F/U actually stands for Fortunately/Unfortunately, despite what else it could actually stand for, if you’ve heard me talk about my experience in Aus!

Looking back at Australia 2’s F/U, I hadn’t even LANDED in Australia and it had already been a bit of a wild ride.

So here we go again… 20 March 2020.

• Fortunately, I landed in Sydney International Airport, Australia at 1pm on Friday 20 March 2020. The international borders would close eight hours later, at 9pm, and not open again for 21 months.
• Unfortunately, my girlfriend worked for a dive shop, which we will call Abysmal Scuba (👀), and they wouldn’t give her the day off, so she couldn’t come and meet me at the airport. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure she ever asked them.
• Fortunately, I was able to book a taxi very easily and take myself to her diving intern house in Kogarah Bay (pronounced Kog-ruh, not Koh-Gaah-Raah as Claire eventually found out). I remember sitting in the back of the taxi, looking out the window, seeing the sunshine and the palm trees along the pavement, thinking, “I’ve made it.”
• I’d dreamt of going to Australia since I was 10 years old. Ever since we “read” the picture book “Window” by Jeannie Baker in Year 5. I even made a yellow purse in textile class at school. Yellow, so it would blend in with the sandy desert I knew I was going to go to. I got there about 15 years later. Unfortunately, I didn’t imagine it would be under these circumstances (and I don’t know what happened to that purse, but I’ll never forget it. It’s how I knew I would go to Aus).

I feel like this next bit is a string of “Unfortunatelys”…

That glumness can wait for another day!

K.B.