10 minutes in Mackay, our time

All life is a journey. Every minute, every hour, every day.
My alarm goes at 5am and I listen to the BBC World Service for half an hour to see what's been happening whilst I'v been asleep.
Then the "Face Time" jingle rings to tell me it's an incoming call from the antipodes, it's far too early for family to ring from here, it must be Andrew.

The screen floods with sunlight, a cloudless blue sky, wide streets, little traffic and the tropical palm tree confirms its not a call from the UK.  "Morning", although clearly not morning over there, it just adds confusion to juggle with the time difference so "morning" will do the trick.

Andrew is driving between jobs and ever keen to show off his surroundings and share a minute or two, with the marvels' of modern communication, your there, inside the car turning left and right down the wide boulevards that substitute for our narrow twisty roads. Missed that turning, no problem do a U turn in the mid afternoon traffic, (wait a minute "what traffic") and turn around, it's all so relaxed.
After not more than 15 minutes he is back on again, job done and he's off home to pick up some 'take a way' and with his partner in tow, it's off down to the beach, there's a shower of meteorites expected tonight and where better to watch than on the beach.
Events are happening across the globe as I write. Good events, bad events each driven by circumstance, each a product of the environment each pre-determined.
In the cocoon in which we live we convince ourselves that we have some control, that we determine the course of events but in effect we are merely  players scripted by forces outside our control and other than minor adjustments to the ships heading our course was laid when we were born and depended on luck.
We are creatures of the society and the norms we were born into. Perhaps through travel and emigration to a distant country we can absorb different norms and develop an antenna which recognises those values into we were born as well as assimilating the new values. Two setts of yardsticks is no bad thing since, if for no other reason it teaches you that there is more than one way evaluate not only our own actions but also more importantly the people around you.