Stepping out off the plane, Lionel claimed he could feel the water droplets in the air. Goodbye to dry, still air. Goodbye to bottles and bottles of lotions and mosturisers. Hello to baths three times a day. My hair feels like a Barbie doll's. Not the smooth silky out-of-the-box kind, but the matted and clumpy kind. I need to see a hairdresser soon. Snip snip! Yeah... I'm home.

Maybe I should add my own fair share of departure stories. Seeing that Friday was a full day of departures. I actually had nightmares on Thursday night that I wouldn't be able to finish packing on time as everything I owned was still in my room in boxes and bags and hadn't been transported to my Godma's house.

Woke up late on Friday morning and rushed to wash up and change in time to meet the Malaysian Imperial Alumni president, Dr. Foo. Quite an obvious generation gap between the bunch of us 20 year olds and the 50 something Dr. Foo. Still found out we were related by some chance. I swear my family's too interconnected to too many people.

After the meeting I practically ran back to Linstead to do my laundry and say goodbye to Jac, Jing Ye and Alex. I intended to leave for my Godma's house after my last laundry cycle but Lionel still hadn't done his laundry and was somewhere in college. Finally left for my Godma's house at 4pm to store my things. Made it back at 5.30pm... and the airport taxi was supposed to arrive at 6pm! And to add to the horrors, I hadn't packed my luggage yet!

I learnt that day that it is possible to pack both your check in bags and hand luggage in 15 minutes. In the rush I didn't really get to give room B12 the proper goodbye it deserved. (And I also left my vitamins in the fridge, but that doesn't make for a tearful departure story). B12 with it's lovely view of the gardens and it's pension for room mates moving in and out and the scent of many many summer dinners, I don't think I'm the only person who's going to miss it.

Yi Shan, our taxi scout had a bit of trouble finding the taxi. It was a good thing he didn't take the tube as orginally planned as Julian texted me reporting delays on the Picadilly line. Finally, at 6.10pm we managed to squash our gigantic pieces of luggage (ok, MY one big gigantic AND heavy bag) into the cab and we were off. Poor Lionel who had been my porter for the day was so tired he slept almost all the way to the airport, which was frustrating due to the massive jam!

At the check in counter, we cheated, as Yi Shan's friend (goodness, I still don't know her name!) was waiting for us at the front of the line. I had to unpack my 38 kg bag and transfer 4 wine bottles to Yi Shan's back pack as the new rules now state that each piece of luggage cannot be more than 32 kg. Andrew who was behind us was laughing at our many many bags and claiming that we had cut his queue. He's such an accomodating senior.

Finally we headed to the waiting area, because Yi Shan's friend just couldn't wait to shop, and we wanted to find Amar who had left earlier for his 'pre-departure rituals'. We found him sitting rather miserably on his own in screen saver mode. Apparently there hadn't been anything good on sale. Decided to make use of him and left him our bags to watch while Lionel and I walked around. Amar was quite right. There wasn't anything good to buy. So decided to board the plane.

And there we were, Lionel, me, Yi Shan and his friend, sitting in a row. Goodness knows where Amar was. He promised to visit us but he never did. Lionel and I watched Starsky and Hutch (or something like that). Quite funny. But we were so tired we pretty much slept most of the time. I didn't get my salted peanuts because of that! *pout* Yi Shan had 2 packets!

Arrived on schedule, but didn't find Amar on leaving the plane. Poor Lionel, broke his heart that Amar didn't even bother to say goodbye. ("You spend 9 months with that Mat and he didn't even stay to say goodbye!"). After finding Lionel's transit gate, I met up with Amar at baggage reclaim who argued that "Well, we'll be seeing Lionel next week, what!". Spent half an hour waiting for Yi Shan and friend to appear from the duty free shops. Still find it ironic that the first shop I see after stepping out of the aerotrain is Harrods!!! Bah! I didn't need to leave London to see that.

My brother and sister with Aunty Amy in tow were ready to eagerly greet me at the gates. However as we were loading my so very heavy bag into the car we noticed a flat tyre. So Lionel wasn't the only one hanging around KLIA for another hour! In fact by the time I finally left KLIA, Lionel was probably on the way to Singapore!

And so here I am at home. My brother has returned to Singapore. I still haven't seen my parents and won't be seeing them till this weekend. I'm officially a babysitter. I tried going out to buy some things while my sister was at school today, but the heel of my shoe broke just as I stepped out of my car (when I had just found a parking space after 3 rounds!!!). Guess I'm not meant to go jalan-jalan. Wanted to walk around the SS2 pasar malam, but couldn't find any kakis to go with me. Passed Damian's house but his car wasn't in. Where is everybody???

So what really is the excitement of being home? Feels like I'm just transiting between lives. Here's to 3 months of not knowing what to do.

Well not entirely. Lionel's coming up to KL this Saturday. I know what I'll be doing for the next week! *wink*