And after about 30 hours travelling...

...We're here!
I won't bore you with the gory details of the horror of sitting in the two middle seats of the middle aisle with a six year old for fourteen hours straight (packed plane meant we couldn't sit together), especially when the plane we were on didn't have the personal entertainment system on the back of each seat. I know Louis CK addressed our feeling of entitlement with regard to air travel (click here if you haven't seen it) and I tended to agree with him at the time,

but it didn't stop me from feeling completely incensed and ripped off when I boarded the plane and realized that I was going to have to survive that marathon flight without being able to sedate my child with the latest from the Disney channel. Luckily I spent a few hours loading up her iPod before we left.

We ended up having six hours to kill in Sydney so we visited the aquarium in Darling Harbour. It is such a fantastic aquarium with, among other things, glass tunnels that you can walk through while the fish swim all around you. But right now they also have a special Lego showcase on so there were these amazing statues and murals made entirely out of Lego! The kids loved it and I was pretty fascinated myself.





Of course as fun as that all was what we really wanted to do was just get to Adelaide. You know when you've been waiting for something for so long, anticipating and thinking about it for weeks and weeks and then when it happens it's a bit of a let down? Well this is completely not like that at all. I really wanted to get some shots of all the airport hugging and kissing and general mayhem but I was preoccupied to put it mildly. The gang was all there (minus Toddy. Somebody's gotta work!).

I don't know how to put into words how wonderful it is, when you've been away from your family for so long, to just do everyday things together.

This morning, after taking the kids out to pick mulberries from the garden, I chatted with Nat in her kitchen while I washed dishes and she cut vegetables. And it was awesome. So, so great. I continually remind myself to soak it all in.

But there are down sides too. Like how my dad almost hit me with the car this morning. I was out jogging and he was driving one way while looking another. As you do. But that's all in a day when you're hanging out with Big Al. And the key word is almost. All's well that ends well.