Sometimes in life you just have to stop, sit back and enjoy a nice cup of tea.
Actually, that´s usually about eight times a day for me during normal life.
But the chance to spend a few days with my Auntie Margaret drinking copious quantities of English breakfast, enjoying the benefits of regular hot showers, delicious meals and a comfortable bed was particularly welcome.
Generous portions, supplemented by scones, biscuits and apple pie, have done little for my waistline, mind you, which seems a shame after a diet of rice and noodles had left my shorts feeling decidedly roomy.
We had grown to really like green tea served without milk but the taste of home came at just the right time after what was a pretty relentless march through southeast Asia.
In truth, we spent most of our last days there sitting down.
From Luang Prabang, we spent two days aboard a slow boat to the Thai border.
These boats have taken on legendary status among backpackers - perhaps others who, like us, needed to slacken the pace of life.
The scenery changed little but looking up at the steep, tree-covered mountains on either side never got boring - particularly as I spent most of the trip with my head buried in books.
The journey was pretty uneventful, punctuated only by locals showing the agility of mountain goats to hop on and off at unlikely rural stops and one man boarding while apparently carrying an assault rifle.
Puttering to our overnight stop by moonlight, we marvelled at how well the skipper must have known the river, as he sent smaller speedboats darting out of our way by blaring a horn seemingly borrowed from a double-decker.
Likewise, the seats had been removed from a bus to line each side of the boat. Unfortunately, they had not been bolted down, so it was pretty common to end up on the lap of the passenger behind whenever you got up to spend a penny.
The seating arrangements were the only disappointment for me, in that I had envisaged people lounging around the boat on the floor, soaking up the sun at an open section.
The owners had evidently installed the bus seats as a way of advertising "soft seating" rather than the wooden benches that had numbed the rears of backpackers for years but for me it just took away from the experience.
Typically, the border had closed a few minutes before we arrived and so we had to stay one last night in Laos before heading to Bangkok to catch our flight.
The 14-hour bus journey did not begin until 3pm the next day, leaving us little room for delays.
However, we needn´t have worried. Thai buses seem like limousines compared to those in the rest of the region.
The One With The Common Sense felt like she had died and gone to heaven in the almost-fully reclinable seats, as we were served snacks and drinks by a lovely hostess whose command of English amounted to saying the most polite "hey yoooouuu" we´ve ever heard.
Of course, had this really been a heavenly coach trip, we´d have pulled up at the Pearly Gates service station where I´d have been hauled off and sent south down the fiery highway.
As it was, we instead arrived at the usual anonymous eaterie catering for busloads of overnight travellers.
We were very excited on account of the ticket price including a meal which we had been told was soup.
However, we suspect the language barrier tripped us because instead of one last bowl of noodle soup we ended up eating a bit of salty egg, some stodgy rice, a few bits pickled cabbage and a serving of something which I thought was meat but to this day am clueless as to its identity. Pickled mushrooms, maybe?
Whatever, you know it´s bad when the locals don´t clean their plates.
That disappointment failed to dampen our spirits, however, particularly as we were woken near Bangkok with a cup of the delicious sweet coffee that´s served in the region.
It´s made with what we once saw listed as "sweetie milk" - condensed to you or I - and I could certainly get the taste for it.
The long journey allowed plenty of time for reflection and I was surprised to find myself getting, if not homesick as such, a little nostalgic for the UK.
I suppose it was the result of covering such large distances in a few weeks but it made the prospect of a few days with family in Sydney all the more comforting.
It was great to spend time with my aunt and cousin, sitting down and chatting about familiar things, being extremely well-fed, and visitng Palm Beach (Summer Bay to soap fans), the Opera House and Bondi.
Our quick stop in Oz also gave us the chance to catch up with our old housemates from London, and their baby boy, at beautiful Avoca Beach and to get blind drunk with one of The One With The Common Sense´s old pals.
Staying at my auntie´s wasn´t without its pitfalls, however.
Waking one night in the dark, I bolted upright and declared to The One With The Common Sense that there was a strange man in the room.
I wasn´t altogether reassured when she pointed out that the bearded freak in my sights was simply my reflection in the mirrored wardrobe doors.
Sydney has a special place in my heart, thanks to four fantastic months I spent working there a few years ago.
This time around I loved pounding the streets around where I used to work.
However, I was left with the strange sensation that I didn´t really want to be there as a tourist. It was living there that had made it so great and I wanted to feel that way again.
Many sights brought memories flooding back but often my recollection of places would be slightly askew... it didn´t help that one of my favourite bars had disappeared completely.
One thing I could not get over was how the weakened Sterling had made Australia horrendously expensive for anyone earning the pound - so, thanks for that Gordon (remember him).
It was with mixed emotions that I boarded the flight to Chile.
On the one hand I wished I was earning the dollar and staying longer to soak up Syndey anew - and I was kicking myself for not making it back to my favourite pie shop behind Coogee Beach.
Conversely, it once again felt good to be heading to pastures new, unencumbered by emotional baggage - and in any case that pie shop has probably been turned into another coffee bar.
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