Fast forward half hour from the airport and we arrived at Chez Fortt. Its a bit Ramsey Street. Kadie, Heymish and the dog, Levi, we there to we greet us. Billy and Rich have a lovely home. Their house is beautiful and really big. It would be fair to say I was in a complete daze. I felt completely detached from myself, like I was watching through a window. No time to dwell on that fact though. It was all systems go and after a quick tour me and Bill were off to the supermarket for provisions. More than 20 hours of travelling and I'm at the shops!! Good old Bill. Nothing changes. I wouldn't want it to. The shops are only 5 mins away. It's a cross between 'stepford wives' and 'Back to the Future'. I keep expecting Marty mcfly to appear in his Delorean. There's shops and restaurants on one side of the road and waste land on the other. Very strange.

After pushing the trolley round the supermarket in a total trance it was decided a take away was the best option for our first night. Nick was dying to go for a drink with Fella so we dropped them at The Brooke. While they were gone I had a shower and got changed in a desperate attempt to stay awake. Then we sat in the living room and chatted. About nothing in particular. Not about the last 3 years but idle chit chat like we only saw each other last week. We ordered fish and chips and collected that, along with the boys, and we all came home. They enjoyed themselves and were talking animatedly about the same old s***e as always. I love watching them together. After dinner we sat in the garden for a while until it was a respectable enough time to go to bed.

Our room is lovely. Billy has taken so much care. New bed, matching towels, blue for him, red for me, a box of smellies and chocolates. She did a lovely job and I'll never be able to thank her enough. As we got in bed I remembered the card mum had packed for us. I was tired and it had been a long day so not really the best time to open a card from home. Mum had written a lovely poem and I hadn't made it a third of the way through before I was bawling. It all came gushing out. It's what was meant for Billy and Rich at the airport but I didn't have the energy for. Once I'd started I couldn't stop and I sat in bed, in Australia, in the house of my very best friends and cried my eyeballs out.