Goodbyes: Round I

I am about to begin my final week in Australia. Just one little working week stands between me and my flight home at 6am on Saturday morning. I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed! In work news: We ran through our talks for the conference on Wednesday in front of the lab group and mine was surprisingly well received, so having to make only a few minor alterations to it is allowing me to focus on my writing. Fingers crossed I’ll have my report almost finished by the time I leave, leaving only minimal alterations to attend to during my long-anticipated summer of freedom. Happy days! Other than the final push on my report and preparing for the conference, I have a lot of admin to get through, most of which consists of compiling a handbook of all the practical methods I use for the next Bath student, who arrives in August and will continue the work I’ve started. Add in some final quality time with Candice and the small matter of packing up a year's worth of stuff and life is pretty manic, but it's a good kind of manic as it means I'll soon be back with my loved ones!

Inevitably, goodbyes were going to have to be scheduled sooner or later. On Saturday, I organised a little lunch with friends from work. It wasn’t a proper goodbye, as I’ll spend next week with them all, but I couldn’t remember the last time we all saw each other outside of the lab! We ate at Grill’d in Claremont Quarter, mainly because it gave Marcus no excuse to bail considering he lives 100m away (he was still late however), but also due to the delicious, healthy burgers they serve. I was a sole undergraduate in a sea of PhD students: Andy, Marcus, Michael, Ivan, Kalina, Alexia and Nick. I had a delicious chicken burger with avacado, bacon and relish, as well as a few ciders!

Andy, Nick, Kalina, Me, Michael and Ivan

Marcus (dressed for an antarctic winter) and Ivan

Alexia: the cutest Russian I know

After dragging my bloated body home and attempting to watch The Great Gatsby in bed (which turned into a booze-fuelled nap), it was time to head over to South Perth for one last dinner with my lovely homestay family, the Billinghams. Jamie pulled up outside my house and I opened the car door to find him frantically scribbling a message into a card. At first I thought this was just him being hugely disorganised in bidding me farewell, but when I saw the Facebook message he was copying from his phone, I realised that it was a "good luck for the conference" note from my adorable parents, who had contacted him as there was no time to post me a card. Thanks you cuties! As we crossed the Narrows Bridge and I saw the view of the city skyline over the river, which I'd become accustomed to after three months in their beautiful apartment, it dawned on me that these would be much more definite and horrible goodbyes. Expertly balancing my bottle of wine, I helped Jamie remove a gigantic, curved screen TV from the back of the car (how the other half live) and we manouvred it into the lift in true “to me, to you” fashion. The door on the fourth floor opened and inside were the beaming faces of my wonderful expat second parents, John and Vic, plus Catriona, her little dog Anzac and greek homestay couple Denai and Tassos.

I cracked open the wine and we caught up on all our news while Vic finished off dinner. We dined on a gorgeous curry with all the trimmings, followed by an old favourite dessert of ours: Jelly and ice cream! They all mentioned how slim I was looking; I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it probably has something to do with no longer munching on their gorgeous three course meals every night... After dinner, we watch John’s video of his recent cycle across the Nullabor plane, which runs all the way from Perth to the South Australian border. Inland Western Australia is so beautiful and he saw loads of snakes, it looks amazing! The night ended around the table with several heated games of Canasta. They gave me a set of cards for my birthday, so it was good to refresh my memory and I plan to teach my parents when I get home. Catriona left, which was emotional enough, but it was then time for Jamie to drive me home. Hugging John and Vic goodbye was so hard! They’ve been so good to me during my time here, not only when I lived with them but since I’ve moved out too and I’ll miss them greatly. Jamie’s also become my buddy and we parted with promises of staying in touch and meeting up if we’re ever in the same country, which actually seems pretty likely given his constant jet-setting. I’m not sure I can deal with too many more goodbyes this week!

So far, I've spent my last Sunday the same way I've whittled away so many since moving to Peppermint Grove. After a lie in, I made my way down to Cimbalino, my favourite café, for coffee and cake to accompany the annotating of papers for my discussion (not ideal, but it's a little late in the day for weekends to be free of work). I then had a wander around all the little shops I love and picked up a few groceries before returning home. This afternoon will be spent alternating between running through my presentation to myself like an insane person and watching the Dockers game; I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm really going to miss watching AFL! Jess gets back from Dunsborough this evening before one final week of conferences and deadlines begins.