Peter Allen anyone?

We didn't arrive to the strains of "I Still Call Australia Home" but perhaps we should have. Some of you knew we were coming home for a visit but we wanted to keep it a secret from some of Jo's school friends as she appeared by surprise at a girly weekend away they had organised down at Ocean Grove yesterday afternoon. This leaves the rest of us now back home in Monbulk catching up with family and friends and settling into our house again for the first time in 18 months.

The flight across the pacific was long, 15 hours long, and although the kids were great (as usual) nothing is going to make crossing the worlds biggest ocean more than barely comfortable. To add to the challenge the entertainment system was on the blink and not everyone had access to the in-seat video on demand system. We were luckier than most, while only about 1 in 5 had a working set we had 4 between the 5 of us and only had to tag team one set. I got an hours or so's sleep, Jo about the same and the kids a few hours more each and we arrived tired but excited yesterday (Friday) around 9:45 in the morning. Customs was a drag, mostly due to the fact that I had packed about 30+ cans of Canadian beer that put us over the duty-free limit. I knew it was going to happen and was happy to pay the extra duty, just wasn't counting on such a delay at the airport while a) the duty was calculated and b) qaurantine went through everything with a fine tooth comb. One of the beer cans had burst and sprayed right through one of the suitcases, soaking some of the gifts and all the clothes and this made Jo more than a little annoyed with me. I told her this would make the beer taste even better knowing the effort and sacrifice involved in getting it here, frankly I don't think she was too amused.

Anyway that's enough for now, I'll upload some photos as soon as I can but I don't have an internet connection at home (I'm writting this on my dads system). Time for lunch with the folks on a warm 36 degree day and then perhaps some swimming and a BBQ later tonight just to get back into the groove.

Andy, out.