Mopping up in Hong Kong

One of the great things about this week is that I've been able to chat with my family every day on Skype (barring the day I travelled). Skype is wonderful and amazing. It makes you realise, though, how hard it is to have a conversation with a 5, nearly 8 or 11 year old boy. Mine, at least, don't make conversation easily. Not that they haven't had a good model. I am always trying to model good conversation with them - at almost every meal (and we eat 2 to 3 meals together every day on a usual week).

Now most of the workshop attendees have left. I am still at the conference centre. I decided to stay and extra night and fly out tomorrow morning. The evening/night flights would have left me without a night of sleep - which is never a good thing in my books, if you can help it. A mum of three lively boys needs all the sleep she can get.

One of my husband's concerns about the week was that the other writers would be serious, hard to get along with people. His fears were unfounded. There were two other Aussies, one of whom was even louder than me. A Canadian mum of three boys also lit my day. Several Asian women from a variety of countries. Guys from America, Germany, Singapore and the Philippines. We even had two boys - a toddler and an 11 year old to make me feel at home. Plenty of humour and laughter (when we weren't writing in silence, as we did for about 20 hours).

It is raining here today. Hoping that I can bring some back to Tokyo with me. It has been so dry there. So hot. So humid. I've heard reports that it has been the hottest summer in decades and that there is no end in sight yet. Usually during September the temperatures cool and the city enters into one of the two most pleasant seasons - autumn. Everyone is longing for the change, wondering how much more they can stand.

Tomorrow I leave for the airport at 6.30am, catch two buses to the airport, the plane at 9.45 and then a bus and train home. I hope I'll be home for tea at 6pm, but that will only happen if the plane is early and the luggage comes out quickly. The next bus leaves only 35 minutes after we land. If I miss that then I'll have 2 hours to kill at the airport before the next bus and only just make it home in time to see the boys in bed.

But still, I should be able to sleep on my own bed tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to getting into a usual routine and putting the things I've been thinking about doing this term into practise. I'm looking forward to hugging my loved ones again.