10.02.2008

home

As it happened, the weather was very beautiful on my last morning in Vancouver. It had kept snowing through the night, so again I had that wonderful thing where I woke up and the world was highlighted with white. It felt really special, like a final glimpse of the gorgeousness of the northern winter before returning to the other side of the world. The sky cleared early and as we walked to the bus stop the sun was shining and everything was gleaming and crisp. There were glorious views of the mountains to the north (including Grouse Mountain) which were peeking above low-lying mist and cloud.

All the mornings activities went pretty much to plan, although I was very teary after saying goodbye to Sarah, and I found myself happily checked in and ready at Vancouver airport with plenty of time to spare. There was even time for a few phone calls, including one to Mum and Dad, which was very lovely, as I hadn't spoken to them for ages. As the flight took off there was a great view of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Inside Passage up towards Alaska, and all the other little islands down the coast.

Los Angeles airport, LAX, was its usual purgatorial self. It is just horrible, isn't it? Huge, confusing, unkempt and not particularly safe. Unlike major airports in Asia, for example. So at LAX, as is often the case, we were confined to a tiny section of the airport with fairly primitive facilities and opportunities for retail amusement. We're talking one tiny combined sandwich/coffee/snack/bar shop thing, one newsagent and one tiny duty free outlet. To make matters worse they are actually in the process of "upgrading" the little section from which the Qantas flight was departing, so there were patches of bare concrete, lots of hanging cables and it was cold and badly lit. And I had five hours there.

Fortunately I was reasonably prepared and so settled down in a quiet spot with a cup of truly disgusting sweet syrupy stuff, which was had never come even close to being the vanilla cappuccino it was supposed to be, and absorbed myself in learning lines and the oh-so-boring-but-oh-so-appropriate job of organising, sorting and trashing emails.

The fifteen hour trip from Los Angeles to Melbourne was as fine as these long trips in economy class can be, although the subsequent queuing at customs, waiting for bags and then the long, long wait to declare the tea in my suitcase nearly pushed me over the edge. I kept having to remind myself to breathe.

However when I finally got through and was walking towards the glass doors to the taxi rank and the outside world, I suddenly got a whiff of air from outside and it totally overwhelmed me...it smelt so deeply familiar: sweet and summery and clean and light and open. It was really unexpected, but I totally knew I was home.

So the plan now is to settle back in Melbourne for a while, enjoying being at home while also holding on to the happiness and calmness of the trip, and see what happens. I'm juggling a few options for work right now, and within the next few weeks should know better what the shape of the next six months will be. I probably won't write this blog so frequently, much as I have loved it; rather I am going to try to use the morning writing time routine, which has solidified while I've been away, to work on other writing projects which need my energy. It has been a great delight though, writing it, and lots of my pleasure comes from the knowledge that there's a bunch of people who have been reading it regularly and enjoying it. Thank you, and we shall speak again soon.