Our last day in England - it seemed so far off when we first arrived, but has come all too quickly. Sam had a bit of a wobble in her back wheels (of the car, that is!) and so we went to a local Crowthorne place where they fixed the problem at a reasonable cost.
We suddenly remembered we hadn't bought any jellies! In England, jellies don't come in powdered form as they do in Australia, they are solid cubes and delicious to eat - we never actually make them up into a dessert jelly. Luckily one of the local shops had them so we bought some to take home to Di and Julie.
We finished off our packing, trying desparately to stay within our weight limits (Virgin Atlantic also weigh hand baggage). By culling and moving things around, we managed to do it.
As we had had a problem with our booking, we needed to get to the airport very early so, even though our flight wasn't until 10.30pm, we set off at 6.30pm for the 40 minute journey to the airport. We managed to get the seats we wanted and had time to spare. We had a cup of coffee at one of the airport cafes and then it was time to say goodbye to Sam, Jean and Chris.
Because we know we'll see Sam again at Christmas, it wasn't as bad as it could have been and we hope to see Chris and Jean in the not-too-distant future but nevertheless, a few tears slipped out.
We drifted through security and had a look around the duty free shops before boarding our plane.
The flight was uneventful apart from a bit of turbulence but the seats don't get any bigger! We managed to get a little sleep before reaching Hong Kong, but not much. It was great looking down on the ocean, dotted with lots of islands, as we homed in on the airport - when we last flew into Hong Kong (in 1971) it was very scary but the new airport seems much safer, although enormous. In fact, both London and Hong Kong make Sydney look miniscule.
We left Hong Kong and flew through the night, reaching Sydney early, at 6am. We were earlier than anticipated and so the pilot took us via the scenic route. It was fascinating watching the city wake up and the sunrise was awesome, an incredible orange. Di and Julie were meeting us and we were actually out of Customs and Quarantine before they arrived, which was good and meant a much cheaper stay in the car park.
It was so good to see everyone again, particularly our grandchildren - it seems so long since we saw them all.
It's really good to be home, no matter how much we enjoyed our holiday. We're off to Bundanoon tomorrow and then it's back to normal.
All finished, all done!
Hi, Ron here. I started off writing our journal more than three months ago, before I was demoted after a few days to the photographic department when Sandra took over the journal! Nevertheless I think she has done a tremendous job in keeping everybody up to date withour activities - a job well done! The purpose of this little addendum is to thank all our friends and relatives who have, without exception, made this holiday a once in a lifetime experience. Their generosity with their time and hospitality really made our holiday one to remember. I know I speak for both of us when I say that the whole trip lived up to, and in many many cases, exceeded our hopes and expectations. So once again please accept our sincere thanks and please keep in touch. If any of you are ever in our part of the world, please let us know as we would honestly love to be able to repay some of the kindness shown to us during the past three months.
