And so we're off. First to Perth then Johannesburg up to London and finally Toronto. 20 or so days of world travel designed to visit close friends and closer relatives and to put the final cherry on the top of this incredible year.
In our final few Melbourne days, we have managed to pack in a few more events and goodbyes that have really helped to neatly tie up our life down under. A fun dinner with Simon and Alex Davies allowed us thank them again for all of their friendship and support - though we couldn't wrestle the cheque out of Simon's hands! Saturday night we had a pizza dinner with our friends Mark and Kathy Wilson and their kids and made some exciting plans to potentially play host to them when they visit next winter. The boys had a few more playdates with good friends as a last hurrah and we even managed to sneak in Transformers 2 and Ice Age 3 (with Colin's friend Jonah and his family) in the last day or two just because.
The boys wrapped up their Australian school careers with stellar reports and we had a few teary goodbyes with teachers, friends and families.That community has been so welcoming and friendly to our entire family that we made a small donation as way of saying thanks. We are hoping they will put the money toward a world map that will be dedicated to tracking all of the countries represented within the school population. Regardless, the school has been the perfect window or door through which we were fortunate enough to discover a very special group of Melbournians.
Maybe the highlight of the past few days was the 10km Run Melbourne run Linton and I did with her two friends and running mates. The culmination of a lot of training for her and a lot less for me, the run took place on a cool but ultimately glorious Melbourne winter morning and wound its way around the Yarra, the botanical gardens and the MCG. We both managed to shave some significant time off of our previous 10k back in October and in many ways it was a fitting way to say goodbye to this adopted home - beautiful weather, a challenging run with friends, over and around many of the iconic landmarks in the city. The sense of accomplishment was two-fold: it felt like a run and a year, well done.
As my final attempt to log and blog a few more classic Aussieisms, I wanted to sum up our year (just for fun) as the most "old school" Australian might, if he (or she) spoke in just a few of the many, many classic expressions that have kept us on our toes over the year. So, here is a final salute to the wonderfully quirky Aussie slang.
Yeah, look. I mean, I'm no bludger but I really enjoyed the chance to wag work, mate. Uni was heaps of fun and I'm pretty sure I didn't cark it. At times we found the tucker a bit shonky, but when we weren't up for a pie and a pot, there was still a Tim Tam and a long black that could get me quite chuffed, mate. The footy has been ripper and them blokes love a good stoush. Look, you can't be no chook in the ruck, mate, and I was just as happy to barrack for the Hawks from the sidelines with 0ne hand in the esky reaching for another tinny of VB. Though we may miss talking about rubbish or jumpers when we return to Canada mate, and I really wouldn't mind driving a ute, we certainly won't miss the blowies. But we will definitely whinge a bit next winter when its cold and our thoughts turn to thongs, bathers and making like a shark biscuit at the beach. We will also miss, in the land of no worries, the servos and salvos, and all the other words them blokes like to end in os. I mean, yeah look, at times I felt a bit crook, almost wanted to spit the dummy when a popsicle became an icey pole and a pepper had to be a capsicum. Down the track we won't miss the ads on the telly for Harvey Norman's stock take sale neither, mate. But at the end of the day, mate, we still have to say good on'ya Oz. It's been fair dinkum. Let us shout a round to you! Tah.
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