the aussie battler

there's this scene in the movie "romeo must die" that reminds me of my dad. One point in his life that is. It's the scene where Jet Li attends his murdered brother's apartment and goes through his drawers and finds this old deflated basketball. He thinks back to when he was a young kid and his brother swimming across the sea towards the lights of Hong Kong. In this scene they're smuggling into Hong Kong while using this basketball to float on, and this is where it reminded me of my own father. My father was in the same situation migrating from his homeland to Hong Kong for a better life. Having to go through rough waters and passing mountains my father eventually had arived in Hong Kong and needed a place to stay. He had found a place..a place where he had to knock on people's homes for work (house duties etc). Pretty sad just hearing this from my mother. Luckily he had found a place that night..if not, you could only imagine ..

Later on he had become a sailor..visiting ports from Africa to South America and Europe i think. But on all the trips he had his eye on Australia. "Why?" i asked curiously. "It was the best.." And i just smiled in my heart..he was right.

Some time last year when we were badly under-staffed i had managed to do 60 to 72 hrs worth of work during an 8day period. It was tough..and even depressing. The way i spoke to ppl during this time (only on msn) was pretty wacky..when you work to these lengths you dont really think about what you say. I then later realised that my father did 60hr weeks on a weekly basis(God knows how long)!

As a kid i think often i didnt show the appreciation of others in what they did. But it's only recently since i've worked full time i've gotten to understand how much he has gone through. He's gone through heaps and he deserves more from all of us. Im happy for him that he's retired now as i would always see him spending his days just working and working and working... the amount of physical labour he has done will probably be 2x of what i'll ever do (maybe more!). This is what i call an aussie battler..