I can honestly say that I tried my hardest to make time for everyone, but it's hard! Everyone wants a piece of you, and because they are either working or have kids, you end up doing the running around.
I've decided to break the trip up into "Weeks" for the rest of you so that it's enough for you to chew on, and so it's not an 11-page screen full of babble!
Day 1:
I woke at 4:30am and waited until a more acceptable time to get up. I had pre-arranged a gym consultation with Al from "Peak Performance Fitness" in Celbridge (http://www.performanceclinic.ie/gym/) as I had been with him before I left for Oz. I thought I would like to have a bit of routine in my month at home; not to mention the amount of food I was clearly going to consume over Christmas needed to be combatted in some form!
Turns out Mam had taken the morning off work, so I had to postpone the appointment to the next day and so we headed into Maynooth to have a walk around and pick up some food shopping. I found it very weird how everything was so familiar, yet also so different. I couldn't get my head around how everyone had an Irish accent and I kept saying "Dollars" instead of "Euro". I also said and spelt my name out to an Irish guy working at Carphone Warehouse who just looked at me and with one eyebrow raised said "Been away?". I have clearly just been so used to saying "Ciara; C-I-A-R-A" every time I had to say my name to Aussies - without even realising that it was now second nature for me to do it! I also kept saying "Home" for when I was talking about Melbourne, something that wasn't taken very well by some people "You ARE home Ciara!" I would get from Doireann or others. In my mind I have two "Homes" - when I'm in Melbourne "Home" means Ireland and in Ireland it's the opposite. I also found out that I apparently speak differently. Not with an Aussie accent, but more the intonation of my voice. I apparently speak using some Aussie words ("super", "I feel like" as some examples) but in an Irish accent, and lift the ends of my sentences - which is a very stereotypical Australian way of speaking. I haven't noticed it at all, but apparently now amongst "my own" I stood out as the person who lived away.
After getting home to my house, Doireann called over. A brief encounter the night before, she had taken some time off work to spend it with me. We sat in the kitchen waiting for the kids my Mam minds to come home from Playschool so that they could meet "Her Ciara". Their minds were blown at the thought my being Mam's daughter - they just looked at me; the adult sitting at the kitchen table, and laughed when Mam tried to explain to them that I was to her as they were to their own mother. And as for the living on the other side of the world component - don't even try and explain that to a 3 and 4-year-old!
A trip to Tesco may sound like a random thing to do with one of your best mates when you haven't seen them in 3 years, but it's the first thing we do - heading to have a walk about and a laugh at the selfies we take in the aisles. It comes from the random 2am trips we used to make there when we lived in Enfield and as sad as it sounds brings back good memories! I bump into Dee with her kids and smile at the times of attending Modern Dancing with her Mam in Maynooth Convent School of a Friday evening.

Day 2:
Another early start to the morning, at 4:30am, but once I was wrapped up against the cold I didn't mind. I had yet to take my hat and scarf off indoors, despite the fact that the heating and the open fire were both on! I went into the gym and met with Al who took me through a routine that he had in mind for me. We took some measurements and decided to book me in for the next morning to start. I laughed at how Irish the South African sounded now after not having seen him in 3 years.
I headed to Orla's new home in Celbridge and got to meet 14 month old Laoise, whom I hadn't yet met. Oisin was so grown up, he was a proper little boy now in comparison to the 1 year old I had left behind. After about 30 seconds of Orla opening the door to me and our hugging, she said "Oh my God it doesn't feel like 3 years since we last saw you!"; and she was right. Every encounter I had with my family and friends slipped right back into the moment I left. The only difference was the kids and how they have grown (or came to exist!), but otherwise everything was exactly as normal and Melbourne seemed as though it never existed in my life. I guess cos the two worlds are so far apart from each other, it's very difficult to explain to someone what you life is like when they only know the you from one of those existences. I can't explain to an Aussie what my life in Ireland was like when they don't know what it's like to be from the Irish countryside, or what it's like to be ruined by Recession, or what family means, or how a real Christmas feels. There are no words that explain what it means to be on the other side of the world from everyone you know and love and how alone it can feel even when you're surrounded by others. It's impossible to show someone why you work hard and how hard you feel you need to work to prove your worth in the workplace when they've never had to worry about job security. And I cannot convey how important my friends are to me on this side of the world to those who are living amongst their families and are always complaining about it. Equally, it's hard to tell an Irish person about how much better your life is over in Australia if you can see they're suffering at home. It's almost impossible to explain why you love a big city like Melbourne to someone who has grown up surrounded by fields. It's hard to explain your Aussie life to the people at home who have never seen anything different and whose minds are closed through no fault of their own. I struggle with the thoughts of possibly not coming home and the guilt of having to actively make that decision. And the worst is trying to answer the question that everyone asks you "When are you coming home?".

Day 3:
So today was the beginning of dragging my lazy ass to the gym. It gave me something to do in the morning when I work up early anyway. You forget how dangerous it is on the roads at home when it's cold. You literally skate and crawl the 5kms to the nearest "main road" where there is more chance they have been gritted. An hour in HELL with Al and then I'm set for the day. Home to mind the kids for Mam while she and Dad go to collect their baby from the airport. I sat down to have a Tea-Party with a 3-year-old and had to stop myself from laughing out loud while she told me the story about how "the man who lives in the church pushed my uncle into a hole where the flowers are". "Why?", I asked, "cos he was dead" she said looking at me very matter-of-factly. The vision was hilarious, even though the situation obviously wasn't!



Doireann wasn't very well and so I headed over to hers to help her put up her Christmas Tree and decorate her apartment. This was the first time it was starting to feel like Christmas - and the first Christmas I'd had in 3 years! How great was the cold, with the open fire on and the candles lighting?! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!
I went home about 8pm when I knew Kev would be home from driving back from his new home in Cork. It was so normal to see him sitting at the kitchen table eating his dinner, so normal to have the chats with him around the fire and the 3 years disappeared in an instant and I was 29-years-old again and living at home. How great was it going to be to have three generations of immediate family sleeping in the house? How exciting to have everyone around!
Day 4:




Day 5:
It's Sunday, so we go to Mass. And - get this - they've changed all the words?! I mean, they haven't modernised them or made them any easier, they've just changed them?! Swapped some words around and taken some out. For example: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" changed to "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed". Or instead of "And also with you" we now apparently say "And with your spirit". How ridiculous is that?! What's the point?! Imagine the amount of money spent to change all of the books and pamphlets?? Apparently the changes are designed to be more faithful to the original Latin texts on which the Missal is based...Don't you think making it more relevant to the year 2014 would have been more productive?! Anyway, rant over.


Bhany and I took it upon ourselves to put the Christmas Decorations and the Tree up when Mam and Dad were out. I didn't think you could possibly have so many decorations, but we got them all up in the end; assuming that Izzy would have them torn down in about 5 mins of her getting hold of them. Now the Christmas feeling was in the house, we all sat around the fire in the sitting room while Izzy had a bath in a basin; thinking she was having the time of her life. It's clearly the simple things!
Day 6:


Day 7:

Got home about 9pm and watched a "Prime Time" report on some horrible scenes at Aras Attract nursing homes in Ireland. The poor elderly sick patients in these homes were being emotionally and physically abused and it was all caught on camera. It was actually sick to watch, but hopefully this will open a door to whistle-blowers in other locations.
http://www.sundayworld.com/news/shocking-abuse-of-elderly-woman-in-care-featured-on-prime-time
So that's Week 1 of 4 done! Non-stop running around trying to see everyone and fit everything in. Mam even had me hoovering and cleaning on Day 2 at home - so I was laughing telling Dad to take a photo of me "on my holidays". But that's the thing when you go home - most ex-Pats will tell you the same thing; you use all your annual leave and spend A LOT of money to go home, but it's not a holiday; it's going home. There's a difference, but it's a good kind of difference - when your Mam gets you to go to the shops for some mince or asks you to put on a wash; I might groan but it feels good to be part of a family again!
Who ever said this was going to be a holiday?!
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