We landed at Sydney International Airport ten minutes early. We had already completed our Immigration cards for Customs, and Russ had declared his wooden coat of arms that had been purchased in Scotland. I had nothing to declare – or so I thought.

As I waltzed through the Customs gate I was requested to step to the side so that they could perform a random check on my luggage. This caused a bit of a problem (remember the lost keys) as Russ had the keys with him in the other section of Customs. I explained all this to Gail, the Customs Officer, and she escorted me over to Russ to obtain the keys. Mum and Dad had breezed through behind me and were highly amused. As was Russ when he joined them and I was still going through the whole process.

Gail explained that medicine had to be declared (none of the other three knew this either) and I ended up apologising. Thank heavens we had all got letters from the doctor before we left Australia which outlined our medications.

Gail was very thorough. She went through my suitcase and back pack, admired the enamel bluebell ear-rings I had bought in Austria, laughed at some of the other souvenirs, and finally passed me through.

We then headed to the Qantas shuttle area and made our farewells to Mum and Dad.

It was very cold, and had been raining in Sydney. It was not until Russ and I had taken a taxi to the Domestic Terminal and put our luggage through with Virgin that we realised that Melbourne Airport had been closed due to fog.

My ears were crackling by this time, and I did not look forward to the last leg of our journey. However, we boarded our plane without incident, landed in sunshine at Townsville airport, collected our luggage from the baggage carousel, and walked outside to find Brett.

Amanda had agreed to come with him in our Honda so that he could pick us up on his Learner Plates. He does not sit for his license until next week. Thank-you, Amanda.

Once we reached home we had to remake our acquaintance with Solly who has grown during our absence. Snow was quite pleased to see us also, and when Soot finally came in from the cattery, he also allowed us to pat him.

Unpacking proper can be left until tomorrow and a good night’s sleep, although I did immediately put a load in the washing machine. There are lots more where that one came from.

Russ went straight to bed, and Brett and I listened to him snore while we caught up on each other’s news. He has classes at Lifeline tonight, although he is on break from TAFE while he awaits the arrival of his Blue Card.

He has organised to stay with friends so that neither Russ nor I need stay awake to pick him up at 9:30 pm. We will catch him tomorrow.