To London and beyond ...

The day, 30th Nov 08, was a long one indeed but a great one. We got up on that day not realizing how long that day would end up being. Instead of spending an hour in Sydney, we had 5. This was a lot more than an hour – we had 5 hours in a terminal that was being done up so there was nothing but duty free shops and a few other random food stores. These food stores were run by the same company so they had the same food, no variety. And there was a pub. Because there were 4 of us traveling, we were given $20 each to spend at any food outlets in the airport. Sadly, there were only these 2 stores plus the pub. So over 5 hours we tried our best to spend $80 – sounds easy but all we ate was bad coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, hot chocolates, tapa’s, fruit salad and anything else to add up to our vouchers total! In some ways, this was the most exciting part of the waiting and also watching the girls use trolleys to have races around the terminal, trying to avoid all dangers of crashing into others or things.
But the worst was over – once we got on the plane headed to Singapore, the girls fell asleep and the rest was history. It was amazing – the girls were so content and happy to be sitting down for extended periods of time, watching dora, mickey mouse and bits of Space chimps or Beverley Hills chiwhuawhua (how do you spell that word?) and eating crazy aeroplane meals – small, dinky bits of food!
We arrived and got through customs etc pretty quickly, so grateful to finally feast our eyes on Matt, my precious brother. We were all rugged up with hats, scarves etc and ready to head home. This was not quite as easy as it sounds with our 4 suitcases including the kitchen sink. Mum had recently had an accident which meant she was left with a broken rib, bruised ear and whiplash in her neck, so she was not able to help carry much. Matt and I headed out with the suitcases, trying to encourage the girls who were at the end of their tether by now. It was a mission especially when I let one of the suitcases go down an esculator, yelling out “mum, mum!” to help her not get hit by the falling kitchen sink! Then the problem of getting the suitcases on or off the underground train manouvering them as well as the children, pushchair and grandma (who was very capable indeed)!
We are here. It is lovely. It is slightly cold. But it is surreal and very lovely indeed.