The end of a chapter ...

Well, the inevitable happened and of course my year in Central and South America drew to an end, and I found myself heading back home to Australia to spend a week with my family over Christmas and then onto the UK, hopefully ready to start work after a year of adventures abroad...

It was absolutely fantastic flying into Sydney, seeing the beautiful harbour and the sun trying to poke it's head through, unfortunately it wasn't a typical sunny summers day! I then managed to get through immigration and customs super fast and found myself at the domestic airport in time to catch the early plane down to my parent's, rather than the afternoon plane. With only enough time to ring mum and dad and say to get to the airport for 10:30am ... I was back in the air again and zooming down to the gorgeous south coast to spend 7 short days with my family over Christmas.

Being home with the kids and the kids!
Bega was in a picturesque state when I arrived as the drought had finally broken with recent rains, and everything was lovely and green as we drove home. Mum's flower garden was in full bloom out the front of the house and Dad's vegie garden out the back was producing at a rapid rate, so I was surrounded by a wonderful oasis of greenery as I settled back in at home. We almost has the whole family back over the Christmas period as well, with Lizzy and Catherine being able to come home and only Felicity not being able to make it to Bega. It was also great seeing Lily and Will, my niece and nephew again, and witnessing their hilarious entertainment! They weren't the only 'kids' around the farm though as mum and dad's goat herd had recently multiplied and the kids were absolutely gorgeous and jumping around everywhere. Lily and Will loved feeding one of the little goats every morning with a bottle of milk and it became part of the daily routine while I was at home.

Home brew happy hour at the Northcotts!
With Dad's recent experiment with home brew being an absolute success, we enjoyed a wonderful 'happy hour' of sorts each night around 5pm, where we treated ourselves to the homebrew beer, along with a few biscuits and cheese (bega of course!), it was the hour of the day I thoroughly enjoyed as the sun was still high in the sky and there was nothing to do except enjoy a beer at the end of the day!

Christmas Day
We had Christmas at our place this year, along with Dad's sister's family and we had a fabulous day. We had a great lunch, with Cath doing a great whole baked salmon and of course Mum's Xmas pudding that never fails to hit the spot! Having the kids around certainly made Christmas special and the other highlight of the day was seeing John giving the kids bucking horse rides on his back for a good hour in the afternoon, even if he might have needed a chiropractor the next day! Lily and Will were very cute leading up to Christmas as well, being worried that Santa wouldn't find them if they were at Grandma's house! So they dutifully put up 'Santa please stop here signs' in the garden, and lucky for them, Santa managed to drop by with a sack of presents!

Boxing Day
On Boxing Day we went up to Brogo Dam and joined by Marie and John, we had a great day playing football and picnicing in the sun. It was also by chance that my cousin Karen came along with a boat they'd been lent for a few days, so we were able to spend the rest of the afternoon lazing on a great boat cruising up and down all the nooks and crannies of the dam and finding places to stop and swim. It was a really great afternoon.

Surfing on the south coast
It was also at Tathra beach that I was so happy to be able to get on a surf board again, after a break of over 6 months! I hired a long board and took to the smallish surf in Tathra at the time, but the size of the waves didn't bother me and I had a ball catching wave after wave and getting my technique back. I also bought a very thick full length wetsuit with the aim of getting into the surfing back in the UK, will be slightly more on the chilly side though!

Time to leave...
I had such a fantastic week at home, always too short but I guess that's the reality of living so far away from home! So, sadly my time in Australia quickly came to an end and I found myself back on the plane and flying up to Sydney ready to fly out that night to London. This was it, stepping on this plane was the end of a year of adventure and excitement that hopefully will not fade into the distance as I get back into the routine of life back in London.

In Summary ...
As most of you will know, taking a year off and learning a language was something I had wanted to do for a while and I have finally realised this dream. Although my spanish is by no means fluent, I am happy in the knowledge that I can now communicate and make myself understood in a foreign language, which was a goal I'd set for myself to achieve by the time I turned 30, so I guess I achieved that goal just in the nick of time!

I have met some amazing and inspiring people during my travels, who have made my trip so special and memorable and who I know I will continue to be in contact with in the future. In fact, one of my favourite people, who I met in my first week in Guatemala, Tamara (yes another one!) came over to spend New Years with me in London. So the wheel has come full circle hey, we were both hanging out in a school in Guatemala together at the same time last year and now here we are in London, quite a surreal experience really!

I can't begin to say what my favourite places or experiences were during my year off... just too many to mention and nothing that I regret!! Anyway, I have learnt a lot during my time off about the politics of those countries I visited, history, things about myself, about other cultures, relationships etc. and hopefully all my new knowledge will stay with me as I return back to a 'normal' life.

Surfing and salsa are two new passions that have developed from my time off, so I'm making it my new year's resolution to keep these up back in London...

I'm thinking of continuing my blog with my goings on back in London, but haven't worked that out as yet. But anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter of my blogs, I'm hoping they'll be great to look back through and reminisce when I'm back at work and feeling a long way away from an adventurous back-packing trip!

So, that's it, no grand finale, I just hope you've enjoyed this year of blogs!! Happy 2008 and please keep in touch,

Tamara xx

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