We have been home for nearly a month and it has completely flown by. A week up at Peregian with my family was well needed. I couldn’t tell you how long it’s been since my whole family was together in one room but over Easter it happened. Tom and I have been spending most of our time staying with amazing friends whose wedding we missed last year so we have been making up for lost time with lots of yummy meals, silly conversations and cuddles with their puppy. Living with old friends again truly feels like home.

We have been flitting around all over the place but already we are feeling settled. Within 2 weeks we both had confirmed jobs (what bad economy?) and I was even turning down two interviews as I was so happy with the job that I have landed. I’m working with Kitchen Angel, a range of traditional Italian baking products. A mixture of social media, marketing, production and baby sitting it’s been fantastic so far.

By next weekend we will have moved into our new home, a beautiful old Queenslander in Auchenflower with an old friend who we will have a ball with and who will give me free range to decorate the house as I like!

So when people ask me what it’s like to be home I honestly think that it’s fantastic. I was ready to come home for some time before the plane landed in Brissie airport. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the last month in Thailand – that would be impossible – but I was well ready to come home and see my favourite country in the world.

My only gripe is that it’s so far from everything. Already we are talking about countries that we want to visit, people we miss badly and new places to discover. But this time, I don’t think I can leave Australia for quite so long.

There is nothing like Aussie beaches.

Puppy time.

Spending time with our families have been amazing, we can’t wait to get to Coffs and Canberra to see the rest of Tom’s family.

Working with this deliciousness might not good for the waistline but it makes me happy.

Travelling through the North West of America.

Originally Tom’s passion, I have jumped on board with gusto, not only providing the photos but doing more of the writing and backend work as well. We have big plans for our travel site, not least of all the plan that it will fund more of our travel in the future. It is already moderately successful and for that I am so proud and grateful. The amount of emails and comments we receive are unbelievable and hearing from people who have been given inspiration and support to take a leap and travel the world to follow their dreams makes me so happy.

Bagan

Since we said a very sad farewell to Holland in early December we have explored New York for a week and marvelled at all the Christmas festivities; spent Christmas and New Years with my Mum and stepfamily in bloody cold and beautifully snowy Canada; roadtripped the North West with my favourite American and caught up with an old Aussie friend and spent 2 months in humid South East Asia including 3 weeks in incredible Myanmar.

Inle Lake

We are currently in Bangkok, a city I love but wish I wasn’t in right now. We were due to fly home last Saturday. We had actually moved our flight forward 3 weeks as I had decided that after 20 months away I was done, it was time for me to see Australia and all those people I love in it. But then last week we hit a glitch. We did our Open Water Padi course in Koh Tao and due to a cocky dive instructor who pushed us too hard and too fast I perforated my eardrum and have an acute infection in both ears. A visit to a specialist in Bangkok confirmed that if I want to keep my hearing I had to stay grounded for a week.

One of the sites we dived in Koh Tao.

So here we are, spending lots of time in our beautiful hotel as I rest and heal. I could not be more lucky to have this sleeping log beside me. Tom has been so patient and wonderful, keeping my spirits up and making sure I take my multiple medications on time.

Paradise

Being still for a week is giving us a chance to work on a lot of our goals, to determine exactly what we want to do when we get home and where we see our sites going. There are plans for this blog that include a complete overhaul and an online shop which makes me so excited and nervous at the same time.

So that’s the update from me, I will do my best to check in more regularly and lots of love to those who have followed the adventure so far. Here’s to going home.

We had a fun couple of days in Montreal, I didn’t feel that it had the same magic it had the first time I visited 7 years ago but I think a lot of that had to do with how cold it was (-7 during the day yesterday) and that everyone was hibernating as a few locals told us. It’s very pretty but we didn’t fall in love with it. Mind you we did have amazing food, that always raises a place highly in my regards. If you are going to Montreal anytime soon, I have some fantastic food recommendations.

Lucky I have this guy to always have fun with, no matter where we are.

5 years. Time sure does fly when you are having fun.

Mum and I have been cooking lots of delicious veggo food, chatting lots, swimming laps in the pool downstairs that looks out on the snow and getting our craft on. Tom and Don have been hitting up the gym, obsessively playing ping-pong and watching lots of sport. We are having fun.

Tomorrow is that last day of 2012. Have a good one.

The party was an amazing night. With a forecast of -17 (!!!) we had an amazing turnout of people who braved the cold to join us. I have grown so used to the fact that everyone here cycles everywhere, it’s one of my favourite things about Holland so it was a topic of conversation that a lot of us had walked into town as the roads were slippery with ice. Taxis are not even considered, walking or cycling is the mode of transport that we all assume. The group dwindled as the night grew on, making me shed my first tears of the night. By 5am we were down to six people and the final hugs were had. Shona, Tom and I walked home by 5.30, no sign of the sun coming up but market preparation already beginning.

Yesterday was a day for sleeping in and recovering. A beautiful Aussie friend bought us food and perfect Dutch gifts and we spoke about how we would definitely see each other in the future – we are all from Brissie after all. Our expat friends over here will be people we will always keep in touch with, it’s been a challenging, unique and fantastic experience that we have shared.

So for the next 3 days we are taking it easy, looking after each other and stopping lots for hugs and warm food. The next time I write will be from New York so for now, Tot Ziens.

Ghent – a beautiful city we spent last weekend in.

There always seems to be a to-do list a mile long that will never be achievable. Realistically I know that if we managed to pack up our entire home in Australia and organise tenants then just moving out of a furnished apartment that we are renting is so much more doable. But still, it’s all started to hit me today and so I’ve been trying to get some fresh air, listen to wintery music and chat to Tom while he’s at work as he can manage to keep me calm and positive.

Life is but a grand adventure is it not?

I’ve been fondly recalling my beautiful Parisian trip in June with two of my beautiful girlfriends and thought I would do some online journalling to record our memories. No doubt these photos will get printed at some point but for now they are in a digital format. Far easier to fit in a backpack!

We wandered Les Puces flea market, picked up little finds, stopped for coke in old fashioned bottles and kept calling each other to new finds that we discovered.

Even catching the Metro is fun when you are with your best friends and they have twirly skirts.

We wandered and wandered until we discovered the arcades Lau had fallen in love with on her first trip to Paris 6 years ago. The black and white tiles, specialty stores and little boutiques delighted us.

Our hotel was in a seedy part of Montmartre with our room at the top of 6 flights of windy, steep stairs that gave us a good excuse for croissants for breakfast every morning. We slept on faded floral sheets and argued with the moody shower that only gave out limited amounts of hot water each day.

I took the girls to Tom and my favourite Parisian restaurant where we gorged until late in the night and sat in the Summer sun.

Picnics under the Eiffel Tower. Mandatory Paris activity. We even got a group proposal from a South African.

On our last day in Paris we caught up with Lau’s sister and her man who took us to a beautiful spot for a Sunday brunch.

These girls make me so happy and having all these little moments together as joint memories is something I’m so grateful for. Same time again next year girls?

I’m running a little give-away on my Facebook page to show my gratitude but if you don’t do Facebook leave me a comment below to let me know you would like to enter. It’s for this beauty below and I am more than happy to ship anywhere in the world. If you would like to show a little extra support and share this on your blog I will give you eternal Trudy love which is pretty awesome I promise!

Thanks again everyone. The community and support in the arty world just blows my mind.

I’ll get Tom to pick the winner out of a hat later in the week.

Before then I will be ducking over to London to visit my fave ginge and my brother and his girl are arriving this Sunday! It will be the first time I have seen them in 14 months and I am counting down the sleeps.

So it’s good days over here and a pretty incredible October. I hope it has been for you as well.