Back in the land down under

Twenty hours on a plane and I was back in Perth to the news that my 19 year old niece is 8 months pregnant. So, after I received that surprise, I made my way to the Como hotel where Alice and I had cooked up a little surprise of our own for Sara. As far as Sara knew she was just going out to dinner with all her friends for a casual chat on a Thursday night, possibly she was excited about my return in two days time, but not nearly as speechless as she was when I walked up behind her and proudly exclaimed “Did anyone order a jar of awesome?” In hindsight, my off the cuff decision of what to say when I walked in could have been less crap more rock, but jar of awesome it was…

Sara took a while to understand what was going on, and then all she could say was “Why are you here?” over and over again. It was great to see the whole gang again, and Sara’s reaction made all of Alice and my scheming well worthwhile.

Over the next two weeks in Perth I soaked up all that I remembered it to be. Sunny days, nice beaches, filled with my closest friends and utterly, utterly boring. I was lucky that my time there was so full of engagements with people, so I didn’t have too much time to wallow in the deafening banality that is Perth. With Ben and Ange’s wedding the first weekend, Trents bucks night the second weekend (at which, in a crowd of over twenty people, I was the only single guy. Oh how the times have changed.) The two weeks in Perth culminated with Trent and Tess’s fantastic wedding down south. All in all I really enjoyed my time in Perth, catching up with everyone was great, but as much as I knew it would happen, everyone has moved on with their lives, and I am no longer a part of it. Just as Perth is no longer a part of me.

After Perth it was the dreaded redeye flight to Melbourne before sleeping on a metal bench in the airport while I waited for Mick to pick me up and drive me back to Finley. Wow. Finley. Four days in Finley. That’s more time than I’ve spent in Finley in the last four years put together, and it felt like it too. It’s like a smaller, duller version of Perth but with a huge concentration of people whom I love. It was fantastic to see Cass and Azz and their children, who are all absolutely gorgeous. Although, just the sight of them as parents does make me feel exceptionally old. I used to say “You know you’re old when your ex-girlfriends are having kids”, well now I can say that I am old because my Nieces and Nephews have kids! Finley is definitely a place I look forward to visiting more regularly when I am back in Melbourne, but by the end of the four days, the pace of the town was beginning to do my head in. I think a weekend every month will be more than enough time there when I eventually move back to Melbourne.

Ah Melbourne. The greatest city in Australia and one of my top five favourite cities in the world. The city that all my others are measured by, as I have realized in my travels that if a city reminds me of Melbourne, there’s a good chance I’m going to love it. Again there was more catching up with people, both old friends from Perth who have seen the light and moved over, or friends I met travelling the world. I was lucky enough to spend lots of time with Nate and Sarah, and really remembered how much I missed those guys. There is definitely a part of me that will not be broken hearted if the travelling doesn’t continue forever and I moves back to Melbourne in the not too distant future. I got to see a few games of footy, including an absolute debacle of a game where Hawthorn got up over Richmond by 3 measly points, and also got to walk around the city where all the events of my book take place and took a lot of inspiration from the city. I look forward to ripping out some more chapters soon.

My flight out of Melbourne was a 24 hour nightmare via Abu Dhabi. It seemed like I was sat in the infant section as a different baby went off like an alarm every 15-20 minutes, but after that little taste of fatherhood hell I was happy to be in London and very happy to be childless. My time in London is a little bit of a waste of time, and in hindsight I should have gone direct to New York, but I was able to spend in London to relax and chillout before what I expect will be the tantalizing unstoppable madness of New York. Excuse me, I have a plane to catch.