So we’re home safely. Bags are unpacked, washing’s done & life is back to normal. Well, almost!  Jacki has returned from Tassie & she & Polly are living with us for a short time; which is lovely. Next week they will move next door to house sit for our lovely neighbours. She is studying for her Diploma of Education to become a secondary maths & business teacher. I’ve had my second round of surgery on my shoulder to ensure that all of the melanoma is gone so my movement has been restricted. This morning though I have been for my first walk & enjoyed the lovely Esplanade at Manly.

Wednesday was David’s birthday & we celebrated with the family at Wynnum Manly Leagues Club. It is so busy there every night now that it’s not much Fum because the queue to order & the wait for dinner to arrive are both too long. Don’t think we’ll be doing that again. The food is pretty ordinary too!  We came home for cake.

People keep asking what the highlights of our trip were. For David it was our Norway in a Nutshell tour with the visit to Flåm & the ride on the Flåm railway & the absolute luxury on the Oceania Marina.

Myself, I have to say that meeting my cousins in Swindon & Truro, seeing the homes of my ancestors in Swindon & Port Isaac & walking where they walked was vey special. Having grown up believing I was a Richardson & finding out at 52 that I was not & had been adopted, finding my roots has become very important to me. I now know where I came from & that is very special. I have an extended family. I belong. Thanks Wendy, Beryl & John for helping me to feel that!

I loved sitting back on the MS Trollfjord & admiring the absolutely stunning scenery. The moment when I shared with our Brisbane grandchildren the midnight sun from the deck of the ship was very special. Thank you FaceTime. I agree with David that the Flåm was very special & that the Marina was a wonderful home from which to enjoy the cities of the Baltic.

David can’t decide which was his favourite meal but I do know he loved his lamb cutlets for

breakfast in the Grand Dining Room on the Marina & he was very impressed with his whole lobster in the Polo Grill restaurant on Marina. For me it was undoubtedly the sea bass I had in Red Ginger – it had been marinated in palm sugar & soy sauce for 24 hours & wrapped in Banana leaves for cooking. However, the Alaskan King Crab we had on Trollfjord & in Bergen & the whole lobster were excellent too.

The most exhilaring moments were on our rib boat ride to see the fastest moving tides & the Book of Mormon certainly gave us the most laughs.

We both agree that the most disappointing  part of the trip was Oceania wanting to charge everyone $400 per couple to transfer us 7km into Copenhagen at the end of that wonderful cruise. What were they thinking?  We all queued for 2 hours & were not happy!

All in all it was a wonderful, wonderful holiday & we have some amazing memories.

So what’s next?  I’m heading off for a short trip to Forth in Tassie early in September to see my lovely family down there, Kylie, Kate & Lotte.. My little granddaughter is walking now & I need to spend some time with her & her Mums. FaceTime is good but you can’t have cuddles on FaceTime. Then my brother & sisters & I are going to spend some time together in Beechworth in Victoria where our grandfather lived. We need to get to know each other properly as we grew up in different households.  So that’s all something to look forward to.

We need to plan a trip to Sydney too, to visit Stefan, Louise & the boys.

And that’s enough for now. It’s just great to be home.