Arrival and first impressions

G´day!

At first I would like to apologise for the radio silence the last days but I have an excuse or at least an explanation. I have spend so much time in front of the computer with organizing, researching and applying for new jobs that I just couldn´t be bothered to write the blog. Sorry...
A special welcome to my congregation, Hello Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord (maybe) and Andrew, I hope you are well and have a good time.

The second leg of my trip back home (Abu Dhabi - Frankfurt) was not baby infested but it was a smaller plane and I didn´t have as much space as in the plane before. Ah, and of course the customs in Abu Dhabi wanted to know what I transported in the jars in my pockets. "Yeah, I know t looks like weed but it´s a native Australian spice mixture...". I seemed to be convincing as they did believe me. No customs officer did even smell at it. So a little tip if anyone wants to become a drug trafficker: get yourself a jar of native Australian spices, use the spices and re-fill the jar with weed...Good luck! Let me know how it went and don´t sue me if you find yourself in a jail somewhere...

When the plane descended over Frankfurt I saw a color I haven’t seen in quite some time: Green trees, green grass and green vegetables everywhere, real green not this grey-brownish color of Victorian plants. For a moment I thought "mmm, green" but then I saw the other famous German green: my first encounter with the local authorities and German police´s color is not blue like in most countries but green and there they were. Even though I was waiting in the queue for EU-residents the check-in was in snail pace and that was not even for customs! The immigration guys had apparently all the time in the world and seemed even disappointed when they didn´t find anything wrong. Finally I was officially inside Germany and could proceed to the baggage claim.

Here all the advantages of my butt-ugly suitcase became apparent, other travelers had to check if the standard blue/black suitcase is theirs by looking at the labels but I could identify my butt-ugly suitcase instantly!

So finally I could change out of my heavy clothing into something "normal" and got ready for the final customs confrontation regarding my spice mix but Lo! and behold, the German customs didn´t fucking care. Then I met my parents for the first time in two and a half years. Both looked quite like they did when I left. They haven’t aged much and I can only hope that I have inherited those genes. My father is over 70 but still has all his hair so I have hope not to be bald too soon...

Then we tried to find where they have parked the car and that was a little challenge but eventually we succeeded and we drove home. On the German Autobahn at approx 160km/h…and I thought of all my Australian friends who would love to do that…hey, come and visit me while I´m here and wego driving…

That´s enough for today, take care and cya soon