So it was a weekend of fond farewells and goodbyes before I departed to Australia. Oh and lots of drinking….
Friday 6th November
Lindsey, Louise, Mia and myself decided we would go out for a nice dinner at Prezzo in Old Amersham. Of corse being the bargain finders that we are we jumped onto the Prezzo website and found ourself a nice little discount, 2-4-1 we’ll take that. So with a classy dinner in mind we settled down to some good food and some great wine. However as soon as the dinner decided to wind down we decided that we would make a special trip to a ‘special’ (??) destination… bonjour Revs. Our classy dinner ended up out the window once we got our hands on the six shot sticks. Put together six of the most rancid shots you can find, charge a exorbitant amount for them and you have found yourself a revs special. After necking down a vile chili shot followed by an equally repugnant chocolate one I was all set to go. Cue Mia finding the greasiest pig in the whole place and amusing us by pretending she was a contestant in Strictly Come Dancing, you’ve got some moves! Lindsey attempting to prove that you can drink wine through your eye and Louise being a responsible driver.
Saturday 7th November
Ouch, sore head!! Very sore head!! Very hungover, bleary eyed, and convinced I am going to puke everywhere. Mixing drinks is not a good idea; wine, vodka and rancid shots….. bleugh! I was dreading the drive to Bournemouth, which is where we were headed in order to celebrate Gracies birthday. We finally arrived at about 5, after being stuck in ‘average speed checks’ of 50 mph all the way down the M25.
It was a Barbie and Ken fancy dress theme! Which is pretty malleable to be honest. I was a police barbie, Louise was army, Gabi was rave, Jessie was prisoner and the birthday girl was ballerina! There was a whole heap of other barbies as well ranging from football barbie to a pink legging wearer Ken. It was so good to see Grace whose at Uni in Bournemouth and also Jessie who had travelled down from Exeter!!
So the evening began with plenty of booze flowing at Grace’s uni let house and a cheeky game of ring of fire. Then it was on to one of the uni halls which is located nearby to meet a whole heap of other people, then en masse we wandered down to the town. 1st destination was Walkabout, where shots were a quid and a snakebite was 3 pounds. Beauty! And the music of choice… cheesy pop hits of course. So after busting some moves to the good old Spice Girls and Cotton Eyed Joe we decided to make a move. 2nd destination was Bliss, were we headed down the basement and had a groove. However Andy and I weren’t pacified and bullied the DJ upstairs into playing Cheryl Cole which turned into an X-factor mix, we had Alexandra Burke, Robbie Williams and even a bit of Whitney Houston. Eventually others joined us from the basement area and we were stomping to our hearts content. Jessie had to leave so had a tearful goodbye, I’m going to miss that girl so much! Then Gracie and I popped out for a ciggie, which prompted her to announce to the surrounding revelers that her ‘best friend was leaving for Australia and I’m going to miss her (glug glug)’, well that is just about what I could make out in between sobs. And when I say sobs I mean the racking heaving type, which wouldn’t stop. Every time I went near her for the rest of the evening there would be a wail and then the tears would begin… oops! Alcohol and goodbyes don’t mix! I’ll miss you too Gracie! So we eventually stumbled in at around 5.30 and settled down to a good nights sleep on Gracies couch.
Sunday 8th November
Woke at 1.00 p.m. … WHAT!! I fly to Oz the next day and had heaps to do, like umm finish packing. Slightly overslept. So we bundled everything back into the car and set off to make the journey. Bloody average speed checks! I arrived home just in time to go to the pub to say goodbye to John and Kara who I worked with at the club and Digger was also there. Cue a few too many pints and much laughter! The best colleagues any one could ask for! And for dinner a roast dinner courtesy of my little brother Arthur! A classic English sunday, pub then roast, what more could you ask for on your final evening?!
Monday 9th November
Departure day!! Gabi, Lindsey and Louise popped round for breakfast, pancakes, once again courtesy of the little bro and we just sat chatting whilst I flung the final few bits and bobs into the suitcase. It didn’t feel like we were saying goodbye at all, I was just so high on anticipation. Mum drove me to the airport and dropped me off in floods of tears. So after a big hug I unloaded my luggage and off I went. The evening before I had checked in online, and changed my seat so that I would now be chilling next to Sam and George, two fellow 10 pound poms! We caught up once we had got through security, where George had caused a mini security scare when he was pretending to take pics and promptly got his camera confiscated until he proved he hadn’t taken any pics. We decided to go and grab some breakfast and settled into a proper English fry up and a pot of tea. We had a little shop and then the plane was boarding so we wandered over to the departure gate. Plane arrived, I’m a bag of nerves and excitement. A few final calls to family and we board. I love that feeling when a plane takes off, your stomach starts doing a little dance and you begin to relax into the flight. So what can you do to make time pass whilst on a 10 hour flight. In flight entertainment of course! I watched two movies and they both made me tear up, pretty embarrassing when you consider one is a animated cartoon one called Up, it was poignant I swear! George and Sam’s adventure sounds insane! I can’t wait to hear about how there stay in the infamous firetrap of a hotel proceeds. We spilt at Hong Kong where there journey was to start and I was to catch a connecting plane to Sydney. Considering boarding for the connecting flight was a 8.30 am and our plane touched down at 8.35 am it was a bit of a rush to make it. But I did 
I slept almost the entire way there on the flight and woke up to breakfast being served (which was in fact dinner) about an hour before we touched down. The plane lands and I almost run through customs and security, dropped my bags and gave Geoff the biggest hug I could muster. Then stood back and laughed, seems he’d decided to grow a beard whilst I’d been gone. But I was here, I’d arrived! G’day Australia!
