Airlock time

I'm writing from a small apartment on the Gold Coast. I can see the Pacific ocean and the beach as I type. In 25 hours we'll be settling into our seats on the aeroplane that will take us away from Australia and into Asia. 

We'll miss Australia, our friends, and family. The food, language, space, climate, and relaxed attitudes. 

We're tired, though. Leaving has been like a marathon of goodbyes and endless lists of things to do. It will be good to walk away from all that.

We are treasuring these two nights on the Coast. They are like an airlock between countries. Here we don't know anyone (or if we do, we haven't told them where we are). We're geographically separated from where we were living, so we weren't tempted to leave things to the last minute. We're doing a little bit of admin (like last-minute email checking, activating our travel-SIM card, sorting out what Australian cash we have, repacking our bags (for the umpteenth time) and finally, handing back our car to the people who bought it for us last year. Before we get back to Japan where we'll have to work to do in settling back in to the country.

But July holds a variety of other things, including a conference, holidays with my parents, and a camping trip. So some more down-time, before we jump back into our roles in August.

Therefore, bye for now. See you from the other side, maybe even on Monday.