Eternal London Haunts Us Still

'Go where we may - rest where we will, Eternal London haunts us still' (Thomas Moore).

I think if you've really experienced London, you'll understand Moore's word choice. I'm sure the locals would say I haven't lived here long enough to really understand, and they're probably right - but I understand a little.

'America is my country and Paris is my hometown' (Gertrude Stein). This I understand, as I've felt similarly about London ... I think part of me always will.

We're moving again (and it feels like it will really happen this time) ... to Perth, Australia. What I've already experienced of Australia (and Australians) makes me excited to start our new adventure, even though I'm not fully resigned to ending our current one.

Please come visit - I think we'll have plenty of space, and the scenery is beautiful.

I found a few quotes about Australia, Australians or by Australians, which I like:

'The true Aussie battler and his wife thrust doggedly onwards: starting again, failing again, implacably thrusting towards success. For success, even if it is only the success of knowing that one has tried to the utmost and never surrendered, is the target of every battler' (Michael Page & Robert Inapen).

'Those who lose dreaming are lost' (Australian Aboriginal proverb).

'If you go out for a big night and by some misadventure you end up in a prison cell, you can count on your best friend to bail you out, but your best mate will be in there besides you' (Australian observation)

'The cricket bat is mightier than the pen and the sword combined' (anon).

'A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour' (anon).

'Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticise them, you're a mile away and have their shoes' (anon).

'They who came here in chains, who were lashed while they worked in convict gangs at Port Arthur. They who like many others were driven through starvation or oppression from their home-lands to the shores of this new country, Australia. They, who for a multitude of reasons that hopefully, I or my children will never witness or experience, decided not to harbour grudges or discontent but rather to look to the future. They who embraced this country as their own and said; let's get on with it, this is a new land, this is our home' (Dennis O'Keeffe - Musician).

'It is a mistake to think you can't be hurt if you don't care' (Errol Flynn).

'Australians are, I have found, ready to laugh at themselves if they think that the joke is funny and the humour not ill-directed. And the ability to be self-deprecating is the mark of confidence; it is, as much as anything else, the yardstick by which a society measures how tolerant and self-assured it is' (Soumya Bhattacharya).

'Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia' (Charles M Schultz).