It took us three attempts to get this photo right - you can see dad was thrilled!

The first few days were spent finding our feet and trying to get rid of the jetlag as soon as possible (yes, I did get up at 5am for the first few mornings and go jogging around the fields with Sam the dog... which anyone who knows me would just laugh at).

We had quite a challenge on the Friday evening as we arranged a family meal which involved us meeting Stuart’s girlfriend for the first time and also Kate’s boyfriend for the first time. I must admit I felt the pressure of having to pretend I was a wonderful older sister! The meal was great, nothing beats having the family all together – cue lots of sarcastic comments and embarrassing tales from the past being shared!

It’s times like this when I think distance does really make you appreciate your family and friends, every moment you spend together is so much more precious.

Back Home - Yippee!

It is hard to explain how weird it feels to come back after a year away. It actually feels like you were never away after a very short amount of time - and sometimes I almost didn’t believe that we live in Australia. Although I can imagine that if we stayed away for longer it would start to become stranger.

The most difficult thing I found was remembering the local road map in my head. Planning what route to take and which roads and junctions off motorways that were once second nature to me took just a bit longer to recall.

The other thing is that after being away for so long, everything is so exciting; seeing family and friends (and even people you just recognise), being back in my old home and looking around the farm again, smells and sounds, tasting the food, drinking the drinks, driving along familiar roads, going out in York, back to my old workplace in Hessle, out in Hull again and even a trip into Selby was an exciting prospect at first...

Add this to the fact that, oh yes, we were actually getting married as well and you can imagine how the whole trip turns into an extremely emotional experience, from tears of joy to tears of laughter in a day, and sometimes within an hour when it is time to say goodbye. Even though we were there for 7 weeks, the time seemed to absolutely fly by because we just jumped from one thing to another – thankfully we had time-tabled lots of visits and events in before arriving to try and cut down on stress levels while we were there!

The mayhem and enormousness of Dubai Airport

The Green Green Grass of Home

The old home town looks the same as we step down from the
plane,

and there to meet us is my Mama with a ‘Welcome Home’
balloon!!

After travelling for 24 hours that last part in the airport waiting for the luggage, when we knew my mum was just metres away at the other side of customs, is agonising and so exciting. It is actually the first time we’ve ever had anyone meet us at an airport, usually we’re walking through feeling very lonely while everyone else is waving, crying and hugging each other. It was such a fantastic moment to walk through customs and see mum there and from that moment the adrenalin didn’t stop for about 8 weeks!!

It was great to see the very English landscapes pass us by on the M62, on surprisingly a lovely sunny day, as we were stuffing as many pork pies, prawn sandwiches, Walkers crisps and scotch eggs into our mouths as we could (that mum had thoughtfully packed up for us)!

Andy, Emma and Carol in Queens Street Mall, Brisbane

The next day was ANZAC day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), this is always the 25th April (they're not like the UK here, public holidays are whenever the date lands even if it's a Wednesday! Incidenty, if you say 'Bank Holiday' to an Aussie, they haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about!) and is to commemorate the service men and women who fought and died in all wars. The date is the 25th April because in 1915 in the First World War this was when troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. There was a big parade through Brisbane centre which we sadly missed as we were too late up, but we did get to see all the service people walking around Brisbane afterwards in their uniforms.

We met up with Carol and Emma (who coincidentally were staying in Brisbane for a few days) for a drink and to say goodbye and John who we met yesterday came along to drop off some gifts for us to take back to his family and friends back in England. We had a swim and some final moments of relaxation at our hotel pool and then it was time to make our way to Brisbane Airport for our flight to England that evening!

We had booked in at a lovely hotel in Brisbane and we got a bonus room upgrade when they saw me lugging my wedding dress.


With cousin John at his local haunt in Brisbane


We had a nice afternoon looking round the shops and then in the evening we arranged to meet up with my cousin John who is living in Brisbane at the moment. We had a great evening drinking in the bar where he used to work and had a good chat with him and his friends.

A dragline bucket taking up most of the road on the way to Mackay

The day before we left was ridiculously hectic, we had to travel to Mackay to pick the rings and my wedding dress up and I spent the rest of the day cleaning the house (one of those things you just have to do before you go away), packing only began at about 9pm the night before we left in true Helen style.

After a limited sleep we drove round to Carol and Ian’s as Ian had very kindly agreed to drive us to the airport so we didn’t have to leave the car there for two months and pay $27,893 to get it out of the car-park. A final goodbye to Ben and we were off at last to Mackay to catch the plane to Brisbane! Yippee!!

Ben got into the spirit of things too...

We went to see Carol, Ian, Emma and Louis (who were to be Ben’s family for the next 8 weeks) we had some delicious food and they gave us an amazing wedding gift, a new digital camera! It was exactly what we had needed for a long time and we were so pleased we had a camera to record all of our trip back to England. So the next photographs on the blog are all courtesy of this present, thanks a lot guys! We had to drop Ben off with Carol and Ian the next day which was heartbreaking (we would have done anything to have him walking down the aisle wearing an ivory collar with the rings in his mouth) but we knew he’d be very well looked after and make friends with their dog, Mia.

Me (with disturbingly long hair and a pixie ear) and Meaghan the Hostess

Hen Night 2: Moranbah Hen Night

Meaghan and Bek who work with Andy kindly said they’d organise a hen night for me. Unfortunately, Bek couldn’t make it to the actual night in the end due to a clash of events, but Meaghan hosted it at her house. I was given a veil, a princess crown and a gorgeous pink feather boa to wear so I was the ultimate hen! Meaghan cooked up an absolute feast and also made heaps of heavenly Mango Daiquiri (it got messy later when someone picked the blender jug up from the base forgetting it didn’t have a bottom on it (and no, it wasn’t actually me!)). Meaghan and Bek had got me a hen night book for everyone to sign and also organised a game of ‘Celebrity Head’ for us to play. The girls from Community Health brought along a hilarious box of goodies for me with 'advice' attached to each item (a lot of which made me blush) - as this blog is family-frendly I won't go into further detail!
We headed into town afterwards to the Black Nugget and I faced the crowds wearing my hen attire, getting the inevitable “oh, are you getting married?” questions (no, I just like to wear a veil to the pub every now and then for a laugh). I got a free drink from the bar staff which was quite possibly the worst tasting and most dangerous looking drink I have ever attempted to consume (see awful picture to the left). We had a good laugh and in true small town style, we bumped into the Bucks on their night out with everyone squealing that it was bad luck! I believe Andy was too drunk to actually see me anyway so we were safe with the luck. The crescendo of the evening came when it was karaoke time and the girls sneakily nominated me to sing ‘I’m too Sexy’... I managed to strike a deal with the DJ that there was no way I was singing that but I would give him my best shot at Vanilla Ice (after my success last year on Long Island)! I don’t think the people quite knew what to expect but it certainly wasn’t an English girl in a veil and crown rapping Ice Ice Baby to them, it went down really well though and my dignity was intact!

Wearing a veil for the first time - thinking may cancel my veil order and use this one with flashing lights instead...

As well as all the organising for England, we have managed to make a few friends here who were keen to have a hen night (make that two) and ‘bucks’ do for us, so we kicked off the celebrations here in Moranbah a few weekends before our trip back.

Hen Night 1: 4RFM Hen Night at the Thai Restaurant at Moranbah Golf Club

I couldn’t believe it when I walked in and there were balloons, sprinkles on the table, a flashing veil and a big goody bag with a lovely handmade card and some lovely presents all from my friends who work at 4RFM radio station in Moranbah. We had a lovely meal and a really great laugh!

Goodbye Chocolate Cake from Mental Health


I've just had to spend ten minutes with a duster to get through the cobwebs formed over my blog!


THE RUN UP TO THE BIG DAY...

In April I finished working for Queensland Health and began my first full time job in Australia as ‘Senior Administrator Engineering / IT Support’. In hindsight, starting two weeks before we were due to go away to get married wasn’t the wisest decision – but I managed, albeit with a few days off here and there for dress fittings. It felt so good to have my own desk at last and at least I could go away knowing that I was coming back to a new job.

Every evening and weekend in the run up to our trip was spent sorting out: invitations, flights, rooms at the castle, registrar, running order for the day, wedding dress, wedding rings, jewellery, veil, bridesmaid dresses, suit hire, photographer, florist, music, string quartet, disco equipment, speeches, payments, hair appointments, food and drink arrangements, seating plans, table decorations, favours, hen dos and organising a timetable for our time in England to make sure we got to see everyone as well as get all the final wedding details organised! All this is common knowledge to those of you who have been through the nightmare of organising a wedding, but I had no idea just how many decisions and payments we’d have to make. At this point I would like to thank my mum and Caroline, without whom people would have been invited on post-it notes, the bridesmaids would have been in jeans and I would have had my hen night in Selby!

Female Red-Back on a broom handle...IN OUR GARDEN

Near-Death 3: Red-Back Spider 10cm from potentially my Bottom

Yesterday Andy hosed off all our garden furniture as Carol and Ian are coming round for Easter tea and we haven’t cleaned the chairs for a while. It was then that he spotted a big female Red-Back spider, along with a couple of egg sacks there. The Red-Back is related to the Black Widow, and is the most dangerous spider in Australia. How wonderful if all the eggs had hatched too!! The spider was right under the back of the chair and the size of it would almost certainly have injected a deadly amount of venom. Reassuringly though – no deaths have been reported since the introduction of an anti-venom in 1956.

A Black-Headed Python outside our house, complete with tyre marks

THREE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES

Near-Death 1: Swimming with a 17 foot Crocodile

Ben and I went to Blacks Beach in North Mackay, Ben went for a swim and I paddled in the sea as we walked along. The beach was closed for swimmers but I thought that was due to the Irukandji Jellyfish (deadly and very small) that had been spotted in Mackay recently. After returning from our walk, we were just getting in the car when I overheard a man tell his wife in the next car, “The beach is closed due to a 17 foot crocodile being spotted by the lifeguard” – which would explain why the police and lifeguard were stood looking out to see when I returned from our walk.

Near-Death 2: Black-Headed Python 10 metres from our Garden

As I came out of the house the other day for my walk to work, I noticed a long thing in the road just across from our driveway. For a place that has lots of snakes, there are so many things here (tree bits usually) that look like snakes so I am used to ignoring the panic rising in me. On this occasion however, on closer inspection the long thing turned out to be about a 5 foot long snake!! Fortunately, it had been run over and wasn’t going anywhere (but I didn’t take any chances when I took this photo, I’ve seen the films!). Initially I thought it was a Brown Snake which is the second most venomous in Australia, but I checked in my book and it was a python. Pythons kill by constricting rather than venom, so that’s alright then?!? Ben would have copped it if it had made it into our garden!

When it rains it pours…

Moranbah for the last year probably got as much rain as Manchester does in a day. It is so dry out here that the children learn that the grass is yellow at school and water restrictions are part of everyday life. People here we’ve noticed have become rather obsessed with rain and water, they love rain – which is odd for a start when you’ve been brought up in England, but also everyone knows how many millimetres fell and what percentage full any of the dams are around here (usually 3%). So, you can imagine when it does rain it is an exciting event that is worthy of people at work leaving their desks to come to the windows and doors to witness it. Comments such as, ‘We’ve needed this’, and ‘let’s hope this goes on for a while’ are brandished about, as Andy and I are begging the sun to come back out! Well, there have been a few occasions where we have welcomed the rain just for a bit of a change from being wet from perspiration.
Recently we had almost a whole week where it didn’t stop raining, it was so strange as the grass gradually turned green and the bush land started to grow overnight. The cane toads love it, they are out in force croaking away, and the mossies are rubbing their disease-infested legs together with glee as they know they can get some breeding done in these moist conditions.
The most extraordinary spectacle of all though occurred during my daily afternoon walk with Ben which takes me next to the Grosvenor Creek, the main creek in Moranbah. People were driving up there in their cars, bringing the children, cameras were out and there were crowds stood by watching as the creek overflowed and flooded the banks! It was great, even I joined in and raced home to get Andy and my camera. The image here has probably not been witnessed for about 10 years in Moranbah, so appreciate it!

The cutest baby girl in the world...Lucy

Hayley and Lucy at South Bank Lagoon/Beach

27-29th JANUARY 2007

BRISBANE WITH HAYLEY AND LUCY

After months of planning, I was going to Brisbane to meet up with Hayley for the first time in almost 2.5 years! An added bonus was that she was bringing her 7 month old daughter Lucy with her who of course I have never met.
The purpose of our trip was to have a girl’s weekend in Brisbane and catch up on each others lives whilst shopping for wedding accessories.
It was one of those daft moments in the airport when you haven’t seen someone for a while and you see someone who looks nothing them coming through customs and think, ‘is that her’? I was looking at so many people wondering if it might be, but obviously when she and Lucy arrived I recognised her instantly.
It was so good to see Hayley again after such a long time and it was great to meet the adorable Lucy who stole my heart straight away! We were staying at the Hilton due to a good internet deal and it was in the perfect location right in the middle of the shopping mall. There was a lovely swimming pool there which we took advantage of as soon as we got there, the best refreshment after a long flight from New Zealand.
Lucy was really really good but she did demonstrate her vocal abilities a few times – I would never have guessed such a tiny human could make such a noise!
We ate out by the river that evening and had a delicious meal and wine.
The next day we managed to find some gorgeous shoes, a veil, necklace and Hayley treated me to some beautiful earrings to wear as well. We then had a lovely walk along South Bank to the lagoon. It is amazing to see a whole beach area, complete with lifeguard in the centre of Brisbane! It was great and Lucy had a paddle in the water too. It was a very productive day and we were certainly ready for another gourmet meal that evening. The following day we went to the wedding dress shop that stocks my wedding dress, and I was able to try it on so Hayley could see me in it which I was so pleased about as she will be unable to come over to the UK for our wedding.
Before we knew it, it was time to leave each other, it was so sad to say goodbye after a really fantastic few days in Brisbane. Andy and I will definitely be heading to Christchurch later this year when we have saved some pennies, to see Hayley and Paul and also to do some travelling around New Zealand.

Daz and Anna-Marie with 'old mate' in the Sapphire mine

16th JANUARY 2007

RUBYVALE – Sapphire Fossicking

Daz, Anna-Marie and I headed off to Rubyvale while Andy was at work to see if we could make a fortune sapphire fossicking. Rubyvale is a good 2.5 hour drive so we got there early afternoon and signed up for the underground mine tour. A very eccentric old lady was our tour guide and gave us an amusing insight into how the Sapphires are formed and how the mines work. After this we got our buckets of gravel and were taught how to fossick and spot the sapphires in amongst many other worthless colourful stones that try and lure you into thinking they are valuable. We ended up each finding several small sapphires, Daz found a good sized one that can be cut and made into jewellery (for Anna-Marie).
That evening was our last night together and Andy made a fantastic meal for us all. The next day we drove into Mackay and dropped Anna-Marie and Daz off at the airport and waved them a teary goodbye, they flew to Sydney and then home the next day.

Our New Years adventure was over and it was back to lots of hard work and saving money ready for the pending wedding.

Anna-Marie showing her skills on the green

Daz and Anna-Marie with some kangaroos in the distance (see below)

The kangaroos

15th JANUARY 2007

MORANBAH – Bowling and Golf with the ‘roos

After showing our guests around the sights of Moranbah we had a great game of lawn bowls at the Bowls Club! It was a very hot day and the locals thought we were mad out in the sun. It was a fierce battle and Andy won in the end on the last ball to regain some dignity after the pool defeat! After that we went straight to the Golf Club, hired a couple of buggies, packed the beer and some clubs and played golf until the sprinklers came on and the sun went down. It was good fun - I think I even managed to hit a few. We had a great sighting of a group of kangaroos in the grass near where we were playing, only in Australia!

View from Cape Hillsborough

14th JANUARY 2007

CAPE HILLSBOROUGH

We took Daz and Anna-Marie on the Cape Hillsborough initialisation walk, it was a lovely day but very hot. The views were, as always, stunning making the steep climb to the top worthwhile. No snakes were spotted though, just lots of geckos, lizards and spiders to keep us on our toes.

Daz and Andy - before

Daz and Andy - after (they reckon they both blinked...hmm!)

Us all in the Irish bar

Andy's brother Gary flew in to do a spot of DJing

After the long sleepy journey back to Airlie, we went out again that evening for a nice meal and drinks.

Me and Anna-Marie on the boat to the reef

George the enormous Groper under the platoon at the reef

Reef and fish

The next day was an early start for our trip to Reefworld. It is a long journey out to the reef, about 2.5 hours on the boat. It was however a perfect day unlike our last visit with my family last year when it was so rough even the crew of the boat were being sick! The water was totally still, excellent snorkelling conditions and we made the most of it by heading straight into the water after getting kitted up in our glamorous stinger suits. It was unbelievable, there were fish everywhere, and the visibility was excellent. We saw loads of different fish, including lots of Parrot Fish chipping away at the reef. The highlight of the day was right at the end when a turtle swam right past us and we swam with it for a while! We also got to touch and swim right next to the resident Maori Wrasse which is huge.

Daz recieving his $50 prize for winning the pool comp

12-14th JANUARY 2007

AIRLIE BEACH AND REEFWORLD

After Sydney, Andy and I headed back home to Moranbah whilst Anna-Marie and Daz did some sightseeing around Brisbane.
We met up again a few days later at Terminal 6 of Mackay ‘International’ Airport and drove up to the legend that is Airlie Beach. The plan was to have a fairly quiet night on the first night as we were going to the reef the next day. We had nice meal and then went to the pool competition where Daz became the new champion, beating Andy in the process. The Yorkshire rankings now are:
1) Daz
2) Andy
3) Sandy

Me exchanging dead-eyes with a shark

How cool is this - manta ray going over the top and a shark next to me!

We didn’t actually swim around the aquarium, we moon walked, we were weighted down so that we just walked along the aquarium floor (avoiding any rays and one huge shark lay on the bottom!) The great thing was that Andy and I could see each other the whole time so he could share in my experience. It was incredible, enormous manta rays just gliding over our heads and then we were in the shark zone. It was weird because instead of being scared it was quite an awe-inspiring experience, just watching these huge sharks slowly gliding past watching you was amazing. At times they were literally heading straight for us and then they would turn at the last minute, other times they would swim right over our heads. The turtles were great too swimming really closely past us! We were in the water for a long time, I think an hour altogether, and were able to just stand and watch all these creatures going about their business. Andy took photographs from the other side of the doughnut – how I wish we had a proper camera, but these have not come out too badly.
I came out exhilarated and totally rid of my hangover! It was a brilliant birthday present (thanks Andy!) and one which I definitely won’t forget!

Me!

After ticking ‘No’ to questions such as ‘Have you consumed alcohol within the last 12 hours’ and ‘Are you suffering from a hangover’ my fear worsened, and to finish it off I had eaten some of Andy’s tuna sandwich before I went in so felt for sure the sharks would smell that.
The experience was amazing, we had lots of safety talks about scuba diving and what we would be doing in the aquarium, the guide walked us around the aquarium (it has a big doughnut tunnel in it that visitors can walk around and see the marine life (and scuba divers) all around them) and showed us the sharks, manta rays, sting rays and turtles etc that we would be meeting. The sharks were actually Grey Nurse sharks who apparently don’t eat anything bigger than their mouths - although they had plenty of teeth so I wasn’t going to be taking any chances.
We got into our wetsuits (cue one of the most embarrassing moments of my life as the male guide had to hoist the suit over my bottom) and got our tanks on and then we were off.

Manta Ray

Two Grey Nurse Sharks waiting for breakfast to arrive

Turtle swimming over the shark

I must say that on the journey there I felt very very ill, I put this down to the copious amounts of alcohol drank the night before along with the sheer terror of knowing that in an hour’s time I would be submersed in an aquarium with sharks and stingrays – both of which are known to be a little clumsy (oooh –sorry mate I could have sworn you were a seal) and a bit precious about their personal space being invaded.

6th JANUARY 2007

30 years ago on this date, ‘When a Child is Born’ by Johnny Mathis drifted from the radio stations, the Sex Pistols were dropped by EMI records and a little bundle of joy was born at Fulford Hospital (now the site of the Designer Outlet in York, how apt!).
Yes, that little bundle was named Helen and she grew up to be the light in her parent’s life (or is that the bane of my parent’s life, dad?!!).
Yes, the dreaded momentous occasion had arrived and I stepped drunkenly from my twenties into a rather hung-over beginning to my thirties.Now, there are many theories about how to cure a hangover, and everyone has their own special method, whether it be hair of the dog, a fry up or a herbal concoction. I can now recommend the very best way of curing a hangover, tried and tested on the morning of my birthday…go diving with a few 6-8 foot sharks!! Andy completely surprised me by booking me the best birthday present ever - a shark dive ‘extreme’ package at the aquarium at Manly in Sydney!

Simon, Hilary and Andy W

Daz and Anna-Marie

The flags are flying

There was a free BBQ and the drinks were flowing, before I knew it, I was there leading the chant of ‘Everywhere we go’ and jumping around like a crazed fanatic! The big flags came out and it turned into a full-blown English knees-up – the Queen would have been proud, we even sang the national anthem loads (even though it was directed at the Aussies with the adapted line of ‘Long to reign over YOU’). We have some fantastic photos and footage, thanks to Anna-Marie’s photography/Video skills – the most amusing of which you will have seen at the top of this page!
There is even better footage available of us (Andy) getting home from that evening however I’ll save that for a rainy day.
Thanks to Andy, Daz, Anna-Marie, Andy W, Hilary and Simon for the experience! (Give me a D…)

Statue with the Ashes!

The HQ

Me, Andy, Simon, Hilary, Andy W, Daz

Anna-Marie and the Monty Panesars

After the last game finished, we headed off to the ‘Official Barmy Army HQ’ at the Henry Henry bar. We just planned to go for a few drinks and then be back for tea… well they say that the best nights are the unplanned ones, and I have to say we had one of the best nights I’ve had for a long time! Loads of England fans congregated there, including the Monty Panesars who watched every game in full Monty attire. Within a few hours the whole bar was singing all the Barmy Army songs for one last time, there was banter with some Aussies who braved it to sit in there and be entertained and anyone walking by on the street.

Captain Ponting with the final scoreboard

England clapping the Barmy Army

Australia doing a tour of the pitch

Langer and Hayden together for the last time

Langer with the Ashes trophy

Jimmy - the face of the barmy army

The players did a full tour around the pitch at the end and then the ground started emptying and we knew that was it, and the Ashes wouldn’t be back in Australia until 2011. We witnessed a bit of history – seeing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath’s last ever bowl in test cricket and the emotions of watching them leave the ground for the last time - two of the best bowlers ever to play the game coming to the end of their professional careers. Justin Langer also retired after batting to the end of the game.
It was well worth the excruciating 4-5 hours I spent on the computer and phone trying to get the tickets and I can’t wait for my next game – sadly not now in the Caribbean, where England are facing the Australians again very soon!