We are back, wheels down, in Brisbane and home after seven months. Weeks have passed since our last blog entry, which was one of the hardest I have had to write. There has not been much enthusiasm to write since our return as we wrestle with trying to make sense of being back home – interesting times…
Let’s step back a few weeks, from Sri Lanka: we flew to Singapore where our friends Michael and Alicia and their two sons, our godsons, now live. Sadly Michael was away on business but Alicia was a wonderful host and we really enjoyed catching up with her and our godsons.
Making Alicia’s famous dumplings
Onwards on the last leg to Brisbane and while our flight arrived at 1:00 am we zipped through Customs courtesy of the express passes from Emirates due to my lifetime Gold status on Qantas. Worth all those hours flying over the years accruing frequent flyer points and status. We arrive home and straight to sleep. The next morning we are up and about without jet-lag, our slow gradual return with three stops has allowed us to adjust our body clocks in a much more user friendly manner. Great to do if you have the time, but impractical for most working people.
Everything is both familiar and new, I have always wondered how our eyes and memory work together, when we were travelling, everything was new, probably making my 20th century brain work in overdrive, now we are back we are overlaying the memory with the current image. Enough science.
The day of our return is Halloween night and Manly, where we live, hosts the biggest Halloween party in Brisbane, culminating in fireworks just outside our windows – just for us of course!!
Welcome home, aka Halloween night, fireworks in Manly
We adapt so quickly: within a few days we are in a ‘home’ routine again, albeit still feeling a little strange. We catch up with many friends which is wonderful and helps ground us. Our life has been moving most days for seven months, to stay put for a period of time is disconcerting, well, for the first week anyway. The exciting stuff, like dentist visits, crashed hard drives and weed filled flowerbeds have been the focus of our efforts.
Welcome home flowers from a dear friend
Enjoying the new local coffee shop with real French croissants!
We are still surprised at how much stuff we have after the simplicity of a single top-box bag, the decluttering process will continue, of that we are certain, however it will have to wait until December as we have a couple of short trips coming up. I know, back a couple of weeks and we will be off again. So much for staying put.
The first trip is motorcycle related. In 2013 just before we left for Europe to spend time with family, we attended a Horizons Unlimited (HU) http://www.horizonsunlimited.com event. That was probably the genesis of our RTW adventures although we did not realise it at the time. We have always wanted to give something back by presenting aspects of our experiences at the HU event but in the last four years we have always been away when the Queensland HU event was on. This year, the HU Snowy event for Sydney and Melbourne riders was scheduled for mid November. We offered to make presentations on ‘Starting a trip on the other side of the world’ and ‘Iran and the Stans’. We knew that it was late, but the Snowy HU organisers said Yes! Anne worked magnificently for a week to prepare two Powerpoint presentations while yours truly took his afternoon naps. Then we are off to the Snowy mountains.
– Anthony
2slowspeeds 
Fantastic fireworks! Glad to hear you are adjusting to life back in Manly so quickly – those croissants and a good coffee will definitely help 😉 xxx
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You will have to come and try the croissants and coffee sometime.
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Well done on the presentations…plenty to keep the audience entertained! Enjoy the Snowys. We’re missing our armchair rides XX
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Will be loading the presentation in a few days. Give your armchair a rest for a couple of months.
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Hope you enjoy being back at home, but I wonder how long it will be before the wanderlust bug kicks in again. I’ve thrown a dust sheet over the armchair for the time being so don’t leave it too long.
I think the fireworks were mainly to celebrate you (both) being back. If the organisers of the fireworks are looking for an effigy of Guy Fawkes to put on the bonfire, I may have a suggestion.
Keep safe, mes amis.
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No sure how long the wonderlust will stay at bay. Will have to see after our Feb/March trip back to Europe. Finalised your Christmas plans yet?
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Sounds like you’re still restless! The adventure of travelling pales with day to day life. Enjoy giving the Snowy presentation and I feel sure it will be well received xx
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Maybe, we will see after a couple of months, Snowy went well blog entry to follow.
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Can’t have been easy, back home without the excitement of waking up to new challenges each day but you seem to be coping well, with a little trip here, a little trip there. And there’ll always be the paintwork to keep you happy once there are no little trips to look forward to.
(thought : wonder whether that will ever happen?) xx
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