Returning Home.

Wow, I'm finally back in Bristol and almost settled in my house again. Naheed was still staying in my house till the end of the month so we had two house loads of crap stored about in one house. Then my Sydney boxes of stuff arrived last Wednesday which made even more clutter. I went out with one big box and one snowboard all weighing 50kgs and came back with six smaller boxes ane one snowboard weighing 110kgs.

I got back last Thursday and went straight down to the Honda garage to pick up my car. Naheed has been very helpful in helping me get my car back on the road. Around £800 for a service and MOT and my car is going again. Mind you it did need two new rear tyres and a new battery. It was a major service for it as well. To say that I was happy to get back in my car and drive it was an understatement! It was like buying it again from new, after a year of hire cars I was very happy to get back into a car which was more responsive in every way.

One of the first things that I really wanted to do when I got back was to go and buy a new bike. I decided to get a top banana full suspension bike with disc brakes and other bells and whistles. In the end it came down to two models, one from Trek and one from Kona. Both were around the same price and had similar components. I finally made a decision to buy the Trek one, if only because I trusted the brand and it also came in a better looking colour. Colour is very important in buying a bike. :-)

Here you can see the bike on the back of my car. It took quite a while for Jason (The Mud Dock bike shop assistant) and me to be able to mount the bike on my car. I bought a bike rack specially that I knew fitted my car. Needless to say that I drove very carefully back home and I also noticed that cars behind me kept their distance as well! I felt like a kid at Christmas getting his new bike and I went out on it as soon as I could when I got home. The cycle lanes around here are crazy. They just stop and start for no apparent reason, sometimes there are signs indicating that you should ride on the pavement and the signs don't ever tell you when you should stop. I'm quite looking forward to exploring the cycle tracks around Bristol and Bath and also doing some off road cycling.

One thing that I've noticed since being back home is that people do drive really fast on the motorway. In Sydney people generally tend to keep to the speed limits, while over here everyone obviously breaks the speed limits and quite often by quite a bit. I'm sure that I used to be one of those people before I left for Sydney. Now I don't tend to drive as fast and am more aware of my speed when driving around which is probably a good thing.

I've also managed to join a gym back here. I decided to join the local Esporta gym, not because of their extortionate prices that's for sure. They're more expensive than gyms in London! The reason I joined them is that they are the biggest gym within a fifteen-minute drive of my house and they aren't even all that big. At least they have a 25m pool which will get some use from me now. Not quite the same as Manly but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Do you think they'll let me in there with a body board?

Settling back in is sometimes quite difficult. It's very much like taking a step back after over a year of living in such a great place and having such a good time. I'm having to come back to earth and try to get back to my life before I set off. I'm sure there are many changes that I'm going to make over the next few months back here, but I can't help but think that I've had to take a big step backwards in my life. One thing that I'll try to do is make the most of my time and try to make more of my weekends.

The range of available food and more expensive meals when eating out is something that I'll really miss. No more sushi or CBD noodles that's for sure. I've already been out for a couple of meals and they were both curries. Dave and Steve came to welcome me back to Bristol last weekend and we did the usual Clifton curry and beers.

One thing that I've gained since being away is a cat! Naheed has two cats, Jeff and Lola. Jeff (pictured here in my bed) is the friendly one while Lola is a bit more feral. Lola doesn't even like people touching here. She wouldn't go into Naheed's house and seeing as I have a garage with a cat flap she does use it to sleep in. So she's probably better off in my house rather than Naheed's.

I do have to remember to feed her, as I'm not used to having a cat and the extra responsibility involved. I'm sure I'll remember with all the paw prints on my car every morning when I get my car out, as she likes to sleep on top of my car!

Finally one more thing that I've noticed, is that it's bloody cold and rains a lot in this country! How do Britains cope?