This is a personal story of a life lived in many places from a childhood in Newfoundland to the bustling and increasingly modern metropolis of Beijing China. It includes stops in London and Paris and Jakarta and Prague and many years in Ottawa where I was lucky to serve in a number of senior positions including Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet during the intense period leading up to the Québec referendum on sovereignty in 1995. It is not a diary nor a complete history of the events through which I have lived. It is simply a collection of anecdotes and events as I remember them.