Adventures of An Urban Nomad

Last week Danita and I lost our best buddy, Sancho. I wrote about it in last week’s post (Vale Sancho). Since then we have been going through a period of intense mourning, but it has eased. At first I was crying constantly until by the end of the week I

Today Danita and I buried one of our best friends. Sancho, our family member, fur-kid, travel companion and all-round lovely chap has finally arrived at the end of his road in this life. Fifteen years ago, when he was one, he joined our family. He was born on 1st November

According to King Solomon, said to be the wisest man ever: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens” The current season is one of rebirth and renewal – it’s Passover, Spring/Autumn equinox (depending on which hemisphere you’re in), the transition to

As we all know, one of the primary raisons d’êtres (reasons for existence) of Telstra is to creat anguish, angst and frustration in the lives of their customers. And they’re very good at it. We have all experienced the frustration of making an phone call to their customer service centre

I’m normally opposed to contra deals in business. This is because they can often lead to resentment where one party feels they haven’t had as much value relative to the amount of value they provide. Or there’s a lack of clarity about the terms of the agreement. Or because it

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax– Of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot– And whether pigs have wings.” (With thanks to Lewis Carroll.) Like the Walrus, the time has come for me to talk about my weekly

For a couple of people who don’t travel much (Danita and I) September/October has been a very hectic time. From mid-September until mid-October we had a Sydney trip, which was covered in detail over the last few posts. We arrived home just over a week ago – Thursday 12th October.

Danita and I just spent 3 weeks in Sydney. While the opportunity to catch up with friends was great it was a good reminder, for us, of why we moved to Tasmania. On the way back we treated ourselves to a special day in Canberra. Now Canberra is a zoo

This week is the Jewish festival of Sukkoth (pronounced Sook-ot). Like all Jewish festivals it has some specific rituals (apart from a lot of eating but that’s a given for all of them). One of the ones for Sukkoth is to “dwell in a Sukkah”. A Sukkah is a temporary

According to the Google dictionary, competence is “the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.” There are some things I’m good at, other things I’m OK at and then there are things that … well, let’s not talk about those. The things I’m good at I enjoy doing and will

Last Thursday and Friday were Jewish New Year (or Rosh Hashana). In the Jewish calendar it is now 5778. Over the last decade I have helped with the running of the synagogue services at the Montefiore Aged Care facility in Hunters Hill on Sydney’s North Shore, known colloquially as “Monte”.

I have now crossed Bass Strait five times by ship. The first time was a sailing ship on which I was part of the crew bringing a Sydney-Hobart boat back to Sydney after the race. The other four times were on the Spirit of Tasmania, a somewhat larger and more

As city slickers, Danita and I never paid a lot of attention to the weather. All we needed to be aware of was how hot or cold it was going the be and whether it was raining. This was in order to answer the most ijmportant question of “what do

This week, in an attempt to be helpful, I caused a catastrophe. On Thursday I received an email from my business partner asking about our transaction limits as he needed an amount paid into an account that day. I responded with a question as to whether he meant our bank

The highlight of this week for Danita and me was Thursday 24th August. That was our first anniversary – not of us being together as a couple but of our new life in Tasmania. One year ago last Thursday we stepped off the boat (well drove off actually) to a

As you know, Danita and I have a fur baby aka four legged child aka the kid who eats off the floor aka Sancho. To us he’s still a child but in the doggy world he’s a seriously senior citizen. His next birthday is in November and he’ll be 16

When we moved to Tasmania, Danita and I expected that the first year would be a pretty steep learning curve. This week we got over a major climb and we’re now back to our normal level of chaos. Even though we overlook Bass Strait, the Don River, have a dam

Danita is a genius at inventing TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) as memory aids. Recently she came up with a set which seem to work naturally together. TIT, BUM and LEG. TIT – Trust In Tasmania Not long after we moved here a friend who lives in Hobart made the comment

This last week has been a time of chaos, confusion and calamity – you may have noticed. If it feels, to you, like the world has shifted on its axis and things just aren’t working properly at the moment you aren’t alone. In my world it has been a highly

Firstly, a disclaimer. These comments are my ideas around what works. They are based on my experience of being in a number of failed relationships and now one that has lasted nearly 18 years, which I consider reasonably successful. They say, “a fool learns from his mistakes while a wise