We are finally on our way!

Today I am writing this post from the Abu Dhabi Airport Motel where we are enjoying a 21 hour stopover between Sydney and Toronto. It was almost a relief to finally get on the plane in Sydney yesterday after weeks of farewells, cleaning and packing. Mind you when we left the house it was so clean I almost wanted to remain and live in it for a little while longer.
After travelling to Sydney on the 27th we spent our last day with John's mother and brother. We also had lunch with the McKinns, Tooheys and Hamiltons. It was sad to leave but we did allow ourselves to feel a little excited. At that point it still did not seem real even after months of counting down the days until we left. When we finally arrived at the airport we encountered some problems with our luggage. It was too heavy. After much reshuffling and the purchase of an extra suitcase, we managed to come in under the appropriate weight allowance. This was a relief. I wouldn't recommend using big bags as they become too weighty. Ah well! You learn from your experiences as they say!
The first leg of the journey was very smooth. Fouteen hours went fairly painlessly thanks to Etihad's inflight entertainment system, The kids and us were fully occupied with movies, music and games. It was a bleary eyed group of five who disembarked at Abu Dhabi this morning however and not knowing whether we could find anywhere to lie down for the day was a bit of a concern. Fortune smiled on us when we were able to secure two rooms at the transit hotel. The exhorbitant rates in American Dollars dimmed into insignificnace compared to the sense of releif as we were able to rest and deal with jet lag.
We leave for Toronto at 2am local time this evening and expect to arrive at 8.15 Toronto time. We figure due to time lapses that this will be a flight of approximately 15 hours - pleanty of time to catch up on some more movies.

The time is going very quickly and as a family, we have commenced the countdown to the big day! The October holidays passed very quickly - almost in ablur but we did mangage to squeeze in a trip to the Central west in between the many phone calls, apointments and house cleaning in preparation for our year away.

John really enjoyed attending the Reid's Flat Public School Centenary Celebrations. Here he managed to catch up with old friends and exstudents from way back in 1980. After this we made a trip out to wellington to stay with Anna & Scott for the night. What a big one!!!! It's great to catch up with old friends.

For the sake of the kids, we made a lightning trip to Dubbo Zoo. An enjoyable day was had by all as we walked and cycled our way around the zoo. As usual, the Meerkats were a favourite with Nick.

On our way home, we had to stop overnight in Canberra to have our Canadian Visa Medicals. What a long day! We were very pleased to get this out of the way.

School is back and I am counting down - only 40 more school days left or me.

The countdown has commenced. On December 28th, we fly out to Toronto to begin a year of high adventure and challenge.Our flight with Etihad Airlines takes us via Abu Dhabi where will will have a 21 hour stop over. This will be our last chance to soak up the sun before we succumb to temperatures as low as -3o degrees.
There is so much to organise - visas, medicals, insurance, packing the house, flights, enrolling the kids in school and so much more. Cant Wait! It's all very exciting.