End of Chapter 1 - Goodbye England. Goodbye Daniel and Ellen... for now...

August 23rd and we went to Number 8, a restaurant in Sevenoaks, for Paul's birthday, which was the following day. 

It was actually very good and we had a lovely time.  Ellen had kindly made a blackberry upside down cake (given it was blackberry season) and we left the restaurant to go eat sugar, sing birthday wishes and blow out candles. 

The following day, Daniel and Ellen were selling ice-cream at an agricultural show in Oxted, so Paul and I went to London on the train.  Our last blast in the big smoke. 

After a delicious breakfast at Dishoom we walked around the city and Regents Park and eventually headed back to Sevenoaks for dinner with the crew.  I'd made borscht for the first time.  Earthy dish, that.  

Monday was a bank holiday (a public holiday to us Aussies) and the three of us headed to Oxted for the agricultural show. Ellen was working at the ice-cream van again so we spent the day with Daniel wandering around sheep and cows, goats and doggos, as you do. 

There we saw the Dancing Diggers, which were JCB drivers doing a routine with their big front loaders and various farm equipment.  What a hoot!

We said goodbye to Penny. She'd been a wonderful companion who took us places we would never have experienced otherwise. Thanks Penny.

An emotional evening with Daniel and Ellen brought our 3 years of international wanderings to a close and we all had an early night in preparation for a 5 o'clock start the next day in order to get to Gatwick airport by 6.30am.

We said a teary goodbye and started the 24 hour marathon sardine-class flight back to Oz. 

A brief stop in Doha, with hot chocolate at $15 a pop (which we declined) and the remaining 14 hours to Brisbane and we were back. Aliens in our own country. 

Paul's work colleague was kind enough to pick us up and take us to hers, a quick dinner and we crashed and burned. 

And so our next chapter begins.  I wonder what's next... No, really!  What's next? 

We hope you've enjoyed the blog. Thanks for tuning in to The Awesome Adventures of Max and Paul. I'm steadily going through the blog, attempting to add humour and forgotten incidents, and intend to publish Diary of an Antipodean Pet Sitter at some future point. 🤣🤣🤣

And last but certainly not least, thank you, dear Daniel, for generosity and supporting us and always having a welcoming smile every time we came to stay/visit. 

Together always...

Until next time, good people...