Blogs from England
Home Again.........
9 months after leaving the UK we finally move back in to our London home. We spent August, the driest month of a lousy British summer, in the West Country and Cornwall. We had a great time and really enjoyed the company of friends.
The big move back in came at the end of August. We had booked professional un-packers to help us. Having lived out of a bag for a very long time, it was great to have our things around us again - but why so much stuff? As my boxes and boxes of shoes were being loaded back in to corners and cupboards, I wondered why I needed sooo many pairs. Why do I have dozens of pairs of jeans, drawers full of clothes and the kids so many toys? It took us over a week to find enough places to put all of our things. We had a big purge before we left, but an even bigger one is coming now we're home. We have to get rid of loads of things before we start getting attached to them again! A car boot is definitely in order. It's a great exercise moving all your possessions out of your house and moving them back in again. Now we're completely settled, I know exactly what I have in the house and where it all is.
So how is it to be home? It's lovely to be sleeping in our lovely, comfortable, big bed every night, to be able to cook, entertain, watch TV.......all those things I really missed while we were away and the things we so often take for granted. The sad thing is it feels almost as if we have never been away. Time heals but it also means great memories fade - our 8 month trip now all seems so long ago. I need to find a job - although I am really not sure exactly what I want to do! In the meantime, I'm enjoying a lovely sunny September in London, cycling with the kids to school, taking them to London's parks, meeting friends. While the girls are at school (which they're loving) I am slowly putting together the first CV I have written for 14 years and preparing to rejoin the workforce, a year after leaving it. Dave's home, but off on tour again in a couple of weeks. He won't be home for 2 months.
With life back to normal, it's obviously time to start thinking about our next trip...........
Home Sweet Home
This is the moment I have been waiting for! All my friends back, my house and my OWN room! Florence has moved in to the spare room and I have a double bed all to myself!
Well, I shouldn't be jibber jabbering on about having my own room. If you're interested I don't miss travelling at all, nope, not at all - but I do kinda miss New Zealand and all the exciting things we did there.
We have only been in England for 2 months but it feels a lot longer. I am very happy to be home!
Home At Last
I am finding this blog difficult to write because we are home now and I haven't written one for a long time. We spent the school summer holidays in Bristol and Cornwall and only moved back in to our house last week. Things have changed a little bit, for example I've got my own room now. It's great being home, playing in our garden and with our friends. I am a little bored of people asking me which my favourite place was on our travels (if you are interested it was New Zealand, Laos and Tasmania). Now we are back it feels like we've never been away.
Top of pageFlying to Perth
May I recommend Singapore Airlines. Free wireless internet on this flight to Singapore. Imagine my surprise. Wireless means whole plane I guess. Good chance to learn our new web-site inside out. Thanks Pete.
Flew on Iberia recently and the staff were very blunt (I am being polite). In contrast these Singapore girls go out of thier way to please. My lovely hostess (see example to left) asked the pilot if he would change his meal choice so that I could have the last sea bass for my dinner. True story... not made up! I can only imagine what First Class is like!
Leaving London
Well that was a weird feeling. I walked out of Helen and Andy's this morning. A slight hang-over from good-bye drinks last night but a also a strange haze of 'is this real, what have I forgotten to do, am I really not going to see London/friends/home for 9 months. Nice night out.... thanks chaps. Mike Bone will have a 6 month old by the time I next see him. A very stressful last week, need I say. They tell me there is no such thing as a friction-less relationship. How do you judge when you have got that friction down to an acceptable level for both sides. Gabby has an new A4 sheet of nice life quotes..... I am sure one of them will cover this. Anyway, have you noticed that if you put a hyphen in a word suddenly it is spelt correctly. I will be in Perth before Ella's Party at the Pavillion on Sunday. It will be nice to touch base on that day. I love my family and missing days like that are harder than people think. Anyway the sparkling water is doing the trick and I am sure that I will be in the reclined position for a lot of this flight. De-stress time. A little pic of our home to remind me where I was yesterday.
Top of pageLast days in London
24th November - last day at school & my birthday
My last day at school was great, I had so much fun and was treated brilliantly. All my friends wanted to sit next to me at my lunch so I made a list of who was sitting next to me and opposite me which was quite hard to do. When my mum, aunty loo and sister appeared at the door with some big cookies I took them and hid them in a corner. After I had to come up at the front of the class and explain where I was going on my big travels. I gave out the cookies as it was my birthday.
4 days to go
We are off so soon and I am really excited!
We have so much to do before we go and are really busy. My 9th birthday is tomorrow and we have a big birthday and leaving party on Sunday so I can say goodbye to all my friends from school.
At the moment I am more excited about the trip than my birthday - but that might all change tomorrow! Tomorrow is my last day at school - when I come back I will be in year 5!
not long now........
Tomorrow it is Ella's 9th birthday and I am really excited so is Ella.
We have already moved out of our house - we stayed at Aunty Loo's for 2 nights & for the next few nights we will be staying at our friends, Evie's & Daisy's house.
We leave on Monday. First we are going to Thailand! We are going to meet lots of people while we are away. We are very excited and can't wait to start!