Down Under with Jan Mikaela Nora and Ella

Sunday we were at the Clipsal 500 : the yearly V8 supercars race in a street circuit downtown. For days you could hear the rumble of racing engines all around town, even in our own backyard. The roar made Mikaela’s heart beat faster, so of course we had to go. It’s the biggest event of the year in Adelaide, with crowds of almost 300.000 people spread over four days. Twenty years ago this was the scene of the Formula1 - right downtown - but today it serves the 8 cylinder cars (Holden versus Ford), plus all kinds of other motorized vehicles. There’s even a show of jetfighter airplanes. All heavy and noisy stuff! And although the day ended a bit more subtle, with a concert of Santana, we could still hear it when we closed our eyes at night: VRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM ……

"Promise we won't remind you too often ....."

There you go boy: 40 years old today. Or should we say ‘young’? Either way, it’s a milestone. I took a day off work to get to terms with it. If you consider this ‘halfway’, you could question what on earth I have been doing in the first half?!? Anything significant at all? Well, apart from meeting all you guys, getting all stressed up about study, work and theatre, and moving to Aussie with the love of my life, I guess the most significant achievement in my life so far is making it to my 40th birthday in one piece. Surely that counts for something, right?!? At least well worth a celebration. The festivities started this weekend with a BBQ in the Adelaide hills with colleague Peter. To my great surprise his wife Sarah made me a real birthday cake. They even put candles on top! Now is that a real birthday or what?!?