If life is a journey, this Author's search for the purpose of it started 3am at his birth in Holland on the 7th of August 1940. World War 2 was in full swing. Some 15 years later his parents with their children followed the huge European exodus by boat to a distant sun-drenched Australia. After a difficult adjustment there, he questioned if the migrant's dream of own home on a forlorn suburban lot was inspiring enough The outrageous seduction by his voluminous Maltese landlady while watching Bonanza on the b/w TV might well have been the spark that ignited future creativity. After his tumultuous early adulthood had settled, he found his future wife in arctic Finland. She helped him carve out a niche in his many artistic endeavors. Soon, three children came about followed by a fantastic vasectomy. This book is about hope, survival, and the overcoming of all. Through many delightful vignettes, this memoire gives a humorous account of a life well lived.