The Brighton Jotter

"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

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We Are Home …

I loved our time away, but there is nothing like coming home—dinner with our daughter, Riley sleeping on his mat, or sniffing all the things on his morning walk, saying hello to people we know in the street, and best of all my own bed. After dinner and my coaching call last night, I had a soak and read my book in the bath and then crawled into my bed and slept for 8 hours. I can’t even remember waking up during the night. There are still bags scattered around the house, but I made that a today problem, or maybe I’ll push it to a tomorrow problem. We’ll see.

Waiting for me at home was a postcard from Nicole. Our daughter has been checking our mail, so I knew it was waiting for me. She was running through the various pieces of mail, “Something from ASIC, a letter from Worldvision, and a postcard from someone called Nicole.” I didn’t even try to go into explaining why Nicole, who she doesn’t know, is sending me a postcard from London. She was probably wondering who sends postcards these days. When I was standing in line to buy my Melbourne postcards I did hear a person in the shop say to their partner “Who sends postcards these days, do they even get there.” I can now confirm that they do in fact “get there”, well at least from Canada. I can also confirm that Kyria received her postcard from Australia. To everyone who is expecting a postcard from me, don’t worry, they have just gone in the mail so hopefully will arrive in your mailboxes in a few weeks. I am not as organised as Nicole with my mail sending.

Today I had a work meeting which I put off due to our travel days and I also need to fit in strength training, but I will do it at home. Tonight is CENSUS night in Australia. Hopefully G and I can finish work early and get it done before dinner. I want to flop on the couch and do nothing tonight. Despite my good sleep I am still feeling tired after the race on Sunday and then our early start for 10 hours of driving yesterday. I want to share some photos from a morning photography outing I took in Yamba and tell you all about the City2Surf weekend but I’ll save that for another day and get back to my list of all the things I have to do.

What’s your favourite thing about coming home?

Comments

16 responses to “We Are Home …”

  1. Catrina Avatar
    Catrina

    Yes, I want to hear all about your City2Surf weekend and your race!
    And how cool to get a postcard from London from Nicole! Wasn’t she there back in June? So it took the postcard about 6 weeks to reach you? I actually love that. In this age of instant messages and emails, there’s something wonderfully old-fashioned about a little piece of mail taking its time to travel across the globe.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      I will get around to posting about City2Surf at some stage.

      Reply
  2. Elisabeth Avatar
    Elisabeth

    Welcome home!!

    I also got a postcard from Nicole in London which was especially fun since I got to SEE her in London.

    It can be hilarious how long it takes postcards to arrive. Sometimes it’s less than a week to get to Canada from Europe and other times it takes a lot longer. Years ago I sent two postcards from Paris: one to a friend who lived about 10 minutes drive from the second friend I sent a postcard to. Well, one of them got it in a week, and the other one got it a whole month later. Which felt SO CRAZY. They live almost next to each other and yet it took an entire month longer for one postcard to arrive?? That’s always fascinated me.

    We also used to send ourselves postcards from every destination we visited (we stopped that tradition a while ago!). And one of them never arrived. We’ve since moved houses, but I sometimes read stories about letters being delivered 50 years late and wonder if something similar will happen with that missing postcard some day 🙂 Especially since we mailed it from a neighbouring province a few hours away from Nova Scotia… so it’s not like it was being sent across a giant ocean or anything. It should have arrived in a few days but never did.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      So funny getting a postcard from Nicole in London when you saw her in London. OH, I wonder if that postcard will ever turn up

      Reply
  3. NGS Avatar
    NGS

    Ha! I send so many postcards! Of course they get there.

    The best part of coming home for me is seeing my dog and cat, but I suppose that’s a particular thing. It’s certainly fabulous to sleep in my own bed!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Yes, seeing Riley was a highlight for me too.

      Reply
  4. Nicole MacPherson Avatar
    Nicole MacPherson

    Oh yay, it got there! I did worry about those particular postcards, Canada Post is not what you’d call super-reliable, and it felt like the part for the addresses was smaller than normal. But yay!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Yes, no problems there.

      Reply
  5. Ernie Avatar
    Ernie

    Welcome home! It is wild how driving in the car can be so exhausting. I used to be really strict about making the house really clean before leaving town, so it was wonderful to come home to a neat house. I gave up
    On that goal years ago. I’d say my fav thing about coming home is a toss up between having my bathroom back – esp if we travel with kids and we are sharing a bathroom with them. Mostly I think I like being back in my kitchen- exhibit A, as we drive Curly to college about 14 hours away, we have loaded and unloaded a cooler- trying to keep food we are traveling with on ice in extreme heat. I like knowing what food is gf and not having to worry about finding something to eat.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      Food is definitely more of a problem when you have dietary restrictions. I love being back in my own kitchen too, with sharp knives and all the things I need to cook properly.

      Reply
  6. Lisa's Yarns Avatar
    Lisa’s Yarns

    Welcome home! There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed/in your bedroom w/ sounds you are familiar with. I can hear the boys’ sound machines from our bedroom which is kind of a comforting sounds to fall asleep to!

    I received a postcard from Nicole, too! Mine had baby animals from Africa, like a baby elephant. My boys got a kick out of it! We always hang the postcards on our fridge. Snail mail is so very fun!

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      We never had sound machines for our kids, but it seems like more of a thing now. But yes, familiar sounds are good, although where we live is a bit noisier than the places we stayed on our trip, apart from the apartment in. Sydney.

      Reply
  7. Kel Me About It Avatar
    Kel Me About It

    Glad you made it home safely! The bath and bed sounds lovely. And the postcard is such a great treat to return home to (amongst the other stuff). Unpacking is by far the worst part about returning home.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      It took me a number of days until I finally got round to unpacking

      Reply
  8. Tobia | craftaliciousme Avatar
    Tobia | craftaliciousme

    Yes for post cards. They do get there. It may take some time though.

    Ok, I need to ask what a CENSUS is. I Can’t come up with a good solution.

    May favorite thing about coming home is probably also my bed. Maybe my terrace garden. Just the feeling having favorite things at your finger tips.

    Reply
    1. Melissa Avatar
      Melissa

      The Census is where every household in Australia provides demographic information. It helps with planning etc. It happens every 5 years here

      Reply

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