home | Here Comes The Planet

So we’re back in sunny Melbourne and I have many, many thoughts to write on the joys of being home, and a half written post about New Zealand – and everything in between. The blog is certainly not done and dusted, although goodness knows how many people will keep reading now our journey is officially done. Although we’ve not spent much time on it over the last 3 weeks or so, what with all the moving from place to place, we’re both feeling quite motivated to keep going. Think of Christmas to New Year’s as a small hiatus for us but we’ll definitely be back, I’m hoping at least once or twice a week. I’d like to record my thoughts about Melbourne and all the things we do here (for the sake of our new and old foreign friends who might be interested), and, for the sake of dispelling rumours, how very infrequently we even see spiders, snakes and sharks, let alone are consumed by them*. There’s also documenting the process of going back to work after a year off and then we’re hoping to do a bit of travelling around Victoria. Not to mention the fact that Luke still has many months of video to edit. Africa is up next!

So don’t abandon us just yet – there’s plenty of people to meet, places to go, and life-sized cardboard cut- outs to admire. You’ll see!

*My friend Sarah went to the beach with her mother the other day and, she tells me, they were both pursued vigorously by a pinchy crab but it was less than hand sized so it really doesn’t count. I’ve barely seen any spiders at all in the week I’ve been back. Barely any!

We’re pretty much at the two-thirds point in our trip now. Six months down, three to go. We’ve got a couple of weeks to go in Spain/Portugal before heading back to the UK for a bit, then the US, New Zealand briefly and then home. My thoughts keep turning, more and more often, to how much I’m going to enjoy getting home and doing all the things that I normally take completely for granted, such as being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet (thanks for reminding me of that one, Toni!), not to mention not having to carry a pocketful of toilet paper everywhere. Heck, I’m going to enjoy just knowing where toilets are. I’m not even one of those people who needs to go to the toilet every five minutes either – it just continues to irk me on a very minor level that the second I start needing to go is probably when I should start trying to find one, just in case.

Of course traveling is still proving extremely enjoyable and has far more ups than downs, it’s just that I tend to always post about the ups and, I’ll be honest and probably reveal something less than admirable about myself when I admit that I like reading travel posts by other people that are about the down sides of travel too. I think that’s why I fell totally, head-over-heels for the Ricky Gervais series ‘An Idiot Abroad’. If you haven’t seen it, do.

So yeah, there’s definitely a part of me looking forward to home – and I like being able to travel for long enough to miss home. That way when I get back it’s almost another adventure in itself, a rediscovery of life’s other pleasures. Like cooking and knowing you have all the things you need right there. Like being able to wear clean socks every day. Knowing exactly which aisle of the supermarket to head for. Being able to spend a whole day on autopilot, not having to make basic decisions about where to go, what to eat, how to get anywhere. Being able to see all the friends who I’ve barely communicated with this year because our lives don’t seem to intersect online and, even more importantly, seeing those people who’ve made a real effort to keep in contact, fill me in on gossip or just say ‘hi’ occasionally. Those people will be getting huge hugs from me.

I also hope I get to meet some of the people who’ve been reading this blog and who I know of via friends (like Deb!), or see people who I feel I barely knew before but have so much to say to now (Leanne!). Connecting with people via the blog has been a strange and wonderful thing and not something I’d expected at the outset. It all makes me want to find some way to keep it going when we get back.

What else do I miss about home? My dog – currently being spoiled to death by my housemates. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here but Penny now has her own facebook page and I spent far too long yesterday on facebook talking to her (Luke an I might have accidentally spent most of the day in the hostel bar drinking sangria) – well, talking to her via Jess, my friend, housemate, secretary, responsible adult, and all-round-life-saver. This trip may well not have been possible (or at least certainly not as easy) without her on the home end, sorting my mail, receiving my packages and sending me photos of my garden to reassure me that everything is ok without me. Which of course isn’t true – everything is *much better* at home without me because I am a messy pig and the house is far better off without my piles of fabric, clothing and junk everywhere.

So while we’re having a great time I don’t want anyone at home to think that I won’t be full of smiles and happiness the day we land in Sydney and I’m already looking forward to Christmas at my brother’s house (they’ve just finished building it) with his beautiful family and my mum and dad, seeing Luke’s family again and then getting back to my house, my garden and my friends. Luke and I both miss you all.