Back in the Home State

WELCOME HOME

Hey everyone,

After a GREAT week in Canberra it was time to hit reality and head home...

In keeping with my true style of 'cram in as much as possible, especially on the last day', I got up decently on time to visit the War Memorial before meeting Lauren and Johnny for brunch. Lauren dropped me off at 8:50am, so I'd have at least 1.5 hours to explore. All I found was a closed War Memorial and a sign saying 'Open at 10:00am'. That'll teach me not to check opening times before leaving home!

After touring the gardens and spotting a few cool things (like a pine tree that was grown from seeds from the Lone Pine battle site), I raced around and saw as much as I possibly could in my short time there - it was fantastic to visit after having been to Gallipoli; I noticed things I would never have noticed before, so it was well worth it.

On the way to the airport I received a call from Phil saying that he had been working in Melbourne and was travelling to Launceston on the same flight as me. Pretty cool! I'd checked in already so we planned to meet in the airport to see if our seat allocations could be changed.

In keeping with the non-arrival style of my dear sister, Phil told me that he wouldn't be able to meet me when I landed coz he was going to head out for lunch with some of his workmates - in the airport!! So I rolled up in Melbourne, with no family to greet me and a few hours to kill! In that time I changed our seat allocations and was given the front seats in the plane, which are normally reserved for people who pay an extra fee because the seats are slightly bigger. Nice bonus!!

On the way to Launceston Phil and I chatted away and looked out of the window as Tassie approached. It was cool to fly over the Tamar River and recognise familiar landmarks. There was no mistaking that I was heading home!

I was pretty excited to land as I knew I'd be the first person off the plane! Stoked with that! I though that it would be an excellent way to surprise mum and dad as that would be the last thing they would be expecting :)

As I raced off the place I met Rebecca Snare, who works for Virgin Blue, at the bottom of the plane's stairs. She used to live at the bottom of West Park Drive and I'd bumped into her in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the end of June. It was a crazy coincidence that you'd never imagine happening, so I thought it was pretty cool that she was there when I arrived home!

I raced into the airport, full of enthusiasm, ready to be greeted by my dear mum and dad... only to find that this time the Launceston Airport was distinctly empty of any relative of mine... HILARIOUS! Who'd think that it would happen with Lauren, Phil and Mum & Dad... crazy, crazy stuff. I went to wait by the luggage carousel - no luggage so I headed for the bathroom. After doing my thing I came out to find Mum and Dad standing near the doorway, so that made up for the lack of appearance those few moments earlier :) The plane was a few minutes early, but really, that's no excuse when your daughter has been away for 6 months, is it?!?!

In a lot of ways I was rather pleased that Lauren, Phil and Mum & Dad weren't there - it makes for an excellent story! To top it off, Stu stayed home - he didn't think it was worth the effort to come to the airport because, "You're home ten minutes later anyway!"

If I didn't know better I'd think they didn't miss me! Maybe I should go away again...

Walking through the front door of the house was a funny feeling - everything was so normal, it scared me... things should feel different after being away for so long!! I even had that when I went to church, which was funny because I hadn't been in a Free Reformed Church of Australia for months! As they say, not a lot changes :)

First things first - open that bottle of wine I'd made in South Africa! I had a great evening just chatting and enjoying getting my chance to sit in front of the heater at mum and dads :) Did miss that a bit while I was away! Oh, and Mum's fantastic cooking!

Unfortunately there are no photos - my pics of my first night home disappeared along with the others....

Have a great day!

Love Sarah xxx