Made in Australia

We rarely see anything "Australian" in the marketplace. However, occasionally I'm surprised. I saw this today:

And some time ago this one made me laugh. Oranges "Made in Australia."

No, I'm not feeling homesick. In fact, with only nine months left until we return to Australia for a year's home assignment, I'm feeling as though I have a great deal of inertia. Staying here would be far, far easier! There are just too many things to do to move countries and then move back within 12 months.

And then there are the things we'll miss while being away. That was very obvious yesterday when I listened to one teacher at the "parent information" day or "meet the teachers" day yesterday. She spoke for an hour about high school. Especially about the process of moving towards graduation and how we can best prepare our teens for independent living and university.

Every now and then I, or someone else in the family, gets this pang: "Oh, we'll miss that because we'll be in Australia."

We have to turn our focus to "what we'll gain", although at this point what we'll miss is far more concrete. We can't predict much of what we'll gain. Although Weetbix (a breakfast cereal) will be a definite gain, at least from one member of the family!

Maybe we should make a list of things to look forward to? Here's a start:

• warm winter
• shorter school days
• English spoken everywhere
• larger house (probably)
• bedrooms for each boy (hopefully)
• time with friends and family we hardly ever see
• meat pies