Category: Mark’s story

All it took in the end was a phone call. Years of procrastination, all brought to an end by a single short conversation. The topic of this conversation was swimming lessons – adult swimming lessons, to be more precise. Growing up in Scotland, swimming wasn’t as actively encouraged as it is here in Australia, so I’d never learned how to …

“That’s it! I won’t be sending any Christmas cards this year!” When I first heard these words, I couldn’t help but think how mean, scrooge-like and downright unChristmassy they sounded – all the harder to swallow because they were emanating from my own mouth. In the fourteen years since, however, I haven’t sent a single Christmas card, and at last …

I turned twenty-one-again recently. Two keys to the door; four and two; well over the hill. Yes, I am now a whopping forty-two years old. There was once a time when I used to think anything over thirty was pure downright ancient. That was long before I actually turned thirty of course. But even when I did turn thirty, I …

The fog was gathering thick and fast, but I can still remember the night so clearly. It was a cold, dark Monday night in April 2010. As I pulled down the blinds, I couldn’t help but notice the bright light from the full moon glistening off every window, every car, every roof, every shiny surface in the street. Bright moonlight …

Sunshine, sheilas, surf. Beaches, boomerangs, barbecues. Sydney, shark, snake. These are just a handful of the words that best sum up what I used to imagine life in Australia would be like. Throw a bonza reef, a beaut roo and a cute koala or two into the picture, and you’ve more or less got the complete outsider’s view of a …

I felt like such a failure. After nearly two years living free of the black dog, and twelve months of regular blogging about my experiences, opinions and dodgy dancing techniques, I recently found myself back at my local doctor’s surgery. My mission: to obtain an increase in my daily dosage of Paroxetine. The Growler I described so colourfully in my …

What a crazy-busy time it’s been over these past few weeks! This time of year is always particularly chaotic in Australia. Everyone is in a state of frenzy, consumed with the big push towards the end of the financial year. June 30th is heavily circled on everyone’s work calendars – so much work has to be completed on time, invoices …

“So have you been with the company for long?” I asked my new boss Tim in a clear, calm confident and, dare I say it, career-building manner on my first day at my new job in London. “Oh, about two years”, replied Tim, towering over me, in his booming ex-army English gentlemanly manner. “And which part of Scotland might you …

I have a confession to make. I’ve been telling a lie for years. Not an intentional lie, or a great big whopping lie – just a wee white one. But a lie is a lie all the same, and now it’s time to come clean. So what’s this fascinating fib all about then? Well, when people ask me what I …

Seven of the ten deadliest snakes in the world are native to Australia; the deadly funnel-web spider is rife in suburban Sydney; the box jellyfish, with its deadly stinging tentacles, inhabits the waters just off the coast of northern Queensland; Phillip Island, just over 100km from Melbourne, is a breeding ground for the deadly Great White Shark… …Qantas have never …