28+ Children later

Ok, this is the “photo post” of our trip back to the UK (see prev. post) – you can also view the whole album online.

Our trip started at home, where we got to see our nephew Charley, and our nieces Liv and Izzy

   

Then time to catch up with our Reading friends, with little Belle and Finn

 

Next, to the North to visit James and Kit

 

A family gathering allowed us to finally meet our cousins’ babies, Jack, Gus and Zach. And non-baby Oscar, of course.

    

Then to London to meet Felix, Isobel, Christopher, Natasha, Orson, Sorrel and Alice

          

And another Reading catch up with Brummie-based James

A quick visit to Greece (for Mimi) let her see Thomas and Themis

 

And a picnic saw Sebastian, Gruff, Max and Cleo, along with a brunch with Maddie, Thomas and Caitlin. And there were also sightings of Ella, baby George and brand new baby Arabella at weddings, but for all these kids we didn’t manage to take any pictures somehow (D’oh).

All in all, 28 (or just over) kids in 28 days. It was… exhausting 🙂

Uk trip 2012

Composing this in the first, decent hour of spare time during our 2012 trip to the UK, it occurs to me we’ve been quite busy, and I feel quite tired !

Over 28 days we’ve met around 28 children, all of whom have made us laugh, cry, coo and ultimately tire us out. On top of that lots of “hello goodbye” moments with friends – I tried to narrow my focus a little this time to ensure I got a bit more time with people, but as always the time was too few, and sometimes much of the heartfelt chat comes in the “nice to see you” email afterwards ! The perils of trying to have adult conversations around 2 year old dictators 🙂

It may take a while to absorb the last 3 weeks, so expect another post with pictures (culled down to 322, so far – that’s down from 600+ though…) – I suspect those photos will mainly be of interest to those I’ve met, 90% of them being babies in cute / funny poses with adult friends and family thrown in too. I guess I’m in a few photos along with the Mrs too, so perhaps there is a limited interested to others, if only to see how my “full, yet trimmed” beard look turned out (thrilling).

One thing has become clear though – this is the “reboot” holiday. As I mentioning in my previous post, we are ready to “restart” Australia, give it another go. This time, with our own place, our own car and our own space. Looking forward to being able to attend more socials without dashing off for an early bus, inviting people over for dinner / movies and hopefully being able to get into new habits and patterns with a little mindfulness applied well.

4 more days to go, a few more dinners and vists and then we fly home, and for me, straight into work :O