Click Your Heels Together Three Times…

G’day.

Oh man, the joy that comes from saying that. I didn’t not even imagine how excited and happy I would be to be even back on Aussie soil, let alone in my home town, in my home.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. After an hour plus hour drive from Abbotsford to Vancouver, I caught a plane from Vancouver to Los Angeles, 3 hours, spent almost 12 hours in the airport (yes, I went a tad nutty by the end), caught a HUGE A380 Qantas flight to Melbourne and made myself not get distracted by the sickly awesome tv screen in front of me with the 100+ movies and music and shows and instead tried to sleep… 15 hours later, arrived in Melbourne and there was sun and heat and Australian Open posters and australian people and NO WAITING to get through immigration and easy customs (cos I know the drill!) and a short walk to the domestic terminal. A quick change of clothing (man did I ever smell bad!) and then onboard my flight to Perth. 4 hours.

Total travelling time: 41 hours.

I was and still am so very excited to be home. Everything that was ‘once routine is now the perfect joy’. Small things are so precious -  seeing the rabbits and my brother’s home and the cricket on tv and australian currency. I had’t expected to feel like this, since when I came home from Zambia, it was nice but not so powerful. Maybe because the cultures of North America and Australia are similiar enough to veil the differences for awhile.

I love weating t-shirts outside, and shorts, and no shoes. I love not having to spend alot of time putting on different clothes to go outside and then taking them off again upon arrival. I love blue skies! I realised I hadn’t seen a good clear blue sky in a long long time and it was… well, really powerful again. I love being around mum and grandma and seeing my brother and sister-in-law and the new baby and the dog. I love hearing the australian accent on children. I love saying ‘rubbish’ and ‘wheelie bins’ and ‘petrol’ and ‘thongs’ (!!) and ‘Coke’ (!!) and having people not look at me strangely. I love being on the left-hand-side of the road and sitting on the left-hand side of the car in the passenger seat.

I love my home. I spent several moments of yesterday, while it was 6:30pm and ridiculously sunny still, basking in the warmth and wondering why anyone, including me, could possibly ever leave this place.

My trip to Canada is over, but I don’t feel regretful for coming home or miss the country as a whole … because of everything, it was the people that made it awesome and most of them have changed locations by now so nothing can ever be the same as it was. It’s a bittersweet thing.

I’ll continue to write on this blog, because blogs are forever, and because tomorrow I leave again to fly to Adelaide for 12 days. Yes. I am crazy. Jet lag at the mo isn’t too bad, the sleep on the 15 hour flight meant my body thought it was night and went with that, I’m just a bit exhausted physically. I’ll go have an instant coffee (no more drip coffee!!) and sit in the sunshine and see my unintelligent rabbits and walk down the lane and visit grandma and unpack my bag only to repack it again.

Hello Australia, it’s so good to be home.

love kez.

P.S. As I was walking off the LA-Melbourne flight, ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ was playing in the plane and I smile. So appropriate.

I have been to New York.