As most of you might have figured out, my previous post about Fiji was just an April’s Fool.
I had a very boring flight from Adelaide back to Melbourne.
So after spending the morning walking around in beautiful Adelaide I was back at the hostel around 11 am, picked up my luggage and walked to the central bus station around the corner. There I took the shuttle bus to the airport. Half an hour later I checked-in my luggage and went through security. On the other side I had a look around the airport and sat down at one of the business desks they had in several places.
They give you a desk with a chair, 2 power sockets for your equipment and free + unlimited internet via wifi. I spent the next 3 hours on my laptop.
Shortly before I had to board the plane I packed up and bought some yummy donuts that I ate on the plane. The flight wasn’t much longer than an hour and was very boring with absolutely not turbulences.
In the night before it was the change of daylight savings so I had to turn back my watch for 1 hour. Now changing timezones from South Australia to Victoria I had to move it forward again for 30 minutes. So useless!
Anyway, back at the airport in Melbourne I got my luggage in no time and then was picked up by Paula. We drove to the Brodies where we had a lovely dinner with Carole and Garry. A bit later Erin came back from work. I hadn’t seen her since she had left for Germany about 4 months ago.
It was a good night and I was happy to have my bed and my own room back.
The next day I began with the preparations for leaving Australia. I worked out how to do my tax return, I contacted my last employer to get a payment summary. I checked my baggage allowances for the flights back and how to send excess baggage home.
In the late afternoon one of Carol’s cousins from England came for a visit with 2 of her friends. Later Carol’s dad and sister with family also joined us. So we were 14 people having a great evening together with drinks and a nice bbq.
The following day I continued organizing my stuff. Unfortunately I had found out the previous evening that my german credit card had been blocked for security reasons. To have the replacement sent to Melbourne they needed a written statement with my signature on it.
So I wrote a letter on the computer, printed it, signed it, scanned it back in and used an online fax service to send it over. I hope the card will arrive before I leave Australia, I really need it!
Later I went to Knox. First I stopped at Westpac to find out how to claim my superannuation back, how to close my bank account and what fees I have when I use my Westpac debitcard in New Zealand.
Then walked around, did some shopping and bought a big box at the post office to send stuff home.
In the evening I went dancing again, for the first time after 7 weeks. It was the first time that I put on jeans, shoes and a shirt as opposed to shorts, sandals and a t-shirt. It was also the first time in 7 weeks that I styled my hair 😉
Back at the studio the people that knew me were positively surprised to see me and were glad to have me back. It was good to be dancing again and the time flew by.
Day 3 of being back in Melbourne: this was the most productive day so far. I filled out my tax return and sent it away, I filled out the online forms to claim back my super and I prepared the forms for cancelling my visa. I can only get back my super once I have left the country and my visa has expired which it will do 1 year after my arrival in this country. Since I am leaving after only 11 months I will cancel the visa as soon as I’m in Auckland so that I can claim my super back 4 weeks earlier.
I also filled that big box I had bought the day before and sent it off to Germany by seamail. That will take a good 2 months, but airmail would have been more than twice as expensive.
In the evening Paula and I were invited by Catherine to have dinner with her, her fiancé and her nana whom we had met on the engagement party a few months ago. It was a lovely evening, but I was quite tired and happy to go to bed straight away when I got home.
Now the most important things are all organized. What’s left to do is work out how many people are attending my farewell dinner and sorting through all my Australia photos and make a selection of the best of the best. And maybe, just maybe, I have time to relax and recover from my big trip around the continent.