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Claudia in front of Deal Island's cliffs.

Bass Strait. In March 2006 finally it's time: After a year-and-a-half of planning and preparation Claudia realises a long dreamt dream, crossing Bass Strait, the ocean passage between Tasmania south of Australia and the mainland, in a sea kayak. Long before the 1998 Sydney to Hobart regatta — when only 44 out of 115 yachts which had started at Sydney Harbour made it to the finish, five sank in violent winds of up to 80 knots and waves of 10 metres, and six sailors died — Bass Strait has the reputation of being one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. Firstly, because it's here where two oceans, the Indian and the Pacific, come together at a rather short "joint". Furthermore, the passage is quite shallow causing huge waves by strong tidal currents in combination with appropriate winds. the "secret" how to handle all this? Take you time, and wait for the right weather and sea conditions. But htis and much more can be found on Claudia's special web site Website 'Crossing Bass Strait'.

The trigger: Pico surrounded by his surprises

Pico's birthday. Claudia has just returned from her adventure when Peter is leaving Sydney. His destination is Florida where his parents Gisela and Pico live as early retirees. Peter's visit has been planned for a long time as a surprise for Pico who is celebrating his birthday just in these days (which BTW finally makes him an official retiree). Already since November Gisela has been aware that her son is about to come. So has anne, Peter's sister, who arrives in Florida only few days before him. Out of the blue, at least for Pico ... Thus, Florida is the place for an almost complete Kappelmann family come-together.

Once Peter has arrived shortly after midnight after a couple of detours and a 35 hours journey, he is picked up at the airport by Gisela and Anne. At this time Pico is sleeping in bed, clueless, of course. Only on the next morning when returning from walking the dog he will find his first-born in the swimming pool. The surprise is a success because Gisela has shared her excitement and anticipation only with the neighbours (but really all of them ...). Only Pico had no idea what was going on behind his back for several months.

Anyway, time is flying through: Exchanging the newest gossip —; the last time Peter met his family was in June 2004 —, visiting some malls, walking along the beaches, enjoying happy hour drinks in the golf club restaurant et cetera. Too soon it's time to say good-bye and see you again. The next time, we believe, in Sydney. after all our mouth watering stories about home renovation ...

Before: All walls are slightly peach.

After: One wall is really peach.

Butter Ball and Boca Raton. We are renovating several rooms at the same time. In the meantime, the old lamps got removed from the kitchen ceiling, the resulting holes have been patched, everything is painted in white, and modern halogen lights illuminate the room. On the weekend right before Peter's departure to Florida we paint the hallway. BTW: In the evening we organise our second-biggest party so far in the new house. Quite crazy to combine renovations and BBQs ... Anyway, our kitchen gets an visual accent by a vivid colour at both ends, namely Butter Ball. And our long hallway needs to be optically shortened. Easy, just take a darker paint, for instance Boca Raton, kind of chocolade colour.

We wonder who might come up with these names. Is there the profession of a colour name inventor? Is this an apprenticeship with a Board of Trade certificate after three years, or do you go to uni? And what about some hurdles in foreign languages? Remember the example of the car producer who wondered why their model called Pajero didn't sell on the Spanish market? Finally, someone realised that Pajero is a swearword in Spanish. Can you find Boca Raton on walls all over the world?

Our polished copper fireplace on eBay, three days before the auction's end.

eBay. Again we restart renovating our living room. The virtually new, because never been used copper fireplace, the air condition unit, and the glass cabinet shall disappear. Therefore, we go auctioning our household items on eBay. The hole where fireplace and aircon used to be shall be patched nicely. We have ordered a modern gas heater with 75 per cent energy efficiency. Here in Australia central heating is almost unknown. Yet the winters are chilly enough to enjoy a heater. The new fireplace will be built into a false wall, thus the work starts again: We use timber to build a frame; this gets encased with plasterboard; over some weeks the gaps are filled with plaster, which needs to be sanded back several times causing a huge dusty mess in the whole house; and eventually everything gets painted. What's next on our agenda, you want to know? Now, where the old fireplace doesn't exist any more, there are some panels missing in the already patched wooden floor ...