Alright, as some of you know, the trip back from Australia to Malaysia wasn't the most enjoyable thing in the world. As Cléa so eloquently sums it up, "it sounds like a flight from hell!".

In between Australia's strict customs laws which caused me to lose a couple of things I brought back on Mel's behalf and the kids which decided to surround the front half of the seats around me resulting in the lack of sleep which I wanted to catch up on the plane; there was also the fact that both planes from Wagga to Sydney and from Sydney to Malaysia were delayed enough that I was starting to wonder whether I was ever going to get home.

But get home I did, from the dry cool heat of Australia's summer breeze, into the tropical humidity I'm not accustomed to anymore. It wouldn't have been so bad if I were not sick at the same time, but I'm never that lucky. I now relate Malaysia to a 24 hour sauna, except that clothing is a mandatory affair. If only I could go out in only a towel, but I know it's still a war crime for me to show any more skin than usual.

Yet, despite me complaining about all this, not all is bad. I know I'm a great deal closer to Mel than I was when I was in Australia. I know that if I want to see her, I can just up and visit her when I want to and vice versa. I know that come Christmas, all this sauna weather will have paid off as I am relaxing in my hometown which just happens to be located on an island with beaches…with Mel. I know that despite all the work and crap that I have to put up with to be here, it is going to be worth every minute of it.

I can't not have fun.

And maybe after all that I've been through for the past year, that's the best thing that could happen to a dreary pessimist like me.