we arrived canberra past midnight september 6th, 2020, had a bite to eat, a celebratory beer, then slept. woke to a brilliant late winter morning. wandered around the house and out into the garden of our divine prison where we’re being detained for two weeks of COVID quarantine. it’s going to be an exciting four years here once the virus is tamed.
pernille is the new danish ambassador in australia. for the first time in my life, i’m a diplomatic spouse, nothing more.
since we started doing this thing called life together in india 27 years ago, we’ve been a two-career family with kids. now i’m retired and the kids, 26 and 23, are on their own in the US.
the past eight years has been a time of separation. i’ve kept a residence in the northern virginia suburbs so the kids could have an answer to the question, “what is your home address?” it also allowed me to finish out my career with the voice of america at headquarters in washington. pernille has done diplomacy in places in exciting but out of the way capitals from cairo to kabul to beirut. now we’re reunited in a dream (though also slightly out of the way) spot, the australian capital region.
in many ways this is an auspicious moment to start a blog. so here goes.
not that heinlein 