take your boat to the pub

I have spent most of today getting ready to go home, packing, cleaning, tidying, making beds and the like. I pop out for some breakfast overlooking the marina and witness a real aussie domestic.

Women: I need to move this table a bit out of the wind
Man: Awright, or we could just sit inside
Women: No, I will move it a bit (women moves table and a leg falls off it)
Man: That?s bloody good luv, you?ve had to have gone and moved the bloody table and now you?ve gone and bloody stuffed it?.
Women: If you were any man at all, you would have moved it.
Man: What do you want to order
Women: Im going to have the bruschetta followed by the (whatever)
Man: Bruschetta, bloody Bruschetta, If I knew you wanted bloody toast for lunch we could have stayed at home and watched the bloody footy.

My last day in Oz, I finish packing and leave the apartment, lock it up and leave the keys for the owner, however I have a particular sinking feeling that I have left something behind

On the way up the road, I pick up some flowers for Erics wife Kaye to say thanks for putting up with the old fella for a couple of days and travel the hour or so to go and collect him.

I drive slowly and contemplate my time in Australia and whether or not I would like to live there long term. The answer I come up with is No, I like Scotland more than I do here, but there is so many things that I will miss very much from this beautiful country.

Firstly, the people have been fantastic, nutters aside, they have been warm and welcoming and mostly take the time to say, how ye going mate.

Secondly, I will miss the no worries, laid back way of living, theres no rush, it might get done tomorrow, which suits my own outlook on life.

Thirdly, I will miss the warm sunshine, the outdoor living and living by the sea which is ultimately my dream. I will especially miss the fact that almost everybody along the coast has a boat and you can tie it up outside the pub.

Lastly, I will miss the great expanse of open space once you get out of the city, of which I have travelled several thousand kilometres during my three weeks here.

Overall I am sad to be leaving but miss my family desperately and want to hold my children in my arms and tell them that I wont leave them again.

I pick up dad and he is emotional, he has had a great time with some of the most endearing people in Australia and I wish that he had someone like uncle eric back home with whom to play chess and while away his twilight years. I imagine the two of them to be like the two hecklers from the muppets, stadler and waldorf or like Jack and Victor from chewing the fat. They have been playing putting using the holes in Erics lawn sprinker system and he seems sad but content as they say their goodbyes.

We get to the airport and start out long journey home.

My last day in Australia, overall its been a fantastic holidays, its has had its high points and its low points but overall its been an experience not to forget. It has also been my first ever holiday with my father and I cant help feeling that its been particularly important to him, like he was trying to make up for a childhood lost.

Goodbye Australia, I have loved your warm embrace and I may return one day after my other travels.