88. Reflections

One morning recently, I was standing at the end of the Shorncliffe pier, looking out over the Bay, with Morton Island visible in the distance. It was very early in the morning, and, for a little while, I was the only human being there. The sun was already up but everything was still quiet and peaceful. It was a brief but magical moment in time, allowing me to appreciate the beauty of it all.

 Precious moments like that often make me wonder about the world that we live in, and about the different paths that our lives can take. As it says in the lyrics of “Alfie”, the old Burt Bacharach composition:

What’s it all about Alfie
Is it just for the moment we live

What’s it all about
When you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind?

What is it all about? For instance, why do I write? What is it that makes me persevere with writing more blog posts? I know that I enjoy doing it and that it keeps me occupied, and I also know that it helps me to communicate with my children, grandchildren and other family, as well as with my friends. However, if I’m honest, perhaps the real answer is that, although I am very old, I like to try to be and to feel still present, still relevant, not yet written off. I hope to be remembered, rather than ignored or forgotten.

Whatever my true motivation is, it seems to help me to continue to write new stories. So, as the end of the year is fast approaching, it may be the right time to review, and to briefly reflect on, some of the 26 stories published in 2025.

For example, Moreton Island has been the subject of several of my stories. Stories about the old whaling station, about the miraculous rescue of a Dugong pup, about a ship which ran onto the rocks and about the Ngugi people, who had lived there for thousands of years (published 5 May 2024 – “41. Pig, the Dugong”). Another of these stories about Moreton Island was about the visit which our local Probus club made to the main resort there this year. I remember that just being there, even though it was so close to Sandgate, made me feel “a thousand miles away” (published 22 June 2025 – “75. Tangalooma Jet”).

During the year, Sue and Frederick helped greatly by contributing 7 new blog posts between them. Sue wrote about her life in New England (19 January – “64. Autumn – New England”, and on 30 March – “69. A Tribute to the America I loved” and, also, on 25 May – “73. Williams Memorial Institute”).

Sue also wrote about our travels in the USA (2 March – “67. An eventful Trip from Newport to Georgetown”), as well as a deeply moving story about our son, Gregory (14 September – “81. A Tribute to a much-loved Son”).

Frederick wrote about his backpacking experience in India (6 July – “76. Staying out of trouble: backpack travelling in India”). Under the pseudonym “Patrick”, he also contributed an amusing story featuring our walking friends in Jamaican disguise (3 August – “78. If only this could come true”). All these stories are easily accessible on the website walkandtalkat87.com.

Not surprisingly, my Dutch family featured in three blog posts. The first one was about my mother, Hendrika van Tongeren, who was born in 1914, the year in which World War I started. She had grown up in “The Roaring Twenties”, a decade of significant social and cultural change in western Europe. She also experienced the collapse of the world economy in the “Wall Street Crash” and lived through the “Great Depression” which followed. In 1933, a man who had worked in her father’s bakeries, made world headline news when he set fire to the German Reichstag building in Berlin.  I remember my mother telling me about this. This was the event which enabled Hitler to organise a referendum to appoint himself to the newly created position of “Führer und Reichskanzler”, and the rest is history (31 August – “80. The girl with the blue hat”).

The second blog post about my family in Holland dealt with World War II, in a story titled “Mad Tuesday” ( “Dolle Dinsdag”), which described the day when the people in our village believed that the Germans had been defeated. I remember that day very well. Dutch flags appeared out of nowhere and people were dancing in the street, because they thought that their rescuers were about to enter our village. Sadly, they didn’t arrive that day!  The Allied forces had been stopped by the Germans in the south of the Netherlands, and our village was not to be liberated until six months later, after a dreadful winter of hunger and extreme cold (27 April – “71. Mad Tuesday”).

The third family story featured my son, Mark, who lives in Holland and who is known among motorcycle enthusiasts as “Duckman”, a brilliant CAD designer of exclusive motorbikes. Mark’s own and very popular website is dbbp.com. It is one of the oldest motorcycle websites in the world. (8 June – “74. Duckman”).

A recurring subject during the year was Iran, a country which is still headlining the news today. I was there in the 1950s and in the 1980s, as well as being in the capital city, Tehran, during the Hafte Tir Bombing in 1981. Formerly known as “Persia”, Iran is a country with a long, fascinating and complex history. (see 27 October 2024 – “58. Iran”, 16 February 2025 – “66. Terror in Teheran Part I” and 16 March – “68. Terror in Teheran Part II”).

On 2 occasions over this time frame, I wrote about my early working life in Australia. For 17 years (1963 – 1980) I was employed by John Lysaght Australia, a steel manufacturing company, in Port Kembla, and in its head office in Sydney. The people I worked with gave me, a young Dutchman starting off in an unfamiliar country, a “fair go”. They were supportive and willing to teach me the “Australian way” of doing things. I was very fortunate to have been able to make some good friends and I’m happy to say that those of them who are still with us, after 50 or 60 years, I continue to stay in touch with. (20 July – “77. John Lysaght Australia” and 28 September – “82. Colorbond”)

In previous years I used to write more often about the marine life in Moreton Bay. The very first post in 2023 was titled “Stonefish”, but there were many other examples, such as the pufferfish, Crocodile Longtom, stingrays, dugong, Bombay Duck, Old Ben, a story about a shark and more. This year the only inhabitant of the Bay mentioned was the Bottlenose dolphin, the most common species of dolphin in Moreton Bay. My walking companions and I always love it when we see them alongside the Pier. I think that they are in a happy place. They are free, they have room to move, and they have plenty of food. We early morning walkers, are in a happy place too. Like the dolphins, we are very lucky to be free to enjoy our beautiful, quiet corner of Queensland. (5 January – “63. Dolphins”)

In another post published this year I wrote about practising Tai Chi in the city of Ipoh in Malaysia. The house in Ipoh where this took place had another happy memory for me in that I shared this experience with Mr Luciano Occhilupo, a colleague and good friend of mine. Tai Chi also helped me to cope during a very stressful period in my life, and I remember that I enjoyed the associated meditation and traditional Chinese relaxationmusic (11 May – “72. Tai Chi”).

A post I really enjoyed writing was the one about my friend, Vivek, and about his interest in the Indian State of Goa. Formerly a highly qualified engineer, Vivek decided, once he had reached “retirement” age, to help others who were less fortunate. After gaining the appropriate Australian nursing qualifications for aged care workers, including qualifications to assist and support dementia patients, he has been working for years in a local nursing home. Vivek has a kind and engaging personality but is also a serious and thoughtful person, true to his Indian origins and his Hindu religion. Meeting him on my walks is often one of the highlights of my day. It was Vivek who introduced me to the history and music of Goa (13 April – “70 – Goa’s Goodwill Ambassador to Moreton Bay”.)

Two of this year’s blog posts were about day trips which I did with our Sandgate Probus Club. I have already mentioned our excursion to Moreton Island where I had felt transported to a faraway place. The other post was about our visit to Montville, a village in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland. The Montville trip brought back many memories of a bygone age, including one about an almost forgotten Dutch sea captain, and others about a small sugar cane steam train and the guest houses located there, with a million stories to tell. (17 August – “79 – A daytrip to Montville.).

While I was doing some research for the Montville post, I happened to come across some information about a man, called James Davis, whose life began in Scotland in 1807, and who arrived in Australia as a convict in 1825, where he was to remain until his death in 1889. I found his story so fascinating and intriguing that I thought I would share it with you. However, when I started to write it, I had not expected that it would take more than 8000 words and 5 consecutive posts to complete it. James Davis managed to escape from the notorious Moreton Island Penal Settlement, to which he had been sent, and he then survived for 13 years, living in country which, at that time, had not yet been explored by the British. He had lived with Aboriginal people who had welcomed him into their lives and with whom he had become known as “Duramboi”, the “Wild White Man” (12 October to 7 December – posts 83 to 87).

Publishing all these blog posts this year has helped me to become more aware of the beauty of our surroundings and to appreciate the importance of keeping connected to family and friends. It made me think back to happenings in faraway places and to early work experiences and it led me to explore a small part of Australia’s “convict” history.  

As this year comes to an end, I would like to thank you, my family, my walking friends and my readers, for your kind comments and for your continuing support to Sue, Frederick and to me.

I wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year.  

O.P.

P.S. If you enjoyed this story and would like to receive an email every other Sunday with new stories, please fill in your details on the Join Us page. The first post for 2026 will be published on Sunday morning, 4 January with the title “The Australian Darter”.