Well we finally made it. I am writing this from seat K25, aboard Air Canada flight AC34 at 30,000 feet somewhere above the Pacific Ocean. The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic, stressful, busy, and quite out of control at times, but here we are. We never would have done it without my amazing wife who ensured that every t was crossed and every i was dotted. She has an incredible capacity to organise, arrange and work out logistics, and we truly never would have made it without her. You should see the house - it is so spotless! Everything was cleaned, polished, arranged and organised to make the Grace’s stay as pleasant as possible. I hope they enjoy our house. When we first organised the exchange, it became obvious that their house in Toronto was quite a bit bigger and perhaps grander than ours and it did, I think, bother Donna that the Graces might be a little… maybe not disappointed…. but feeling like they had to take a downgrade on their accommodation. Dave insisted that this wouldn’t be the case, since they were coming to Australia to see and experience Australia, not to be a real estate critic. Besides, I don’t think they will feel that away because it really is a lovely house, and what it lacks in extra bedrooms and bathrooms I think it more than makes up for with its pleasant feel and bushy outlook. So we locked it up on Sunday afternoon ready for their impending arrival. We also sent Jess (our dog) to her new home with the Conways, Tiger (our cat) to Cathy Petrie, delivered the BMW to Robin who will be looking after it for us, and arranged for Rob to take the Suzuki when he saw us off at the airport. We stayed at Mum’s for a few days, which was great, and I think she enjoyed having us there. Our last night was spent at the Mercure Hotel at Sydney Airport. To other exchanges, I would recommend doing it this way. The task of getting the Shuttle bus to the International terminal was pretty easy this morning, and I would not have liked to have tried to get us and all our bags to the airport from home. The Bailey-Hughes’ kindly offered to help us get to the hotel on Monday along with both mine and Donna’s mums. We had a celebratory champagne in the bar with them, and a quick walk together before saying our goodbyes for the last time for a while. Later that night the Steele’s came to see US as well, and we all went over the road to the Rowing Club for a lovely slap-up dinner. After a pretty ordinary sleep… maybe we were all just to wired to sleep… we were up at 5:15 am to get dressed and ready for the 6:30 shuttle bus. The number of bags was a challenge we had 2 big bags each (23kg limit) as well as carry-on bags, camera cases, backpacks, etc I so Just moving it around the terminal was interesting. We found a huge trolley and got to check in… no excess baggage! (yet further testimony to Donna’s ability to organise –she weighed every bag and shuffled stuff back and forth to ensure each bag didn’t exceed 23 kg!) Getting through Customs was really straightforward and even the security check was quite painless. A quick brekkie in the departure lounge and a bit of shopping for a couple of Canadian AC adapters and we were on our way to Gate 54 and the awaiting Boeing 767-300. The only check I had to endure was at the boarding gate to the aircraft, where they went through some of our hand luggage. The guy apologised for the inconvenience, but my reply was, “Look mate, if it keeps us safe, do whatever you want”. Next stop Honolulu, then Vancouver, then Toronto. Dave emailed to say they would be waiting at the terminal holding a sign saying Betcher. I’ve always wanted to be met at an airport by someone holding a sign with my name on it! See you in Canada, eh!