The longest 9th birthday in the history of birthdays began around 8am with an excited Louis opening some presents!
There was time for a little more packing and a quick play with Gryff the dog before we headed into South Yarra, near the MCG, for birthday brunch at a cafe called "Hard Pressed":
Brunch was a treat organised by Granny and Popps and we were joined for the yummy celebrations by Auntie Anna, Uncle Jack, Auntie Norma and Uncle David. Here are the children with their grandparents, waiting for their grub:
The coffee and hot chocolate was particularly good and here's a picture of Josh's flat white - we were very impressed by the milky artwork!
And here is Granny with her sister Anna and her sister-in-law Norma:
Here is a picture of Louis with his birthday cake/muffin!!
And another snap of Granny and Popps looking very lovely:
We will miss all our Oz-family and friends so much...
After brunch we went back to Anna and Jack's house for a few hours - there was just enough time for a last minute swim and a final lounge by the pool. With much reluctance, we exchanged our shorts and tee-shirts for jumpers and track pants and prepared for our epic journey home. Louis wore this special tee-shirt to the airport in hope of a birthday treat of a different kind:
We said some very sad goodbyes to our hosts and set off for the airport. No luck with the upgrade but lots of smiles and congratulations for Louis!
The first leg of our trip was an eight hour flight to Singapore. Even though it was the evening and everyone should have been tired, there was much excitement and great movies to watch so not much sleep was had! Halfway through the flight, one of the attendants called us all into business class at the front of the plane, where he said there was a surprise waiting for us. We were greeted by the pilot and several members of his crew who presented Louis with a cake, a card signed by them all, and a big present! Louis was so excited he was speechless! When we returned to our seats, the crewbrought Josh and Nush champagne and more cake for us to share!
Immediately after we touched down in Singapore we were all ushered to the front of the plane and into the flight deck to meet both pilots and have a quick look around. It was awesome!! Best birthday ever!
Even though we landed in Singapore at 1215 on 2nd Jan, it was still only the afternoon of the1st back in the UK so we decided to carry on celebrating! Our next flight left at 1am so there was little time for anything other than a drink before we were in the air again, this time for a 15 hour night flight to London.
A little sleep was had by some of us, others watched 6 movies back to back! We landed at 630am in London with very mixed feelings. It was great to be home , knowing we would shortly be reunited with Poppy our cat and also with Grandma and Grandpa, but we already missed Australia, a special place with incredible memories for us. We know we'll return someday soon but until then:
Thank you to Anna, Jack, Ben, Kate, Norma, David, Kira, Sarah, Ra, Andrew, Hugo, Sylvie, Dan, Jules, Ant, Mim, Emma, Damien, Tom ,Lise, Cahn, Eliana, Jacob, Sylvie, Alice, Dave, Jack, Fay, Reesey, Bailey, Gryff, Oska and everyone else who made our trip so incredible, we love you all xxx
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