We return to Paradise

Paradise is not a word I would use to describe Australia, though a US associate of mine who recently spent some time here chose that word to sum it up and while we are excited to be back here... mostly to catch up with Norman he he, the ride home from the airport was a kinda sobering one. Can't tell you how kick ass it was to get off the plane though. We left the hotel at 2PM with a 6PM flight on the cards. Well, we didn't get off at 6PM, and we found that pretty much all our US flights were delayed in some way or another, so it was nothing new there.

We were pretty happy to get out of the cold too. Our last days in NYC were spent freeeezing and it was really quite uncomfortable. To come back to overcast conditions here was a little less than overwhelming, but not unexpected. I've lived in Melbourne since 1984 and expect nothing else ha ha.

The commencement of our return trip also involved me getting into an argument with the guy at the first screening port at JFK. Michelle bought a snow globe and due to its fragile nature I wanted to take it with us on the plane. Same wiht our illustrious portrait from Central park. For those unaware, the US have some particularly idiotic policies about liquids going through the scanners. Well they wouldn't let me keep the snow globe, and I got quite T.O'd about it. Life goes on...

Fortunately when we got to LAX, we had a very fast change over, but we still ended up sitting on the tarmac for a goats age. At least we could self medicate on the LA-Sydney flight, but this was not without peril. We got KILLER seats, but Michelle felt really unwell for a considerable part of the flight and considering how anxious we were to get home, and how long it was taking this occurrence really didn't help things.

We sat on the tarmac at Sydney airport for another 75 minutes before that flight left and finally got to Melbourne. My sister and our nieces were there to collect us and it was nice to see familiar faces. Mikaela who is 4 was soooooo excited to be at the airport I'm amazed she could contain herself. We had soooooooo much luggage it was almost comical, but we really bought a lot of stuff and had a kick ass time doing it.

Feeling quite delirious just now and our house is an absolute bomb site... tomorrow is another day. Norman is going crazy complaining all the time, but looks in good shape. He's also extremely woooly compared to when we left him. Not sure what that's all about, but perhaps his carer can shed some light on that when she drops the keys around.

And with that, our journey is complete. Check back for further adventures...