Home again, home again, jig giddy jig

Friday, 25 September

Things are packed. The 6 bags are fairly full and we’re trusting the cheap hand scales we bought in London to not led us astray in New York. We really haven’t bought too many things whilst in NY, so we should be fine.

Our 6^th bag is 2 cheap stripey plastic bags we bought in London, one being placed inside the other for added strength. The trip to NY had one handle rip off, so we’ve swapped the inside bag with the outside for the last leg of our journey which consists of 3 flights, the transfers between flights, a taxi ride and the last car ride home. It just made it with an added 3 wraps of ‘Checked Baggage’ tape at the end. It had good, full life.

J

We spend the last few hours before the flights in Harlem with Dee going from shop to shop looking for those last minute bargains and Gene and I reading books.

Overall, the trip back to Canberra was pretty smooth. We watched one man pay US$450 for extra baggage as he bought too many clothes whilst on his holiday to NY which was quite funny as the airline staff was running around finding a plastic tub to put the clothes in and then taping it all up.

Without saying too much about the flight without it sounding like a scene from ‘The Castle’, it was a good trip with lots of movies, book reading and a few hours of sleep.

Saturday, 26 Sep.

Yes, I’m a bit weird about dates but today is 26 ½ years in the job and I’m coming back home using the last of my leave that I’ve been saving for the last 6-7 years.

Due to the changes in time zones, today was about 8 hours long.

Sunday, 27 Sep.

We were offered the opportunity to catch and earlier flight from Sydney to Canberra and spent the minutes at the airport to warn out our friend who is picking us up we’re coming home early.

Coming home was a bit surreal. We’re back to where we’ve started from without too much of a noticeable change. Normally when I go away for work, there’s a period of settling in as I get use to the flow of life that has occurred whilst I’m away. This time, we’ve all been away and we almost slot into the routine we normally have.

It’s almost like the last 5+ months have been a dream.

I started unpacking, trying to find places for the things we have, giving of gifts, and taking empty bags out of the house. 2 bags down, 4 to go. We were lucky in having food and milk in the fridge from one of our friends who stayed at our place just days before to take her children to Floriade, a flower show in Canberra. It was a great relief not having to worry about shopping straight away to have a coffee and lunch.

I couldn’t help myself and in the afternoon we went for a quick shop to buy food for the next few days and I later put some more air in the tyres of one of the cars. I noticed that one of the tyres (not the one which was the lowest) had one of my upholstery tacks in it. I didn’t believe it was in too far in, so I pulled it out and then tried to quickly stick it back as air started come out. A quick tyre change at the petrol station and I was home to 2 sleeping girls who really didn’t wake up for the rest of the day.

I went to bed about 8.30pm absolutely knackered knowing my frail mind and body will only let me sleep 7 hours and I’ll be up early the next morning.

Monday, 28 Sep

It’s now 3.45am having a coffee in my TARDIS coffee mug…..

At the start of our trip in the UK, we seemed to have caught a rolling series of public holidays on the Mondays for the first month or so. Just to have the Alpha and Omega, today is a public holiday in Canberra.

A day planned full of packing away, washing, sorting our memorabilia into some sort of order and getting the phones and internet turned back on. In a few days’ time, I’m off to a re-enactment event I had organized a year ago over the long weekend. It should be great just to mooch around.

We still have a few $ in the bank at the end. I’m back to work in 2 weeks’ time and Dee will start to looking into her job opportunities but she still needs a holiday from her holiday. We’re thinking that I should visit Brisbane next week if our finances allow it to check up on our house and property to see what is going on.

With our trip now just memories and experiences, I’m already planning for our next adventure. Maybe in 5 years’ time, I’ll walk the pilgrimage route from Calais to Compo De Stella in period clothing if my body will allow me. I’ll only be 48, so not THAT old. Dee will take the opportunity to visit all those little villages she seemed to miss out on our last one and finally have her canal barge ride and Gene will be an adult and starting her own life but hopefully take care of our place when we’re gone.

Thank you all for sharing our adventure.
:)