Haley

Happy Christmas!!!

Hi everyone!! Wishing you all a very happy Christmas/holiday, wherever you may be and whoever you may be sharing it with. Well...my Christmas was very exciting, and it certainly wasn't the white Christmas I'd been expecting. More like 30 degrees heat - in SYDNEY!!!!...

Yep, I kept my visit a secret from all my family and friends and completely surprised everyone. Mum and Dad were ecstatic! Though I'd been thinking about it for quite a while, I wasn't sure myself whether it was going to happen or not until I was able to confirm my return flight just two days before I left. Leaving work on Friday I said goodbye to my mates and had the usual question "where are you off to this weekend?" and when I said Australia they all said wow, until I told them it was just for four days, then they all said I'm crazy! (Usual response). So I caught a plane home after work on Friday and arrived home at 6am Sunday, Christmas morning. I'll tell you, I was SO excited on the way there I could hardly stop myself from jumping around in my seat. After our stop in Bangkok I just wanted to get there though and felt incredibly impatient even when we arrived, rushing through customs and waiting for my bag on the turnstile, I just wanted to get home and see everyone!

Walking out the doors of the airport I felt like I had just arrived at a new tropical location for another holiday. There was a light early morning cool air mixed with the heat which was so beautiful it almost made me cry. I caught a cab from the airport home and made the driver drop me half way up the street in case someone saw the cab drive passed the window. Then I tip-toed to the doorstep and knocked on the door. Being 7am, mum was inside hiding in her dressing gown so Dad answered and got the shock of his life! Mum quickly stuck her head out from the kitchen and both of them met me with hugs and tears. Despite trying to call me for the last two days, mum hadn't suspected I'd be on my way home thank goodness, she just thought she'd missed speaking to me so she was overjoyed and thought all her Christmases had come at once! Dad was really pleased too, I've hardly ever seen him react so emotionally.

I went and woke up my big brother Dave, then thought I'd better break it to them that I was only staying for four days. Bit of a shame but I didn't have much choice with the cheap fare I was able to get for the trip home. Austravel xmas/NY specials between UK and Australia - $600 total one way. Standby is even cheaper. Excellent value! Anyone looking to travel up to Feb - check them out as they're still available.

First things first - after the inital hellos, I ran downstairs for a swim in the pool. Beautiful, even at 7:30 in the morning. My youngest-older brother Tony came over and we spent xmas morning together as a family and then went to my cousins' house for lunch which was nice to see all of them, including two families from Queensland and all the kids. It was so much more fun watching the joy in darling little Emily's face as she opened presents than opening my own. Just pulling the paper off had her in raptures!

Pretty soon after lunch I went to lie down and crashed out (great company!) I saw Tony's girlfriend Erina in the afternoon and she had a great reaction, jumping back and her whole face lit up "Oh my God! Oh my God!" Haha. Then it was looooovely to have a nice long sleep after the long flight over.

On boxing day I was so relieved to find that my best friend Emma-Lee was still in Sydney though I thought she had left on holidays, so she came over and we went out in our speedboat with Dave, Tony and Erina on the harbour to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. 30 degree heat and I was so determined to get rid of my pale English shadow and get a tan that I very stupidly put tanning oil on. Soooo silly. I somehow forgot the strength of the Australian sun. Yeah, now I don't have a typical English pale skin but an English tan (aka RED!) And tonight I notice I'm blistering. Man. Probably took ten years off my life. Grrrrrr. I find myself swearing that I'll never do that again, yet I also remember saying the same thing when I got burnt in Iticare, Brazil.

In the afternoon I was really lucky that Ness and Ben had dropped in to visit mum with their new 3 week old baby girl Mia-Lee! She's gorgeous!! I knew she was tiny but seeing her close-up and actually holding her, I realised just how small she is. Yet Ness says she's already grown 3 and a half cm since she was born. So cute. Poor Ness says she's suffering from a lack of sleep but they're doing well and say that just looking at her and realising she's theirs makes up for it.

On Tuesday mum, dad and I drove up the new expressway (fun-fun!) to the Blue Mountains to visit Nalini, a friend I used to work with quite a few years ago. She had a group of family over for lunch as well and there were a few little boys running around, jumping in the pool and dunking their heads in the dog's pool when they thought no-one was watching!

Had dinner out at my favourite Thai noodle hut/restaurant in Gladesville on Tuesday night; delicious. It's one of my frequent cravings over here. Also satisfied my craving for a boost juice smoothie on Thursday. Yum. Dropped in and saw my buddy Matt on the way home, all settled in his new love-shack with Lauren. Wow - I go away for a year and it's a bit of a shock seeing the big obvious changes when people are doing things like having kids, moving in with someone, that kind of thing. I guess it all just happens in its own time and when you notice it all at once it seems a bigger deal than when you're around watching it develop.

So that was my quick trip back home. Just a short stay but worth every minute of the 24 hour flight there and 27 hours back! Actually, even seeing mum and dad's faces on Christmas morning was worth it. I feel so loved. And lucky to have my family, friends and so many opportunities to travel.

I had a shock when we came close to landing in London, could see snow covering the ground below and arrived to a temperature of 0 degrees at midday! Here I was telling everyone naaah, London's not that cold, it's been really nice and mild. Then bang - it's freezing!!! Now I'm missing not just family and friends back in Aus, but the heat too. It's also nice to be back in my second home in London, to see my friends here and to have a few days to relax and appreciate the things I have in both places.

Though it's nice to be surrounded by material comforts at home, including a massive wardrobe of clothes and room filled with things I've accumulated but don't really need, seeing the difference between what I have here and what is at home makes me realize how much we clutter our lives with things that are unnecessary. Comparing it with the things I had while traveling and with others who live with less, I feel so selfish and self-centered when I see my life being caught up in the commercial attraction of buying things that ultimately make me look or feel as though I have a "better lifestyle". Yet the best lifestyle would be one where I don't feel I need those things to be happy or comfortable. Above all the things I found at home, it's the relationships with family and friends that are most important and luckily they're things you can keep with you wherever you are.

Surprise!!

Our baby tree and mum hiding thinking she's out of the frame!

Me and Tone

Emily looking excited!

I must say I do miss this view each day, it just makes me go aghhhh.

Davo

Me and Emma!!

Beautiful flag flying over a 225

Funny guys - YMCA in a skull

Off and racing

Introducing Mia-Lee!

Mum blissfully content holding Mia

Me and Nessa

Proud parents Ben and Vanessa with Mia

Glasgow

Well, it’s Tuesday night here in London at the moment and I’m meant to be in bed recovering from a lack of sleep! But it never works like that, does it? On the weekend Tanya and I regrouped and set off on further travels together – to Glasgow, where we met up with some friends (aka crazy Scottish guys we met in Brasil) and came back convinced that Scottish people are in fact, as they say, all “mad”! Haha, perhaps not completely. Of the ones I know, they’re all so fun-loving, friendly, accepting and have an incredible sense of humour which is great as they seem able to “have a laugh” at whatever happens. (Click below to read more and see some pics)…

First things first – the journey….ahhhh, what a nightmare! RyanAir might be good for cheap flights but when it comes to flexibility – don’t count on it! Tanya and I had an 8am early flight from Stansted London (which is an hour by train from central London) and so I had to leave home by 6 (in the dark), catch two buses and then the train going to the airport was late so we missed our flight and RyanAir would absolutely not allow us to check in marginally late even though we had no luggage. So we had to pay extra to get onto the next flight and then waited two hours for the check-in for that flight to open, lined up, finally optimistic that our prolonged morning had not been in vain, only to get to the counter and have them refuse me for not having the correct ID. They used to accept your Australian driver’s licence if you’re flying within the UK or EU up until just two weeks ago but now – oh nooooooo! I had my driver’s licence, UK young person’s rail card, said I would give them a stat dec, a scanned colour copy of my passport, all the details and have someone bring my passport out to show them if they would just check me in, but no. So after much protestation and huge frustration, we nearly turned around and went home but finally decided to try the two nice-looking young men on another desk (now c’mon, I know what you’re all thinking, it wasn’t like that, I wasn’t nearly in the mood for smiling and winking, and neither did I pull the tears trick, though it was close, I just flashed them some skin instead….just kidding!) Seriously, these guys were much more polite and helpful and suggested I could fly on a later flight still if I could get my passport. So we sent Tanya off on the midday flight and I had to catch the train an hour back into London, had Evonne meet me at the station with my passport and then back to the airport to wait a few more hours for my flight which eventually got to Glasgow at 6pm!! A VERY long 12 hours! But it was all worth it – Tanya had been able to do a bus tour of the city while waiting for me and after that we made sure we used all 24 hours that remained!

Davie very kindly picked us up from the station and drove us to his place where he also played host and had us stay for the weekend. I must say – I am still in shock, seeing a man iron his own shirt and cook in one day has me baffled – why do they teach that in Scotland but not in Australia? I think we should change the curriculum! One of the first things I noticed was that it was nice being able to sit in a private car again rather than catching the big red bus or a taxi cab. Second, being in a flat that doesn’t have 5 people living there, and third, the ability to park on the street or near your residence is a pretty big change from London. That evening we set off to celebrate one of Davie’s friend’s birthdays and Tanya and I found ourselves surrounded by about 15 beautifully dressed to impressed, stunning women, suddenly feeling like true backpackers again in our jeans, pair of “sensible” go-anywhere boots (without heels), rugged up with jackets and scarves while these girls looked like they were dressed for a summer’s evening in the city! We’re still not quite used to that clothes layer thing. Anyway, the whole group of friends were really lovely, so warm and welcoming and friendly towards us, again with a great sense of humour and what can I say?....the accent, ahhh….music to my ears! Though I’m sure I was frustrating people asking again what did they say and thinking it so funny every time someone said they were “a wee bit cold” or something like that. I love the standard “aye” means yes and “naw” means no. And “havin a laugh” means having a great time – which we did!

We spent the rest of the night at a club called (I think?) the Riverside which has an awesome set-up, basically takes the shape of an old warehouse room with wooden floorboards and small tables and chairs down each side with a bar at one end and all dance space in the middle and is used for whatever function is scheduled at the time. It reminded me of something from Cuba. Apparently they have highland dancing classes or something like that there in the afternoons, right before it’s transferred to a very cool club where the people were not at all pretentious, I found no attitude from staff or anyone else there.

It was great seeing some of the other boys from Brasil again too (Noelan, JP, Oliver, Rennie). It was hilarious when we realised they were completely spun-out thinking that it was just the biggest coincidence that we were in the same place, same city as them after last seeing eachother in Brasil (“Fancy seeing you at Riverside in Glasgow!!!”) until they realised we’d made prior arrangements!

On Sunday Davie cooked Tanya and I brunch (very hospitible indeed) and then drove us out to Loch Lomond which is a lake not far from Glasgow that looks freezing this time of year but is absolutely beautiful with smoke from the chimneys of nearby cottages drifting up to meet the clouds and mist settling amongst the mountains, beautiful red, brown and green mountains behind the town and the grey of the sky reflecting on the water. Once we got back to Glasgow we ended up in George’s Square which is currently set up with Christmas decorations, rides for the kids and an ice-rink which provided great entertainment. The three of us stood on the sidelines and watched so many kids scooting and skipping, slipping and sliding all over the place, falling in heaps caught amongst eachother, wriggling and writhing hanging by one arm from their father’s hand looking like they’re about to dislocate a shoulder, and bouncing hard on their butts then jumping back up and always laughing it off while we were in stitches thinking of all the bruises they might find the next day! It certainly didn’t mimic the scenes portrayed in the movies of people romantically gliding side by side, hand-in-hand to the sound of a soul singer somewhere in the distance! Rather, there was the sound of mechanical rides in the background, Mariah Carey’s Christmas album booming over the speakers, excited kids screaming and laughing, ice being chipped here and there as people fall over and banging as they run into the barriers! It wasn’t that they were all uncoordinated or anything, there were just so many people and little kids and it was really fun to watch.

And let’s just say, I was very excited about skating myself in London at one of the ice rinks they have set up around Christmas, picturing myself dropping a glove in the centre of the rink like Serendipity and waiting for Prince Charming to pick it up, only now I understand what the girls at home meant when they laughed and said forget it, that’s where they go to laugh at the people who skate there after work and make fools of themselves on the ice! Yes, it lends a lovely Christmas spirit to it! In truth, it all comes back to the ability to laugh at yourself and I think that’s one of the best lessons life can teach you.

Fortunately the trip home on Sunday night was much less eventful than the day before. It’s all so much easier when you have a passport on hand. And while it’s all well and good to travel on weekends with cheap flights to a multitude of destinations, trust me, no matter how early you think your plane leaves to return home, it leaves you feeling exhausted after the long link of trains, buses and planes to get back. I arrived home safe and sound about 11:30, completely wrecked and ready for a few hours sleep before a busy work week ahead, though also content at having had a great time away in another city, catching up with old friends and meeting some new, being able to share those experiences again with Tanya and at least at the end of it all, we were both looking at feeling wrecked at work the next day together!

Beautiful Loch Lomond

Beautiful people =) Davie, Haley and Tanya

The ice rink at St? George's Square