Homesick

Top pic: Mark and the beautiful Carmel

Bottom pic: Torres hotel, Australia's top pub

This morning, for the first time since coming here, I was homesick. Last night my son and his beautiful wife had their house warming party. I've known about it for weeks, in fact we'd talked about it even before I came up. And last night they were very much in my thoughts. I imagined everyone who I knew to be there eating, drinking and making merry.

But it wasn't until this morning when I got their email telling me what a great night it was, and what a great time was had by all that I felt the distance between us. And I was suddenly wistful, a bit sooky and homesick :(

Then this afternoon Rob and I went for our usual Sunday afternoon walk to one of the four pubs for a drink and a chat. We went to the Torres which is Australia's northern most pub. And again, I felt a bit homesick.

Back home Sunday afternoons was a session at the Story Bridge Hotel. The SBH - always crowded, jazz band playing in the background - the place is just buzzing. But there is no SBH here. The pubs are surprisingly quiet on a Sunday afternoon. I have yet to find that place that's crowded, noisy (in a good way) and buzzing.

I really wanted to get that Sunday afternoon feeling so I phoned a couple of my drinking buddies and was lucky enough to talk to two of them - Hi Kim, Hi Neil. It was so good to hear their voice and to engage in our usual Sunday banter - a bit of chitchat, a few laughs and a promise to ring again soon.

I felt happy, wistful, glad that I was here, wishing I was there - a mixed bag of emotions. I knew these days would happen, it's only natural. And I'm fine now. Being homesick is part and parcel of any adventure. And fortunately in this age of technology and communication, family and friends are never too far away. Emails, text messages, skype - and all from our mobile phones no less. So while I can't be there, I can still seem to be there.

Feeling homesick - life is ......