Wendy's questionable public musings: Fiona goes on exchange!!

In the absence of Fiona writing about her exchange, except via Facebook, and the various requests that have been made from people who do not have Facebook, I thought maybe I would try and capture second-hand, some of her experiences.

Following my fretting and worrying about our "little girl" travelling half way across the world, and much to the amusement of my friends, I compiled Fiona a thick file of information, containing anything and everything I could think of that she may need to try and make her trip a little less stressful. I even downloaded samples of the entry and exit cards that she would have to fill in into Australia, out of Australia, into New Zealand, out of New Zealand, back into Australia and then one for when she leaves Australia to come home. I then filled them in with all the information that I could - in the hopes that there would be no additional panics. Silly, I know, but she is such a special young lady who means so much to me that I just could not bear the thought of her missing out on a chance to enjoy things because she got stressed out.

The comment on Facebook from Fiona with regards the following pics she posted: "So now ... whilst waiting to board my plane ... I am pondering on how amazing it feels to fulfill a dream that I, as a 7 year old girl, aspired towards. I shall miss everyone but I will come back a refreshed human being. Thank you Dad and Wendy for allowing me to fulfill my dreams ♡♡ I'll miss you xx"

The following are the pics we took at the OR Tambo Airport:

Daddy says Farewell!

And so we learnt to take a "selfie"

A decent pic of me and Fiona - note the file!!!

The little rat - pulling her face - without either Keith or me realising it!

And ,,. she is off, trusty file in hand! :-)

When booking her tickets, we deliberately routed her through Perth, because my very special friend Silke lives there, and so if there were hassles, I knew that Fiona could at least contact someone who knew me.

What happened in the booking however, was that she had a longish layover in Perth, and so after much enquiring and checking, we finally were able to say that she was going to have time to finally meet Silke - someone who she has heard a good deal about, but never met - and in a funny way for Silks and me, it gave us a bit of a chance to feel as though we were finally meeting up with one another again!!!

Silke and Liam met her at the airport and in four hours did a whistle stop tour of Perth.

Liam and Fiona meet for the first time

Liam with the first of many signs Fiona specially requested to ensure she was meeting the right people when she arrived at airports.

We were able to enjoy a brief Viber chat with Silke and Fiona, and that was wonderful. However, Silke informed Keith and me, quite categorically that there was a condition attached to this whole thing - and that was that we had to promise that Fiona would be able to come over for longer, as there was no way that Silks could be expected to give Fi a tour of Perth in just four hours. Much hilarity from our side when I asked if that meant that Keith and I were not welcome then? Naturally Silks said that of course we could join them as well.

Liam and Fiona having fun with "selfies"

The second one has the following comment by Silke - " This is my favourite pic of all love it!"

Silks also posted the most beautiful message from Liam: "Fiona, as we were leaving the airport yesterday, Liam says that he felt that you had brought us joy! What a lovely compliment! Xx"