It’s unnecessary to share everyday of my time in the UK so I’ll swap to one week summaries to get to the juicy bits a little faster.
The first port of call were the grandparents. It was wonderful to see my family again and catch up. They were very interested to hear about what I had been up to but it’s impossible to condense months of experiences into a couple of conversations so these posts are a great way to keep family up to date; that and sending emails saying I’m still alive.
I met up with some friends who I hadn’t seen for quite some time; they didn’t recognise me. It’s pretty funny really but my appearance had changed substantially and they were used to a face from four years ago.
It’s great when you can pick up from where you left off with friends and continue as you would have months or years previously. Everyone has moved on with their lives but their base-self remains the same and all the things you had in common and shared are often still there. It’s amusing how you can revert back to using language or even sounds that only your friends understand (looking at you Steve). I was only meant to go for a catch-up but Richard and Tom convinced me to stay out until the wee hours. To be fair it didn’t take much convincing and somehow I took home a Sombrero which I left as a present for Sam whilst he was away; undoubtedly this confused him as he didn’t know I was in his apartment!
I figured whilst I was back it would be a good opportunity to do my taxes; it turns out Moira Stuart was right, tax doesn’t have to be taxing. But then again my case was incredibly simple; at least for UK taxes. Australian tax returns on the other hand are a little more difficult once you’ve left the country.