Moving on.

I have neglected this blog recently, too many things to do outside of the virtual world.  However with another move looming, I felt like I wanted to write a little about it.

Me (the littlest one) with my older sister
and brother in Grand Turk.

As a child we moved a lot around the world, we lived in Zambia (before I was born), Nigeria, Grand Turk, Thailand, Malawi, Barbados and Thailand again.  When I flew the nest, I originally was quite QUITE sure that I was never going to leave England ever again, except for the odd holiday here and there.  Things didn't work out quite like that - The Husband works in Oil and Gas and within a year of being married, we had headed off to our first posting in Milan.  We were excited to go, I disliked my job and leapt at the chance to give it up and become an expat.  The deal wasn't quite as I had expected, without the support of my Mother, I had to do so much for myself, so many things that I wasn't even aware of when we were growing up and moving around.  I did my best, I learned Italian and took up a job in an international school.  In time I became pregnant with the Eldest and returned to the UK to give birth (figuring that I wished to be able to scream for an epidural in my own language).  When The Eldest was 6 weeks old, I took her back to Milan and that was a hard time.  Isolated with a baby who had Aspergers (although we didn't know it at the time) and who spent her entire time screaming at me pushed me into post natal depression.

When she was about 6 months old, we were offered the opportunity to move to India, arriving there when she was 8 months old.  We left Milan after 2 years with a light heart, I was looking forward to a more "typical" expat posting, one with nannies, maids and swimming pools!  India was a fantastic experience, we saw as much of it as we could in between pregnancies.  I gave birth to The Boy whilst there.  However, after 3 years, we were ready to come home.  Although we were sad to leave some of our friends (and in particular our lovely Indian Nanny), it was the right time to leave.  Getting on the flight at 35 weeks pregnant felt like a release.

This time it feels different - I think that we have stayed here 6 months too long, we've put down extra roots.  We've had to rehome the animals which has been an almighty wrench.  I am upset to be leaving my support network of friends and family - lots and lots of lovely friends who I have made in the area and others spread out around the country.  A fair number of my lovely friends have "chosen" this moment to announce pregnancies (how very dare they!) and I am sad that I won't be able to cuddle their newborn babies and help them through the first, exhausting, few months of a new baby.  I find myself welling up when I think of moving away from here.  My usual bouncing confidence has taken blow and I become upset over silly things that would normally roll off my back.

Now I KNOW that moving to Australia for a few years is the most wonderful opportunity.  We're looking forward to seeing a new part of the world and starting a new adventure.  I'm looking forward to hitting the beach more often and possibly having a pool in the back garden.  I'm hoping that it'll be easier to teach the children how to ride their bikes and all sorts of other things (although I am less keen on meeting some of the Australia wildlife).

Somehow we have to take these 4 terrors on a 24 hour flight!

I'm pretty organised for the move now - the biggest things have been done; the house has been let; the car has been sold; the animals have been rehomed.  Now I'm just in the stage of packing preparation - cleaning things up for Aussie Quarantine; putting things in the right rooms for packing; finishing the shipping inventory.  This next week will be concentrated on getting the suitcases ready for the flight and the week after that, the packers will be in, packing us up and shipping us out.  Our flights have been booked for the 3rd June.  It's all happening pretty quickly, goodbyes are being said, final drinks being arranged.

But Facebook, blogs and emails make it so much easier to keep in touch with everyone - I hope to be updating this more regularly for anyone who wants to read how we're doing.  So although we're moving on in person, we'll still be here in the virtual world.