17 january

My closing entry. I am cheating and writing this from Australia. I would have prefered to write it my last day but with the packing up and everything it was a bit much. At least this way I get the full "closure" experience. Meaning even the flight back can be part of the experience and, when I think about it, it nearly wasn't. An experience, I mean.

My last 2 days were spent in more shopping and mostly, family visits and outings. I went to eat at my godfather's, with almost everything on the table out of his garden, including the meat. "Parrain" is a very active retired man. One of the most active one I know. He has chicken coops (they are much larger than my other uncle's) and he loves his gardening. It does not matter to him that the back garden be aesthetically pleasing provided it is well stocked, and well stocked it is! He has some bits at the furthest back not planted in yet because he is waiting for the rain. When he means not planted in, I suppose he does not count the herbs and choko vines I spotted in there. But he has another block of roughly 2000 square meters where he plants stuff he has no room for at home, zucchini and pumpkin.... And when I asked him, as he lives with his wife alone, knowling he gives a fair bit of it away to neighbours and people he knows (such as us), what he did with all his produce, his answer simply was "why, it's for the hens!"
So here you go, again, a person who will not let their hens roam free (please note in Reunion edible animals rarely roam free for long) but will slave for hours on land outside his plot in order to give proper food to the chicken.  Go figure. I sure can't. Anyway I spent a lot of time  at my godfather's when I was little and I really liked seeing him. I always do.

 I had an all right flight on the way back. I realise I have been extremely lucky with the plane views on this trip. I never asked for the window seat and ALWAYS got it, in every single plane.  I also had the best views I ever had flying. We arrived in Reunion  from the other side of the island at sunset when the highest mountain was bathing in clouds ; we arrived in Sydney at dawn when the ground changes colour every minute and ended up circling around a bit before landing; upon leaving we had a good view of the harbour. We descended  through a sea of  high altitude clouds in Melbourne.
So it does not really matter that the plane was old, the movies crap, the food not really good, the seats tight and, in retrospective, it does not really matter that they almost did not let me fly in it.
I was put in the comical situation of being told, despite having 2 passports on me, one of them Australian, that they might not let me in in Australia.  My passport number was not coming up somewhere or something. So I had to wait until someone managed to get in touch with Australia (this was on a sunday at checking in). Of course in Australia, I went through the machines at customs and did not even talk to a custom officer.......
Never mind....

I noticed the welcoming Oprah placards were still on the highway of Sydney.

Anyway it's been a lovely trip, much needed at some levels, and I'm glad I went, and took a few succinct notes along the way. I'll have to remember that some things get harder each time, even if it remains home. The heat, the getting used to the use of space, the bugs....  and there were things that I just didn't transfer well. If I had access to that many litchis here as I did home I would not eat that many. Because it's not like eating it at home. When I am in Reunion I crave samosas, especially at the start. Yet I do not appreciate  tham here as I do there. Same for dim sims. It's not just that it tastes different I guess, It's that it's out of context.  Of course it's not like that for all the food but it must ne like that  for other things that I'm not consciously aware of.

Anyway, a few photos of those hikes, with no captions, to close off this blog.