Monday 4th – Thursday 7th November 2019

God I love a Monday morning when the rest of the world gets up for work and I get to sleep in!! May have mentioned that already! But this was a special Monday, Jules’ 40th birthday. Katie and the kids got up early, or normal time, and did the presents and birthday yay… while I slept, as I do. One of things Katie loves to do is run, she’s competed in a half marathon and casually runs around 15km a couple of times per week, you know, as well as taking care of 3 kids, and a household!?! She’s kinda Wonder Woman is you didn’t realise already. Anyhoo, she’s part of a running group Couch 2 5k, where mainly women train to run 5km. While Katie can easily smash this she’s met like minded runners and new friends through the group, and today was their final day of training, where everyone was running 5km, myself included apparently. You may have noticed that in the last 3 months of travels there have been zero mentions of exercise. I was pretty fit before leaving AUS but 3 months is enough to see you go from fit to flab. Yes I can easily walk 25,000 steps in a day, probs around 12km but run??? Body says NO but today’s activities said get off your arse and give it a go!!! Once there the lovely ladies, some with prams to also push were off on their final 5km run. I started with a brisk walk then felt the personal guilts, all these women have had babies and are making an effort, I better get moving! I’ll be honest, it hurt and I felt unfit but also felt pretty damn good running again and doing some real exercise. The cheer squad along the road presumed I was a mum and cheered on my half arsed attempt to run with “Go mamma, you can do it!”, I was too out of breathe, and possibly shamelessly so unfit without a birth for a reason to admit I wasn’t a mum, just an unfit nomad. Crossing the finish line, quite literally with a ribbon across for each runner, it felt good to move my arse but kinda embarrassing too, no one had a clue who I was or why they were cheering for me, I’ll take the cheers anyway!!!! Even if there were pictures, they would not be posted on this blog, some things don’t need permanent evidence! Anyhoo, back at Katie’s and online to buy me some real running shoes, the £30 ones I picked up in London looked good but were in no way running shoes.

After a fun afternoon of school pickup and games with the kids it was time for the 40th celebration. For someone who loves food, still have no idea how I’ve gone my whole life and not been to a Japanese teppanyaki joint! Overdressed in my pink getup Penelope picked out we amassed around the hot plate for a one of a kind experience. We were joined by Katie’s neighbours Casey, husband Steve and kids Ryan and Zac, who we’d also hung with for pumpkin carving and Halloween trick-or-treating, an awesome fun family, Casey is hilarious, could instantly see why her and Katie had hit it off so quickly. Our chef was bloody funny, had us chanting “yum yum sauce”, the kids were cracking eggs onto the hot plate and we all had a turn to catch the yumminess in our mouths. The chef took a special liking to Pen who is too cute for words and the night was a blast, lots of laughs and delicious food, as every birthday should be!

After stuffing ourselves silly it was back to Katie’s for a delicious Oreo birthday cake and one of my favourite, and Jules’ too, cannoli! Being an Italian dessert, it’s fair to say I’ve eaten a fair few in my life, if you don’t know what a cannoli is, google it, I wouldn’t know how to describe it except to say pastry custard yum. And these ones were right up there with the yum!!

I think it was the Tuesday morning that the jet lag really hit but having jumped back on the exercise band wagon I thought I could sweat it out joining Katie in a workout proudly presented on Amazon Prime by some ladies in too much makeup and unsuitable exercise. Should not have judged before I started, karma bit me in the butt cos the workout was brutal, we felt it for days. But another reason for the workout, burn the calories before consuming them… we were off to Kylie’s to attempt to make our own key lime pie. Kylie lived about 30 minutes from Katie on a gorgeous lake, in a gorgeous house with a gorgeous deck and gorgeous kitchen overlooking the gorgeous lake. It was all a bit gorgeous. Apparently there are sharks in the lake and the undercurrent can kill you but no ones perfect. Was trying not to be a tourist in someone’s home so here’s just one pic from the kitchen…

After a lunch of veggie soup and fresh bread that Katie somehow found time to make from scratch, one of her Wonder Woman powers, it was onto pie making. Of us three, I was the least proficient in the kitchen by a long way so after grating lime rind (too coarsy as later discovered), I mostly watched while Katie and Kylie got their pie making on. Once baked and still warm we delved in and by gosh I get what all the fuss is about!!! I love lemon meringue so finding another equal is a pretty big deal in my books. Yum yum, so much yum!! Besides the eating, also loved the chatting and being around smart like minded woman, must be something with the name Kylie, haven’t met one I haven’t liked.

Picking Mr Drew up on the way home, we played games while waiting for the big yellow bus to deliver the other kids home. Drew is a property mogul in the making, kid beats me every time at Monopoly. Yes it’s the kids version, but somehow I end up in jail 5 times and broke while he’s swimming in cash. And he doesn’t even cheat. No idea how he does it but I think it’s me, once Penelope was home she kicked my arse at Cluedo. I guess with two parents with degrees in Maths and Science, it makes sense. Just didn’t expect them to be smarter than me already!!! I buried my sorrow in Katie’s delicious cooking, homemade burgers and more key lime pie for dessert. Not sure how I’ll survive back as a tourist having been so spoilt with Katie’s home cooking.

Wednesday morning was another attempt to stay on the exercise band wagon, I usually fall off pretty quickly! I downloaded the Couch 2 10K app and kicked off my mission, run 10km by the end of Jan 2020. The app started with walks and sprints which suits me fine but lured me into a false sense of accomplishment. Having thought I hadn’t worked too hard, I also did a boxing workout from Amazon Prime. Too hard too fast, by the time Katie was back from her massive run I was exhausted. Lucky for me it was a cruisey day, our first stop was a little Japanese lunch spot that made a bento box that was all kinds of delicious, way beyond what I expected when we walked in.

The next stop was Walmart. It may not sound like much but I was pretty damn excited. Having had a fair few laughs at pictures aptly titled “The People of Walmart”, I was keen to see what type of people would be kicking around. Unfortunately, only normal people were at Walmart that day, no care free people like these…

There may not have been people watching to keep me entertained but something else caught my attention, the guns. To us Aussies, having an everyday store selling guns and ammo is like trying to buy a vacuum at McDonalds, it just doesn’t happen where we come from. I actually would have no idea where to buy a gun in AUS, I guess there’s gun shops somewhere?? Anyway, being in the land of the free and home of the brave where every person has a right to bear arms, it’s nothing special, pick up a gun with your milk and eggs. Of course I had to get sneaky video…

After Walmart was Marshall’s, another place that was kinda legendary for its dirt cheap active wear. Starting to feel the chill of winter, I was keen to pick up a proper winter coat. Of course I walked out with a coat, snow shoes, adidas tracksuit and a luggage weigher thingy. And I happened to pick the same jacket as Katie’s but in black, can’t help good taste! School pick ups and back home, there were errands to run in the form of dropping off thank you gifts to neighbours for their recent baby sitting efforts. With kids on scooters, we trekked around the neighborhood, really did feel like another scene from an American movie with kids playing basketball in their driveway, a lady trimming her hedges, kids and parents at the playground, if I were bringing up kids in any neighbourhood, I’d want it to be this one!

Before dinner there was Pictionary, needless to say I got my arse whooped yet again, knew I couldn’t draw but liked my chances anyway!! Once it was bed time, I once again got to partake in one of my favourite parts of every day, good night hugs and kisses with the kids. Have a really big soft spot for these three. It was chatting over a cup of tea that Jules asked about when I thought I’d head home. That’s when gut instinct kicked in. I’d been toying with the idea that maybe I’d be ready to head home at the end of January 2020, having spent 6 months traveling. When I left I said it’d be that or spend 18 months traveling and working in London. Sometimes all it takes is someone to ask you the question to find your answer. And I knew that what I wanted was this, a family. I had absolutely loved every second of the travels I’d done and knew there were more adventures to come in the next few months but that would be enough and I’d be ready to head home to begin the next chapter of my life, starting my own family. I’ve scooted around the topic of age but I’ll be honest, I’m in my late 30’s and the clock is ticking. I’ll be real honest, I’m 38, have eggs on ice and have wanted kids always, I don’t remember a time I didn’t. I don’t regret the decision to pack up and leave Adelaide, I needed to do that to work out what I really wanted and remove myself from a situation that was affecting my mental health. I was free to work in London, I could get back from travels in January, work and live in London for a year and travel some more but I don’t feel like that’ll add the value and joy to my life that heading home, finishing my psychology thesis then finishing 2020 trying for my own fam. The idea of that excites me more than anything. So there it is, the decision that after Christmas in Canada with the family and a wedding in Mexico, I’d head back to RADelaide. Even writing this a fair while after e decision was made, it still feels right. I don’t doubt a thing. Might be a different story when I’m drowning in a thesis or have a baby and I’m all on my lonesome but what will be will be!

I’m not one to dwell on decisions, once made I jump into action. So with the decision made to return home in Jan, the next morning the only thing left to do was book a flight. And with funds already dwindling, it’s was a Qantas rewards flights booked for 29th January, homeward bound, in a few months!! Of course once the decision was made to leave, I immediately felt extreme FOMO, where were all the places I had to go and all the things I had to do before leaving?!?!? And the list started… but before I went on a booking spree, we were off for a leisurely nature walk at the Calvert Cliffs nature park. After my run and over enthusiastic boxing workout, just walking up and down the stairs to my bed in the basement was ouch ouch ouch so a walk and connecting with nature sounded perfect. The drive there was once again gorgeous, eagles gliding in the sky, woods along the road, love this being chauffeured around!! And someone taking me to exercise otherwise I’d be on the couch eating Halloween candy! Arriving at Calvert Cliffs it was pretty, then down and around and wowsers, it was absolutely stunning! Autumn has to be one of the prettiest seasons and being smack bang in the middle of a forest meant sunburnt leaves amongst the green on the trees and a carpet of fallen red. The woods reminded me of the arena in the Hunger Games, but not sure anyone else is geeky enough to make the comparison…

The pretty just got prettier as we wandered down a board walk and over a marsh where one wrong step and it would have been head over into the water, one more rain fall and I’m not sure there would have been a board walk left!

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more breathtaking, the trees cleared opening to my favourite place, the beach. Woods and the beach?? Can I just pick up this place and take it back with me to OZ? Pretty please??

Katie had been to this particular beach once before with the fam and had managed to find shark teeth amongst the shells. We joined the other scavengers, and I mean tourists, looking for the teeth, unfortunately we weren’t as lucky. Dang, would have been awesome chrissie presents for Marcus and Annabelle, and damn cheap!!!

So it turns out shark teeth don’t actually look like shark teeth when they wash up on the beach, they look nothing like the ones you sea attached to a leather necklace worn by random surfers in B grade American movies, they are actually more grey and weird shaped, looked more like this (obvs not my hand!):

Hmmm, maybe if I’d been looking for weird black things too we would have had more luck! Heading back through the woods was just as beautiful, and after a pit stop for lunch, it was back over the big arse bridge with gorgeous views for miles, and strangely not enough railing…

And then once again, we stopped at an American institution, Harris Teeter. Ok, it’s just a grocery store, but grocery store on a whole other level to what you’d ever find in AUS! The ice cream aisle for one, never have I seen so many flavours to choose from, and Mac ‘n’ Cheese, who knew this many types existed?!? And the Oreo’s, don’t get me started…

After a Drew bear pick up it was home for more Cluedo, Pictionary and Monopoly, where once again I got my arse kicked, and I really really tried!! After a FaceTime home to see the gorgeous faces of my fam it was pack and bed cos tomorrow it was all about the new, New York that is!!