Thursday - Friday

GOING HOME :(

Well it seems I have been in denial right up until the end, but it is finally time to pack and get ready to return home. Caroline the awesome has taken more of my washing to do for me and will bring back in the morning when she drops her kids to school.  I started some packing and the tears started flowing.  We had just been and got all the other bits and bobs I wanted to take back home with me (and a few more mini pork pies of course). Bloody Hell there’s 200 calories in each one of these morsels from heaven, it’s a good thing I can only ever eat 2 at any one time, or I would also be carrying excess baggage, on my hips and thighs.

The bags were soon all packed and weighed no sweat (mainly because Andy did it), and I will just make it in under those baggage limits so time to spend the rest of the day with Andy.  Caroline and the kids dropped back in on us on the way home from school, Alex wanted us to come for dinner, but we politely declined as I really just needed my last few hours alone with Andy.  We tried to take some family group pics but it was like herding cats, trying to get us all looking in the same direction at the same time. It was just plain impossible and as for all the pics, well let’s just say they have all been deleted.

I cannot for the life of me remember what we ate today, apart from mini pork pies, although I know we ate other foods too, but for some strange reason, I am still focused on pork pies.  Probably coffee and pork pies would be a safe bet then.

As an interesting aside, those wacky brits have this awesome shield
affair going on on the back of their coins at present

It was Friday now and the tears though, my God, every time I thought about leaving, they simply started flowing. Andy was getting used to all the wet patches showing up on his lap or his chest or his shoulder by now, he just accepted I was going to cry and just kept reassuring me that we are on the home stretch now and it wouldn’t be long (3 inches shorter, LOL) before we can be together for the rest of our lives, and that I would probably be getting sick of the sight of him soon enough.  I don’t see that ever happening though; we haven’t been more than 10 feet apart from each other since I arrived here. This is going to be hard for me. I don’t know what made me even think that I would have survived this 10 months away from him, we had just endured the first 5 months apart and these last two weeks was like we have never been apart, so close and so natural and just totally relaxed.

Caroline dropped off the rest of my clothes the following morning on her way to drop the kids to school so we did the final packing of the cases, EEEEEK!!  My hand luggage is overweight; we need to redistribute the items.  At the final weighing though, ok my bag is 2kgs over, let’s just hope they don’t notice - Must use distraction techniques when checking in.  All shit, shaved, shampooed, shirted and ready to roll, Caroline came and picked us up for the airport. My knee of course was in fine form (not), I am starting to think it is all emotional, I simply don’t want to go back home.  A final pit-stop into Tesco for a couple more shower caps (yes THOSE ones), and Andy comes back with mini pork pies in hand for me to take away on the trip back home.

I tried not to cry while we were driving to the airport, trying to keep the conversation flowing without Andy or Caroline knowing there were tears streaming down my face. I don’t think I was convincing enough but we soon found the airport, despite the sat-nav's best efforts of not allowing us to choose the terminal we wanted.  It was raining again and I am beginning to think that the weather here was just a reflection of my present emotions.

It wasn’t long before I was all checked in and saying final goodbyes.  Ok I cannot stop the tears now.  Poor Caroline, she was having to watch me turn into a blithering idiot right in front of her, it must have been uncomfortable for her. Andy's shirt was soaked with my tears, but it was time to be herded like cattle in a slaughter yard (thanks for that image Andy) through to customs.

Well customs is fun at Manchester airport, I got herded through the full body scan machine, yay for radiation, and I now glow in the dark (Damn it, I was hoping for Spiderman abilities). And they don’t give you the gate numbers for your flight on your boarding pass here. You just have to find your way through duty free and then wait in the food hall area for your flight to be awarded a gate number. Then you have 15 mins in which to make it to the gate for boarding (is this how they train for the Olympics?) - Awesome system this.  So I grabbed a coffee and sat down to await the award ceremony (my gate allocation); this is when I thought I had better eat those mini pork pies. There were only 2 but now was probably as good a time as any to eat them, seeing as I was flying Emirates, an Islamic airline, and I don’t think they would have been OK with pork products on board, especially being consumed, by a person that had ordered only vegetarian meals for the flight.

The plane, an Emirates A380 Airbus. NOT going where I wanted to be :(

I finally got boarded, and I was on an A380, a plane I had never experienced before. I must have looked a right mess when I boarded because the flight attendant looked extremely concerned. I was still tearing up, and every step I took was one further away from Andy and as it turns out, I got a few seats all to myself. There was a baby in this sector too, but this journey, I didn’t hear a peep out of him and having a movie channel to watch was a great excuse for more crying, people just thought I was just a big wuss watching sad movies. So after 6 hours of "movies", I was almost all cried out, and just a little dehydrated.

When I arrived in Dubai, it was after midnight, I found my gate, jumped on g-talk and chatted with Andy until I boarded my connecting flight. Trying to see through tears (it appears I wasn’t all cried out after all) made it hard to focus, but I just needed this time with him.  I was too far away from him as it was and I was about to go even further, and knowing I had another 15 more hours without contact, after being with him 24/7 in the last two weeks was getting very hard to handle.

I did however get a little sleep on the next 2 legs and knowing I would be driving home for an hour when I landed in Australia meant I needed to have my wits about me, so I did try my hardest to sleep. I was finding all sorts of things annoying (another MOOD yes) but in the end I just had to get over it all and get sleep. 

Singapore is just supposed to be a refuel and go pit-stop affair, but for reasons only known to themselves and God, they made us get off the plane, go through security and back, and get back on the plane, during which time we were told we only had 10 minutes, so HURRY!!  Once we were all through and waiting to re-board, they also advised us that we had now missed our departure slot and would have to wait another 90 mins WTF?  I could have gone to explore duty free but the gods were against me as we were now through security and trapped like animals in a zoo.  People were looking in at us we were helplessly wishing we could leave our enclosure.

Next stop Brisvegas, Australia, at 2am in the morning. I ambled through the customs automated passport system (I so love this) without any fuss and was then off to collect my luggage. I think I almost pulled my shoulder out of its socket trying to lift my bag off the carousel.  Sighs, I should have brought Andy home with me (even though the weight of my cases suggested I had).  I just had to go through quarantine now and probably because of the unearthly hour it was, there wasn’t a beagle puppy in sight.  I voluntarily declared the food stuffs (mainly peanut M&Ms) I brought back and actually got through quarantine quicker than those with nothing to declare - Mental note, shorter processing time for future flights – don’t forget :)

I finally got outside and called the bus to come and take me to the parking station where my car had been housed for the last fortnight. And then I called Andy and cried some more.  I just needed to hear his voice once more as I was now on the other side of the earth, about as far as I can physically be away from him as I could be. I would be home within an hour and be able to get on Skype to talk to him but for now that hour was just far too long to wait.  I needed to hear his voice here and now. It was comforting to know he misses me as much as I miss him, even though I know he will love having his bed back all to himself so he can spread out again.  I will miss waking up in his arms, and snuggling in to keep warm with him.

And I know it is only another 5 months before we are reunited, but for now that feels like a lifetime away.  I miss him like Hell and it hurts. I want him here with me now.  When you find that someone that you connect with on every level, you never want to be apart from them.  And I never knew what that was like until I met Andy.  He truly is the love of my life.

And so ends another gripping chapter in the Ozmanbrit Saga. Join us again soon, when Andy finally gets his visa and moves to Australia for the marriage of a lifetime.