That's how young my German friend looked when he came to Australia more than seventy years ago, at the same age when I was just starting my commercial career as articled clerk in a German insurance company.
I arrived ten years later, and was "processed" through the same migrant centre as he and his parents and brother and sister had been, but it was only a few years ago that we met in the Bay and decided to make this a regular meeting before the lights go dim and finally go out altogether.
We both have done a lot of living and a lot of ageing since our arrival in Australia, and while our paths had widely diverged - he became a plumber and I became - what? - a bit of everything, we both ended up in the same place and with the same conclusion, namely, that coming to Australia was the best thing that we'd ever done.
Once a week, we both drink to it, he with a frothy cappuccino and I with a straight coffee, black, no sugar.
