We have now arrived back in Australia but need to fill you all in on our last few weeks in England before our very long flight home.
We returned from the USA, back to family in England and after a few days of packing and sorting of our bags ready for returning home to Australia we started tripping around again. First event was to go out Carole Singing in Good Easter again with Graham. Had a lovely time meeting up with the locals for our second Christmas, and really enjoying the fruit mince pies and mulled wine after a hard night of singing, I’m sure they will miss us next year.
We had a wonderful couple of days up in London with Matt and Kelly, popping into the wonderful city to soak up the pre Christmas atmosphere on Oxford and Piccadilly one more time, stopping in on Liberty’s along the way. It is such a lovely time to see and we enjoyed every minute at our London pad ha ha. We even found a gorgeous little market outside a church on Piccadilly where we snapped up a few treasures. We also have a wonderful evening and delicious dinner with Chloe and Rupert in their new flat and just love it. Great to see them both settled in their fabulous new abode.
Back to Chelmsford and out to a Christmas concert in Brentwood organized by Graham’s brother Richard, who also sings with some others from the Randall clan in the choir. It was such a lovely event with a fabulous orchestra performing with the choir and some lovely children’s groups from the local schools performing with dance and singing. The evening would not have been complete without the appearance of Santa, especially delightful for the children.
Christmas is just a couple of days away and we spend it doing our last minute wrapping and also visiting with Aunty Babs who later joins us at The Bells for the Christmas festivities. It is suffice to say that from Christmas Eve to the 28th we managed to eat our way through the most enormous amount of delicious food, sharing lots of laughs and games with lots of visitors and generally having a fantastic time.
Sadly, we have to say our final farewell to cousin John and Jenny. We have enjoyed our times with you both so very much and all your valuable travel advice. It has been such a pleasure to get to know and enjoy you both so very much. One goodbye down we set off to Devon.
Our first day is at the footy again, watching Argyle play hard but alas not a win this time. I do believe we are accepted as true Argyle fans now and we look forward to hearing how they go for the rest of the season. The next day Paul takes us on a rambling tour down to the coast and we visit Martin at his wonderful foody heaven right on the beach at Bigbury. What a gorgeous part of the world, the girls and I deciding this would be the place to live if ever we do win the lotto and can live the dream of having a place to stay in all our favourite places in the world. Dream on! Martin brings Gabby over to see us one last time and we can not believe how much she has grown again and love to hear her chatting a lot more. Once again we have to say our farewells and move on back to London. It is fantastic that we have had more time with Paul and Jan and we know we are going to miss them so much but also know we are always welcome to return, will be starting to save the minute we return.
Back in to London for New Years Eve where we watch the fireworks over the city from Matt and Kelly’s flat, just gorgeous on a spectacularly clear night. It has been sunshine every day of our last run around, so very lucky. New years day we head into city to see The Lion King on the stage. Words cannot describe how much we enjoy this performance. It is just fabulous and can see why it is such a long running show and why so many people see it again and again.
It is Matt’s birthday so we pop out for Chinese, yum. The next day we make use of the hire car and pop off to Ikea for Matt and Kelly to run riot and get some great things for their new kitchen, we look forward to the pics once it is all installed. Another lovely meal is shared by all the family to celebrate the birthday boy and we have yet another farewell to Chloe and Rupert. These sad farewells are getting harder and harder.
After just a little more Crystal Palace exploring and a ‘last supper’ prepared by the wonderful chef Matt we have to say goodbye to our London pad and the very special people who live there. The tears are flowing now as we say farewell to two of the most special people in our lives. It is a sad ride back to Chelmsford as we know this is going to be the very last stop on a journey and we are nearing the end of our fantastic adventure.
We visit with Aunty Babs and endure another tear filled goodbye, play UNO and Bananagrams one last time for old times sake and all too quickly it is our last night. After a lovely dinner we say our farewells to Maggy and try to sleep before our early morning run to the airport. So much runs through my mind as I wonder how quickly our time has flown by and relive such and amazing journey.
All too soon we are trying to become conscious to make the final leg to Gatwick. Graham is so good to deliver us there, it is no surprise as he and Maggy have been such amazing supporters of our journey and without them all that we have achieved would not have been possible. There not enough words to express how grateful we are to you both and to The Bells for always making us feels so welcome. Our only way to ever thank you is to see you in Australia so we can do the same for you, so looking forward to that visit.
The airport experience is made all the more special by the surprise visit of Matt an Kelly, such cheeky things for not letting us know we were going to see them again. This is it, the end of something out of this world, last hugs and last tears and last waves as we are swallowed up in the airport security. It is surreal as we step away from such special family to cross over the world to sunny Perth. Oh my god what a traumatic but exciting moment in time. We have had a couple of conversations with Nan back in Australia and are so excited to see her and all our friends that await us but to say goodbye to all we have done is so very hard. All part of the experience I guess!
Here We Come World 