It was the night before the night before Christmas and after travelling the world for ten months, the long route home had finally led me ... home.
Three of the most familiar faces in my life were at the airport to welcome me home (mum, dad & my eldest sister).
The following morning many more familiar faces were present for a familial feed.
It was truly great to be reunited with loved ones (& things) that I hadn't held for a year.
I've never celebrated Christmas anywhere other than Australia or without my family - this year was no different.
Mum booked the whole family into the Aussie Golf Ranch on Philip Island so that we could spend the last few days of the year together there.
We each assumed a food role to lighten Mum's work load and to ensure that no-one lost weight between the Christmas-New Year period.
Golf was the only loser that week.
And, as per usual, Little Sash was the centre of everyone's attention.
After celebrating New Year's Eve together (on a boat (which my father dragged through sludge - what a guy!)) with special guest star Ollie (the one-man-dial-a-party-machine), we posed for the annual Christmas family photo and headed back to Melbourne.
There was still time for more family fun on the beach of our old traditional stomping grounds - Port Melbourne - before mum and dad put an end to the festive season by heading home.
Along with the end of the festivities came the need for me to get my act together so as to earn some money again.
In a bid to appear slightly more professional I cut off the band that I had been gifted in Vietnam (the first country I visited) which had outlasted all my other "wrist-things" despite being held together by a flimsy woollen thread.
After travelling for ‘this long’ (see the above photo) the time had come to cut my hair for the first time since starting my travels. (I saw my mother's hair dresser and came home with my mother's hair style – an error that was amended a few days later.)
2010 looks like being the year I forfeit a number of life long boasts, such as never having owned a mobile phone. (This SIM card - my first, from the virgin mobile network - was necessary so as to be contactable by potential employers (& my family members who were sick & tired of not being able to contact me wherever/whenever).)
My family members (& their respective pets) were good enough to allow me to squat in their homes while I continued to sort myself out.
Settling back into life in Australia was proving to be a frustrating affair on account of the horrendous amount of paperwork that was apparently necessary to re-establish 'a presence' after ten years of absence; I was simultaneously finding the size of Melbourne quite intimidating as I periodically contemplated the thought/need of creating a new life within its bounds.
Not knowing exactly where I wanted to live in Australia, or if I was going to be heading back overseas to take up a job in international aid somewhere in the near future, I decided to set myself up as a locum optometrist (working as a professional temp) so as to stay loose and maintain tight control over my working schedule.
The decision to avoid full-time work was in a large part made so that I could prioritise spending time with Sasha and her parents, who had announced at Christmas that they were planning on moving to the UK in March.
I was in therefore in town to help Sasha celebrated her first birthday with a party at the local Children’s Farm.
Avoiding a proper job meant that there was ample time to ...
... watch Australia demolish the West Indies at the MCG with Tai ...
... to cruise up to Ark Central to visit the olds with Amanda and Ushka.
… to play lawn bowls with my father (who has just retired from a lifetime of teaching in the local highschool and joined the local club).
… and to hang with Sash and her support crew, both in the Southern Highlands (where my parents live) and in Melbourne (where Sasha's parent live).
Being prepared to work anywhere in Australia led to me earning my first professional Australian dollar in Burnie, Tasmania (some ten years after graduating).
Travelling around Australia for work allowed me to see some of my own country’s beautiful places (again), such as:
Cradle Mountain (Tasmania)
Stanley (Tasmania)
I got to fly over the spectacular red centre of Australia on my way to a week of work in the Northern Territory ...
... a trip which was completed by an adventurous drive down to where my skills where required.
Edith Falls (Northern Territory)
Australia is full of warning signs: crocodiles in the swimming holes & snakes on the golf courses.
I did two weeks of work in the Northern Territory which involved setting up temporary clinics in medical centres located in (or near) Aboriginal communities so as to provide them with eye care.
On one outing I was invited to spend a night on a central Australian cattle station - which oozed authenticity & Australiana.
The farmer on the station cooked up a great curry stew and spent the night telling me story after incredible story about things like catching & killing poisonous snakes, fooling backpackers into believing they had consumed Kangaroo eggs and milk, and (heaps of) local UFO sightings.
I didn't see any 'ming-ming' lights that night.
The Devil's Marbles (Northern Territory)
The travelling also gifted me another opportunity to connect with my brother on the edge of the Pacific ocean on the sands of a famous beach, this time it was Bondi Beach. (The waves were way better than at Venice Beach.)
Having chosen to live the life of a drifter, my 2010 life turned out to be far more like my 2009 life than I had expected: As before I was never sleeping in the same bed for more than a week or a night, living out of suitcases, spending way too much time in airports and on public means of transportation, and working in makeshift eye clinics.
There was also the familiar face of a good friend I had made in 2009 in my present year; Nelson was in Australia for a series of work related meetings, which gave me the chance to return some favour & show him around my adolescent neighbourhood.
The only "must-see" feature in my local 'hood is 'the big potato' at Robertson.
The time to say farewell to the Hodson's drew very close very quickly; It was their turn to leave the safely of the known in order to pursue foreign adventures & experiences abroad.
We were at the airport on the morning of their departure before we were ready for it.
Long last holds and hugs didn't last long enough (but they were never going to).
