Home at last

It's now Wednesday evening Oz time, and we have been home two and a half days. And this is my first few minutes on the computer. I have noted already that quite a few of you have emailed hoping we had a good journey home. Thank you for that. I will answer personally when I'm feeling a bit more on top of things.

It's good to be home, but we are so pleased we went. We had a ball.

Well, I'm sorry folks but your good wishes came to nought. Well, we did land safely, the flight was quick - half an hour early into Sydney - but arriving at 5 am meant that the airport staff who know what they are doing hadn't yet arrived for work. But more of that later.

I should have looked at my return ticket. We didn't come home via Singapore at all, rather Bangkok, which had its blessings (they are not as stringent with security as Singapore). It meant that whilst all the other passengers had to alight for 90 minutes, John and I were allowed to stay on the plane. Good thing, because we'd already had a horrendous transfer at Heathrow (yet again) with assistants who were very pleasant but completely untrained, no eagle lifter (unlike Sydney, Heathrow doesn't seem to have one) so they had to manually lift John. Also terminal four is designed without a lift to the tarmac from inside the security gate, so John couldn't stay in his own wheelchair.

Once on the flight, all proceeded well until two hours before reaching Sydney, when I (Margaret) had violent stomach pains and consequent vomiting which lasted 12 hours, and am only just coming right tonight. (Oddly enough, it was exactly the same as the bug that ruined my 60th birthday lunch last August at Manly). They had to cart me off the plane in a wheelchair. What a pretty sight we must have looked. But I didn't steal the limelight. There was a woman having a suspected heart attack on the flight. They called a quarantine officer in, checking I suppose that I didn't bring in SARS or equine flu (I was born on the horses' birthday after all), but she gave me the all clear.

Meanwhile, I was more concerned about John (being concerned about me, and fighting his own battles to get out of that damned airport chair). We (and I know that many of our wheelie friends have the same problem) cannot get it through their heads that sitting in chairs which don't suit, without a custom cushion, means skin problems and days or weeks in bed. Unlike our outward flight from Sydney, where all the equipment was available and the staff were superb, this time, they didn't even know what an eagle lifter was, let alone find it. And they nearly dropped John on the floor at the baggage carousel.

With all these disasters happening around us, we rang my sister and brother-in-law Kath and John and they came straight over and spent the rest of the day sorting us out (both car batteries were flat), bringing us essential items to keep us going, and visiting dad to let him know we were home. They were marvellous. We needed a new battery for the van. They had also kept our garden swept of leaves, tidied the garden and Kath even had the planter box at the front filled with pansies etc! So that was lovely.

But John's anxieties at the airport were justified. He has considerable skin problems and will need to spend a few days in bed, hopefully no more. We'll see.

So folks, this time next week, we will be back to work (me working on the ASCCA conference website), back to the computer club (both of us) and back to the same old, same old routine. But we are starting to laugh about the bad things - John keeps telling me he's planning to buy a motor home, and we'll need to lose half the front garden to accommodate it!

And the memories are just wonderful. John told his mate Ken, who he usually sees every Thursday that he has enough tales to tell for the next three months.

People will ask us what are the highlights, and we both say, meeting people who we've only known via the Internet to date. None disappointed us - quite the opposite. We were delighted to meet every one of them. We both met new cousins, some so distant that we'd have to say "cousins". Linda and Ange have become very special, and I got to know my cousin Ray and family much better too.

I will be putting up an album of all the people who made our trip so delightful, and will create a link from this blog. In the meantime, more photos will appear shortly. Keep looking for the next week or so at www.picasaweb.google.com/johnmoxon1

And apart from that? John would say our day in York. And I'd say stepping in the Cuckoo Inn at Hamptworth in Wiltshire where my Tuckers farmed and laboured, and going to the Cuckoo Festival at Downton with Linda and Peter. And seeing Bath.... and...

We've enjoyed sharing our travels with you, and receiving comments - you can still comment if you like! - and hope that some of you will consider doing the same whilst travelling.

Much love and warm wishes to you all.

Marg & John