Category: 2017-2020 Rhineland
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ESCAPE TO THE PENINNE ALPS
Winter in Bonn was getting a tad grey so Padma, Joseph and I packed up and headed to Switzerland for a white holiday. Along the way, we picked up one of Joe’s Aussie mates, Aidan. We found an isolated chalet via AirBnB on a dead-end road at 2,000 metres near the village of Arolla in the Peninne Alps. We were after snow and found it here high in the Alps. The road to our chalet was snowed in so we had to hike through the snow to find the front door.…
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AN AUSSIE MEAT PIE TO SAY THANKS
I’ve been waiting 21 years to say ‘thank you’ to former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer. Today I got that chance and bought him an Aussie meat pie to show my gratitude. In 1996, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his deputy Tim Fischer acted swiftly and decisively to launch a gun buyback program. Twelve days before they launched the National Firearms Agreement and Buyback Program, Martin Bryant unpacked an arsenal of automatic weapons at the historic site of Port Arthur and massacred 35 people. It wasn’t a popular move…
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THE WINE WALK
In December of 2013, Padma and I were eating snapper at the Sydney Fish Market while our mate, John Peacock, was going on and on and on and on about the fabulous wine walks which our mutual friends Marlene and Juergen Diekmann organised in the Rhinelands near Bonn. They sounded like fun but I never thought we’d ever be able to attend one. Fast forward to September 2017 and Padma and I joined the Diekmanns and a dozen other colleagues for a walk on the Rotweinwanderweg, the fabled Red Wine Trail…
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THE BIKE RIDE TO WORK
I can’t wait to get up and go to work each day. I’ve clocked in three weeks on the new job and each morning and afternoon a most pleasant journey awaits me. My (temporary) furnished apartment came equipped with a bike. I restored some life to it as I needed a primary form of transport. It turns out the quickest way to get to work is by pedalling. In the morning I push the bike to the east and pedal for about three minutes through some quiet back streets and alleys…
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I’M HOME, LUDWIG
Day 27. Tbilisi International Airport. There was some commotion at our guesthouse as Joe and I awaited our pre-arranged taxi shuttle to the airport at midnight. US Vice President Mike Pence was in Tbilisi for reasons no one seemed clear about and it was causing huge traffic delays. Our taxi would be 25 minutes late. Not a problem, said our guesthouse owner, Giga. He powered up his Prius SUV and packed us up. Along the way we picked up Ada, our friend from the Caucasus who in another uncanny coincidence was…
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THE SEA CHANGE. AUF WIEDERSEHEN ADELAIDE
A few years ago, Padma and I started talking about a sea change. Joseph was nearing the end of his high school days and that would present us with an opportunity to spice up our lives a bit … change our jobs, change homes, change something, change anything. We all reach a point in our lives when we need to re-evaluate the direction our lives have taken, we need to examine what our true values are and, if we’ve strayed from our ideals, we need to get back on course. I…
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