Epilogue

So there it was 2006 almost over and time to reflect. How do the stats add up?
6fabulous holidays
25+ hotels
41 gruelling weeks in the classroom
50+ beaches
161 blogs
2500+ photos
20000 pounds spent
More memories than we can count.

Rosebery Ave was a welcome sight despite the cold. David, Michelle, Joel and Liam had looked after the house very well. Although we'll probably spend the next 6 months re-finding things. The children just loved re-discovering all their toys that could not make it onto the plane.



Glad to be back? Yes. We could have done with another 6 months perhaps but to leave wanting more is probably a good thing. Fantastic to be seeing friends and family again. Shopping has been lots of fun back in England although the fact that we came in time for the January Sales and have got a new car and TV would be partly to blame. Could also have done with the 6 week summer holiday we had just earned back in Australia but getting back to teaching in England is a great relief. Not so much for Tina who after teaching for 7 days in the past year has now got 12 days in a row to start January with.

Would we emigrate? No. That 24 hour flight reminded us just how far away it is. Australia is a gorgeous country and we met some gorgeous people in a gorgeous climate but the rest of the world is just too far away from there. We will return though. Perth, The Top End and the great Ocean Road all need visiting and perhaps just one more serving of Fish and chips on a Friday Evening at Warners Bay Foreshore would be nice.

One last painful journey

It was about here that the tears started to come. Somehow saying farewell to places can get to me more than personal goodbyes. There's a sense of putting on a brave face when you see a person and say goodbye but while Tina clicked the camera and the children eagerly dug out the DS games, it offered a chance to look out of the window of my Happy Cabby anq quietly blub.



Had I known what awaited us at the airport I might have cried a bit more readily. We arrived at 7pm for a 9.45pm flight. For the next two hours we then became a bloody good episode of "Airport".
The Chappell family have arrived for their flight from Sydney to London via Dubai but the guitar is causing a few problems.
"I'm sorry but the guitar has to be part of your luggage"
"But it won't count as part of our allowance?"
"I'm afraid it will"
"But I phoned up about this to check. We would have sold the damn thing if we knew we could not take it on board."
"Who did you speak to?... OK I'll check with my supervisor."

An anxious two minute wait and we got the all clear. It would have to go with the luggage but would not count as part of our allowance. That done we got the bags on the scales.

"That's 34 kilos we can't take that one on and this hand luggage is 3 kilos over and this one. What are you doing with those bags? You're only supposed to have one item of hand luggage each. They'll have to be weighed too. Sort them out over there and come back to me when you've done."
So we spread ourselves out.



30 frantic minutes later. We were 6 kilos lighter and the nearest bin was 6 kilos heavier. Various hats, boots, books, presents, boots, electronic toothbrushes and undies were destined never to make it home.



The Chappell family are now ready at last to check in for their flight but the drama is not over yet.......
"We have to make that flight, can't you just let us on, I've got two tired children here! We have to get home" (Cut to Ad break)

This was the anxious plea after a one hour stalemate in which Emirates insisted we should have a paper ticket and we insisted that we never had one. It was now 9pm. Boarding time. After a pointless and fruitless search they gave us the green light anyway. We dashed through the security checks. Did some severe queue jumping at customs and immigration and sprinted 400 m to our gate. Having arrived with almost three hours to spare we got on the plane with minutes to spare. The prospect of 13 hours on a plane never felt so good.
Here are Jess and Alex at Dubai Airport. Jess cuddles her new toy whilst Alex displays the effects of staring at a TV screen for 13 hours.



It was glitzy , glamourous golden and surprisingly Christmassy at Dubai but no time to go Camel riding or stay in Luxorious hotels. We had another plane to catch. Another 7+ hours; 11:30 am GMT and we were home.

Goodbye Whitby St!!!!

Only our house for a year but it's been packed full of memories. What a shame that the farewell photo had to be taken on bin day.



Goodbye to the side garden where many "soccer", rugby and cricket matches were played out.


Goodbye to the garage. Haven for our rusting Ford and many tight table tennis matches.



Goodbye to the Verandah. Where several evening drinks were had and several torrential downpours and thunderstorms were viewed.



Goodbye to the Kitchen. Tina's Kangaroo stew will take some beating.



Goodbye to the kitchen table. Scene of many hours of negotiating with Alex to have "just one more mouthful"



Goodbye to the Study AKA blog nerve centre and the focus point for many hours of mediocre lesson planning.



Goodbye to Alex's bedroom. A place of not enough sleeping and too much Nintendo DS playing.




Goodbye to Jessica's bedroom. Which came alive every morning when mother and daughter argued over hairbrushing.



Goodbye to our bedroom. Where we .............................slept.



Goodbye to the Bathroom. Best venue for Cockroach splatting.



Goodbye to the Lounge and the "viewroom". Best locations for winding down and watching Lost or 24 or Doctor Who or Prison Break or.....



alternatively just soaking up the views to the lake and mountains.



So we moved our life out of Whitby St and put it into 14 containers of various shapes and sizes on the front lawn.



After 3o minures delay and having pulled Tina away from last minute toilet cleaning we stepped into the Happy Cabby Karaoke bus. Ready to begin the three hour drive to the Airport.



Gloria was there to wave us goodbye and make sure the Poms were indeed going to leave the country.

A Melancholic Mereweather Meander

Awoke at 5am. With an oppressive sense of finality. In 12 hours from now I'd be arriving at an airport departure lounge with possibly the best year of my life all but over. This demanded that one final morning swim should be had. Location? Mereweather baths. Arrived just after sunrise but was not alone as a lone surfer surveyed the waves.



He finally gave in surveying , having decided that the sea was a bit too choppy. In contrast the baths were like a stagnant millpond....Correction! They were a stagnant millpond. Luckily I swam in the opposite corner from where all of this scum had gathered, although I still came out smelling as you'd expect me to smell.



The photo below involved a simple turn of 90 degrees yet creates a dramatically more positive image of what the Newcastle foreshore has to offer.



Did not feel quite ready to drive home as 6 hours of packing and cleaning awaited so detoured to three locations I'd somehow avoided all year. The obelisk is a hill top monument in memory of the first water treatment plant in Newcastle. Um? Not quite cleopatra's needle.....


but offered what I suppose constituted my last decent Australian view.


The cathedral is a major landmark of Newcastle with another hilltop perch.
Somehow we'd never got round to coming here either. Did not have time to climb the 220 steps (or whatever it is) to the top. It was locked anyway.


The chic cafes of Darby St tempted me in for a morning Cappucino. Despite the fact that I smelt of festering seaweed they still served me. Even so I drank swiftly whilst trying to find a newspaper story that was not about Shane Warne's 700 wickets.