(Slunk down in his seat, a quiet night on Macquarie Street). Hey, where do you want to go? St Leonards eh? Strange place. You had a long day? 5.30 in the morning start? You are crazy. It is long enough for me starting to drive at 3pm. I finish at 11pm. That is respectable. But not respectable enough to see my children who will be asleep. I started my family late, they are young. I was very responsible when I was a boy but I started the family late. I left school at 15 and went and worked in my father’s business. I was very serious. Some people are 25 but behave like they are 12 years old. My boy is eight years old. He is is an Australian and has lots of Australian friends. I came from Iraq 14 years ago. My whole family came but many of the extended family are still in the Middle East. My wife has all her sisters back there. She misses them every day. Some live in Iraq and some live in Iran. It would cost me $20,000 to get all my family back there to visit them. So we will not visit. My father came out here with us. He is very happy in Australia. He adapted well even though he had no English. He has made lots of friends. But he has no English. He is crazy. My son has lots of school friends. He supports Parramatta because we live next to the Parramatta stadium. I support them for the same reason even though I do not understand any of the game. Do think that is a crazy reason to support a team? (I confess the reason I picked Richmond was I went past their stadium on my first school day in Melbourne – it was as good a reason as any). But when someone asks who I support, I say Parramatta. Then they are happy. Sport is a good thing which helps everyone be happy. In Australia we all follow the English soccer. And we play soccer here among friends. We all know the rules. Rugby is harder to understand. But here I can teach my son to swim too. He is going to lessons. We never did that in Iraq. He will be an Australian swimmer. Maybe one day he will swim for Australia in the Olympics. That won’t be crazy. That will be very nice.
