Good friends are hard to come by; endearing friends even harder. But for those of us who lived and worked in Aleppo, Syria in the early 1990s friendships can be eternal.

Our friends from our Syrian days, Scott and Andrea Christiansen and their daughter Caya, are visiting Padma and me. And our friends Joop and Gina van Leur flew in from Tamworth in New South Wales. So we organised a gathering to welcome them and share memories of our times in Aleppo and catch up … some hadn’t seen each other in 30 years. Gus and Monique Gintzburger hosted our mob at their home near Joondalup. Gus and Monique’s children (some spent their youth in Syria) joined us along with our regular group, Mary and Ken Street, Mira and Willie Erskine and John and Freddy Hamblin.

Thirty years have passed since we all walked the streets of Aleppo together, but our friendships haven’t missed a beat.

Thanks to Gus and Monique for hosting us!!

(Thanks to Gus’s granddaughter Charlie for snapping the photo!)

Photos below of some of the highlights of the Christiansen’s visit to Western Australia