Saturday 7 June 2014

Back in the caravan

What a very long 48 hours it's been since we were having lunch in a Brinklow pub.  

At Dubai airport I had a shower at the health club.... thanks again to Lynne for the suggestion.  It made the next leg of the journey a little better.  Goodness that 13 hours drags on and we had pretty much no sleep.

The lady behind us was an absolute nuisance.  She would slam her tray shut that hard that she woke me just as I dozed off.  Next time I was almost asleep she pulled herself up using the backrest of my seat, grabbing my hair at the same time!  She knocked Mick on the head getting out of her seat twice. She held onto our seat backs while she arranged her belongings, jiggling us about.  When we were woken by her for the fifth time Mick said loud enough for her to hear "Some people are so inconsiderate!"  She heard, I'm sure, because it was slightly better from then on.

Halfway through the flight our section of 4 seats and the four behind us lost all power. No tv or movies and no light to read.   There was only a couple of vacant seats on the plane so they said we could take turns to use them to watch a movie but they were many rows back so nobody bothered.

After the false start for Peter, who went to the airport to collect us a day early, we hoped we wouldn't be too long getting through the airport and making him wait.  It was a breeze and we were out just 45 minutes after touching down.  10 minutes later we were in the car on the way to Bendigo.  It was 6.15am.  I looked out for kangaroos on the way and saw quite a few.  The trees along the highway have grown up and there's quite a few of the younger ones died over the very hot summer we missed.

We had a shower and breakfast at Kevin and Bernice's, who had kindly taken care of Mick's truck while we've been gone.  Then a quick stop at the Telstra shop to sort out Internet access and then on to give our phone number to the Mazda dealership, hoping they'll find us a demonstrator car of the type we've decided to go for.  We bought bare essential groceries at Woolworths (they were called Safeway when we left) and got a rude shock at the price of food.  A quick cup of coffee at my mum's and then it was back to the shed..... all before midday.  Mick was in absolute heaven to be at the shed.    Garry, who owns it with us, had cut the grass and tidied up so it looks neat as a pin.

We spent 3 hours getting what we need out of storage, cleaning dust and the bathroom, making the bed, doing washing and having a chat with Garry (who thought we arrived yesterday as Peter told him he was going to collect us then).  Despite our best intentions to stay up all day I just couldn't do it.  At 3.30pm I lay down and was asleep in about 20 seconds.  Mick did the same half an hour later.  We both woke up totally disorientated 3 hours later.  We couldn't even work out if it was 6.30am or pm!  So now we will go to bed again at a more usual bedtime and hope that we get a good few hours sleep.

It's so nice to be back on home soil.  Tomorrow we will start moving into the house.  I'm looking forward to settling in there but there's an awful lot to unpack and sort out before that happens.

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