opinios

Touchdown!

I've never been to Cairns before, but I already feel like I am at home.

Kim and I flew in at 5:30 on Wednesday morning, and my dear aunt and uncle were there at the airport, waiting to greet us and drive us home to their sanctuary of home-cooked meals, palm tree gardens, glorious swimming pools, high humidity and a perfect temperature. I am feeling pretty darn relaxed right now.

Not that there hasn't been any drama. There has been plenty.

With all the running around trying to tie up loose ends for our departure from Japan (mobile phone contracts, internet service provider, gas, electricity, water... the list goes on) I ended up leaving my bass guitar in a Subway restaurant. I had tried to sell it to a guitar shop, but felt insulted when they told me they could only give me 1,000 yen for it, and decided to give it to a friend instead.

Luckily, being Japan, it wasn't knocked off and the kind Subway staff held onto it for Martine to come and collect a few days later. I can't believe I just left it there in the corner of the restaurant, but I guess my mind was a melted wreck after running a billion last minute errands.

Then there was the "Ali incident". My aunt and uncle are house-sitting my cousin's dog Ali, an energetic and well-meaning but innocently misbehaving brown Boxer. I thought I would do the right thing by taking it for a run on its lead, but the sneaky pup managed to slip her head out of her collar, and after that there was no getting her back. She ran and ran and ran. Along median strips, around busy roundabouts, through multi-lane intersections and almost under a semi-trailer. I thought I had lost the mischievous mongrel but somehow she managed to avoid all high-speed traffic and came reluctantly home, unscathed. How that truck didn't hit her I'll never know, but my heart jumped out of my chest several times. Guys, if you are reading this, Ali has a good heart and I'm sorry she got out, but you really need to send that dog for some obedience and road-sense lessons!

[Update: And how could I forget the fact that someone broke in and stole a bunch of stuff from my uncle and aunt's house! Most of it was not worth anything, but Kim's battery charger for her camera was in the bumbag that got pinched, so now we have to buy a replacement one of them. Bastards!]

Now we are just kicking back and sorting out the occasional task here and there between trips to the beach, in the lead up to our big wedding day. Fingers crossed that the weather will be like it is today - blue sky and nice and warm.