So Long and Thanks for all the Smoothies

Allow me to set the scene for you. As I type this it’s raining, bordering on sleeting. I am wearing jeans, wool socks, slippers, two shirts and a sweatshirt. In addition, I have a hot water bottle on my lap and a mug of coffee in front of me. It’s dark . . .and for the first time in recent memory, I have a cold.

Ah, the Northeast of America in March; home sweet home.

Wondering how our flight home went? Well keep on wondering. Some things are too ghastly for even this blog. Let's just say that a certain airline that starts with a 'U' and rhymes with 'delighted' was so, so, so very far from delighting that I simply can't discuss it any further. 15 hours is too long to deal with twitty flight attendants on power trips who work for the world’s most inefficient airline. See? I couldn't just stop - I had to get at least on dig in, that's how awful it was.

Deep breath . . .

On the last night in Bondi we had a BBQ with some friends and I’m posting a few pics to allow for some stark contrast. Sigh. But, much as we loved Bondi and much as I’d rather hear Cockatoos over Crows, I am happy to be back in the land of pre-cooked frozen food, not to mention friends and family. It feels almost luxurious to pick up a phone and to call anyone without having to calculate, using long division and calculus, what time it might be in America. And the car. The car! The car! Sure I may gain 100 pounds, but whatever, I have a car. I can listen to NPR while I drive.

Abby and I are working at getting re-scheduled with new classes, play dates and babysitters. Les is readjusting to his commute by train and having an office with a door. Like with all such experiences, we have moments when we are happy to be home and other moments when we wonder what on earth we were thinking leaving what can only be called paradise compared to the north shore of Boston. What do you even do with a toddler on a nasty cold rainy day? I totally forget. It certainly doesn’t involve walking to a playground by the beach with a smoothie in hand. Nor does it involve collecting frangipani’s for our hair . . . will there ever even be something green here anyway??

Well enough of that. The time has come to bring this blog to an end. But what a great website eh? These guys know their stuff. I’m not sure what I would have done without TravelBlog. Knowing I had entries to write and people to read them forced me to always look for something new, interesting or quirky to report on. I think in ‘blogs’ now. When I walk, change diapers, as I now freeze, my mind habitually starts to file the things I do into chunks of blog. There is a voice in my head spinning even the most tedious experiences into something interesting so that I can throw it in a blog.

For those of you who are numbers oriented, this final blog will be number 42. I posted 124 pictures and I interestingly enough I also had 42 subscribers. . .if you are a Douglas Adams you may find deep significance in that. Each blog was opened (though I’d never assume that equated to read) about an average of 200 times. The exception of course, was the Ikea furniture blog which, to date, has been hit 1,386 times!

Thank you everyone for indulging us in this journal! Thanks especially to our friends and family who dutifully read each one of these. I also want to thank all the lurkers . . . those of you have read (because the stats say someone other than our family and friends are out there) but haven’t identified yourselves. As I went along I became more and more conscious of the lurkers. Often the thought of them kept me from getting lazy - what if a famous editor was reading? What if a local Aussie who bred Huntsmen needed to know how they effected out-of-towners? What if the Sydney Home Ownership association was following my ‘Sane People Have Screens’ campaign? But, even for those of you lurkers who were not famous, perhaps were just nice and normal, Tim-of-England for example, thanks so much for your comments, kind words and encouragement. You didn’t have to read, so that made it all the more fun and rewarding when you did.

I can’t imagine that life will be nearly as harrowing or exciting here as it was down under. Nevertheless, the editor of the newspaper I've been writing for has asked me to continue with a regular (probably monthly) column about life here in New England.

Additionally, Travelblog has promoted me to ‘moderator’ status. Now I will become the lurker and go forth and help others on this site as they travel and I merely read about it from my couch under my many layers.

And on that note, it’s now snowing outside and I need to go refill my hot water bottle.

Thank you so much for reading.

G'day!

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