So you are on a mission from God? You want to go to heaven or hell? (laughs) Sydney? Is that heaven or hell? Yes, I agree, probably heaven. I have been in Melbourne for more than ten years mate. I like it here. Sydney is nice. Went there once in 1999. Hard to drive around. A mess. I can get you to the airport at 8.27pm. I can go faster but only if you give me $500.00 to pay for the fines. 8.27 it will be. I came out here with my family when I was a young boy. We stayed in some refugee camps but not for long. We came here in 1995. Palestine had just got its independence – or so it thought. There was lots of building and construction going on. But it was not safe. My parents wanted to bring us up in safe place. All I knew about Australia was that there were lots of sheep. I thought it was going to be a big sheep farm and thought we would be seeing lots of sheep. I was very surprised to land in a city and not see any sheep for many years. I have not been back to Palestine. All my family are here. Why would I go to a place I do not know and which is not safe and not really independent? I have all I need here.
(and yes, we were delivered to the airport at 8.27 precisely)
Thanks for reading. This blog is an opportunity for me to capture some of the diversity of my writing interests. My muse tend to appear on my shoulder as I board an international flight although not all of my writing is inspired by travel and foreign places. These blogs have been the basis of a novel (Flowers of Baghdad) but there are a few other writing projects in progress besides. Please feel free to leave a comment. Or two.