After twelve years in Switzerland, nine in private primary and preparatory schools and finally three at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, I was going back to the United States. Both of my parents worked at the U.S. Embassy in Bern. At what, I had no idea. I never once heard them discuss work. I was thirteen, in 1939, when arrangements were made for...
For those who either never took, or saw little value in Geography, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere - the Antipodes - (i.e. is on the opposite side of the globe to; Canada, Europe, USA, etc.) - and so its seasons are the opposite of those in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, Christmas falls not in winter, but in summer, and it's hot - in the outback of f...
CHAPTER 1 Love lies waiting for everyone, er almost everyone and in the romance stakes Jeff Harrison was a marginal candidate and that's being generous. Jeff was lanky with mousy hair, big ears that almost flapped and had earned him the nickname of Dumbo at school. He tried to hide his weak chin with stubble he kept trimmed to about three-quarters of an in...
Feedback and criticism (preferably constructive) always appreciated. Chapter 2 picks up the day after Chapter 1 ended, so it'd probably be a good idea to start from the beginning. -December 18, 2006- The knocking on the door woke me, but surely my screaming bladder wouldn't have waited much longer to rouse me from the sort of half-drunk, mostly exhausted,...
Spring arrived at Norton's Academy of Excellence. It painted the drab lawns with blazing green, causing desolate bushes to burst into a zillion flowers. Chaotic birdsong filled the sky, and Lucian Gaines ran, seeing it all happen - the yellow of daffodils, the purple of crocuses and the pure white of snowbells. Not that he had the faintest idea what th...
So for this to make sense it's probably best to start at the beginning. I grew up in a small town. My family lived at the end of a Cul-de-sac. It was a really tight little community. Our neighbours weren't just neighbours, they were more like a big extended family. The neighbours on the left-hand side were probably the closest in terms of relationships. Mu...
I first met my colleague, Hamish Cooper at a shopping centre. It was my day off and I had decided to hit the shops and browse for a dress for an upcoming ball. As usual, I had not found a dress, but I had found a gorgeous pair of silver shoes and a matching clutch, so I figured the morning had not been a waste. Walking out of a shop trying to bleach my eye...
I was sitting in my office late on a Friday, reviewing a few applicants who had heard an opening was coming up within our office staff. I worked as the regional head of a Chemical company that supplied chemicals for weed control, fertilizer and water containment for the soil. Our livelihood depended on the farmers who grew or fed what we ate. With the push t...
Betty Washington (Née Bollier) came from a long line of athletes. Her mother had been an Olympic track star, and her father had a short soccer career. It was only natural, then, that she ended up marrying an athletic man herself, a former All-American collegiate wrestler-turned-boxer with a winning, if not outstanding, record on the professional circuit. The...
Sometimes life gives you a bunch of lemons. Sometimes it doesn't. The key is how you work it out. All my adult life I had put the needs of others first. Whether it was my parents, wife or children I made the sacrifice by leaving my desires by the wayside. Prime example my wife and I had gotten married young because I had knocked her up in our last year of hi...