Hong Kong, France, Italy, England: Cropredy - Hong Kong - Melbourne, Monday 10th

This morning was largely spent packing - we have 80kg more, combined, than when we left!

We said our goodbyes and Lu very kindly drove us into London where we had a lovely late lunch. Tobes and I went back to see his old colleague, Richard Anderson, in Savile Row for his final fitting before meeting up with Lu and the girls at Hamley's for a last minute shop, and then off to Heathrow.

London - Hong Kong, we had our own on-flight entertainment, with a 'not very well', relatively young, Chinese woman standing up and walking down the aisle, clapping with each step, and stopping right beside me, clapping slowly and continuously until Qantas staff came up on either side of her. One of the staff touched her on the shoulder, at which point she went into hysterics, collapsing on the floor and screaming. Eventually she calmed down and stood up and, with a completely blank expression, started clapping again. This went on for two and a half hours, as the staff found a passenger qualified to try to talk her into sitting down. My girls were obviously wondering what was going on, but after a while we all got bored with her and got back to our movies. On landing in Hong Kong, she was still clapping and refusing to sit down (she'd thankfully wandered up the aisle a bit further, away from us) until literally a couple of minutes before touch down, and was still clapping in her seat as we walked past her and off the plane. Needless to say, she didn't continue on with us to Melbourne......

Very quick turn around in Hong Kong, the girls were great, we had a quick coffee and something to eat and then boarded our plane for Melbourne. Easy trip home and through customs and out to meet Rog (just before 7:00am), who agreed that Claudia has grown even taller during our (nearly) six weeks away. Rog and the girls headed back into Melbourne, and Tobes and I went to collect the car from the Long Term Car Park, to find it had a flat battery. Two hours later, with the help of roadside assistance, we were on the road to Daylesford. Spring has well and truly sprung and the garden is lush green and gorgeous. After a lazy day, lunch at the pub and a 20 minute (which turned into a three hour) kip, we had an early dinner with our gorgeous friends Klarenz and Stuart, and Millie (who is in town for a few days), seeing in Klarenz's birthday at midnight.

A fabulous end to a really amazing trip. I'm very proud of my girls, who (by and large!) behaved beautifully, and were fantastic and enthusiastic travellers all the way. A very big THANK YOU to everyone who looked after us, we have been completely spoilt and really look forward to returning all of your hospitality, hopefully soon. xx