It may seem a little strange but one of the problems that I constantly wrestle with is learning to relax. I go on a holiday and spend the first week thinking about all the things that I could be doing with the time back in my businesses. This is a crazy state of mind as many of us are working long hours just so we can have a great vacation……and there we go spoiling it.

I’m so used to my life’s accelerator flat to the floor that lifting my foot and coasting for a while just seems a little unnatural. It was with a little bit of apprehension that I succumbed to my wife’s desire to have an extended 5-week break. For some stupid reason she suggested that I really needed it. Go figure???

I have no idea how my wife knows these sorts of things but I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s a genius. She just seems to know things about me that I tend to ignore….and having a break is one of them. I have a suggestion for you.....go and thank your significant other for keeping you together rather than letting you become a workaholic.

We’re now a week into our European vacation. We’ve been through Buckingham Palace in London, Versailles Palace, stayed in the Trianon Palace (got a great deal btw), seen the Bayeux tapestry and the D-day beaches. We’re now back in Paris and about to head off to the Louvre…..and I feel great!

I often find myself in the Qantas club at Melbourne airport and is my custom I like to write a few thoughts down. For the past 11 years I’ve largely been traveling for business but this time’s it’s different…..Roselyn is with me.

After 5 years of planning, delays due to too much on and a myriad of other reasons we’re finally leaving on a 5-week vacation through Europe. It’s like a dream come true.

Rather than be morose that I’m leaving home again to travel by myself to the other side of the world this time I’m full of energy thinking about the adventure we’re about to share together. We figured that after 30 years of marriage it was about time we started doing some more world exploration together.

With all these pleasant thoughts running through my head I then remembered the fact that we’re about to embark on a 25-hour journey in a flying tin can. When you think about it, planes have a lot in common to an aluminium drinking vessel.

The doors pop open with a pressure equalising hiss, so does a can when you open it. The sides are made of the same metal as a can of Coke and the atmosphere is about as about as caustic to life. That being said, I’m strangely looking forward to this journey as it will involve watching movies rather than building powerpoint presentations.

The clock is ticking as we’re on the downhill race towards the longest vacation we’ve taken in over 11 years. Now that our children are old enough to look after themselves, Roselyn and I are heading away to Europe for six weeks as a part of our 30^th anniversary celebrations.

There’s a myriad of infinitesimal details that need to be rounded up before embarking on the journey. The chore of making sure the bills are paid while we are away (can’t they just wait???), we have Internet on our phones at a half decent price (ie. not extortionate) and the older children we’re leaving behind clearly understand there are to be no parties while we are gone.

On the last point…..is a wink between our two daughters a bit of a joke or something I should be worried about?

I'm celebrating my 30th Wedding Anniversary today. We're having a bit of a party with 50 people in the evening I've got a new suit with a bow tie so that I look a bit like a silver haired James Bond. This does have it's benefits as I can fend off the other guys from the most beautiful girl in the room......and I get to take her home with me.

It's at times like this you can't help but reflect over the last 30 years and how you've shared them with another person. I was trying to put into words what I feel towards my wife and found myself at a bit of a loss. How can you express in words your feelings for someone that run so deep?

I love lakes. They are beautifully calming as you gaze across their sparkling surface in the glow of a setting sun. It just so happens I don’t enjoy one particular lake……this one spontaneously formed in our bedroom early Tuesday morning.

I was working late (as I often do), headed to bed and as I stepped into the bedroom, rather than the comforting soft new plush carpet beneath my feet I heard a splash. You guessed it, we had a cracked pipe that was letting out water that should normally be trapped inside of it into our bedroom.

Being the good husband that I am, I waded across the bedroom and woke up my wife to inform her we were about to drown in the half inch of water making its way towards our bed. Being the joy of my life, she replied, “What do you want me to do about it?” and promptly went back to sleep. It was with fear and trepidation that I too managed a few winks to dreams of be engulfed in a deluge.

The next day I mastered my anxiety and called the insurance company. I was no longer anxious about the water (I’d got over that) but more apprehensive about what the heck did our policy actually cover in these circumstances.