Day One: Touchdown!

It's been a long time coming, but today is the day that Em arrives.

As usual, I'd left the house cleaning to the last minute so I spent the first two hours of the day frantically racing around vacuuming, sweeping, stressing about the state of the house while flight tracker showed that Em's plane was coming closer and closer. Once I had the lounge room floor vacuumed though, I relaxed. I don't mind the kitchen being a little untidy (okay, a lot), but when the green rug in the lounge room is covered in white furballs as though there is a congregation of dozens of tiny white mice, I draw the line.  There are some things that a best friend should not see, and that's one of them.

Mum was as addicted to flight tracker as i was, and even Chris phoned at one point to ask where Em was. I figured that her plane would pass over my house so I waited at the railway line, camera in one hand, phone in the other with Mum on the other end of the line updating me on the flight status. 8:40am came and went. No plane. I walked back to the house and inside, checked the airport arrivals board and then heard the distinctive roar and rumble of an aircraft passing overhead. Oh crap!

Outside I raced and there she was!

After much squealing, pointing, raving over the phone to Mum that Em's plane was passing overhead, I hurried back inside, raced out the front door and to the car, pausing only to lock the house on the way through. The drive to the airport passed in a blur, then I was with several hundred other people waiting at the international arrivals section. So many people came through those customs doors -- all different shapes and sizes, ages and ethnicities, some with bulging bags on trolleys and others with hardly any luggage at all.

One guy came out with a huge vase like object wrapped in bubble plastic. It looked fragile but must have been made of cane. Several travellers negotiated trolleys laden with suitcases and eight foot long ski-bags through the customs doors and into the arrivals hallway. Some people were claimed by friends and family and embraced in big hugs while others walked through, blank faced, travelling alone.

Airports make me emotional. I couldn't wait to collect Em so we could get out of there.

Eventually she came through and I hurried to meet her and we hugged and I didn't cry. It felt as though she had never left, as though this was just a continuation of the last time we were together. My brain doesn't comprehend that we live so far apart.

She shared many funny stories, including one about dirt, but I shall let her tell those herself via her blog.

At home Paddy barked at her and my heart fell. I'd worried he wouldn't remember her, or even if he did that it would take days (weeks?) for him to trust her. The ice broke the moment she picked up one of his balls and started playing fetch with him. Em's patience and Paddy's ball addiction cemented their bond. She's now his slave and he adores her!

We toured the house and garden while Paddy scooted around our legs and Chester meandered after us. After lunch, we drove out to Bulleen Art and Garden Nursery for some spinach and lettuce seedlings, photography and general immersion in one of my favourite places.

Afterwards, we stopped in at the market for breakfast fruit and an adventurous meander through an asian foodstore. We stocked up on ingredients for rice paper rolls and bought a couple of lucky dip items.

For dinner we had beef rissoles, mashed potato and leftover salad from lunch time, then we relaxed on the front porch and stargazed until it got too cold.

We tried watching an old episode of My Kitchen Rules on the internet but technology failed us. Given the excitement of the day, and the incredible distance Em had travelled, we called it quits and retired for the night.

Sleeping seems somehow wasteful, though I need it and I know so does Em. I didn't set the alarm for the morning but I hoped to wake early. Though I have seven weeks, I'm determined to suck every second out of it!

But... she's here!!!!  I believe it because her being here seems so natural. This is how it should be. It's perfect!