Welcome Home

"Welcome Home" was written on the balloon that my niece was holding high above her head (and has been sleeping with ever since!) as I walked into the Arrivals Hall at Sydney airport. After many months of dreaming of this moment here I was back in Australia; back to live, not just for a brief three week holiday.

My final week in Milano was exceptionally tiring, stressful and gut-wrenching. Most mornings I woke up early with my head full of all the things I had to achieve in that day. There were a couple more trips to the post office, lots of packing, throwing things into the rubbish, closing of gas / electricity / internet accounts, visits to the office, cleaning and meeting with my landlord. The most important thing was absolutely the time that I spent with all of the friends that I had made during my five years in Milan, both sweet and sad goodbyes. I think I had butterflies flying around my tummy for a week!

On the night before I left I stared at the mountain of bags that I would be taking with me on my flight home and was pretty worried. A friend of mine in Sydney working in travel had been able to arrange an extra 10kgs of baggage allowance with Singapore Airlines however even with that I was still concerned, and rightly so as when said bags were weighed at check-in the next morning, they came in at a weight of 47kgs. I started sweating. I was told they would give me another extra five kilograms meaning I had 35kgs and that I would have to pay for the additional 12. I asked calmly if they could do anything else, could I speak to the supervisor, that I was moving back to Australia after five years living in Italy and I'd be so incredibly grateful of anything they could do. In the end they relented and gave me 40kgs and I paid €293 in extra baggage fees. Done, and relieved I headed off and caught my flight.

I had never travelled with Singapore Airlines before and they were great, and well deserve to be called one of the world's best airlines. Also great was the fact that the flight from Singapore - Sydney had about 20 people in economy class and so I ended up having a row to myself and that made it of course so much easier to sleep.

I've now been home for four days and I'm still feeling what I can only describe as "spacey". It's a combination of jet-lag, not really having a rhythm yet and getting used to the familiar yet not so familiar surroundings of Sydney. I've spent quite a bit of time with my family and I've also caught up with just a few friends. I'm going back to work on Tuesday and I think that is going to be good for me with regards to settling and re-starting my life here. Every day my eyes and self are opening up a little bit more.

Today here in Sydney was a glorious winter's day, sunny and warm, and I was thinking about how happy I was not to be having to live through another European winter rugged up in jacket, scarf, gloves slipping through ice on the streets. Definitely something to be super pleased about!

And here I am writing this post watching the Wimbledon Ladies final. It's getting exciting, so I'm going to bid you a fond adieu; until my next update!