Home. I made it home. But I’ll do a little backtracking first.
So come departure time in Sydney I was both ready to head home and sad to leave. A complete mix of emotions but I think the dread of the long long flight was the main one.
Once I was finally on the plane I had a few problems with my entertainment system and with such a long flight I wasn’t really up for not having some tv. Eventually, after “engineers” can’t fix my console, I am moved to the seat in front which luckily is free. This is fine for the first 9 hour leg of the flight but once we land to do a passenger swap I get all sorts of abuse from the new cabin crew for moving seats. I try to explain that the crew before were the ones who had moved me. It all gets sorted and another set of engineers finally fix my screen so I get my own seat back even if I’ve majorly annoyed one of the flight attendants through no fault of my own.
Thankfully, this direction the stopover in Dubai is a lot shorter so no random trip to a hotel just to leave again. Actually it turned out not to bad a flight and on the home stretch I even make a friend on the plane which makes time pass a little quicker. Despite not having slept for two days I’m actually pretty awake when I finally touch down in Glasgow. It takes a while to get my backpack but I’m back on Scottish ground and it feels like home.
Leaving the arrival gate I look for my pick up which is courtesy of my parents, but my mother manages to spot me first, I guess the backpacker tends to stick out a bit. But having been reunited after a year it’s time to head home.
With Andrew away in London with his work when I arrive home, I have to wait a little longer to surprise him but later in the week we too are reunited after my travel adventure and it feels almost like I’ve never left. How odd it seems that after so long away its so easy to fit back in with home life but even though I’m happy to be home I know I’ve caught the travel bug.