In Australia ;-))

I am here.
A beuuuutiful little beach resort called Palm Cove, about 30 mins north of Cairns.
Sitting with a raspberry muffin and cream, and chai latte - looking out at the beach and the ocean.

This is the holiday I have been promising myself for the past 3 years - thru all the shit with Okaasan coming to live with us, thru all the disasters and sadness with my father and step-mum, thru my own health problems.
"When all of this is over, I will have a holiday - a beach, where I will sleep and read and eat and swim..

And here I am finally.

The final few days before holiday were the expected rush of Things I Must Do Before, and then I said goodbye to Okaasan - sorry, you and Yujiro are on your own for a week, I am away to Australia.....she looked SO excited about that idea that I feared she would jump up and follow me out the door to the airport.


But it twas I who escaped.
Ducking Typhoon 15 which blew across Japan in the 24 hours before I left.
Battling through all the crowds of the typhoon-delayed flights.
Realizing with horror at Narita that I had neither; a) a visa for Australia or b) a reentry permit for Japan!!!. I hadn"t thought about either, and as I''d booked the trip myself on the Internet nobody had mentioned it to me....
Luckily Narita Airport JTB travel desk and immigration office could sort me out - otherwise I would face a lonely future caught in Tom Hanks-like stateless limbo in the Narita Terminal 2.


But finally the JetStar plane nosed up and out of cold, rainy Tokyo and away to breezy, sunny Australia.



I"m not going to blog from here....sorry...it'"s a holiday.....but I AM here and fine.


Time to catch up on myself.

(and now time to go and try on the new swim suit and shave my legs before I make my beach debut....)