Last few days in the UK...

It's been a real luxury to be able to bimble around spending time with friends and family, not having to squeeze it into evenings and weekends only.

Our leaving do was great - over 50 of you came to say goodbye / check we left / have a drink. It was great to see you all and catch up with some of you during the daytime too.

We've seen enough of the M3, M25 and M4 to last a while - the M3 particularly when we sat on it for 2 hours on our way to Jo and Andy's! Jo's banoffi pie and the enthusiastic welcome of Toby, Will and Libby made up for it though!

We spent time with the cute nephews and our lovely god daughters. We made it to Gosport to catch up with my nan (still going strong at almost 92), see my most wise and venerated uncle (Peter wasn't around so Brian had to do - ha ha ha), and even see some of my cousins. We've seen both sets of parents (sometimes even at the same time!), and managed to sneak in a family game of Monopoly at my parents' house (Michael won - rematch due when we get back!).

Jo and Paul indulged my desire to go to Hampton Court - although once Paul and Martin heard there was jousting on, that kind of sold them on it - and we even squeezed in a curry with Louise and Graham!

So, how does it feel? It's been harder to sort stuff out here in the UK than we imagined. Utility companies are rubbish at giving you money back... and don't even start me on the TV Licence people... plus the concept of "we're going away for a year so have no fixed address" seems to not fit most computer models.... It's been hard to pack light - yes, I DO need my jeans and some jewellery!- and we still have good intentions that haven't been fufilled. Sorry to people we've not been able to email or speak to personally. It's scary - especially as the first thing we have to do is get on a plane - gulp - I hate flying.... - but I bet the next time I update the blog (I've accepted it'll be me doing it mostly. Sigh!) it'll be a different story....

The world will be a bit different when we return... 6 of you will have babies (I still reckon it'll be 7 so I'm waiting to hear), at least Ben and Juliette will have moved house, maybe more of you will have moved, and Justine and Fatos will be married... and Martin and I will be broke but with THOUSANDS of photos to show you all!!!

Kara

PS I know the photos and captions are poorly laid out. Did the best I could.