On 12 December we started our round the world trip, which coincides with the Australian school holidays. Our first stop was northern Wisconsin to spend Christmas with my mother, Jean, and two sisters, Cindy and Jenni, and their families. When you fly from South Australia to the America Midwest you travel half way around the world and if you have to travel during the peak time at Christmas you might as well get a round the world ticket which is about the same price. So after Wisconsin we travelled to New York City for a one-day layover and next to Helsinki, Finland for another day and a half. We spent New Year’s Eve with our friends from our Syrian days, Heiko Schnell and his family. We then drove to Switzerland to visit Padma’s colleague at St Mary’s College, Peter Robin and his wife Anita. We travelled to a small village near Munich to visit another friend of ours, Inge, and finally to the small village of Illerbachen to visit more of our friends from our Syrian days, Karl-Heinz and Hiltrud Linke. From Germany took the TGV high speed train to Paris where we spent four days so Joseph can practice his high school French. From France flew to Singapore, where Padma’s mother met us after flying in from Perth. We flew to Penang, Malaysia where we met up with Josh and Xander and relaxed and try to warm up before returning to Australia.