The last of our international and interstate visitors has departed. We did many wondrous and exciting things with them, from listening to melodious saxophone (

‘s partner is a saxophone genius) to my first visit to Healesville sanctuary (in the pouring rain; got sick) to my first trip further down the Great Ocean Rd than Lorne (with

and

, saw the Twelve Apostles, saw wallabies, saw more koalas in the wild than I’ve ever seen before, discovered an awesome campground for future holiday stays with Harper). We also had late night films and hot chocolates in old favourite cafes (Pelligrini’s and the Potter, with Matt), ate amazing Aussie foods (wallaby and crocodile and emu at Tjanabi, and pavlova at Green Refectory with

and

) and went to the art deco exhibition at the NGV (with

).

It’s been about eight weeks all together. Somehow, the three international visitors who all had a month in Australia managed to leave and enter town in such a way that they neveractually overlapped (Matt went to Port Douglas for a week or so, Christina and Niels went to New Zealand and Sydney for a week or so, and Sylvan and Gregory went to Brisbane and Maleny for a week). If I recall correctly, Matt left town literally the day Christina came back and Christina left town a week later literally the day before Sylvan and Gregory came back. It was quite surreally coordinated.

I’m looking forward to having some time to myse… No, wait, we have a weekend away at

‘s this weekend and *then* maybe I can get on with the nesting and throwing things away that has to happen soon!