Heading Home

It had been more than three years since I had been back to Australia.  The coronavirus restrictions in place in both Hong Kong and Australia had made travel difficult.  Hong Kong was particularly annoying.  The rest of the world had made the decision to open and move on with life, yet Hong Kong and China were reluctantly holding onto restrictions.  However things were now moving in the right direction.  Hong Kong had dropped almost all the restrictions, most importantly the travel restrictions.  Now was the perfect time for me to finally go home.  There was another important reason to go to Australia as well.  It was time for me to introduce Veronica to my parents, and she was extra excited because she had never been to Australia before.  I started looking into flights for us a few months ago.  The direct flights from Hong Kong to Sydney were outrageously price.  Outrageous to a level that I decided I wouldn't fathom paying such prices.  After a few hours of playing around with different combinations, I worked out that if we flew first to Singapore, we could actually fly from Singapore to Sydney return on premium economy, and the total price of the trip would still be the same as if we had gone direct between Hong Kong and Sydney.  This also included the added bonus of a short stay in Singapore on the return leg of the journey.

We flew out late morning and reached Singapore mid afternoon.  We had a few hours so we caught up with some of Veronica's friends for a quick bite and a catch up.  It had been the first time I had been to Singapore since the pandemic and in that time, the beautiful new "Jewel" had opened.  It's an impressive new building at the airport, but ultimately it's still just another shopping mall.  It did make it easier to catch up with people though and so we were able to wait until the last moment before going back into the terminal and boarding our next flight.  The flight was uneventful.  I slept well and woke up just before landing.  As I heard the in flight music of "I Still Call Australia Home" playing, I started to feel a bit emotional. Looking out the window, I could see the familiar sights of Sydney in the distance.  After getting off the plane and taking the overpriced train into the city, we were in Sydney.  It was extremely early and we still had some time before our next train to Newcastle so we found a cafe and waited.

It was just Central Station, but even sitting here and drinking a coffee with Veronica felt amazing.  The air smelt clean and fresh.  There was a light hint of eucalyptus smell.  I just felt refreshed being there.  It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders finally being here.  After the brief rest, we boarded the train for Newcastle.  I was feeling to happy to rest, but Veronica was soon asleep.  The train from Sydney to Newcastle is painfully slow, but it's a picturesque trip.  Up around the Hawksbury River in particular, the slow ambling of the train gives all passengers a lovely view of the scenery.  For this trip, it was fine, but I still remembered how annoying it was being on these trains as they crawled towards Newcastle and back. 

After more than two hours, we finally reached our stop new Newcastle.  My parents were waiting for us at the platform.  I hadn't seen them in more than three years and they looked older.  There were happy embraces and my parents looked truly delighted to meet Veronica.  We quickly loaded up the car and headed back home.

As Veronica took some time to freshen up, I stood and looked out towards Mount Sugarloaf from the balcony, I once again felt a strong sense of relaxation.  The fresh air, the sunlight and the peaceful surroundings were the tonic that I had needed.  It felt as though the annoyance of the past few years was finally coming to an end.