Australia - Here's what you get...

AUSTRALIA
30 October 2015 - 15 January 2015

Introduce the man, introduce the place that made him.

It was time. All the places, all the stories. This was to be an introduction to the stage, the theatre, the opera house to which all of these events were played out. Now it was time to show Inga where I came from and provide a visual context to all those stories and events that supported me.

Reflecting back now, that period of time had been somewhat odd. In the same year Inga and I had travelled through South America, then I returned to Australia, packed up the house in Seven Hills and to Serbia. After a few months in Serbia I'd come back to Australia with the objective of selling the property at #90. In the interim period I'd gone back to work at the Federal Court for a few weeks. All of a sudden my life had returned back to what it had been previously, sort of, knowing full well that the changes were ringing in, well and truly.

During this period of time, late October 2015 to January 2016, the plan was to show Inga as much of Australia as possible, and perhaps for me to visit some of the well known places that I had never truly considered going to myself.

So, in the tradition of other all my other kick-off write-ups such as Life in a year full of Saturdays, Keep calm and drive on, Treinta y Cuarenta - the tour of never say never, Argentina - the two timer tour, Don't call this a comeback, 43:The tour of awesome....I bring you, 'Australia - Here's what you'll get'.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi.

(Yup, unfortunately you'll get that line too).

Sydney: Trienta y cuarenta - the tour of never say never!

Sydney (Australia)
27 March 2015

El treinta y cuarenta es un sencillo juego de casino muy popular en Francia, pero poco conocido fuera de ese país.

In 2005 Australia qualified for the World Cup for the second time in their history, the wait since the last occasion had been a long 32 years. There were many times during that period when all of us despaired at the qualifying path that would be dealt to us in each four year cycle. There were nights of anguish and cruelty, there were nights of hopelessness, but, on one particular November evening in 2005, John Aloisi struck the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net and the 80,000+ parochial Australian crowed erupted in a manner I had never experienced before or since. The words that rang true on that evening, ring true  as equally today, ‘You can never say never’. Life at times can seem to be so predictable, so straight forward but in a short half breath, the ground beneath your feet gives way and you’re left in altogether different reality. Sometimes the opportunities that this presents amounts to possibilities that you could never have fathomed in the second before the event took place.

So now, in the tradition of all my other kick-off write ups such as ‘Life in a year full of Saturdays’, ‘The wingand a prayer tour’, ‘Don’t call this a comeback’, ’43: The tour of awesome’, ‘Argentina– The two-timer tour’,  I give you ‘Trienta y cuarenta’ – the tour of never say never!

Part of this write up also needs to be dedicated to the continuation of an epic story in the making. For those of you who have missed ‘Riga – Latvian Nightmoves’ and ‘Paris: Who the hell saw that coming’, you would know that Inga and I met in Riga, had our first date in Paris and now, effectively, we’ll be having our second date in Buenos Aires…but of course, how in the world would you ever follow up an epic first date like Paris. For those of you that want to know, the city of good air will resolve your dilemma!

3 months in South America with two major birthday milestones, 30 & 40, time to get started!