Biscuits

I'm scoffing the Chicken's famous white chocolate and berry biccies - YUM - while sitting in Hong Kong airport (the Plaza Premium Lounge, no less) after a 9hr flight from Sydney. There's still another 13 1/2 hr flight to Paris remaining but I have 4 hours to enjoy a hot shower, have a meal, relax and update the blog on the journey.
It's been about a week since I last wrote and so much has happened I might be forced into bullet points...but I'll try to give the detail where important. You'd better make a cup of tea just in case. Here we go.

• Saturday April 5: Trained in the morning - the last time before leaving. Wendy made much of the fact - embarrassment ensued. Spent the rest of the day packing and procrastinating about cleaning. Went to Simon's house-warming in the evening (nice place, Sime!), walked home (stopping for bags of lollies for the Mixed crew) and got back into more packing.

• Sunday April 6: Got up at 5am for a 5.45am pick-up by Chris to drive to the State Champs. Have been getting up at 5am feeling anxious for a few days...only natural, I guess. The day was AWESOME though. The best racing I've seen and been of a part of with Tsunami ever, including that win over Snatch all those years back. The Mixed crew came 5th in the State (must've been the lollies) and the Open team came 7th. The team presented me with life membership to Tsunami after the racing and for once I was speechless (not to mention quite teary with some of my closer friends in the crew). It's a huge honour and one I'm not sure I deserve, but I've packed the picture frame to remind me what I have to return to.
  After all that we went to the Aussie Yoof for dinner and drinks. I crashed big time that night.

• Monday April 7: Got up at 5am to finalise packing (does it seem like I've been doing this far longer than I should?). Dad drove from Bundanoon (the Southern Highlands) with a large trailer to take me and my mountains of gear back to their place. We managed to avoid most of the rain on the drive back and made it in time for some unpacking before an (as usual) amazing dinner cooked by mum. We had a bottle of white from Vouvrais B and I bought ages ago which wasn't bad at all. Surprisingly good, in fact, considering how unsure we were at the time of buying.

• Tuesday April 8: Left Bundanoon at 6am to drive back to Sydney for a final cleaning of the Glebe home. It took me 3 hours (the drive), including lengthy periods at 20km/h. Yawn. But after 4 hours of cleaning, my landlords signed the bond and I was free. I dropped by Ro's place in Queen's Park to hand over some stuff she gave me many years back but no-one was home so I left a note. After that I swung by work to finish some things off and have lunch with John. I've made a friend in that guy, really quickly, and I'm going to miss the laughter a lot. At least I won't have to hear anymore his pathetic sob stories about not getting any because of his new diet. I mean, really.
  That night Aunty K and Ann came over for Ann's birthday dinner. Another amazing meal (thanks mum) with an equally amazing bottle of wine to match (thanks Steve)

• Wednesday April 9: Spent the morning faffing around home before lunch with Tom and Katie (looking forward to seeing them in the UK for lunch one day soon - they're starting a journey of their own) and yet ANOTHER brilliant dinner with the folks, including - drum roll, please - mum's in/famous self-saucing chocolate pudding. I slept well that night!

• Thursday April 10: Said goodbye to dad at 7am (he was going to a garden trip he'd organised) before taking the dogs for a 90min walk around the villages. I'm going to miss my shadow and her partner in crime. And yes, dad too!
  Mum drove me and about 35kg of luggage back to Sydney at about 1pm. We had lunch near C's place before I said goodbye to mum - thankfully tear-free. Just. Spent the rest of the arvo drinking tea and reading the paper before C got home and we headed out for dinner in Newtown.

• Friday April 11: Said goodbye to C at 6.30am and was finally overwhelmed by everything. The poor cabbie...listening to a grown man cry... Saying goodbye to my best friend was the straw that broke the camel's back - the thing that ultimately brought home the finality and the reality of the move. It was like all the emotions I'd held in check and pushed down when they threatened to overtake me were finally able to have their time in the sun. And all it took was me looking up from my seat in the cab into her eyes, welling up with tears. I hope I never see that or feel that way again - it was heart-wrenching. I will miss the Chicken immensely - we've hardly spent more than a week or 2 apart in the last 4 or 5 years so this 12 month stint is something I'm going to find hard to deal with. But such is the price of adventure - sacrifices are made to hopefully bring about something spectacular.

Which brings me here, with 3 hours left before the HK-Paris leg of the flight. I think it's time for a coffee and more of the biccies. The next post will be from Paris - and more up-beat, I promise!