5/6 - Home

So here it is Tuesday afternoon and we're home. Its such a surreal feeling sitting here in the house with our friends. There's a sense of familiarity, but also of the alien - even about our own place.

Here's the last "day" (from our perspective) of the trip.

We'd organised a Lincoln Town Car (think of something like a big black cadilac) to take us to the airport, and it was at the hotel 15 minutes early. So we were at the airport in plenty of time for our 11pm (US west coast time) flight and went through the usual airport stuff - checkins, security screenings etc. - without any undue stress.

Though a Qantas flight it also tripled as American Airlines and MexicanAir (or some such) - so the plane was full and there was no chance to spread out. Regardless, the 14 hour flight was relatively painless - with us all seeming to catch a reasonable amount of sleep, and enough variety in the onboard entertainment to fill in the time.

Arriving at Sydney airport at 6am (oz time) Maria and I were both struck by the thick aussie accent of some announcers - looks like we've been away longer than we thought. The kids were both very (and visibly) excited, knowing that they'd soon be seeing many of the friends they'd been missing over the last 3 months.

The Canberra flight was short and smooth, though it was interesting to contrast the excitement with which the kids had greeted their first flight 3 months earlier; with the "uhhh-I'm-so-tired-of-catching-planes" that they approached this (our 10'nth) with.

Getting into Canberra (just after 10am) we had the extremely pleasant surprise of finding Joe, Belinda and my mother Helen waiting for us (complete with a welcome home sign). Again, impressions after a time away are funny. Canberra looked much greener to us than we recalled though Belinda told us there'd been little rain in the last 3 months. More strange was how different our house looked to us ... perhaps Nigel (our friendly housesitter) had improved the place in our absence, more likely living out of hotel rooms had altered our perspective ... certain spaces (such as the kitchen) seemed larger, others darker, with other properties accentuated.

The day till now (5:30pm) has seen a constant stream of welcome guests - mum, Belinda, Jane, Leanne, Sabrina, Anne, Luke, ... as well as phone calls. Doubly welcome not only for the warmth of friendship but also due to the fact that their presence has served to keep the four of us active and alert (it now being after midnight in SF) so that we can resynch our body clocks with Australian time.

All in all its been a strange day for its ready familiarity - after so much newness each day for the last 3 months - though with some strange twists. Emotionally the sounds of laughter and glad voices that have filled the house all day reassure me that we are all happy, which in no way lessens the feelings of sadness Maria and I have shared over the past fortnight as we "felt" the trip coming to an end.