Goodbye to Sydney

If someone was to tell me that the hardest thing about moving overseas was the constant goodbyes I don't think I would believe them. I knew saying goodbye to my family would be hard but I thought my excitment about the new challenges that lie ahead would make saying goodbye to everyone OK, I justified it to myself that it was only for 2 years actually 104 weeks I told my netball team. However it got to the stage that everyone I saw in the last few days before we left I had to say goodbye to. My kids would just shrug their shoulders and say "oh here she goes again" as I cried my way through another goodbye. Even my young sons primary school, which I will add he was to leave anyway in 6 months, had me sobbing with their well wishes and prayers for our safe journey.

We had decided to stay in a hotel near the airport for the last few days so as we could return home to clean the house. This sounded good in theory however 6 people and luggage enough to float the Titantic made it a squishy and 'family bonding' experience. I draw the short straw, well my 11 year old Josh, and I both did. Being the smallest in the family we got to share the pull out sofa bed. Sleeping along side a child is never restful particularly when that child likes to sleep diagonally! being woken in the middle of the night by a foot kicking my nose certainly took the shine off the family bonding experience.

It seemed everytime we arrived back at the hotel we had yet more luggage I do wonder what they thought, especially when I arrived with a box bearing our coffee machine, it was at this point that my girls decided I was just too embarrassing to be seen with saying "Mum they'll think your weird". The coffee machine was going to my father to mind while we are away I will point out, but that didn't lessen the embarrassment of walking through a crowded hotel lobby with my own, rather large coffee machine.

Finally Wednesday arrived and it was time to leave. All 149kg of checked luggage, 6 pieces of handluggage which we told the kids not to grimace at the weight of as they carried it, 6 laptops a camera bag, food (what you save on Jetstar fares you spend at the airport on food when you have remembered that you won't get fed for 4 hours - an absolute disaster for any teenagers let alone an 18 year old boy) and 6 people. It was an unusual sight coupled with parents, nieces and friends that came to say goodbye! I'm sure we were the ones which people said "I hope I don't get stuck next to that family".

Boarding arrived, more goodbyes, copious tears but finally we were off - if only to Darwin. Flying out of the domestic terminal didn't have the same exciting feeling as the International but finally we were going and anything that hadn't been done was not going to get done at this point but thankfully one of the teenagers did remember to change their status on facebook to reflect that we were going - glad they managed to keep their priorties right. Darwin here we come.