little bear

Where on earth did the last year go?? Two years ago today we stepped off the plane into our new life, has it been easy? -not really, would we live anywhere else outside of Aus? - don't reckon so.

I will try and sum up how things have gone for us (I would love to say it in a few words but I know me- I never do just a few words!)

When people say it takes 18mths to 2yrs to settle in and find your feet-that applied to us, we had the odd bout of homesickness, not a I want to go back homesickness but more of the 'its all new and strange, I want my comfort blanket' homesickness. I am aware that we are very lucky to have it as minimal as that as full on homesickness must be absolutely awful (my cousin is in NZ and on anti D's to try and deal with hers).

The turning point for me was getting over the aftermath of my mum & step pratts disasterous visit (it took a good 6 mths and to stop questioning our decisions by listening to our own experiences and thoughts as far as the area we live in and the schools our children are going to-my kids are very happy, learning well and well balanced going to such an allegedly awful school, and although it can get a bit hot walking the dogs around our chosen area wearing a bullet proof vest and a hard hat avoiding all the bogans and villans on the hole its very very pleasant and we have had absolutely no bad experiences whats over so far.

I have now been working in a local salon for just over a year and love it, have just increased my hours on my bosses request and very happy to do so-my advice is if you are in a job you really hate, don't stay, move on, I did it for 6 months in a salon I really hated and it did not help me at all. Hubby is working for himself (he is a brickie) and is very happy doing so, he is not earning millions but certainly enough to keep us going which is great, had we have still been in the UK he would've lost out on so much what with the weather and the economy we would've been really struggling I'm sure.

We are loving the Aussie way of life, the weather is fantastic and allows us to do the things we want to do (we are outdoor type people), we are very fortunate to own a lovely caravan and have been away in it a fair bit (with the two dogs too) and seen some really lovely parts of Aus, Hubby is very into his fishing and when we are all about we all go which can be very interesting (daughter managed to get the hook from her rod embedded in hubbys calf mucsle) and hubby spends most of his time removing fish from our lines as me & daughter don't like to touch them (and then I spend about 10 mins feeling sorry for the fish) so I think he probably prefers to go alone or with his mate the majority of the time!

So my summing up of emigration (how I see it anyway)-you rip up your roots from your old life but have no roots for your new life, so you sort of lurch from your old life to your new life and like a tree it happens slowly, the roots over time become firmer until all of a sudden you realise that your new life is actually quite solid, you can get in the car and drive to places without having to really think hard about it, you can walk around a shopping centre and its not just a sea of faces before you but actually there are people that recognise you and stop to chat or say hello or how ya goin as you pass-you start to feel like you belong here

So as they say-all is good here in Aussie land and apologies for banging on-but I did warn you

little bear x

moneypenny20

The paragraph about the roots was brilliant. I'm really pleased you've settled in and life is moving again after the upheaval that is migration.

mindblower

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Great progress littlebear- I remember your older postings.

Dave

daunted

excellent update and you describe it all so well. I understand the turmoil of your 'visitors' oh so well (thanks for your pm of support) seeing you have come out the other side is fab Well done xxx

squeezzii

nice to hear that your'e doing well down here we love it here too!

bluekipper

Great post, I hate the negative posts from ppl who give themselves only a few mths then say theyre coming bk to the UK and say OZ was terrible, hated it etc, when all along it was just about a sense of belonging!

Fair enough if you`ve given it a few yrs and it just didnt grow on you, theres not much you can do about it,, but I do think its all about letting go of your attatchments to the UK to let OZ become your home!

Bluekipper

daunted

i agree

Dorutland

What a great way of putting it. I am sure we will remember that for the grey days!!

gobbyjock

Great post - by the way I find wearing a suite of armour (alternatively tie various frying pans & saucepans around your body) really does wonders for your personal safety whilst living in the wild west that is South of the River -plus the amount of weight you lose walking round in it in summer really is a double bonus. One down side however is that when you fart the whole street hears it (kind of a trumpety, echoey effect going on there I guess, hmmm must remember to eat less beans).

TraceyandKev

Great post - we are moving to Perth from the UK on 4th April 09, all looking forward to it but not the goodbyes!! Can i ask if you have children? I have two girls age 11 and 13yrs they are really worried about starting a new school but i am sure they will be OK.

Can i also ask whereabouts in Perth have you settled?

squeezzii

they are in Warnbro -near Rockingham/Port Kennedy (it says on their profile)

little bear

thanks everyone for your comments

traceyandkev - yes we have 3 kids, 2 and a half teenagers to be exact, yours will be fine once they are here I'm sure, its more the thought of it all thats worse for them, and as squeezzii says, we are in Warnbro

clanwylie

Fantastic post...we have been here 3 years this July..we have become Ozzies and we love it here too....was tuff at first but I suppose we are the lucky ones...nice to know we have happy neighbours we are in Port Kennedy!