around the world again

well i have been gone for a long time.

i left my house in japan at 5.00am on the 21st of decemeber and i finally set foot back in it again at 11am on the 11th of january.

it felt like a whole year had passed since i had been here, i guess that is true cause it is now 2006, but it was a real funny feeling coming back after being in OZ for 2 weeeks and then vietnam for another 1 week

so i will start at the start of my trip, cause that would be logical.

on the 21st i left japan. i hadnt really thought too much about how i was getting back to oz. i booked a flight on vietnam airlines way back a few months before and didnt really pay attention to the schedule. apparently i had a 5 hour stop over in HCMC and i didnt even realise! now thats a long time in any airport, but HCMC is really the pits. one restaurant and about 5 duty free shops to fill in the time. then we found out the plane was delayed another 3 hours! i was travelling with another JET from melbourne and we filled the time making friends with other travellers, a few who decided to make their own fun by turning the airport into their own private disco. the boogied all over the terminal listening to their ipods.

finally i got to melbourne. i was supposed to get in at 9am but it was almost 1pm by the time i left the baggage claim and found tom waiting paitently. i had called his house to say i would be late from HCMC but the message didnt get to him cause his dad forgot to tell him...

my parents didnt know i was coming home. in fact noone apart from tom, and a few people he had accidently told knew. i had set up with mum that tom would come for lunch with her at around midday. but i was late so this threw a spanner in the works. tom handled it by calling and saying he was going to be late cause he was christmas shopping at eastland. he had to say something like that cause the airport noise was very loud in the background and he didnt want her to catch on.

finally we got back to my house. i rang the doorbell and hid behind the door when she looked out the window to see who was there. when she opened the door she almost cried. she had no idea at all i was coming home. she had been complainig that noone was going to be home for christmas only a few days before. i had been worried that she might have caught on cause i had been very vauge about my holiday plans and one of toms friends had let something slip at charlotte's 1st birthday. but she had no idea.

so next to surprise was dad. he was still at work and he was supposed to come home for lunch with tom but cause he was running late he didnt bother. so mum kept calling him all day asking when he was coming back and trying to ocnvince him to leave early cause it was his last day before the holdiays. in the end he didnt get back till 6pm! i shocked him by just walking out into the kitchen after he came in and said "hi dad, how was your day?"

then i got my brother and emily. mum called them to ask them over for dinner for no particular reason, but they were going to em's house so they said they would drop by before hand. that worked out well and they were suitibaly surprised.

the rest of the family i didnt get to shock much because i called grandma to tell her and then she told everyone else before i got a chance. but it was still good.

i will continue the story soon, but for now it is lunch time here in japan. back to the old cafeteria food that i havent had for 3 weeks. well at least i will be eating healthy again. in oz i had all the food that i had been missing over the last 6 months - souvlaki, pizza, fish and chips, pies etc - all soo good for me...