Hi, and welcome to sunny-ish August!
With the last week or so of sunshine, it is starting to feel like we’re over the hump of winter, and warmer days are ahead – and with them, brings the cheery feelings of summer warmth and holidays with the families. In the meantime, the property market felt like it had a bit of a slumber with new projects in June and July (we were working hard behind the scenes on a bunch of projects for launch in the spring ), and while historically, it’s about the same around this time of the year – the warm weather brings with it optimism, that this too will turn around.
From the time I could remember – the Olympic games were always a tradition to watch – back from the 1980 Olympics in Moscow – when we gathered in Georgia to watch the events on a small colour TV (that was a super-luxury item back in the Soviet Union) through to now when we can keep tabs on all events from the comfort and accessibility of our mobile phones – for me it’s always about witnessing the human spirit that shines through and is so inspiring to follow and reflect on.
And sometimes, it’s not even the gold medallists who stand out (of course, Aussie swim teams “clean up” in the pool with the number of gold medals we collect there :), but individual performances like Natalya Diehm, an Australian BMX rider who won bronze. She’d had every joint reconstruction known to man or woman (knees, shoulders, etc.) and still persevered to win through to Matt Hauser, who finished 7th in the Olympic Triathlon and celebrated like he’d won gold.
Did any of you catch the end of the triathlon? A New Zealander, Hayden Wilde, was leading for most of the run course and either started to celebrate a bit too early or had cooked himself by leading the whole way. Meanwhile, a Briton, Alex Yee passed him in the last 200m on the way to collect the gold medal for himself. And then they embraced at the finish line and hugged, not as fierce competitors but as close friends.
There were also moments from athletes like Simone Biles returning from her mental health breakdown in the last Olympics, winning gold, and cementing her place as one of the greats in her sport. Australia’s own Jessica Fox, who had tried and faltered through several Olympic events in the past, is now 30 and collecting what most have thought impossible: a gold medal in both canoe and kayak events.
I’m sure there have been hundreds of unique moments like this across the different events at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Perhaps this is the real reason why the Olympics are such a special time in human history—as they genuinely highlight what is possible despite challenges and setbacks, something we mere mortals couldn’t imagine being possible. Yet here are humans showing what we could be capable of if only we persevere and keep believing!
High-Performance Habits for Men – Part 2: The Body
How did you enjoy last month’s video interview on high-performance habits for the Mind? Well, this month, we’ve got an even better one for you! In the second episode of the series, Troy Flower from Wellteam discusses all the key insights into how to get our bodies to perform at a higher level.
Click here to check it out and learn how to get even more out of life!
Jeffrey Bretag – Emphasise Liveability and Environmental Preservation
Our next episode of the Land Pioneers podcast discusses environmental preservation and how the McCloy Group, a dominant greenfields developer in the Hunter Valley, NSW, emphasises liveability in its communities.
Jeffrey Bretag, the development company’s planning director, is an urban planner with environmental science and bushfire planning degrees. He combines these varying backgrounds to ensure the McCloy communities integrate holistically into the natural environment around them.
Jeffrey has also just completed his first ultra-marathon, 100km in one go, and we delve a bit into how running such distances has influenced his professional career.
Enjoy this far-ranging episode – click here to have a listen or watch it on Youtube.
Pottsville Lifestyle Community Visualisation
We’re thrilled to be able to share with you the images of one of the projects we completed earlier this year, which the council has finally circulated to the residents of the township.
The project is proposed for the Pottsville township on the north coast of NSW and would add roughly 300 affordable lifestyle homes, an RV parking area, playgrounds, a community centre and a men’s workshop shed.
Here are a couple of words from our client – “Fantastic results and a pleasure to do business with. Eagle Vision was very professional and efficient in delivering such a valuable element for any development project, from community engagement and approval assessment to sales and marketing. I have no hesitation in recommending Eagle Vision.”
Click here to view the 3D visuals created.
Journey to Ironman – Adelaide Half-Marathon 2024
One of my favourite events for the year is the Adelaide Half-marathon, and it’s nearly upon us – August 25. In roughly three weeks, hopefully, I’ll get to collect another medal. The joy in the journey to completing a full Ironman triathlon is maintaining fitness, and together with my coach, we felt these events up ahead will help keep it going.
It causes me to forego the comfortable bed on all those cold winter mornings to have the volume of kilometres in my legs and comfortably complete the 21.1 km half-marathon.
Above is the map of what I ran last year – so this year it’ll be a matter of doing about the same – only this time around, I’ve got a bothersome left ankle that hopefully will come good in three weeks time.
One of the more unique aspects of participating in these events is the camaraderie between the runners. There is always a conversation to be had or a joke shared along the way – because most people know that we’re in for the long haul (whether it’s 21 or 42 km – they all take a very long time to complete). I’ve made some great friends from these runs over the years – some of which I get to see while training along the Esplanade runs.
Have a great month ahead, and I hope you have worked out a fitness routine for the winter months to keep the winter slumber away!
Stan Zaslavsky.