Last Days

It is Saturday morning, 7.33 am and I am sitting on my own couch, in my own house, drinking a cup of tea from my own cup and enjoying my own jetlag while my very own amazing husband is still curled up in bed. 

It is wonderful to be home.

I came home to a clean house, with white lilies (my favourite) in vases, a box of Max Brenner chocolates on my bedside table and one seriously warm welcome from my wonderful Ash.

The flight here was very pleasant, mostly due to the fact I had upgraded myself with my frequent flyer miles for the longest leg of my trip, and the difference between business class and economy is incredible. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my flight, which I never do normally. I generally hate flying - my body hates it, I get sick, am uncomfortable the whole time and can never sleep. For a trip that started on Wednesday afternoon and ended Friday morning, with a lay-over of 9.5 hours in Dubai, if I had been flying economy the whole trip I would now feel absolutely miserable and wiped out for lack of sleep. However, I spent the 9.5 hours in the lounge in Dubai, enjoyed lovely food, a pretty decent snooze and a refreshing shower and breakfast. Then I settled in my very comfortable seat and slept for a lot of the trip, with a short stop in SIngapore where I had another shower and some food in the lounge. So now I feel quite ok, I slept an hour or two in the afternoon yesterday, and slept from 10 pm to 5.30 am this morning, which I think is pretty good. 

The last week has flown (quite literally!) and the last few days in Holland were great. I really enjoyed my party last Friday, and I even enjoyed the hangover with that lovely road trip with my sister and Phizz and Olly. 

Monday was quite busy with a sudden afternoon of moving all the boxes we had put in the shop apartment to the storage from the big shop in De Mortel as a Portuguese family is moving into the shop apartment for a year while my mum still has her house. So it was moving boxes just like old times. 

Then when we got home we had two sets of visitors who came to say goodbye to me, which was very sweet. And then Mum and I enjoyed my last Saté met friet dinner at the local bistro - which was totally delicious.

Tuesday went fast, I spent all morning packing and organising, and then after lunch Mum and I drove to Amsterdam where we were staying at the lovely Mercure, because both Stella and Phizz had guests staying at their places. After check in Mum had a rest and I walked to nearby Two for Joy coffee roasters, where I enjoyed two wonderful cappuccinos (very different to the ones from Sander at SOK, but also very good) and did some writing in my Amsterdam journal. I pondered all the lovely times I had there, and felt happy realising I have fallen in love with Amsterdam, and that I have some amazing friends and family there. 

After that Mum and I readied ourselves for my final farewell dinner with just a small group of lovely people, which turned out to be still quite a big group!  It was another amazing gathering of such lovely people, and I really enjoyed seeing everyone there. It was over way too soon, and after walking Mum to the hotel, I enjoyed a final stroll through Amsterdam with Phizz and Olly. We tried to get into Door 74, but it was full, which was fine. The walk through dark Amsterdam with my lovely boys was a great way to end an amazing trip. I got into bed late, but slept like a baby in that amazing hotel bed. I had been struggling to get to sleep before 3 am for nearly a week, but I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. 

Mum and I enjoyed breakfast at Two for Joy, where there was a cheerful atmosphere - they were playing some good old cheesy 80s music and I was bopping and singing along. In my history of having to leave my beloved home land annually I have not felt so cheerful on the day I leave, ever. But I was ready to leave, ready to go back to my house and my husband and my friends here. The chef at Two for Joy witnessed my enjoyment of their fantastic 80s tunes and asked me if I had a request, so I told him Wham! and he played ‘Wake me up before you Go-Go’ which was awesome and made me miss my pal Emily terribly, because Wham! is our music.

There was plenty of time for a shower and some final relaxing before we had to check out and pick up some final things from my sister’s place and Phizz’s. Phizz came to the airport as he was also flying out that afternoon, and Stella came in her lunch break to say goodbye, which was so nice. I couldn’t help the few tears that came as I said goodbye to my mother and Phizz, but it was ok. 

And here I am. Back in Australia. Yesterday was nice and cruisy, very relaxing to be home with my husband. It was such lovely weather, we went out for lunch to one of my favourite cafes and then washed our car because he was very dusty and covered in spiderwebs from 6 months of very little action. Then I had a snooze and we had plans of going out for dinner, but we were both too tired to bother going out, so we just ordered some fish and chips. I unpacked and then hit my pillow and slept wonderfully well.

And that’s how this blog ends. I think I might start a new one called ‘The Dutchstralian’, and I will post here once I do that. For now, I think I might crawl back into bed. Yup, just like that.