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Published: November 7th 2014
Flying Time.
Does anyone remember this blog? Well it has been read 366 Times, who by? We do not have a clue!! Although we do know that we have some regular readers that will of course have read it. This blog was written at LHR (London Heathrow Airport), whilst waiting for our Singaporean Airlines A380 Airbus,
exactly six years ago today.
Is it by complete coincidence that they played at the Perth Arena last week? Wednesday to be exact when we were having dinner in town with friends. We were offered tickets at $500+ each, but when we equate that to how many tanks of diesel, we opted for the diesel.
Longest farewell tour since the Rolling Stones Blog Number 14
The last couple of weeks have been fairly emotional as we have been going around saying goodbye to family and friends, it has not been an easy journey, but we do consider ourselves lucky to have so many to say our farewells to......
The long awaited day has finally dawned, almost 2 years in the planning and we are here in Departures at Heathrow Terminal 3 awaiting
our 10.55 flight to Singapore.... Andy is crashed out on the floor so I am using him to rest my legs as I type up the blog. Today we fly on the new A380. It was not a plane that I am particularly enamoured about flying on - we have yet to see it but I am pretty sure it is HUGE. We are on the upper deck but don't get carried away that is not first class we are still in economy - she did offer us an upgrade for an additional £1500... but no thanks maybe next time....!
We went to bed last night at 11.00 still busy until the last minute, despite all of our planning. What seemed like 5 minutes later Andy was calling me to wake up as it was 4.00am (you have to be kidding me??). So Andy dutifully made me a cup of tea while I eased myself into the morning..... but I could not take my time with that as the taxi was due at 5.00. So a few last minute changes in our packing we were ready, the taxi arrived and bang on time we pulled out of the driveway
at Pauncefoot House at 5.00 leaving the rest of the household in peace (we hoped that we did not make too much noise).
As we pulled out of the driveway, A friend of ours, DJ, pulled in as he was on his way to work (Yes... some people apparently do start work very early), he just wanted to bid us a final farewell before we headed off to the airport.
It was a dark and wet morning, the Autumn leaves were lying wet on the roads as we headed up through Winchester and onto the M3 (which is probably about where I stopped blubbing!)... the journey seemed long and quiet - I was tempted to ask the taxi driver to put the radio on, but I didn't.
We arrived at terminal 3 just after 6.00 waited 2nd in line at the check in desk (the chap before us left Birmingham at 3.00am to get there in time), check in opened at 7.00, we were both very nervous as we knew that we were well over our 20kg allowance so held our breath when our luggage went on the conveyor, mine weighed in at about 22.5kg and Andy's
weighed a wopping 27.5 (so who takes more clothes than me then??), before knew it we were having breakfast and gathering thoughts before we came into departures, which is where I am sat now waiting for the gate number to be announced.
We have had so many wonderful good luck messages and thank you all very much for those. Promise to get round to replying to everyone in good time. This is the first time in weeks that I feel that I have been able to sit and concentrate on something and hopefully start to relax.
Just remember to send us comments and messages to keep us updated with what is happening in your lives (thanks Keeley for your working week update - you are making me miss work already!!!!).
Thank you to Len and Sarah at Pauncefoot House for their hospitality, we will miss them both, and grateful that they put up with comings and goings and all of our gear that we still needed to sort out before putting into storage (I think I have moved everything - you can have your house back now).
We really will miss you all very much and
look forward to seeing you on the blog, skype or facebook or hopefully in Australia.
Now Six Years Later.
Well that wasn’t too hard was it? so its time to jump forward to the present day and see where are we now, well I type this from our chalet in South Fremantle in Western Australia, exactly 6 years to the day, when we left Pauncefoot House in the wet and windy market town of Romsey in Hampshire for our new life 16,000 Kilometres away from everything we knew.
It has been the most amazing adventure, very hard to transfer in to words really, I can honestly say it has been a life changing experience.
We certainly don’t think the vast distance or time it has softened our memories or relationships, back in the old country, we think our friendships are as still as strong as they ever were, and this was proven when I had to return to the UK very late last year and our friends really rallied to offer their help, this was a particularly difficult time for Caroline and I to be separated, but we got there in the
end.
Our new life has given us the opportunity to do the most amazing things and meet the most astonishing people, I never thought we would have ever slept under the stairs, or drive some of the remotest tracks on earth, cross deserts’, fall in love with farm life and become citizens of another country.
I would elude to possibly the simplest thing that we have worked out throughout our travels, throughout our confinement of being with each other for 24 hours a day 7 days a week, 365 days a years with all the crazy conversations we have had, we both agree that we had forgotten how to have simple pleasures as we had got caught up in a world that was out of control and our desire to stop the roundabout and get off was the single most important thing we did, why did our house have four TV’s when there was only two of us and other silly things like that.
The way we travelled made us realise that we had to change our ways, travel light was the key, so all those luxury items could not be taken, even if we wanted too
and I would guess this simple mechanism has stayed with us, so we only seem to surround ourselves with essential items now, the other thing we found was to buy the very best quality we could afford and not buy sh*t.
We are glad you have read our blogs, I appreciate its frequency lately has been a bit patchy but we always wrote it with passion and honesty and do our best to recount our adventures exactly as they happened.
We have a few amazing things coming up, so I would encourage you to stay tuned for when we travel again and we will we want you to come with us.
It is a trifecta celebration for us today 07/11/2014, it is seven years to the day since my heart attack, six years to the day since we left the UK and today I have been discharged from the care of my Neurologist so it’s a big day.
We celebrated by having an early dinner in Perth after my hospital appointment as we were overjoyed with the news.
Until next time.
KJ
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Congratulations
Not only for your 6 years 'abroad', but for Andy being cleared by the Doctors. So glad to hear that things are going well, Andy. Caroline, keep up the good work on making him toe the line. Please be assured that I am always glad to get the email saying you have done another blog. You are such good writers/narrators of your journey. Keep up the wonderful stories. Time does fly. 6 years!! Well done.