Hello everybody! We're home again! In fact we've now been back for over a week but we're both still next to useless (well I am - Su's heading in the right direction since reclaiming control of the kitchen!) In theory we shouldn't have felt any worse than we did after the flight from Auckland to Bangkok, same length of flight, same time difference, but in reality we seemed to just stop and were unable to kick-start ourselves again. I guess it's because when we arrived in Bangkok we had a whole adventure ahead of us, and now we're home, back to reality (whatever that is) and we've hit the pause button….

Our last evening in Bangkok was quite intense; after I'd spent ages typing up the blog, losing part of it, and doing it all over again, we had a couple of last minute bits of shopping to do, just as the rain clouds gathered over the Khao San Road and suddenly it was getting quite late and we had to pack and go out for our last Thai meal (my final plate of huge delicious prawns!) And then we had one final night on those horrid sweaty plastic mattresses and it was time to head to the airport, which we did in plenty of time after our experiences trying to make our coach from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and our flight from Surat Thani to Bangkok - we booked the taxi an hour earlier than necessary just in case!!! The flight home was pretty good, I've been quite impressed with Thai Airways, their service and food is excellent, we booked the double seats at the back so we didn't have to squeeze past anybody else to stretch our legs or pop to the loos, and they gave me a lovely glass of Bombay Sapphire as soon as we were in the air which always works for me! The only downside was that their Jumbos haven't yet got the personal movie screen thingy and they chose absolute crap for the duration of the flight so we contented ourselves with some good reading material and gazing out the window which after a cloudy couple of hours gave us a clear view of the countries we flew over, including incredible views of the mountains of Pakistan & Afghanistan and our first sight of England (after a little cloud which prevented us from seeing Walton-On-the-Naze) was Clacton, Brightlingsea, Mersea Island and Thorrington - where we used to live!!!

It was wonderful to finally meet Mum & Dad at Heathrow Airport after being away from them for 16 months, quite difficult to miss them actually as Mum was bouncing up & down several feet over the rest of the crowd as if she had springs on her feet and holding up their names just in case we'd forgotten what they look like! I think I can pinpoint the minute I lost my brain as shortly after we'd had our initial cuddles and greetings - the long flight and time difference (we landed at 6.30pm which for us was 12.30am Bangkok time) seemed to overwhelm me and everything started to feel a little surreal and like I wasn't quite in the room. (And I've pretty much felt like that ever since!) We made it back to the Jury's Inn at Heathrow and joined Mum & Dad for a drink while they had dinner (after a lovely long hot shower) and then we crashed. As to be expected, we woke at 4.30am the following morning and tried to kill as much as time as possible before calling Mum & Dad at a semi-respectable hour for breakfast as we were starving (I think we had breakfast at 3pm Bangkok time and I stuffed as much of the buffet breakfast as possible).

Then it was back to Mum & Dad's in Hunstanton, Norfolk, to a bungalow a little changed from the last time we were here and which was covered in WELCOME HOME banners! The next few days literally passed in a bit of a haze and the simplest of tasks seemed to take an extraordinary amount of brainpower and far too long to complete. We managed to pop into Hunstanton and call into the library to get some books for our holiday to Wales and say hello to old friends (though I haven't made it down to Dersingham yet to my old library - sorry, haven't attempted anything that involves public transport yet, I'd probably end up in Norwich!) Su called in to her old friends at the bakery, and we're both hopeful of getting some work when we return from Wales - me at the Wine Cellar & Deli with Keith who I kept in touch with while away and Su at the bakery. For both of us this is a little bit of a struggle; we only want the work for a couple of months over the school holidays as we need to save a little bit of cash before setting out to find ourselves again and concentrate on what we want to do with our lives now that this journey is over, but as we've been away for so long we're both eager to move on and start finding our new lives as soon as possible and working out what we want to do next - so it feels a little like treading water. And it felt so strange to be back here, and a surprise to find so many things the same as when we left, it was as if we expected the town to have completely changed, which of course it hasn't. Part of our coping mechanism involved getting totally and utterly engrossed in another world - we started reading the Twilight saga just before leaving Bangkok and have both just read all 4 books with barely a break for eating or sleeping! What is it with them? They are aimed at teenage girls and we are both addicted (as is half the female population, granted) but we have become obsessed with Edward & Bella and they have provided us with a nice escape from the real world for a while.

We've also had our summer Christmas with Mum & Dad which was lovely - they had ordered a Norfolk turkey from a local Farmer's Market, plus a proper Christmas pudding and Mum made a delicious Christmas cake. We cooked the full works (I use the word 'we' quite loosely - I was still useless and Mum & Su cooked a feast between them) and we sat at the table, Christmas crackers and all, and even had presents which Mum & Dad chose very thoughtfully, a travel book for me and cupcake book for Su and aprons from the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School which we spent 3 days at while in Thailand - they had managed to order from the office in Chiang Mai, a wonderful surprise! And a delicious Christmas dinner.

We've been back to storage to get a few bits out, I finally got my computer home again (no more worrying about how many viruses I can pick up on Asian computers) then I promptly messed with the registry to try and correct a problem and succeeded in totally messing up my computer, thankfully I undid all my damage relatively easily the following morning (with a little help from Dad's friends - thanks Keith) though I haven't solved the initial problem but I think I'll leave that alone until my brain can cope. And we've got ready for our holiday in Wales with Mum & Dad, which again has been a struggle. Sorting clothes was difficult as I have so much choice again now and it has literally taken me all day to pack, I mean you'd think I'd be used to this by now having spent the last 16 months living out of a rucksack, but I could not work out what to put in a bag for the life of me. I've packed far more clothes for a week in Wales than I took to SE Asia for 2 months - granted you can't rely on the weather so much, but still… (Out of interest, Su packed, baked a cake, made granola, made sandwiches for the journey and dinner for tonight while I was wandering around like a lost soul trying to fit too many clothes into a bag) Anyway, I think I'm ready. Mum & Dad are just packing their final bits, Su is relaxing in the bath and I'm online. I will keep our little blog going for the Wales trip - it is our holiday to recover from our travels after all, and I must apologise for being useless in contacting people since arriving home, but I will be in touch with you all again once we're home, again…

On a final note, I have just won £100 on a scratchcard so I can at least treat everybody to a meal in Wales. Woo hoo!

All for now, lots of love, Jo & Su, xxx