Indelible Adventures

Its’ funny how thoughts of Christmas’ past crept into my psyche this past week, especially given that for the most part I’ve been living away from my immediate family for more than three decades.  Strange – why now I thought to myself as I kept catching myself.  I guess living in another country will do that to you, but to be honest all I can remember about my last Christmas at home with my parents and siblings was my mum…it was the year before she died. I still remember my dad calling me (unheard of btw) to tell me (yes, not ask) that I needed to be home for Christmas – it was 1986 and I was living in Darwin.  So not exactly a short nor an inexpensive trip home, but he made it clear that it would be our last Christmas together. Me and my siblings (TW, Gary, Glenda, Laurie (back), James and Dad) out front of our house - Clunes 1986 No time to waste, so I booked a ticket home but given the late timing of my attempted booking I was out of luc...

Growing up in a small country town in Australia had its advantages, but also some inherent challenges…especially for a boy had big hopes and dreams.   I remember from an early age feeling that I was different to my siblings and not in sync with my family, perhaps I was adopted I thought but one look at my dad and there was no mistaking my resemblance to him nor my mothers personality traits which were firmly inherent in me and my siblings.   Even from an early age I found the life I had been born into suffocating. I knew growing up that I just had to get out, and that my real life was waiting for me.  I guess my formative years were a tad painful, both for my parents and me.  They could sense my restlessness and tried valiantly to ground me with a solid dose of reality but for the most part in vain.  In fact, there were many days when I wanted to just run away and get on with life. I was painfully shy (okay that part may have change...

Each summer when the kids head off to sleep away camp for a month or two (depending on when there friends are going) I usually get on a plane and take a holiday to an exotic locale – this past summer I went to Italy for three weeks (see 2:15 Shuttle blog). Two summers ago my ex and I decided to go to Turkey for our holiday.  I was always the travel planner (actually love this part) so once the location had been decided the rest was up to me to plan. Street car in Taksim (Istanbul) - they are pint sized! Hhhmmm – Turkey, surprisingly it had always been on my list of places to go, but I’d never actually made it there.  There were times when it had been so tantalizingly close - Greek Islands, but never quite there. My plan was to split it into two distinct experiences – a mix of urban and beach so we could satisfy both sets of expectations and sensibilities.   Clearly Istanbul was number one on the list in terms of the urban center to visit – with its “cross road...

I bet you thought that I was referring to my personal wealth, and in a way I guess I am but not in the monetary kind.   No earlier this year I passed one million air miles with Air Canada. Air Canada Airbus 320 landing in Vancouver    I joined Air Canada in 1998 and it’s taken me fourteen years to get me to the magic million air miles, actually earlier this week I checked and by the end of the year I will have added another 50,000 or so.  If you average out my mileage over the full fourteen years its about 71,500 miles per year.  Now, some years were far more that the seemingly paltry 71,500 miles ;-)    In 2010 it was very close to 200,000 air miles for the year, so not all travel years are created equal! This year I’ll be closer to 125,000 so clearly you have “big” years where you feel like you live on a plane, other years not so much.  When I was working with Accenture I was on a plane weekly for almos...