Transitious horribilus and missing my niece...

Well, the inevitable happened...Our vacation came to an end and the transitious horribilus (horrible transit) began yesterday...Or the day before, or tomorrow...Hell, we’ve crossed that many time zones I have no idea what day or time it is back in Finland.

So far the journey hasn’t been too bad except for a one and a half hour wait in the plane out on the tarmac after boarding in Helsinki. Apparently there was no one to remove the steps from the plane so we could push back. That made us an hour and a half late to Heathrow and so getting from T3 to T2 for our flight to Singapore was more hurried than I would have liked. Heathrow is a big airport and it takes time to get around. We made it though and are now at Singapore’s Changi airport awaiting our flight home to Adelaide.

Leaving Finland was difficult. My niece @smallsteps was just about to go for her afternoon nap and as soon as the goodbye process began I got emotional (which is code for I cried). In the time we were there I became very close to her and although she is only two I believe we bonded. On the two hour drive to Helsinki airport my sister-in-law messaged me to say that my niece woke from her nap and the first thing she said was, “where’s Galen and Faith,” which made me tear-up all over again. Saying goodbye to @tarazkp, my youngest brother, at the airport was also difficult however a little easier because as adults we can communicate more effectively. We did the bro-hug thing and mumbled some stuff and then we were on our way home. I’ll miss the three of them very much!

It’s 2030 Saturday night here and wheels go up at 2335 (11:25pm) and after about 7 hours we’ll touch down in Adelaide, our home town. We are looking forward to seeing our cats of course as we’ve missed them so much however from now on a part of us will be in Finland with our niece. No matter where we are we will miss her and look forward, impatiently, to the next time we see her. The image you see here was taken after we left and whilst she was having a bite to eat as evidenced by the yoghurt on her nose. Apparently my sister-in-law @momone was working through the alphabet with her and when she came to the letter U my niece said, ”U for Uncle Galen!” which made me smile and tear-up at the same time.

I’m not always very open with my emotions however with my niece I don’t seem to care. I miss her and I don’t really care who knows it. It’s going to be difficult over the next few weeks or so however I’ll work through it, besides, it won’t be that long and we’ll have our next trip scheduled and booked so it’ll give me something to look forward too.

For now I better get going and help Faith work on our post-holiday diet plan...Don’t judge, but maybe I put on a kilogram or two...