A chance in life

As my friends know very well a key event that shaped my life forever was winning a scholarship for the United World College of the Adriatic in 1997. I won one of the four scholarships that the Sardinian government had reserved for talented youngsters in the region.
Marta, Emauela, Elisa and myself were the lucky ones that year who made it after a few rounds of interviews.

I seem to remember that thousands and thousands of Italian students took part in the overall selection process, for about 20 actual places to study the International Baccalaureate in this boarding school. The number is probably exaggerated- for Italians often like to make things look more dramatic. What is not exaggerated is that a shed load of us fought to our very best to get a chance to escape our normality and our destiny and grab this opportunity. Attending this school meant opening the door to a world of opportunities that would never manifest themselves ever again.

The selection process was full on, and ranged from just academic tests all the way to group leadership challenges, role plays and interviews with psychologists and governmental representatives. Of those long days I remember a lunch at Valburger (a dodgy fast food place in Cagliari) with other candidates that seemed so much more self confident that I had ever been, meeting someone who would become one of my best friends, having five minutes to prepare for a role play were I was to argue that embargo was a justifiable way to drive policy when I did not know what embargo was, having to connect nine dots with three consecutive lines, being asked about Pythagoras' tetraktis, Marta in a leopard skin shirt,  meeting Gabriella (the most inspiring teacher I have ever had and that I wish would have 'forced' me to follow my real passion in life), being around a lot of people who seemed to be bright and determined, going to church and asking God to help me (something that I do not do often), and a feeling of massive fear and emptiness at the end of the process.

The final round was held at the school itself, near Triest. My dad and I took off on a trip filled of hope. I perfectly remember leaving home, my stomach filled with butterflies and nerves. My family could not quite  afford the air fare, so we drove to the North of Sardinia, took a 12 hours ferry to Genoa, and then drove all the way to Venice and Triest. Dad - bless his soul, told me that was not the last time I was gonna make him drive those roads.

He was right, as he often was.

If I had not made it, I would have not gone to university in London, I would have not traveled the world, I would not met the most important people of my life who have shared my journey with me , I would not be living in Sydney in the job I do and I would not be dreaming in English right now.

The moment that changed my life forever came on a June morning in country Sardinia. I had just spent two weeks waiting for a letter - waiting for the postman to turn up every day on his scooter and put me out of my misery.  The skies were so blue and the sun so hot. It felt like standing on the edge of a precipice without being able to move.  Every day without news was a day that pushed men further and further into fulfilling what my life was meant to be about rather than what I could dream of doing and being.

A telegram was delivered that day and my brother said it was for him. That moment, I understood that I had been rejected.My heart sunk. Ten second later I was crying. My brother had opened the telegram and realized that it was actually for me and that I had been accepted.  The telegram was written in English and said that they were pleased to inform me that I was one of the 20.

I will never forget that moment. How I felt, how life felt like it was opening up like a miracle had just happened. There a moments like those in everyone's life. It's the moment an Australian boy or girl jumps on a plane to kick off their oversea experience in Europe, it is the moment we discover a passion that will dominate our lives, it is the moment when what you did, said and thought resulted in changes that you could have never have imagined and that modified everything forever. Those are our key cross roads, and each of us has not got more than two or three in our lives. Those are the moments when real change happens and make all other changes possible.

My friends take the piss out of me because I talk about those days a lot. My friend Emma asked me whether I had gone there for 10 years, rather than  2, cause I seem to have an unfeasible amount of stories to tell about that place. However, the reason why I do is that I cannot help but feeling fortunate and thankful for that miracle to have happened. In many ways that was the beginning of my life.

Sydney after Hong Kong

Dawns over the Australian desert are made of fire, like a hellish landscape of incredible and distant beauty. Below, dark clouds like sponges soak up the last drops of  night. From outside,  the plane must look like an angel made of iron making its silent way somewhere important.
As I return to Australia after two weeks away it hits me again how remote and in many ways untouched this place is. It hits me how attached I am getting to it.

The last week in Hong Kong has been fabulous. Asia never fails to charm with its alien beauty, encompassing heat and engaging buzz. Hong Kong is the strange child of China, a world made of skyscrapers stolen from a jungle that still tries to prevail and that licks at the city with its disorderly green tongues. Eagles fly outside the window of my office on the 58th floor.  I wonder if life will take us here.  

The world is changing.

New York after Sydney

I am writing this entry from JFK on my way to Hong Kong after having spent a few days in New York for work. This was perhaps my fifth time in the Big Apple and certainly it has been very different from all my other visits.

All the other times were for pleasure, from London, when I was all about the Big Smoke and the big cities.

This time was a business trip with important meetings and the promise of fun in between.

Firstly, the trip from Sydney is much more epic than the pond cross from London. Door to door it takes about 25 hours, and the time difference is 14 hours. It's is a journey through space and time. Travelling with Qantas and American Airlines helped me feeling absolutely destroyed, defeated and awful by the time I touched down.

I spent the first three days managing a ghastly jetlag that I cannot even begin to describe. It was like being submerged in cold water and trying to make sense of the was going on above the surface. Or like being very hangover on repeat. 

Given that I had a few monumental meetings on the way just meant that the whole first half of the trip had its fair share of fear (TM) and anxiety. The low point was going to bed at 10pm one night, and then waking up two hours later and not being able to fall asleep again. Torture.
 
The other thing that I realised is that how used I have become to the sea breeze and the feeling of space that one gets in Sydney - New York suddenly felt dirty, fat, unhealthy and overwhelming. 

Having to work and try to impress all the big bosses when the only thing I wanted was sleeping and eating comfort food didn't help.

So, if you had asked me on Tuesday I would have told you that my trip was being painful. You would have probably thought also that I am a massive wingy wingey bang bang. I was.

However, as the jetlag subsided the 'switch' happened, in other words that magical spell that means that nobody can leave New York without having fallen in love with it. A lovely dinner at Buddhakan with Jx2Sx2, a fun night in Brooklyn, catching up with DJ, a run in the soft afternoon light in Central Park, an afternoon walk in Chelsea meant that I am leaving with wonderful memories of my time here. Again.

New York is one of those places with a massive personality and a lot of secrets to tell. I am a total outsider there, but the city makes you feel like you want to get to know it better.

In the past I always had that 'destiny feeling' that I would one day live there. It did not happen this time. I guess times move on and life stages take you in different place. I feel excited about being 'East' at the moment and quite excited about going back to that part of the world.

Autumnal Sun

Perhaps because La Ninha has made last summer wetter and cloudier than expected, the recent autumnal sun and crisp blue skies has felt like bliss. Walking down Liverpool Street in the soft morning light makes you feel like the world is slowing down, providing that moment of quiet and respite before another day at work. Sydney in Autumn is beautiful.

There is a feeling that the city is quieting down towards the hibernations of winter. People prefer dinners out with friends over bars after the big summer parties, and it all just feel cosier.
The gyms don't feel as frantic with people buffing up before a trip to North Bondi.
The line in front of Messina (the amazing gelato place on Victoria Road) persists somehow, but it is far from the crazy feeding frenzy of hot summer nights.

Sydney is definitely a place of seasons.