A quick trip home...

After two whole years living and working in Germany, I think Michael and I can say that we have reached a level of success that we are happy with. It was not easy, and there were quite a few occasions where we were ready to hand in resignation notices and return to Australia. However, I can't help but feel that it would have been a sorrowful return, with our tails between our legs, having not achieved what we set out to.

This was luckily in the end not the case. Michael landed himself a dream job, while my job started to really move upwards. In the last 10 months, I have gone from not wanting anything more than a plain teaching job, ready to quit and raise a family when the time came, to suddenly being a person of power within my company, someone who looks after a special section of the company, to the point that I do not want to give up on that right now. It is a job that I love, that I feel committed to and want to see where the next few years will take me, career wise.

With that all said, we realised that our originally planned 2 years in Germany were nearly up. Michael has only been in his new job 5 months, so we were not about to just leave, not when things were really getting good! So we did the next best thing, and took some holidays to visit Australia. It timed in super well because Michael's company needed him in Australia in September for business, so we just flew down a few weeks early!

Unlike my normal blog style, I will give a very brief description of our time in Aus and include a few pics here and there. For us it was not really a holiday. 16 days went super fast and I didn't feel like I had a single chance to stop and relax, it was all about spending as much time as possible with our nearest and dearest. 

Monday August 10 - Landed in Brisbane at 6pm, after leaving Munich at 6am Sunday morning. As you could imagine, quite tired but so happy to see everyone. Michael and I separated and spent that night in our individual family homes. 

Tuesday Aug 11 - I started my morning with an incredible home cooked brunch at my Aunt and Uncle's house before spending the afternoon at my old school with my best friend Carlie. Being spotted by all of my ex students was a special moment for me, some of them even started to cry as they hugged me. Michael in the mean time spent the day with his family, and then met Carlie, Maeve and I for sushi train in the evening. 

Just one of my families - taught two of these 4 monkeys

Wednesday Aug 12 - Well hello Jet Lag! Around 3am I was wide awake and unable to return to sleep despite being exhausted. Michael didn't help the situation by leaving for the airport in a cab at 4:30am, as he was flying to Sydney for work. I spent the morning on the couch and eventually got myself up and moving. Being a public holiday in Brisbane, I was able to go to a local park and meet with some of my past families from school. My mind was utterly blown when two of my past students came to see me, one of which now being 19 years old and in her second year of university! I didn't know if I should feel old or just proud!

I then joined some of my closest friends (Olivia, Jeremy & Xander, Carlie & Maeve) for lunch at a lovely cafe before then meeting some other close friends (Roz, Rae, Mei) for afternoon tea at Roz's house. It was here that I got to meet my friends Rae & Mei's beautiful new baby boy Oliver who was only a month old! 

Thursday Aug 13 - This was a day I had long waited for - Hair day! I hate getting my hair done in Germany so it was with great happiness that I walked into Zen Hair and greeted my long time hair dresser Harley with a big hug. And then she got to work, chopping off all the damaged hair and taking my colour to a new level.... blue!

In the afternoon I visited my in-laws. Michael was still in Sydney but it was important for me to get some time with his family too, so I went over for the afternoon. I might add too that in between the hairdresser and such, my mum picked up her brand new car so she very proudly drove me over and collected me from the Mulcahy household.

Friday Aug 14 - Today was a mummy daughter day, while Michael was making his way back from Sydney. We lunched, we shopped and we picked up some things for the next day. I then met Michael at his parents' house in the evening and we enjoyed a lovely family meal. 

Saturday Aug 15 - Big day today - MOCKTOBERFEST. In honour of Michael's birthday (2 weeks prior) we held his Australian birthday party. But given our current lifestyles we wanted to show our friends how we live. So we brought Bavaria to Brisbane. We both wore our traditional costumes (Dirndl und Lederhosen), we served traditonal German wurstl with sauerkraut and Bavarian mustards, ate bretzln, served German beers, and for the ladies I even made our favourite drink Hugo. A lot of fun was had by all!

 Sunday Aug 16 - Today we spent time with Michael's extended family including his Aunts and Uncle. We even went to the Eat Street Markets and enjoyed many many yummy foods!

Monday Aug 17 - Today was a moving day for us, clearing out our storage unit. I then attended parade at my old school so I could see some of my students. In the evening, I attended my old dance company classes.

Tuesday Aug 18 - A special day for my friend Olivia - her birthday. So Michael and I took the opportunity to enjoy a lovely lunch at a French cafe in Bulimba before Olivia and I went to collect her son Xander. I then got to spend some time playing with Xander and going to the grocery store with him! Later that night we had a large extended family dinner with Michael's family at an old favourite Italian restaurant, as it was the last chance to see Michael's Aunt Jane. 

Wednesday Aug 19 - Another busy day - Breakfast at my favourite cafe (The Gunshop) in Westend with my family, then Michael visited his family while Mum and I had some more mummy daughter time over at the new Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. This was particularly important as the 19th of August was mum and dad's wedding anniversary, and this day would have marked their 48th.

In the evening, we joined my favourite work colleagues from my old school at Fran's house where we shared plates of delicious food next to their fire pit. And for dessert, we roasted marshmallows. For mum this was a first and she LOVED it!

 

Thursday Aug 20 - Started with coffee with a good friend, before going to a place called Bounce with one of Michael's good friends. Here we jumped around on trampolines for an hour and had so much fun. I even managed to do flips in the air onto the giant air mattress, although one time Michael hit the air mattress as I was trying to climb off and I got sucked in under the trampoline. He couldn't stop laughing!

Lunch on this day was actually shared with Michael's sister Tess and her boyfriend Jack in the city. They then came to do some shopping with us. On the way to catch the bus home, I decided to be a tourist for a bit! In the evening, we had been invited to have dinner with one of my ex students and it was a wonderful evening for me, but even Michael enjoyed it because he got to hear about me from one of my students. He was proud of me! I love that I still have these relationships years down the track! 

Friday Aug 21 - We went our separate ways today, Michael visited his old work, and I spent the day with some great friends and shopped to my hearts content, including a visit to the educational shop, finished with a lovely lunch. 

That evening, we met Carlie, Maeve and Carlie's mum Sue at Eat Street Markets - I had been so impressed the previous Sunday and hadn't been able to try nearly enough food so it was important to have a second chance! We all loved it!

 

Saturday Aug 22 - Another busy day of visiting people. I caught up with my oldest friends Danica (and her fiance Matt) and Peta (and Peta's new baby boy Elijah). Then we visited our old neighbours who really wanted the chance to see us, even if it was just fleetingly. 

In the evening, Michael had a few old uni friends over for a bbq (which almost flopped thanks to an ants nest inside said bbq) but just as mum was getting settled in for the evening, I whisked her away for her early birthday present - a painting class at Cork and Chroma. While mum wasn't so keen on her artwork, we both had a great time, a lot of laughter and wine shared, and more than a little paint spilled! Mum looked like an artwork herself by the end of the night. 

Playing on my Aunt's new chair lift!

Sunday Aug 23 - My amazing Aunt baked two fantastic cakes and invited us over to meet their good friends while sharing in a scrumptious morning tea. In the afternoon, we went to see Michael's family, went for a walk by a local dam and shared dinner with Michael's Aunt and Uncle and cousins before our final goodbyes.

Monday Aug 24 - Today I ran up to my old school early in the morning to take a large class photo before school started. A large number of the children graduating this year were in my very first class. So for the sake of their graduation (and my scrapbook) we took a class photo! Sadly I cannot share this with you, wish I could! They are all so big now!

Lunch was shared with my Bad Egg girlfriends (from our days working together for a fashion company). This was a wonderful time together with lots of laughter and a grand visit to Daiso! In the evening, I taught both a Bollywood and Hip Hop class for my old dance company. Felt so good to be teaching dance again! Then Roz joined us for dinner at home afterwards!

Tuesday Aug 25 - Finally, a day to relax. Mum very kindly let us borrow her car and we drove up to Montville for the day. This was where we got married almost 4 years ago now and it was a super important thing for us to do. First we stopped in Montville itself, then drove to Kennilworth where we collected some of our favourite cheeses, then back up to Flaxton Gardens (our wedding venue) for lunch. The Moolooloobah prawns were just as good as they were at our wedding! And the Flaxton Magnum dessert plate was still decadence personified. 

On the way back to Brisbane, we stopped for more cheese from the Maleny dairy, then a pitstop at Rae's house to see her and baby Oliver one last time (and so that Michael could meet him for the first time). Then straight out to dinner with mum, my aunt and uncle. Our final feast if you will.

Wednesday Aug 26 - My last day. Today was all about packing, making phone calls and visiting various places including the bank to sort out things. Totally boring and totally not what I wanted to do on my last day. But we did at least take the time for one last sushi train feast for lunch!

At 6;30pm, I said my goodbyes to everyone, including Michael and boarded the first of 3 planes back to my home in Munich. I landed in Munich on Thursday at 2pm German time and was back at work Friday morning, my whirlwind adventure over. But I was pleased to have had even just that small snippet of time with everyone.