When is it appropriate to call another country home?

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Day 705

Today I am on an emotional journey, for the first time in almost 2 years I am heading home. But where is home?

I apologise now to everyone who knows me that I have not told, of course it is difficult after spending the last 2 years of my life living in a very public eye, on almost everything we say and do, how do you keep a secret? So I had to be sparse with the truth, it was going to be too easy for the truth to slip out and believe me I have sworn anyone who knows to secrecy and for days now have been so close to the truth coming out that I decided to go quiet on facebook, a couple of friends even told me that they were just about to write on my wall and then remembered the “big secret”. A close shave and I appreciate so much that everyone who knew has helped keep this secret for me.

Let me go back a bit, partly because in a couple of days time (before this gets published) I am going to surprise a few of my closest friends and for several months now I think I have been telling small white lies or maybe they are not lies at all, perhaps I have just been sparse with the truth, when I said I was flying up North it is true, I am flying up North - into the Northern Hemisphere to be exact.

One of my closest friends is turning the big 40, and I know that she will hate me telling you all that, she is dreading the day and I guess when I first left the shores of England to have an Adventure, with Mr Kangaroo Jack, I always promised myself that this was one celebration that I needed to get back for.

Speaking of Mr Kangaroo Jack, again he is not by my side, we both seem to be having mini adventures on our own at the moment, but that is ok, it is only short term. He came back from his tropical paradise and just when I thought we would spend 4 days together before my next adventure he was whisked away again after 2 days to head up to Far North Queensland.

The amazing thing about this part of the adventure is that he flies back today, the day that I fly out from Canberra via Sydney to Singapore and then London, ironically a few hours after I fly out of Sydney airport, Mr Kangaroo Jack flies in, how bizarre to be on the other side of the world and yet we are both still in a different place that each other, and for a brief moment in time I had hoped to snatch a couple of hours with him at the airport in Sydney but sadly that was not going to be the case, why not? I seem to be able to bump into other people I know at the airport, why not my own husband?

This brings me back to my earlier point about home, where is home? Well, for some weeks now our friend Bec’s place has been “home” to me, so in the evenings when I leave the office, I go home! Is it really that simple though? Andy and I have been in Australia for nearly 2 years now, do we call this home when we don’t as yet have somewhere permanent to live, today I say that I am flying home and in this case home is England, well I still have a house there, but it is not my home at the moment, it is someone else’s - I hope they are enjoying it as much as Andy and I did.

I remember when Andy first moved from Birmingham to Southampton to set up a home with me, that became our home, but I recall many years later whenever we headed back up to Birmingham it was still referred to as “home”.

So maybe my point is that we perhaps have more than one home, home is where the heart is and home is where we live, the place that we go to after work each night or when we come back from our holiday.

I feel that this is an emotional journey, I am going to surprise some of my friends and god knows how Nikki and Keeley have kept this a secret for all these months, they have been the orchestrator’s of the girls weekend in Bath (don’t hold out much hope on finding out about that weekend!)/

This particular group of girlfriends, what can I say, we have laughed together, cried together, sympathised, worked together, mourned each others losses, and held up one another in times of strife, someone that we can laugh at the world together with when the world is out of sync with us or maybe the other way round, a bad week at work would be forgotten when shared with more than a handful of friends and I miss them very much.

Andy and I should have been on this journey together but work got in the way of that and this was something that I had to do. So as my flight headed West out of Sydney to Broken Hill and then North to Darwin, over some territory that Andy and I explored together (if you don’t know about that then you haven’t been reading) over to Singapore for a refuel and then on to London where some other good friends of mine will be waiting.

A few emotional reunions will be had in the next couple of weeks as I see my Mum and Dad, Andy’s family and as many of our friends that I can fit in, along with a chat with the Bank Manager, a house inspection and oh yes to take most of my 23.3kgs of luggage back to our storage unit and swap things over for some clothes and other bits and pieces to take back to Australia with me.

I won’t have time to see everyone and I wish I did have the time, but guess what? You can come and visit us in Australia!

I know I have not written in a while but life has been terribly busy, mainly with work and if I am to be honest with you, I felt the need to get in shape again so joined a gym and have spent some time going to classes with Bec and Sarah.

So there will be nearly two days of lying low and then I will be off to Bath to meet up with the posse, a very unsuspecting posse of friends, they think that they will be drinking champagne to toast my absence!

Oh dear I hope they don’t drop the champagne glasses when I walk through the door, I cannot wait to see the look on their faces. I have always been Babs “roomie” on our girls weekend adventure (and no I am not telling you about those either and don’t think rushing to find me on facebook will do you any good, it won’t), I am pretty sure that I will be a “beetch” (my attempt at a written French accent) for keeping such a secret, but that’s ok, you did not have to see the disappointment on her face when she asked me when I was “coming home”, I did and I felt the pain, or was it just a steely look of disappointment? It was there anyway I know I saw it.

I have “set up” a Skype session to call in on Friday night, the plan so far has worked, my last few emails have been worthy of an oscar! Lets hope it put them off the scent, I will keep you posted, but for now, I have another film to watch, I am trying to stay awake as I want to sleep on the London leg of this flight so that I can try and work against the jet lag, wish me luck!

I am listening to Empire of the sun - Walking on a Dream album, it seems to have become a favourite of mine on this almost 2-year adventure.

Mrs KJ.

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Photos

A Taste of Olde England
Bath Abbey

Comments

[Jo Trouble]

Lovely words
Have an amazing time back in one 'home', and a safe return to the other. Plotting those return surprises can be fun - hope you pull it off! :-)

[kangaroojack]

From one home to another!
Hi Jo, thanks for your message, I am happy to say that the surprise worked, the look on everyones face was priceless, a moment of shock and then loads of screams and shrieks as the realisation dawned! It feels odd, like I have never been away, an emotional journey! C

[Jo Trouble]

Never been away
Been there, done that - it's like the time away never happened at all, or was just a dream.

[kangaroojack]

So Well written
Caroline, This blog entry was amazing, so well written, with such passion and thought, I makes me realise why the blog has had such popularity. Well done sweetheart. Andy XXxx

[Sarah 'Thornton']

I love the way you're able to write Caroline. You put so much emotion into your phrases. Hope you have a fantastic time in Bath (you've totally managed to confuse me as to when you're 'here')!!