WE'RE HOME!
Landed at Brisbane International Airport, and emerged fairly quickly, after passing through customs and quarantine, at 12.20am. We were expecting to be met by Tristan, but instead, the whole clan was there, including the little ones, with grins all over their faces! What a wonderful surprise, a happy reunion.
For those who need introductions, from left to right:
Gemma, Jonno, Ashwyn, Lilly, Tristan, Jess
For those who need introductions, from left to right:
Gemma, Jonno, Ashwyn, Lilly, Tristan, Jess
We had kept one gift aside for Lilly and Ashwyn, and gave them their babushka dolls at the airport. Great excitement -- they just loved discovering the smaller dolls within, to excited squeals (especially from Ash) while the oldies did a bit of catching up over — you guessed it — cups of coffee!
We then split up, Jonno, Gemma and Ashwyn going home to Middle Park, while the rest of us went down to Tris and Jess's place at Wynnum, where they released the car to us so we could get home to Bardon.
In Bardon, another surprise. Donna had been alerted of our arrival by the exceptional watchdog, Bibi, and she met us at the door. We went in, to find that she and Bec had set up the house with another lovely welcome. Bibi remembered us, and went bananas with excitement. The girls had rearranged the house to give us back our space right from the outset — we couldn't have asked for better house-sitters!
Suzie's teddies were all lined up in welcome ...
... and our parcels were waiting for us to open them!
After a sleep -- we finally got into bed at 5.30am, with Bibi with us -- we started to back into our old routine. In the afternoon, Warren and Donna took Bibi up to the local dog park, where Bibi is now an institution. Donna introduced Warren to some of the regulars, and Bibi found her boyfriend, Horrie, and showed that she can run (with him) virtually non-stop for the whole time we were there.
We've had a wonderful trip, met wonderful people along the way, been to the most incredible places and had great experiences, but it's great to be home!
And that's a big thirty for this blog!
This was the last page of the blog for 2014-2015 BUT as a consequence of this trip, specifically because of Tom and Lauren who we met in Bratislava (20 July and 21 July), and later met up with in Leicester (2 December), we are back on the road - or, more to the point, on the railway! - from May 26 to August 5 2019!
Warren
Thank you for a wonderful trip. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it (eventually once I got the hang of it all electronically. The family all looked wonderful and it was so good to see them again. Thanks so much and I am glad you are home safe and sound. I thanked God too because he was with you all the way. Thank you Gertie and the excellent driver too! I still wonder how little Turku is. Bibi? Outrageous little flirt! Love you all Cathy.
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