Au Revoir UK

The time comes at the end of every trip where you begin to turn your attention toward home. The effortful days of travel, transport, accommodation, luggage and schedules begin to recede, apart from the journey home, and you start to feel the call of your own country, your own city, frankly, your own bed and bathroom.

And there's a sadness too. Overseas, life is always on the move, on the go, new things all the time, energy and anergia every day, decisions, vitality. It's pretty wonderful. There's also that feeling that you've left behind your quotidian life along with its banalities and its responsibilities, its worries and concerns, its sameness.

But when you've been away awhile, even the sameness takes on new meaning. And that is how Chris and I always want to travel. Yes, to broaden the mind, as they say, but more than that. To have the expereince be transformative in some way. Where it changes you, even if it's just a little, and changes that quotidian life back home.

This trip has been five weeks. It took us a lot to get here. There were elements of the trip that we did not achieve this time, like writing and art. But we did get some reading done. I gained a lot from reading The Carniverous Lamb, Small Things Like These, and A Single Man, and the beginning of a re-read of some of W. H. Auden's poetry, all of which I found enriching in their own individual ways.

We traversed new territory this time. Cambridge, Lincoln, Stamford (for a stop-over and parking fine [which was waived]), and Durham. Each of these was a wonderful experience. We were very attracted to the academia of Cambridge and in trying to get the pulse of the University's College system. The medieval towns of Lincoln and Durham were food for our history-loving brains.

The stand-out for me has to be Lincoln Cathedral. It is so vast both from the outside and the inside, it is a challenge to process. I think it was for me a similar experience to that of tourists coming to Australia and seeing the Opera House or even Sydney Harbour for the first time.

Neither Chris nor I contemplated mariticide, which we both think is a good thing, and to the contrary, we grew closer as we did last year. We celebrated the 23rd anniversary of our being together while there, which was special.

We also got to travel some places a second time, London and Glasgow. These were special. We love them both. Glasgow has that Scottish feel, a bit more laid back than down south. And London has found its way into our hearts. It is a wondrous vibrant international city that is multifaceted and multicultural. Everywhere you go, you see a different aspect of London. It has an energy all its own and having stayed there twice on this trip, we felt like we were just getting to know it a little.

Our trip home was uneventful, but very long; seven to eight hours to Dubai, then onto another plane pretty well straight away for the thirteen hour leg to Sydney. Sadly, I did not sleep well and ended up back in Australia with severe jet lag which took me all week to get on top of, and only then, with the help of melatonin. Chris pulled up quite well in comparison.

We look back at this trip which we are still processing with great fondness. It represents a sequel or even an extension of our trip to the UK from September 2022. It has that feel. Mentally and emotionally, we are the better for it. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.

If you've followed along, thank you for doing so. It's been a pleasure to write this for our own memories in the future and for you too.Read more