Chinese New Year & Dragon Boat Racing

The Dragon-Boat Racing festival is a yearly event that eventuates in honour of Chinese New Year, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it the other day.

Chinese New Year is a celebration where people of Chinese heritage from all over the world come together to celebrate a day that symbolises the arrival of luck, happiness, and prosperity. This year, 2012, is the year of the dragon. It is traditional for families to de-clutter their houses to get rid of the “old demons” from the previous year in order to start afresh in the next.

I started off the day by catching the ferry from Meadowbank to Darling Harbour, and while I was there, to my surprise; I discovered that Chinese New Year Celebrations were on. I noticed that there were boats with interesting drawings of dragons on them and as I come closer, I realised that they were boats made for racing.

Dragon Boat-Racing is a traditional Chinese New Year activity. The boats that we saw were competing in the Chinese New Year championships. The Chinese New Year competition has the highest levels of participation of any dragon boat racing contest in the country.

While I was there, a man named walked past and called out to me: “Hi Maria”, then when I suddenly turned around to see who it was; it turned out to be one of the disability personal trainers that I know, called Alexander Roach.

“How are you?” He said. “I’m competing in the race with Lisa Gombinsky, you can find her if you want.”

I watched a bit of a race then I spotted a man that was wearing traditional Chinese attire who goes by the name of “Mr Lucky” and he handed me a red envelope with a chocolate coin in it that symbolises the traditional Chinese practice of giving presents on Chinese New Year.

The highlight of the day was, when “Mr Lucky” handed me the symbolic red envelope with the chocolate coin in it as a gift.

Being beautiful and thinking beautifully

Please note that the following blog was intended to be a TV, radio or an online testimonial/advertorial chronicling my experience using the product “Proactiv”. But due to the fact that my “before shots” and “after shots” photos were unclear I can no longer pursue it that way, instead I’ve decided to turn it into a blog.

I would like to thank my actress and lyricist friend Lenita Vangellis for taking the time and liberty to help me edit the advertorial script draft.

In this blog, I’d like to challenge you readers to really think deeply about what it really means “to be beautiful and to think beautifully”, in other words; what really defines “true beauty”? I not only want use this article to promote “Proactiv” and its “looking good is feeling good” component “guarantee” but to somehow also convey a message to readers that they don’t have to “look” a certain way to “be” beautiful, and that “actions” speak louder than words and “looks”.

Let’s face it; all of us are bound to face personal self-image or body issue(s), whether they are permanent or temporary, at some point or another in our lives. In some cases “first impressions” are based or judged on the way that you “look” and we sometimes can’t particularly argue or debate that point (celebrities sometimes have these issues too.)

But believe it or not, there is and always has been

a correlation between beauty and brains that has been around for centuries and which “does actually exist”; (when you come to think of it). I personally believe that many of us have forgotten about it and/or have failed to realise it. These days our society is based on materialistic things and the only perceptions that we seem to get of “beauty” these days are those from celebrity-related magazines.

I guess the bottom line is, that each and every single one of us should and must make more of an effort to “wholeheartedly” discover, or at least try to discover,
the unique and individual qualities that help us to “formulate” our beauty from within and to celebrate that.

For me, I rely and have always relied on my inner beauty to help guide me and shine during my own personal challenges whether it’s with or without acne. Believe me it does actually work, and it could work for you too.

My experience with “Proactiv” is as follows:

I was born with Cerebral Palsy (CP) and have suffered from acne throughout my teenage years. The acne itself didn’t affect me so much. However it wasn’t long before I was subjected to the inevitable stares my disability brought on and people continually asking me what was wrong with my face. That and the name calling which at times was hard to handle eventually took its toll on my self-esteem. By the time I reached my adult years the constant taunting eventually took control of what little self-esteem I had left. Even so, I constantly remind myself that it’s one’s inner beauty that really counts.

I know Cerebral Palsy is something I have to live with but the acne I could do something about, that’s when I turned to “Proactiv” and never looked back. My skin has improved together with my self-esteem and now I’m even more determined to live my life to its fullest potential!