So we're about to leave the UK. We've been at Rick's,
I haven't done any videos while we're here because uh
It's a long journey, it's going to take us,
leaving from here now just to get to Australia, about 76 hours
and then two weeks of quarantine and then back home. It's been a long time, almost two years.
Big thank you to Rick again for having us on our over stay in the uk. Oh he's pointing at me,
hello. And we've been stuck out of Australia now for 19 months,
since we've been forcibly stopped from returning home and you know it's been it's been quite hard,
you know financially, it's uh it's quite a struggle and you know people will say, well why...
good day, sorry. So people will say why did you not go back to Australia earlier
and it's something I should address. I mean there was a small window right at the beginning
where we might have been able to get back but in reality what happened is we were spending
a few weeks in Turkey, so we went for a short trip to Turkey and we were going
to be maybe three weeks in Istanbul and that's when Istanbul as a city closed down and forced
us to stay in Istanbul for a little over four months. The actual city itself was
locked down and we couldn't get out of Istanbul. Slowly as that improved and we were able to
leave Istanbul we were thinking we could cross into Athens, into Greece and get back to Australia
and then Australia went into a fit and decided they would shut even residents out of Australia.
So we were stopped then from going back home and at that point we decided we'd start looking at
just things to do to keep ourselves occupied. Now call us foolish but we decided to walk the entire
length of the Great British Isles. So we went from the top of Scotland all the way down to England.
John O'Groats to Land's End and even at the end of that three months of hiking and camping we
still couldn't get back to Australia. It was at this time we stayed with our good friend Rick,
this was getting towards Christmas. Now we stayed with our good friend Rick here in the UK
and with increasing sort of travel restrictions um come January time, Michele and I decided we'd
go across to Mexico and try and you know stay somewhere where it was vibrant and interesting
um not too expensive because we weren't sure how long this was going to
go on for. What ended up happening is we we found it increasingly hard to find any way of getting
back to Australia that wasn't going to cost an absolute fortune. After six months in hotel rooms
in Mexico, which was you know it sounds wonderful but put yourself in our position, six months in
hotel rooms um it was pretty hard, we'd had enough and we thought well whatever it costs whatever we
have to do we have to find a way of getting back home and seeing our family. What we ended up doing
eventually was finding a flight that was not going to completely cripple us financially
but it was two months ahead. Now remember there are very few flights at this time
that were available to fly into Australia because most of the airports were going closed, open,
closed and uh people were buying tickets and having them cancelled and bumped cancelled
and bumped and we found an airline uh All Nippon Airlines, a Japanese airline, that would allow us
to book with some comfort of knowing the flights would happen. In other words they
had a reputation for actually getting their flights into Australia. So we booked two tickets,
it was two months ahead of time so we had to find things to do, hence we've come to visit our good
friend here again in the UK. We booked those two flights and a month after we booked them Australia
went into an extra sort of fit of lockdowns and started restricting the numbers because
I hadn't said yet but there are quotas to return to Australia. So they're they've dropped, so they
dropped their numbers down uh there are 40 000 Australians that are trying to get home and and
we're just two of those Australians. So it became even harder a lot of uh flights were cancelled,
as luck would have it our flight was not cancelled
and now we are one day away from that flight and you can join us on the journey because we're
heading up to London and we will be on that plane, fingers crossed tomorrow. Okay so we're in our
taxi now heading up to Heathrow and um it's about an hour hour and a half I think to Heathrow. So
it's superb door-to-door service and uh makes life a lot easier for us um say goodbye to Rick. So
we've arrived in London. We're at the Premier Inn. Now we've stayed in a few Premier Inns before
they're nice. There's one thing which I didn't expect is a four o'clock check-in,
that never used to be the case in the Premier Inn. So we've arrived at
three something and they're saying they haven't got rooms ready we'll see,
we'll sit down for a little while but we could have left a little bit earlier.
okay
So we're at the um Premier Inn, I asked
the girl kindly gave us a room with a a view of the airport but to be honest
the windows, the windows are so filthy you can't see out of them
and I just came out here to have a quick look to see if any, any of the windows were bigger or
brighter but they're all the same And
It stinks to smoke in the room a little bit not too heavily so we're
we're probably gonna not kick up a fuss and just get on
is going up, door's closing, it's probably to be expected
in a busy airport hotel that's a little more run down perhaps but
it's a short stay and I'm getting flicker on the lights
which means the frequency here is different to the camera
I can't be bothered to make the changes so apologies for the flicker
2079
You know it's not too bad, got a nice armchair, got a couple of double beds, one each, and a uh
a bathroom with a bath. It's a typical Premier Inn. Okay so we've ordered um Deliveroo,
some Indian food, not a lot of choice well there is a fair choice but um
I might have gone too far
Here we go, uh got an early start tomorrow morning,
starting off at uh probably six in the morning,
so yeah hopefully we'll get some sleep, look that looks nice doesn't it full english breakfast
Should be going down I had to press the button it worked last time I came in here it went down by
default, okay let's get our Deliveroo and um
head back up. Michele will be happy, we're quite hungry. okay
so he's on the way
sorted you got your uh
all right so you've got your uh pickups yeah we are working with the Ubereats
Thank you, Thank you that's the Ubereats lad that was delivering he thought he was uh delivering
for me but um we've got Deliveroo Indian food, I should have taken it shouldn't I here's the fella
i thought it was cyclists but it's a scooter
Just making a little video I won't put you in if you,
if you, don't worry but uh thank you very much beautiful thank you buddy
so there it is
oh there's a smell out here. Deliveroo
what am I like just gone the wrong way
we're down here
we've got some
a beautiful Naan here it's filled with the meat, it's a meal in itself, we've got some rice,
no we've got a butter chicken, butter chicken and some rice. Anyway that's it,
that's my diary update we got food and then we're going to sleep or watch a bit of telly maybe.
Wow look at this is a meal in itself it's got beautiful tandoori chicken in a Naan. Michele
we could have just had one of these each, it's a mountain of food. Good morning everybody we uh
pardon me, terminal 2 please yes thank you very much. Gentleman's come and picked us
up from the hotel and we're um on the road to the airport. We're in Germany,
which city are we in, Michele, what city is it? We're in Frankfurt,
I don't know I'm just flying to Australia
First of all Itadakimasu
and then I'm gonna get my udon
and you slurp it, that is the right way
If You follow the road till it leads you back home
you'll find that the answer is yes