Indelible Adventures

This week my friends in the United States celebrated Thanksgiving.   Now for us Australians it’s a bit of a foreign concept given that Australia was primarily settled as a convict colony.   Clearly no one was thankful for being 10,000 from their kith and kin in the British Isles, neither the soldiers nor the convicts.    Interestingly it was until the third convict fleet that free settlers arrived on Australian shores way back in 1793, but still I’m guessing that the harsh and intimidating local environment took away much of the thanks for being there. Being a convict transported to Australia left little to be thankful for! I must admit this week made me stop and wonder why we need a holiday dedicated to give thanks to all that we have.   What brought this home more than anything were the actions of a friend of mine.   My friend Ellyn has had a myriad of health problems over the past couple of years but her actions this past week made me realize th...

I was reminded earlier this week of a crazy adventure that I had when I was teaching in Darwin.   As you know I’m not a fan of fishing.   Why you ask?    Well growing up I was given a choice by my parents – I could either go fishing with my father on Sunday mornings or go to church.   You guessed it - I chose fishing…a heathen by any other name!   However, it wasn't long before I came to really dislike fishing.   I think it may have had something to do with the extraordinarily early mornings (we always left the house at 6:15 am sharp), or perhaps it was the biting cold of the early morning riverbank, lakeshore or dam that I was destined to be stuck on for the next four or five hours, possibly even the smell of fish guts or complete boredom that engulfed me as I waited patiently for a fish to take my bait.   All I know is that it was just too much to handle but what could I do…go to church?   I had no appetite for that either, s...