The beginning of the European adventure

We've made it to Sydney Airport in one piece. A slight hiccup occurred when Tom took off his shoes and held up  the queue going through immigration and then another when he was X-rayed and a strange glowing light was revealed throbbing through his left shoulder. Very mysterious. The officials just waved him through as if it were an every day event to have people with strange red lights pulsating  through their chests as they leave the country.

This trip has been a long time coming. We booked the tickets in January. The reason for this escapade is that Tom is returning to Paris for the 40th reunion of the Paris Metro magazine he set up.

And me being me, I had to build it up bigger than Ben Hur and include Hong Kong, Barcelona, Rome and Helsinki into the equation. So I just tripled the cost, tripled the stress and tripled the fun.

And we are escaping this:

This is the building site next door to us. The extremely noisy building site. Sophie, Dave and Biggie Smalls are very kindly moving in to babysit Spike. Spike must be the most neurotic dog in the world. Yesterday, sensing that something was up, he decided that he was dying of a mysterious and sinister disease. He couldn't walk and moaned and yelped in pain. Today he is like a spring lamb. Another of life's mysteries.

Another such mystery was a photographic exhibition at Manly Art Gallery I went to which featured some wonderful photos of the powerful relationship human beings have with the animal world.

The photographer's family looked after a damaged magpie and in return the magpie helped the photographer's wife get over a tragic accident and gave the family many magic moments.

 

It was a powerful and moving exhibition. And now we are about to board our plane to Hong Kong and immerse ourselves in more of life's mysteries.