should old aquaintance be forgot

Another New Year's Eve, another anniversary which holds particular significance for us. In a way, the three years it's been since we left Australia have flown by, and at other times it seems as though we've been gone for decades.

They say that when you've been away from your hometown or country for a long time and you go back to visit or to live, nothing will have changed. Everyone will still be doing the things they were doing years ago and you will feel that you're the only one whose life is radically different. On the contrary, on our last visit we found our friends lives had changed significantly, they'd become engaged, married, had children, bought houses, changed jobs ... all of those major milestones in life, and there's the terrifying thought that we'll be forgotten in all of that.

And now, a move that will bear even more significance to the changing face of Australia, a new government has been elected in, and the British media has taught us little about our Prime Minister except his name and that he is fluent in Cantonese .... or Mandarin ...., (or are they the same thing?!).

There are of course things we could do to keep in touch. We could listen to the various Melbourne radio stations online, keeping up with the Australian music scene and popular culture (and believe me they vary significantly), but then there's the strange and slightly off putting feeling of hearing the morning news when you're heading to bed or the forecast of clear sunny skies and a hot day when outside it is dark, bleak and cold. We can read our friends and families blogs, where we treasure each snippet of seemingly boring information or irrelevant photo, and there's always the phone, texts or emails.

So, ahead of us lies another year in which Australia and the lives of our friends and families will go on without us. The price we pay for adventure. We're excited about our year ahead and have made a great many ambitious plans we hope will come to pass, not the least of which we plan to finally travel to Africa, a return visit for Woz and a daunting first time for me. Time will tell.

Here's to another year of 'making it count'.