audio while slowly going backwards financially.  With Create Your Life Story I hope to create a podcast to allow me to develop an income that will give me the ability to continue to produce Your Story while helping others to gain some of the amazing benefits that I have seen from sharing personal Life Stories.

The premise of Create Your Life Story is simple.  There are people who want to capture the Life Story of someone they know or there are people who wish to record their own personal Life Story.  These stories are interesting initially for family but also for the greater community, if only they can be recorded and made available, before they are lost, as has happened for all of human history.

I now have the knowledge from producing Your Story and several other versions of audio Life Stories to share with anyone who is interested in learning how easy and available it is for them to do the same.

It’s very early days but I have already produced a considerable amount of content to share that will give a lot of people a good start.  I have even produced a free e-Book to help you get started.

Please come over to Create Your Life Story and if you know of anyone who may be interested in learning to record and share a life story, either their own or someone else’s, please share this information.

 

Welcome To Episode 51 of Your Story.

Why do we have to live our life the way people and society says? Why can’t we make our own rules and if we’re happy with the results of our decisions isn’t that all that matters?

Ian Pettet has decided to live an unorthodox lifestyle. Not only is he studying Electrical Engineering at Queensland University of Technology in his 50′s but he has also chosen to live on a side street to the City Gardens that adjoin the Uni sleeping on his motorbike and living with his dog out of the trailer attached to the rear of the bike. Not what is normally thought of as student accommodation. This is the life style that Ian has chosen for the freedom that he gets from not requiring a high income and responsibilities that most of us feel that we can’t do without.

Most people would find this lifestyle challenging but Ian embraces it and with happiness and joy leaving me wondering if maybe there are some lessons here about what makes some of us truly happy.

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Music is from

Music is Bye Bye Blackbird From Music Ninja

 

I was watching this TED talk and I couldn’t help but reflect on Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. Perkins describes the behind the scenes manoeuvrings of the very real corruption that Peter Eigen has been battling against. This video is how the corruption has been curtailed, at least somewhat. How to Expose the Corrupt is the title but the symptoms are addressed rather than the underlying intent and manipulations of the organisations that start the very corruption that he is battling.

As Perkins reveals in Hitman and his follow up book The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men. Jackals and the Truth about Global Corruption this is not necessarily all about good companies being forced to corruption and bribery simply in order to level the playing field. “Everyone is doing it, so we have to also bribe” is I’m sure being said in board rooms around the world.

These large corporations and the governments that they control, willfully and purposefully manipulate third world countries for their specific gains, using corruption and bribery of officials, as a tool of Empire, with full knowledge of what they are doing. They create the corrupt situations that other “good” companies  are forced to accept in order to compete. If the “good” companies were simply to stop, and it seems in some cases this has worked, the large corporations have shown that they would simply go in anyway and continue to pillage in order to feed the empire.

The corruption is at the top of the tree and the rot simply migrates all the way down.

 

Welcome To Episode 48 of Your Story.

What would you do if you had suspicions of your partner having an affair? Could you confront them and have a discussion? Even then how would you know that what you were being told is the truth? What if you were told that nothing was happening but despite that reassurances you still had it eating away inside of you saying something wasn’t right? Would it be good to find out for certain one way or other, or are you just being insecure?

Tiffany Bond has discovered that not only is there still a demand for infidelity investigation but business is booming as the times may change but people don’t and there is a constant stream of husbands and wives contacting her, seeking information and advice to settle their concerns and suspicion of their partner having an affair.

Tiffany’s talent revealed itself when she used her training with her own relationship, leading her friends to suggest that she could help others, as she was helped, by finding the truth and slaying her own demons.  Starting her private investigation business the Detection Group she has added to previous experiences to tell many more stories written about in her first book Confessions of a Female Private Investigator.

The book is really a series of short stories of her adventures as a debt collector, police officer and private investigator and the experiences that she and her clients find themselves in with suspicion, discovery and resolution of some of the more disappointing aspects of peoples relationships. It’s actually a bit of a page turner in it’s simple short format story telling style forcing me to drag myself away to get this episode published rather than while away the day indulging in the voyeurism of peoples behaviours.

This is not all about the grime and the sordid underbelly of society but much like Episode 40 Grace. Prostitution – More than you Think, in that, in this story we find someone who is driven to help others to take responsibility, heal and move on by finding out the information that has been eating away at them with suspicion. It’s more than just catching people out, it’s about helping people who’s relationships have devolved and aiding them to move their relationships forward.

Tiffany’s Contacts are:

Phone:

• 1300 780 833
• +61(0)458 600 638

Website:

• DetectionGroup.com.au
• TiffanyBond.com.au

Email:

• enquiry@DetectionGroup.com.au

Social:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Linked In

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Urban Legend
“The World Keeps Spinning (feat. Chana)” (mp3)
from “Tropical Techniques”
(Blind Lemon Music)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
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More On This Album

Eastern Sun
“Northern Vision” (mp3)
from “In Emptiness”
(Ball of Waxx)

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Stream from Rhapsody
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More On This Album

 

Have you ever noticed how people mask who they really are so they can seem more professional. Sure we do a variety of roll playing in all areas of life, partner, parent, employer or Christmas party clown but some people change profoundly from what they are in their personal life to their professional life, it’s almost like a split personality disorder.

I recently heard the when Oprah was a television news reader she modeled herself on Barbara Walters only to one day loose the persona while news reading, became her true self and the rest is history. This is the first thing that I noticed when I started watching this video but there are a lot more good ideas in this little gem that I found over at Please Feed The Animals. Enjoy

 

Welcome To Episode 46 of Your Story.

As some of you may know I’ve recently been working for a short time on the latest in the The Chronicles of Narnia at the Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast. This next, Episode Three, is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and as it was for the previous two episodes this one is being Executive Produced by Doug Gresham.

As I mention in the introduction, I meet Doug very briefly while I was working on the film but didn’t have a chance to engage with him while working there. However my supervisor mentioned a few of the things that Doug had mentioned to him and I immediately thought, this sounds like an interesting fellow who wouldn’t mind a chat if he has the time.

Doug is the step son of C.S.Lewis and is now responsible for the continuation and is the head of the C.S. Lewis Company. From that wellhead these films have sprung. After a lifetime of wanting to have them produced he is now, for want of a better title the Executive Producer but as he says, he’s the one to blame. We chat about some aspects of the challenges and the joys of film-making and if you listen to Doug you can hear his passion for film-making and particularly the production of these The Chronicle of Narnia.

Quite a bit is published about Doug and his heritage with C.S. Lewis, including his autobiography Lenten Lands of his childhood with his mother Joy Davidman and Lewis which was made into the television film in ’85 Shadowlands and remade as a feature film in ’93. Doug also mentions writing a biography of Lewis Jacks Life: The Life Story of C.S. Lewis published in 2005.

Doug however is not just all about C.S. Lewis and the The Chronicles Narnia, he is also a committed Non-Denominational Christian with strong opinions on his practical views of Christianity that led him to live by his faith, running and caring for people from around the world in Ireland as a psychotherapist, but also to living an independent lifestyle as a Dairy Farmer in Tasmania and an ABC Radio announcer in Perth.

Now living in Malta, Doug has a world view and strong opinions on where our Western Society has gone wrong, even suggesting what, in his view, what we need to do to fix these issues.

Strong, forthright and thought through opinion is what I discovered in meeting Doug Gresham and a personality that is not easily forgotten.

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Sorry about the miss spelling of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as I spelt it Trader :/

Music is from iodaPROMONET

The Homemade Jamz Blues Band
“Penny Waiting On Change” (mp3)
from “Pay Me No Mind”
(Northern Blues)

Buy at Rhapsody
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This is the love story that landed Chrissy Dunaway in Australia to be with Cameron Reilly after a whirlwind romance in Ajaccio, Corsica where they meet at the International Napoleonic Congress in 2008.

Chrissy or as she is known on twitter @fddlgrl and I  talk of Love at first sight and migration from Seattle to Australia. What lead her to rebel from her upbringing in Southern Utah as a Mormon, eventually to lead her to her move to Seattle and the counter Mormon culture there. Here is a view from both inside and outside Mormonism. Not forgetting  the good in the upbringing and what she has brought with her from that.

Chrissy seems to have landed on her feet in her new life in Australia as a Teacher in the Suzuki Method and performer of Violin, diving into developing a small and already thriving network of students, group classes and orchestral performances. We also briefly discuss what she has noticed in the differences between the Australian and US cultures.

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Insert iodaPROMONET info here

Again as I mentioned, sorry about the audio quality

Mormons – Southpark Style from Sanshyuum on Vimeo.

 

Welcome To Episode 44 of  Your Story.

Frank Almeida migrated from Chicago USA to Buenos Aires with his wife in 1999, where after a couple of business ventures left the corporate world and in time established a gourmet cookie manufacturing company Sugar and Spice.

Sugar and Spice is the first and only serious Gourmet cookie manufacturer in Argentina using the best of ingredients to make the biscuits that our mother would make at home. That’s the philosophy that is still carried out in his model manufacturing facility.

Frank showed me around and although a large quantity of product is produced there were people hand cutting chocolate, sifting ingredients and hand filling packaging, just like you would do at home. It’s just the quanties and machinery are larger but it’s basically an overgrown home kitchen.

He currently supplies nationally, including to major corporations and is credited with starting the trend towards gourmet cookies within Argentina.

Frank arrived before the financial crisis in 2001 and had to deal with the shutdown of the banking system followed by the slow recovery and improvement of the economy. It’s fascinating to think just how we would get on if the banks refused to allow us to access our money or it was suddenly devalued, this is what frank had to deal with. Frank shares what is good about the Argentine culture and how having a low standard of living and high quality of life means that he is happy to stay, to grow his business and family in Buenos Aires.

Frank gave me a huge bag of goodies which I relished on the flight back home a few days later. Thanks

His website is sugarandspice.com.ar
Email is pedidos@sugarandspice.com.ar

Frank is another person introduced to me by Fred from Silver Star Transport in Buenos Aires that I mentioned on the last episode

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Green Tea
“Cruise Control” (mp3)
from “Places & Spaces”
(PLUG Label)

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Why do we revel in a great conversation and what are the elements of just such a conversation that makes it memorable?

This is something I’ve been wondering for some time as I’ve been doing Your Story. What are the dynamics of a great story or conversation? What are the things that we sometimes do well and we sometimes could change to improve conversations? Are these things simply good luck, part of our nature and environment or are they skills we can learn?

It hasn’t been just since I’ve been doing Your Story that I’ve had the complement paid to me. It’s happen on and off all my life.  We’re wrapping up the conversation and the person I’ve been chatting with mentions that they had a wonderful time and really enjoyed it. I can sense that they genuinely mean it, as though as we part it feels like something special was shared.

But what?

It was three years ago when I was reflecting on my life and wondering what I should do with my newly discovered  inspiration of doing a podcast that one of the things I considered is the number of times this scenario has occurred in my life and that it’s one of those things that I find profoundly rewarding. Maybe I have a little natural ability or maybe I’m simple curious about others and that helps them feel engaged but it doesn’t always work, sometimes it falls flat so there are things that I know that I can improve.

I’ve been wondering for some time what is it that people get from a great conversation and what is missing from a poor one? What are the elements that make a conversation simply polite and courteous verses one that connects two people in some deeper way?

I have a few ideas, some of the things that I use are…

• Genuine interest in them and the subject
• Specific questions that require an explanation rather than a simple answer
• Summarise the points that are made
• Happy to be contradicted. I’m interested in their opinion.
• Remain engaged and listening.
• Contribute my opinions and thoughts but remain more interested in them.

My underlying approach is I know about my life, beliefs and attitudes, what are yours? Please educate me about something new and change me for the better through your knowledge.

1. What are the aspects of a great conversation?
2. Where have you seen it done well and poorly?
3. What do you do best and where should you improve?

 

Welcome To Episode 43 of Your Story.

Deby has been in Buenos Aries as a visitor and now permanently since 2000. Originally coming to Buenos Aires to surround herself in the world of tango, she sold up everything in California in 2004, relocated to Buenos Aires and is now looking forward to becoming an Argentine citizen.

While falling in love with lifestyle here she has had the experiences of someone learning to understanding a new culture in order to become part of it. Now she is fully immersed into the life as a local and defends it vehemently.

Deby explains how it is for a local, how when you don’t earn in another international currency and the multiplier effects of exchange rates how difficult it is to live here. She gives us a small overview of the world and industry of tango also taking us on a discovery of the cultural differences in the way men and women interact compared with her home country of the US.

Several days after this recording we meet again at a milonga where we spent a few lovely hours together with friends. I look forward to returning to Buenos Aires again one day and this time with more time and experience on the dance floor I look forward to having a real tango with her.

Her website is tangospam.typepad.com
email is info@lavidacondeby.com

I mentioned in this episode about the great transport and travel advice that I received from Fred at SilverStarCar.com. If you’re ever in Buenos Aires and would like to travel in comfort from the airport or around the city, consider giving Fred a call and see if the service he offers suits your needs. In case you wondered I’m receiving no kickback from Fred for this, he’s getting this plug simply because he offered me great service and it deserves to be mentioned.

To automatically receive this podcast freely to you, click on one of the links to the left or search in iTunes for “Your Story.”

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Katona Twins
“Milonga en re” (mp3)
from “Le Grand Tango”
(Channel Classics Records)

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Juan Carlos Abitabile
“El Choclo” (mp3)
from “Tangos En Piano Bar”
(Suramusic S.R.L)

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Welcome To Episode 42 of Your Story.

Today we talk with Eric, a local Argentine, born and breed in Buenos Aires, about his journey and frustrations of feeling that he was independent in his thoughts on how to live a good life and how by chance he came across Dr Ron Paul during the 2007 US Republican Presidential Campaign. Discovering that his ideals and beliefs resonate with others and that there are opportunities to share these opinions. Motivated by what Dr Paul was doing Eric established a Spanish Version of the Ron Paul web site to help facilitate his message and to help expand the concepts that he lives by. Eric and I discuss how he came to develop these ideals, the importance of thinking for ones self and his motivation for the site.

We also chat briefly about life in Argentina, the potential that has been missed in this once great country and the current personality of the culture, just one day before Independence Day on 9th July.

Eric has asked to remain anonymous and to allow his work to speak for itself.

His website is RonPaulSpanish.com
email is RonPaulSpanish@gmail.com

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Music is from iodaPROMONET

Carlos Bertonatti
“The Little Things” (mp3)
from “Times Are Good”
(The Rosemine Group)

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Argentine Libertarians

While sitting in the airport waiting to head back to my home in Australia I thought that it was time to share my thoughts on my time in Buenos Aires, it’s time for a wrap up on my visit. So I pulled out my Zoom H4 here they are, additional to the last Your Story Addendum where I sat down with my friends to give you an overview.

I also mention that I spent some time the night before with some Libertarians who mentioned  some interesting political points.  I would have loved to have recorded some of these conversations but alas it’s not possible on this trip and hopefully by staying in touch with them through some of their online systems, when I return I will have the opportunity to share some political stories and history of this once and maybe future great country.

 

Ian, Heather, Alex & Bernard

Welcome To Episode 22 of Your Story Addendum.

Here is something a bit different for you.

I decided to sit down and have a brief discussion with a few of my friends of our appreciation of Buenos Aires, now that we have been here a few weeks and it’s time for a few of us to start heading home.

What is Buenos Aires, and how do we appreciate it from an outside view, without the cultural understanding of the people who live here. We chat casually about the character of the people, the shopping, the food and how it would be for someone similar to us visiting here.

We recorded this on the roof of the house that we are staying in and in amongst the conversation there is the din of the city in the back ground, the sound that is impossible to avoid and a constant curse to find somewhere quiet.

Shops, Shops, Shops.

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