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Back home (for a while now). Time to reflect on a great trip.
A few notes on the voyage home - which of course is what it would have been in the old days, 6 weeks or so on an ocean-going vessel. Instead, it took 24 hours on a BA 747. 24 quite long hours, I would say, thanks in part to Eloise (aged 10 months or so) from Leckhampton, Glos. Not that she was deliberately trying to keep he parents and me (enjoying the seat next to them) awake for 24 hours but that was the main effect of her jovially energetic approach to trans-continental flying. Still, being awake gave plenty of time to enjoy another remarkable film - "Intouchable", from France - and get a lot of reading done (mainly Neil Gaiman's American Gods and - for lighter relief - The Pillars of the Earth. Credit for rounding off the whole inbound experience should also go to the airport staff at Heathrow, for whom the arrival of a single, early morning flight ahead of schedule was clearly completely unexpected and overwhelming. So AJ had to wait around an hour for a wheel-chair 'decant'. But we made it home eventually.
Looking back during what seemd like a remarkably short train journey back to Rugb y (compared to Aussie distances) gave a chance to reflect on the highlights - let's be cheesy and call them the top ten moments. In no particular order:
1. The first view of Sydney harbour bridge from a taxi on day 1; after which that vast structure seemed to be ever-present in the background of every day (at least those spent in & around Sydney). It was like a gigantic echo of the Cheshire cat's smile (ok, an upside down smile…) and an image memory that will bring a smile to mind for a long time;
2. Lunch at the Opera House - and if we're after absolute specific accuracy, the delicious combination of prawn raviolis and Bloodwood Riesling wine;
3. The sight of a vast plain that rolls out as you descend out of the Blue Mountains on the highway towards Bathurst - which must have given the first pioneers pause to observe something like "crikey this place is big…"
4. Wildlife moments (part 1) - the moment a wallaby hopped alongside the road near Gulgong; and the friendly lizard who introduced himself on the Taronga coast path
5. Cold beer - especially the light beer variety - taken almost anywhere, but with special mentions to the open air bar at Custom House square in Sydney and the Commercial Hotel in Orange;
6. Loki, Otis, Tim & Kam - at any time and all the time, and thanks for putting up with me;
7. The Epping RSL club and other RSL's visited - simple, impressive hospitality.
8. Weather-forecasters on TV and radio who predicted rain in vast quantities almost every day, but who in fact got it right (in terms of me actually being at risk of getting wet) only twice. To be fair, it did chuck it down somewhere most days, especially further north in NSW…
9. Wildlife moments (part 2) - a tie between the koala's and the cockatoos;
10. Aborigine hand-prints on a rock face in the middle of the bush, and a realisation that while it comes across as a young, new country, people have been discovering and living in Australia for a very long time - possibly a lot longer than our presence in Europe.
And that's about it. Until the next time.
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