I'm now back on English soil but I can't go back to the daily grind tomorrow without a word of thanks to all the amazing people who turned out to say hello during my madcap week back home. I never realise how much I've missed you until I see you - and I'm not in touch nearly as much as you deserve.
Over the past two years I've done a great deal of meeting new people. As the months passed and friends from Aus who were here to smoothe my early way went home, I forgot what a simple and delightful thing it can be to talk about the present with people to whom you don't have to explain your past. In my rush to see and do things for myself, I think I've forgotten sometimes how cool it is to share stuff - even simple daily stuff- with people you've shared stuff with before.
So to Alex, Craig and Milly, who arrived at Southgate as strangers to one another and never once ran out of things to say while we ate and drank our way through a long Friday lunch - thankyou.
To Dave, MsHelle, ReBECCa, Maggie, Josh and Fathma, who took me for a trip down memory lane at the Carlton Yacht Club, dinner in Lygon St and lashings of chocolate at Koko Black - you are the best, specially MsHelle for letting me crash at hers (even if she DID try to spoon at 4am!) and Dave for driving me and my medieval costumes back to my Mum's next morning.
DT and Ros and baby Lily, thankyou for lunch and extra best vibes to Jamie who drove us there, even though he made me feel like someone's mum, sitting in the passenger seat of their 'family car' with a pair of toddling girls in the back.
Rach, tell Linds I had a lovely time and wasn't fazed by any of his questions - and that Anthony was dead impressed that someone else had seen 'the World's Fastest Indian'.
So to Alex, Craig and Milly, who arrived at Southgate as strangers to one another and never once ran out of things to say while we ate and drank our way through a long Friday lunch - thankyou.
To Dave, MsHelle, ReBECCa, Maggie, Josh and Fathma, who took me for a trip down memory lane at the Carlton Yacht Club, dinner in Lygon St and lashings of chocolate at Koko Black - you are the best, specially MsHelle for letting me crash at hers (even if she DID try to spoon at 4am!) and Dave for driving me and my medieval costumes back to my Mum's next morning.
DT and Ros and baby Lily, thankyou for lunch and extra best vibes to Jamie who drove us there, even though he made me feel like someone's mum, sitting in the passenger seat of their 'family car' with a pair of toddling girls in the back.
Rach, tell Linds I had a lovely time and wasn't fazed by any of his questions - and that Anthony was dead impressed that someone else had seen 'the World's Fastest Indian'.
Rich and Trine, I hope Queensland was everything you deserved, and that your beautiful boys gained their wings with a minimum of squawking on takeoff.
Liam and Kat (and Sparkles!) and all the the Cliffy; and Pete, Marilla, Mandy, and everyone else at the the Dan - you I miss every time I head for a Sunday session in any other pub. I wish we all knew the songs we've each learned since I've been gone - but damn it's good to go over the old stuff that I can't sing in an English pub!
As for my family, there aren't enough ways to thank you as you deserve, and 'I love you' doesn't say nearly enough. I do believe that, for the first time since I've been here, I'm tasting something like homesickness.
Gonna go now before I make a sook of myself. Life here has much to offer - there's a full summer of stuff to fit in around my working hours, and a fella here who probably deserves my attention for a bit after my travels without him...
Liam and Kat (and Sparkles!) and all the the Cliffy; and Pete, Marilla, Mandy, and everyone else at the the Dan - you I miss every time I head for a Sunday session in any other pub. I wish we all knew the songs we've each learned since I've been gone - but damn it's good to go over the old stuff that I can't sing in an English pub!
As for my family, there aren't enough ways to thank you as you deserve, and 'I love you' doesn't say nearly enough. I do believe that, for the first time since I've been here, I'm tasting something like homesickness.
Gonna go now before I make a sook of myself. Life here has much to offer - there's a full summer of stuff to fit in around my working hours, and a fella here who probably deserves my attention for a bit after my travels without him...
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