Today's our last day in Sydney, and our last day in Australia too. It's sad.
We've been here now for almost nine months. Blimey. Strange to think back to a night in February 2002, when Anne first suggested we abandon our plans to work in the US and go travelling instead. We were having a Valentine's meal in Tiger Tiger in Haymarket, London. We were pretty drunk. I don't think Anne really thought it through. All the wine I'd imbibed had put me in a good mood and I jumped on Anne's suggestion with enthusiasm. The next morning Anne woke up thinking, "What have I done? There goes our savings! Get me an Alka-Seltzer." Meanwhile I was busy mastering my boomerang technique. And drinking an Alka-Seltzer.
There's a lot to like about Australia, and we'll miss it. We had a great night last night returning to our local pub quiz. Along with our friend Richard we teamed up with Sim, a manager of the pub against whom we used to play every week. We won the quiz, for old times' sake, thanks largely to Sim knowing the terms for the "going" in horse racing (they're different than the UK ones).
Strange to think of all those things that we'd not heard of, or rarely heard about, before we arrived yet have been unable to avoid for the last nine months:
Phar Lap, Bodyline Cricket, Tim Tams (mmmm), "Shows", Gondwanaland, AFL, John Howard, The Movie Show on SBS (I'll miss it so), The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunrise breakfast show, terrible Aussie TV, Rose Byrne, extremely harsh immigration policies and unfair treatment of refugees, Ernie Dingo, The Age, John Farnham, Delta Goodrem (and Delta Goodrum), Tim Tams (did I mention those already?), Jimoin(!), bad bad Aussie sketch shows, Kath & Kim, CNNNN, small goods, Rene Rivkin, Manchester (meaning bedding and towels).
All these things we're leaving behind. Still, at least we'll probably never know which of Shannon, Cosima and Guy will become the first Australian Idol.