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Returning after ten months Wednesday 13 November 2002
Path > Changi airport (Singapore) to Clare (Australia) via Melbourne airport Adelaide airport Semaphore in South Australia
It wasn't a bad flight from Singapore to Melbourne through the night. I think that I even managed a couple of hours of sleep between the movies and the reading. But as with many flights lately, it all just merges into a dull throbbing blur.
Stepping off at Melbourne felt great. For some reason, just being back in my home country felt like a relief. I spoke the right language, the money was vaguely familiar and my mobile phone worked without exorbitant cost.
Checking in early for my domestic flight, I managed to get bumped forward to an earlier departure, meaning that I would be home a couple of hours earlier.
I grabbed some more juice (definitely a favourite thing to do now) and made some calls to make sure that the family knew of my new plans before wandering aimlessly towards my gate.
Sleep caught up with me on the flight to Adelaide, but I woke in time to see the effects of the drought on the countryside. It wasn't just dry grass in the fields, the grass had died and blown away, leaving balding brown patches everywhere. I couldn't remember seeing it this bad before.
It was great to be greeted by some of the family when I walked into the terminal in Adelaide. My nephews were there, wearing some of the t-shirts that I had sent home to them during the year from various places and were really excited.
We decided to catch up for a coffee after I'd sorted out a few things, the first of which was to sort out the luggage that I'd sent from Singapore airport a week or so ago.
And so began the roundabout trip through Adelaide airport... We must have done about five laps in our tour from customs, the freight storage and the quarantine offices.
With the bureaucracy behind us, coffee at Caro's place was the next plan.
I relaxed, but tried not to fall asleep as we caught up over the goings on of the past ten months and it was great to catch up with the kids before the ride north to Clare.
The folks place just out of Clare has changed fairly significantly since I'd left and the resulting renovations are brilliant. We caught up during the evening before I headed to bed for some much needed sleep.
There was so much to do, so many people to catch up with, the Japan trip to prepare and other work to start. It felt like a new beginning.
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