Well I've finally arrived Down Under after a hectic but lovely couple of weeks since I left work. I didn't realise quite how many people I had to say goobye to, I know I should be used to it by now but I'm still not very good!

London with the Brazil crew and Center Parcs with my lovely ladies and various meals with various people had all but wiped me out especially when sleep was being evasive inbetween. On Tuesday I left Portsmouth (sorry Susie for crying at the train station!) for London to stay with Sarah and John for my last night who most wonderfully took me to see Wicked as a brilliant and thoughtful goodbye treat. It was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then it was up at 6.15 to drag all my bags (all 4 of them) across London to Heathrow paranoid that I'd either be late or not able to check all my bags etc etc etc...not that I'm a worrier or anything ;)

I landed last night after a very, very long day of about 29 hours bed to bed. It was snowing at Heathrow when I took off and raining in Melbourne when I landed, I hope that precipitation is not going to be the theme of the trip! I watched some good films (Amelia, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs were highlights) and some alright ones (One and Only and The Invention of Lying), ate all the strange and varied food offered to me and managed a few hours sleep. Was only slightly panicked when I realised that I hadn't looked into the entry requirements for Malaysia and spent a lot of time keeping my fingers crossed that transit visas were not required (they weren't by the way!). A part from that it all went very smoothly, I made an excellent seat choice for the first leg including miraculously having the only spare seat on the whole plane next to me! Immigration was also a doddle, they didn't seem to care that I was spending up to a year here and noone asked me how I planned to support myself or get home or any of those lovely questions that immigration officials seem to like! They also didn't steal my packets of minstrels and haribo that I had to declare to customs so all in all a pretty good trip over.

Verity (my cousin for those of you who don't know) was waiting for me patiently at arrivals with her two friends Chris and Siobhan from work. I got to ride in a proper Aussie ute which was very exciting, or would have been if I was less sleepy and not stinky from the plane. So that's one genuine experience I can cross off from the list! I was great to see V, I don't think we've seen each other for over five years and we had a good catch up (or as good as I was capable of under the circumstances!) in her garden with wine (for Verity) and tea (for me, real Tetley Tea you'll be pleased to hear!). She's at work now but we're going to head out this afternoon to see some sights and maybe go to the beach if the weather stays nice or the Aquarium if it doesn't.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Kirsti and we're going to the zoo with her neice Ava who is four (I might adopt her as my honourary godchild in the absense of George!). I'm very excited about this obviously and Verity's internationally themed birthday party in the evening.

It's been a seemingly long old road to get here eventhough I only decided to come on New Year's Eve (a mere 41 days ago) but I got here in the end. Let the adventures begin...