Home Among The Gum Trees

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'I love a sun-burnt country, a land of sweeping plains...' I never thought much about this poem when we read it in English back in my high school days. Now as a grown-up Aussie ex-pat, the words have such a resonance with me. Flying back into Sydney was the high point of the past 12 months for me. No matter how many amazing places we go or what brilliant things we see, there really is no place like home. If only I was like Dorothy and could give my heels three clicks and find myself on the beach at Nobbys or sitting in my favourite cafe in Newcastle sipping chai! But we mere mortals were once again victim to the 22 hour flight home. I must confess I don't altogether mind the whole flying thing. My biggest woe is that I sleep very, very little on the journey and so arrive at my destination looking hellish and feeling horribly fatigued.

Landing at Sydney, my dad, step-mum and sister were there to greet us (one of those stellar airport arrival moments!!!) Walking through the arrival gates and seeing their familiar faces made my heart soar. I momentarily forgot my jet-lagged state and practically skipped out of the airport arm in arm with May, being teased by my dad because of how incredibly pale I was ('It looks like you've been inside wrapped up for months') and driving through familiar suburbs before arriving home to a delicious Thai meal and another reunion with my brother. It was an absolutely gloriously sunny day and we made the most of the sunshine by heading to the zoo...one of my favourite places in Sydney. It was wonderful to be sitting on the ferry with my siblings and catching up on the past 12 months bathed in the warm sunshine.

Knowing our time at home was going to be unbearably short, this first day set the standard for the determined effort we'd make to maximise every single minute in the next 13 days. As the day wore on, despite our exuberance at our reunion, Adam and I increasingly lost stamina to the point where we were almost asleep on our feet as evening approached. But still, we were determined to soldier on, and refused to surrender to our fatigue until eventually giving in to sleep around 930 that night. Alas, there was to be no recovery though! The next day we were up early and after a yummy breakfast (sticky rice and mangoes!!!) we headed out to spend a few hours enjoying one of every girls' favourite pastimes...shopping. Having checked out all the latest Aus fashion trends (or bemoaned the lack thereof when old favourite stores failed to deliver) and spent way too much time trying on gorgeous dresses at May's fave store, we were forced to rush home and get dressed in record time (May and I have truly perfected the ten second hair-do!) to head into the city for a dinner date with one of my oldest friends Kurt and his lovely fiancée Emma. It was an evening of celebration as this was our first chance to celebrate with the recently engaged couple!

After this first weekend passed in the blink of any eye, we headed north to the Hunter Valley for a few whirlwind days catching-up with Del and Jane and the million other visitors that traipsed in and out of Del's house as music lessons were underway. Adam, who was busy preparing for a lecture he was giving at university later in the week, was driven slightly mad by the endless stream of kids in and out...singing tunes, banging out scales on the piano and reciting bits of verses they were rehearsing for drama or elocution. But for me, all of these things made it feel like I'd never been away. It was truly wonderful to be 'home' again. While my days of singing are over, the music is still in my heart and no doubt, it always will be.

It wasn't only the sounds of home that we became quickly reacquainted with. With horror I realised I'd forgotten some of the amazing smells of home...rain on hot earth....fresh cut grass...the leaves of gum trees...the smell of washing that's been dried by sunshine...It was these simple pleasures we embraced as we caught up with some of our loved ones over that week. Sadly, there wasn't anywhere near enough time to see everyone we wanted to, and admittedly we were hopelessly disorganised at the outset of this trip so many people weren't even aware we were home! (I blame the UK visa office for only returning our passports to us at 10am the day before we left the UK...it was a miracle we even managed to fly home at all but that's another story!) We did make a concerted effort to fit in as much as we could though. We visited old haunts, calling by Newcastle University for Ads to visit his old lab friends and me to have afternoon tea with Leah, just in time for a sudden down pour that left Leah and I soaked to the bone! Adam and Bill, friends from way back when, caught up for a schooner at Finnegan’s Pub while Janet and I nursed a chai on Darby Street at my favourite cafe Grind. We had dinner at Goldbergs and reacquainted ourselves with great Aussie food. We stayed a night with Leah and Tony who have spent the past two months busily renovating their house. We managed to squeeze in a morning with Jane and her boys (who have both grown so much!) and spent the hours in between all of this chatting away with Del. We even squeezed in some time to eat hamburgers at a small town pub (food we have sadly been missing in England-if only they'd embrace beetroot!) In the midst of the catch-ups, we also celebrated our four year wedding anniversary with some wine tasting and a gorgeous dinner with Shane, Katie, Leah and Tony in the Hunter Valley vineyards. Sitting out under an evening sky sipping wine and chatting with our besties...I truly felt life couldn't get any better!

The reunions kept on coming, with a weekend in Coffs Harbour following straight on where my seven closest friends from Uni were gathered for the wedding of our gorgeous friends Lara and Sean. This was the main catalyst for our trip and it was an occasion well worth the mammoth trek home. It was the perfect day...the sun was shining, it was a gorgeous 27 degrees or so, and the ceremony took place in the 'rainforest' area of Bonville International Golf Club which is completely picturesque. Lara looked absolutely stunning and everyone present could not have been more thrilled that this day was here at last. I felt honoured to give a reading during the ceremony, looking over at our friends who were simply glowing with love. As the day's ceremony passed, we welcomed an evening with dinner and dancing under the stars. It was one of those truly wonderful days that warm the heart. The wedding itself was followed with brunch the next day, giving more time for catch-ups with friends and the first opportunity we'd had to meet some of the little ones who'd been welcomed into the world in the past year. Jax and James had a little son while Sal and Trent had a little daughter in the time since we were last home and it was an absolute thrill to meet these little ones! We reinvigorated ourselves in the afternoon with a dip in the ocean, our first swim since being home, and lay on the beach soaking up the salty air whilst gossiping alongside Alli and Dan. In true Aus tradition, the beach was followed with cheese and wine and dinner at a lovely restaurant with good friends. I'd forgotten how much fun can be squeezed into a day!

Our next stop was Armidale to have a lunch date with Kyrie and see her 'home away from home', the college halls at Armidale University, before we headed on to Tamworth for family reunions with Adam's parents and his Nan Lorna. These 3 days of family time were the only real 'down time' we had in our visit home and we thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to simply idle away the summer days and nights in good company. It was at this point that it dawned on us that we would soon be boarding a flight back to our other home and we'd not yet managed to see even half the people we'd hoped to! It was a last minute decision to send out an email requesting our friends to gather with us for a final night back in Newcastle before we headed back to the motherland. And gather they did. It was wonderful to sit at a bar beside Newcastle Harbour and hear more tales of the year we've missed with some of our very best friends. It made the goodbyes at the end of the night a little harder to bear though...so many people we love gathered all at once. It just never gets easier. Nor was the following afternoon when we left Del and headed back to Sydney. We'd planned to meet May for a meal before heading to see the musical being performed at Pymble's Ladies College where Kurt has been teaching for the past few years. Walking into the pub in Pymble and running into Kurt, Emma and Kurt's parents was exactly what we needed to take our minds off our pending departure. We ate classic pub food and enjoyed the good company before heading off to watch ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’, a very light-hearted musical comedy that had May and I smiling from start to finish. Kurt was the musical director for the production and as such, had secured for us the best seats in the house. It was the perfect way to spend our final night-made even better by late-night ice-creams, laughter and chats, and celebrations of Aussie music back at home before we fell into bed in the early hours.

Of course, the airport the next day was met once again with tears. My sister and brother accompanied us for the farewell before our trip back 'home', to our other home. It's undeniably strange, this shifting concept of home. In England, any mention of 'home' is with definite reference to Australia, and more specifically Newcastle. But the entire time we were in Australia, England and more specifically Leeds, were the 'home' we spoke of. I've often asked myself if it's possible to have many homes at the same time? Standing in the airport in Sydney though, hugging May and crying, I intrinsically knew that old clichéd tune that often runs through my head is true to my heart...'No matter how far or how wide I roam, I still call Australia home'. Like most other Aussies scattered throughout the world, I’m proud to say I always will.

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