It’s All Go!

It’s all happening; life ticks over for a while and all of a sudden – whoosh!  I mentioned in a post Embracing Change back in November that half the family will be moving to Brisbane, well that time has come.  The Chef (Actually, I’m not going to call him that any longer.  He doesn’t cook for a living anymore, I’ll call my husband Chief) moved up at the beginning of December to embark on his new role.  Our house was duly put up for sale and promptly sold within seven days.  Fortunately the settlement period was just under three months and gave us time to plan and sort; which furniture will go in storage? Which items will be left for our children? Which belongings can’t we live without and need straight away?  Last week saw us move out of our home of the last nine years.  It was the longest I’ve ever lived in one home and it held lots of great memories.  It was our first major commitment to our new life in Australia and we loved it.

A couple of weeks before Christmas our daughter moved into a rental property along with half the contents of our kitchen cupboards, her boyfriend and some furniture and items we aren’t able to transport to Queensland.  I am living with her for my last three weeks before I too head to Brisbane on the 1^st of February.  All of a sudden roles have been switched and I find myself a guest in my nineteen year old daughter’s home and all of a sudden I’m wondering if she wants rid of me.  Am I under her feet?   I know I fuss and stress and that I need to work on a new laid back approach to life; surely she can put up with me for just three more weeks!   A very good friend once told me that having house guest is a bit like having fish in your refrigerator, they go off after three days!

Over the last year I have been following the blogs of several trailing spouses and their adventures; some in far flung corners of the globe such as Secrets of a Trailing Spouse and others in not so exotic locations.  I have admired them for following their husbands, wives or partners, all for the sake of employment or maybe not.  Perhaps relocating every couple of years is their idea of living life to the max but to me it would be unsettling.  After just over ten years in Adelaide I finally have history with my friends and we can reminisce of times together in our early years.  It must be very hard not having continuation in relationships when you live as expats – I really don’t know how you do it and I take my hat off to you as I find myself having to start friendships all over again. It would be so easy to crawl into a hole and wallow in loneliness for the rest of my life; being sociable and making friends takes masses of effort – minding your P’s and Q’s, remembering names, remembering their children’s names, remembering what they do for a living, to name just a few of the skills required when making friends.  It’s exhausting isn’t it?  Well, it could be seen like that by some but fortunately not by me – I will go my hardest to make new friends.  Being blessed with friendship no matter how long you have known someone for is one of life’s gifts and I will always cherish that.  This trailing spouse is going to make the most of this exciting new chapter.

So a move to a beautiful city just a two and a half hour flight from the other half of my family isn’t so bad after all is it?