The end

 

Ah, it's been awhile. I realise I never wrote a final travel blog post - I meant to. I was going to write one when we got back from Singapore, but the return home to Melbourne was all a bit chaotic and overwhelming and as time passed it seemed more and more arbitrary to end the blog on a random Thursday in Melbourne. 

But today seems like a fitting time to give this blog its final post. Today is the very last day of what turned out to be a seven month break from everyday life and work and an opportunity to live in an unstructured way for a while. Tomorrow I go back to work and "normal" life resumes.

Do I think "normal" life will have fundamentally changed now that I've had a complete break - will my approach to everything have altered? I don't think so. I'll go back to work and probably approach things much the same way as I have in the past, but having learned a few things which I hope I'll keep in mind. Like no holiday is long enough, so it's important to make everyday life as enjoyable as possible, because you can't fit a lifetime of fun into six months. Also, it's very easy to lose perspective when your focus is narrow - the horizon looms so large and wide when you're not caught up in day to day dramas. Little lessons, but important ones. Just have to put them into practice - not always so easy!

The last six weeks or so have flown by in a total haze. There are some major milestones - we painted the house, did a complete overhaul of all our stuff, gave away carloads of things, bought some new ones, saw friends and movies and some comedy. I took Phil to Apollo Bay for his birthday and saw trees filled with koalas. It was lovely. I could probably find ways to pass the time in this sort of leisurely, unstructured way ad infinitum. But it doesn't work like that. I didn't finish a whole lot of things on my list, but that's ok. I'll save it all up for the next time we decide to take six months off!!

Until then...

Selamat tinggal, auf wiedersehn, ciao, au revoir, farewell.