Day 29

Day 30
9am came
and Dani gets up and tells me there’s a bed upstairs. I’m upgraded from the
floor to an extremely deflated air-bed, where I sleep for the next hour and a
half before getting up and moving to the couch downstairs. And The Man of the
Year Award goes to…???!
So; just
like that it’s 2015 and I’m hoping the way in which I brought in the New Year
(on the floor of a strangers house!) isn’t a sign of things to come?! New Year’s
Resolutions for this year are 1) No alcohol until 2016, 2) Cook something
different every week and 3) Be the best I can be for me. Here’s to hard work
paying off, preferably no hospital-time, lots of laughter and new adventures.
It’s funny, when I told the people at home (Ireland) about my “No Beer for a Year”
(any alcohol really, but it’s hard to get anything to rhythme with that word) challenge,
they all thought I would have no problem with it as I never really drink…in
Ireland. I told my friends in Melbourne and they all thought I had actually
lost my mind! Goes to show the difference in lifestyle already and also a bit
ironic considering the stereotype that Ireland has!
We don’t
leave the house til about 4pm where we go home for a power nap and then get
changed and meet Carol, Chris and Lynn for dinner. I’m laughing to myself at
poor Lynn who is trying to play “Happy Families” at a table full of hungover
and tired people! We head back to Killen’s and spend a few hours getting
entertained by his drunken self as he tries to keep two girls on the go through
his texts. Bed for about 4 hours before I have to get up to go to the airport
and take the short flight home.
Day 31
Another goodbye to Neil
for the next month and I head off home. Dad picks me up and I can’t believe
it’s my last day at home!! What a mixture of feelings!
I went to Celbridge to
see Orls and the realization of my not being able to see her hit me as I was
saying goodbye, making me get upset. I was only getting used to being able to
see her and now I was having to say farewell for another length of time. Orls
is like a rock in my life, one who is always there for advice, who knows me and
knows when “I’m fine” doesn’t really mean that. She is impressively smart,
thoughtful and beyond considerate, makes me laugh so much and is one of the
people I most admire in the way that she handles everything that goes on in her
life with such apparent ease. I think I would need a full-time Nanny, PA,
fitness instructor and dietician to attempt to live the life that she does;
she’s inspiring in her aspirations and in her kindness – standing in the
kitchen of her new home, I suddenly didn’t want to leave!


I set about trying to
pack my bags and failed miserably trying to fit everything in to bring home to
Melbourne (see, I think I was meant to say take there?). Eventually I give up
and leave a box worth of stuff at home with the purpose of posting it over to
me at a later stage.

Day 32
So
that’s it. Day 32 and my trip home to Ireland is over. What a whirlwind trip,
full of emotions; both good and bad. I look back on it and all that I did, and
am happy that I was as busy as I was. I
wasn’t too bad saying goodbye to Mam and Dad as I knew I would see them in May
at Bhany’s wedding, but the thought of leaving Ireland for another 2 years was
hard. Time to think positively and perhaps about the next trip home; probably for
approx. Christmas 2016. Still, focus on the task at hand and try to survive the
17,214kms of flying distance ahead of me! Dublin – Paris – Doha – Melbourne; time
to get back to work, get back to Bhany, Luke and Izzy for her first birthday,
get back to Australia and get back to some Vitamin D - summertime, let’s be
havin’ ya!!
No comments:
Post a comment