Home Sweet Home

We've now returned from our time in the UK and it's quite amazing how quickly five weeks can go. We had a fantastic time and it was so great to catch up with everyone we got to see; there's never enough time, I guess, but it did feel that there was real quality time with many family and friends. Nearly everywhere we went it felt like we'd only been away a couple of months which was quite bizarre (the greatest change was seeing the children of friends because they give the biggest reality check that we've been away two years - Sam Hewson was only the age Matthew is now when we left and now he's a proper boy!) but great because it felt we could carry on where we left off.
Matthew was adored and seemed to take the travelling in his stride; it did take a few days to adjust to the differences in time, temperature (minus 9 in Rangiora when we left to the heatwave of the UK!), food, bed etc but enjoyed all the attention and cuddles. He was very spoiled with gifts of clothes & toys too (so many that we had to post them back!). And he's changed so much - he's now smiling and chatting away and generally interacts much more with what's going on around him. The highlight was of course watching Matthew with his grandparents, aunts & uncles and cousin (our neice who we met for the first time too and who was dedicated while we were there) - very precious times.
Other highlights (not nearly as significant or memorable) included shopping at Tesco (Finest triple chocolate cookies), driving on motorways (you just get to drive faster than in NZ), listening to quality radio, eating great indian food, Neil finding trousers he liked and going to the National Gallery on our trip to London (actually, just being in London) and the hills & moors in Derbyshire .
Going back to the UK felt like going 'home' but coming back to Christchurch did too - especially returning to mountains and a home with a roaring log burner (stoked by Andrew) and homemade soup for lunch (from Christine).