Surprise!

After a busy week finalising work duties, getting through my ‘Emigration to-do list’ and seeing various friends and family members, I was looking forward to some chill-out quality time with my sister before I leave.  She’d told me that she wanted to take me out for a meal to a recently opened French restaurant in her neck of the woods, coincidentally called Sister (I should have cottoned on then) and stay over at her place for the night.

Little did I know that on arrival at her place, my close friends and sisters’ friends were huddled together in her living room like excited little koala bears waiting to explode on me with a firework of surprises!!! Aussie flags, Aussie signs, balloons, a blow-up kangaroo and Aussie snacks decorated her living room!

 Wow, what a surprise!  An Aussie inspired leaving party just for me – I felt so touched.

Thank you to all of the girls and especially my sister, who made the night a fun and memorable one. I will miss you all…. x

Countdown...

Two weeks and two days….

This is how long I have left until I bid farewell to my life and loved ones in London and join my boyfriend in Australia for a new chapter living Down Under!

Around three hundred and sixty five days is how long we’ve been considering/planning/organizing the big move. To those who don’t know me, some background info: I am a twenty-something British born Turkish-Cypriot girl-about-(London)-town kinda girl working in advertising for an international magazine publishing house and have been dating my Aussie boyfriend for five years shy of three months…

It was way back in November 2010 when feelings arose on my boyfriend's part about the prospect of moving back (and in my case, emigrating), to Australia. I cannot deny that I was particularly reluctant, apprehensive and fearful of the idea and it took many months of contemplation and conversations between us and with friends and family to come around to the idea and his way of thinking. After nine years in London, my boyfriend believed it was the right time for us to make the move and improve our lifestyle to a better one of less stress, slower pace and warmer climate and with the current economic climate here, the opportunity to further our careers in better paid jobs as well as to be closer to his native Australian family.

I am very excited about the big move but the nerves have also kicked in… A new life in a different country, in fact, on another continent, with a different culture and lifestyle and being 9,000 miles away from loved ones is a daunting prospect. For the first time in my adult life, I have no plans for the year ahead or even for the next month… Those who know me well know this is unheard of! From March 2012, my diary is empty. No knowledge of a work schedule, social arrangements or travel plans. It does however, feel quite liberating.

So with my partner visa finally in place, my boyfriend already there since December, our belongings on a ship somewhere between here and Oz, and having resigned from my media job, I am slowly but surely preparing myself for one of the biggest rides and adventures of my life…

I know that my life is about to change quite radically yet, I’m not sure how exactly. This blog is to share my new journey with friends and family and anyone who may be embarking on a similar journey to mine, or anyone who just wants to come along for the big, rollercoaster ride.