Life: The eternal quest for La Dolce Vita! Perhaps it's here in front of us!

When I was a teenager, I was really taken in by the Peter Stuyvesant cigarette adverts on the TV. They always showed this bunch of happy looking people dining on a yacht in Monte Carlo harbour, having a fag and drinking fine wine. God I wanted to live like that!  Bought the fags.. somehow smoking them under the bridge in Kalinga Park didn't give me that jet set feel.

All it made me do was throw up!

Not like the cool guy on the Vespa with the hot bird on the back!

How cool is that?

But still the dream persisted.

So overseas travel must be the key I thought! At 22 i had a discussion about all of this with my wise old mum. She told me that I could have the La Dolce Vita effect no matter where I was. She told me this tale of the boy looking for the blue bird of happiness. Everywhere he went he couldn't find it! Eventually he realised it was resting on his shoulder!

OK mum... whatever you say. I am still heading O/S to find this elusive thing.

So to pause for a moment; what made me write this today? Well I am as crook as a chook and trying to occupy my mind while I await the arrival of our family quack to sort me out. And I just happened to look down at the shoes I have on at the moment.

And then the link between seeing the object and the history thing starts again...

You see I had these shoes hand made in Florence in 2005. And so looking at them this morning brought back the memories of all of these overseas trips. How many? Well I stopped counting at 35 and a lot of memories there for sure.

So did I find La Dolce Vita?

Yes I did...

Dining on the harbour wall in Monaco (sans the Peter Stuyvesants) with Debra and enjoying the view of the achievers of this world in their large motor yachts in 1992. Or what about flogging an Audi A8 up against the speed limiter at 250 Km/Hr down the autobahns of Germany in 2007. Standing on top of the Empire State Building in 5th Avenue New York in 2010.

All good stuff!

Our A8 rental outside our hotel in Switzerland.

But then what about last Thursday night?

Last Thursday night found us with another two couples having fish and chips at our local chippery at Clayfield and washing them down with sarsaparilla. A magic hour or so with good company. Definitely La Dolce Vita stuff! Yes indeed!

So mother.. wherever you are .. yes you were right! The blue bird of happiness is with us all the time if we look to one side and see him on our shoulder.

Just for you mother!

Ergo; La Dolce Vita is my sweet companion that accompanies Debra and I through life!

Wherever we go!

If only I wasn't feeling so crook today !