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Well the year trip was all over in 3 weeks after missing Gabbi too much to stay away any longer. Plus seeing sights by myself and travelling alone is just not my thing and never has been. It's what I thought I needed to do as there was no motivation to stay in Sydney and going to work everyday with no enthusiasm about life. I still want to see the sights I missed out on but I want to see them with Gabbi by my side so we can share the moment. We planned to meet in Italy in December, so we are still going to go but some time next year when it will be summer there and the sun won't be setting at 4pm. Flights home were terrible as usual and by the time I left Holly's school until I arrived in Gabbi's arms it had been 36 hours. Due to the terrorist threats I had to check in 3 hours before flight and also I had to change my ticket so plenty of time. Lucky to walk straight to KLM desk and check in with exit rows for the main two flights which where 21 hours in total. Flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam was delayed by nearly an hour so most passengers missed there connecting flights but I still had an hour spare. Amsterdam to KL was a good flight with me being so tired from two nights out in a row I got some sleep in for about half the 12 hour trip. Then I had a 6 hour layover in KL airport. I wandered around for an hour just checking it out and came upon a lounge that was $80RM ($35 AUS). For this I could have unlimited internet access, shower, food, carlsberg on tap, putting green, massage chair..... It was a small price to pay as in the end I had about 6 beers (which where $20RM at airport bar each) and ate plenty of food along with hours on net. Then a nice shower to refresh before last flight home. Sitting in an exit row makes so much difference and I think I will check in 3 hours early on every overseas flight from now on. Well worth it. Even more so that it was only 40% full so I had all 3 seats to myself. Not so great in the end as the arms of chairs couldn't be raised as they have tray tables in them so i had to move around to get comfortable. I ended up using all 3 seats at one time or another. Arriving in Sydney I couldn't wait to get through customs and be in Gabbi's arms. I waited at the baggage carousel and wasn't worried as my bag was usually the last to come out on most of our flights so I waited as patiently as possible. Then it got down to about 5 people and 30 minutes since the bags started to come out. I knew then that my bag hadn't made it..... Then another 30 minutes in line to put a claim in for delivery. As I thought, it didn't make the connecting flight in Amsterdam so would arrive the next day. I didn't care I just wanted to get out of there. I came out of customs and as soon as I saw her I ran down and picked her up in my arms. I was so happy to be home and holding onto her. It had been a hard three weeks away I felt so happy and knew I made the right decision to come home early.