Performance, Packing and Parties for the Perretts

G'day All,

This is Tom here, sitting in as your special Guest Blogger for this, our final blog from Australia! We are literally hours away from closing the front door of our lovely Sunshine Coast home here for the last time.  This afternoon we board our flight to Sydney where we will spend a short night before jetting off again early Sunday morning for Bangkok. Starting in Thailand, we expect that our one-month Asian adventure will serve as a nice buffer between our year in OZ and the return to our "other" good life back home in Arcata.

Our eyes are a bit misty as we ponder all the good times, good friends, and fond memories we will soon leave behind.  Leaving this home is so much different from leaving Arcata one year ago- we knew we were coming "back" there in one year (and we do look forward to seeing all our friends there again in one month!).... but now we are saying goodby, well, perhaps forever?......Snif!.....

I don't think any of us anticipated making so many close friends here in such a short time.

Our first six months was a time of getting our new home in order, getting the kids get into gear for their new school, exploring the area and finding our way around. The last six months found us settled into established routines, attending regular events and sheparding the kids off to their friend's homes and their various extracurricular activities. Plus: weekly poker games (for Tom and the boyz), and weekly Mah Jong games (for Steph and the gals), and Friday night potluck dinner with Gary and Julie and friends.

But all of that is about to end.  Our final few weeks here have found us in the performance, packing, and partying mode....

Performance:  Final dance performance and musical shows for Melissa's end of season events.  Grand final singing events for Stephanie's choir group.

Packing: Because it takes a month to clean and pack a house that's been fully lived in for a year!

Parties:  Because we've had many farewell gatherings- Yoga group goodbye potlucks, final blowout poker games, small dinner parties and final lunch dates with friends.

Last week Steph and I hosted a final going-back-to-America party for ourselves here at our Yaroomba manse.... we were expecting maybe

6-8 of our friends would show up, but we were greeted by over two dozen well wishers to see us off.  Hugs, tears, presents and laughs all around...

But the Big Party Bash of the year was hosted by none other than Eli, who was determined to top his 15th birthday party he had here last August, with The Going Away Party to Be Remembered.

Preparations began days in advance, as meticulous "invitation only" guest lists were drawn up, revised, rewritten, and carefully scrutinized. 

Bouncers were recruited ("Dad", plus "Dad's biggest friend", were hired to man the front entrance, to ensure no "party crashers" busted though Security...).

Premises were readied: decks swept, rooms cleared, bedrooms locked and barricaded, liquor hidden.  Strobe lights were strung and a disco ball that survived the 70's was hung in the center of the garage- cleared and scrubbed to serve as a dance floor.

And exacting sound checks were made on the IPod stereo system by two seasoned sound technicians.  It went something like this:

"DAD!!! IT'S NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!!"

"WHAT?????!!!"

"DAD!!! I SAID IT'S NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!!!".....

"WHAT??????!!!!"

The big party began at 7:30PM.  After completing my bouncing duties at the front door, I retreated upstairs where Stephanie and I proceeded to bite our lips as we tried to ignore the loud sounds of the downstaris mayhem: banging doors, breaking glasses, semi-violent screaming, and huge splashing noises coming from our pool (the next day it was revealed that the party-ers were jumping into the pool from the 2nd floor balcony).  After what seemed like hours, I checked my watch to see if it was almost midnight- the previously agreed-upon end of party time.  Dismayed to learn that it was only 8:15PM, Stephanie and I continued our negotiations with each other relating to whose turn it was for another periodic foray into the downstairs abyss for a new welfare check.  I won't tell you exactly what we saw, but, well,  it wasn't pretty....I will tell you that Stephanie got kissed by one of Eli's 15-year old pals on one of her inspections (come to think of it, that trip took her a bit longer than usual, hmm...).  But I won't tell you more.  Stephanie has a video, but don't ask to see it.  You REALLY don't want to know, do you?!....

So what will we miss about Australia?  For me, it will be the sound of the exotic Aussie birds waking me up in the a.m., riding my bike to the gym though the forest on Wednesdays, walks on the beach with Steph in the late afternoon, having SOOO much more quality time with my wonderful family, low, low stress levels, and of course, poker games with my mates almost every week!

All in all, it has been a tremendous year that has far surpassed all my own wildest expectations.  We are all so very grateful to have had the ability to take this "year off" from our busy lives and I'm sure that the benefits of this experience will unfold in presently unknown was for years to come in the lives of our children.

Steph says: look for her next blog posts coming soon from Asia!

Bye for now!

Tom