28th March 2012…….that date will be forever etched into my mind.
It was the date I got up in the wee small hours to head to Sydney airport with a one-way ticket in my pocket and my final 30kg of possessions crammed into my remaining bags.
It was also the date, thanks to the vagaries of time difference and a ‘direct’ Emirates flight, that I touched down at Gatwick, ready to start my new adventure ‘Back home’
Today it is March 28th – a date that will be forever etched into my mind.
The reason is that it was the date, in 2012, that I zipped up my suitcase and headed off to Sydney airport for a flight to the UK … only this time, clutching a one-way ticket and lugging all my remaining possessions with me.
It seems like it was only yesterday.
Perhaps lost in all the drama surrounding the impending arrival of the tempest that was St Jude’s storm, last weekend also marked that annual ritual of putting the clocks back.
Overnight, journeys home from work, previously undertaken in a sort of weak, dappled sunlight, were suddenly plunged into premature darkness with the prospect of this scenario continuing for another 5 months or so.
One of the good things about publishing a blog via WordPress is that they furnish you with lots of stats so you can see how many (or few) people are reading your pearls of wisdom.
Thanks to my ‘stats dashboard’, I know that over the last year and a bit, I’ve had over 7,600 visits and my ‘daily views’ have ranged from a rather disappointing zero to a rather pleasing 388.
It’s March 28th tomorrow. Just a regular date in the diary eh?
Sure, some may celebrate the birthdays of actor Vince Vaughan, ex-cricketer Nasser Hussain or all round loon Lady Gaga, not to mention Teachers Day in Czech Republic and Slovakia or Serf’s Emancipation Day in Tibet, but for most it is a pretty ordinary date.
This weekend it is Mothering Sunday in the UK.
This annual event, brought to you by those nice people at Hallmark and Interflora, is an opportunity to say a big thank you to our mothers for all they have done for us over the years. And quite right too.
As 2012 draws to a close, every media outlet seems to be putting a considerable amount of effort into producing their own definitive ‘review of the year’.
And by general consensus, 2012 has been one hell of a year.
During my 20 years in Australia, I lived in a grand total of 6 houses. All in Sydney and all within about a 3 mile radius of each other.
In fact, my ‘local’ supermarket never once altered during my entire time in Oz – creature of habit or what?
After all the euphoria of the Olympics, I felt it was perhaps time for a more sober (and non sport-focused) post…
For me, one important task that has required attention as a result of shifting countries with various dependents in tow is that of personal estate planning. As a result, over the last few weeks, I have been updating my Will and making sure that it complies with UK laws.
This is a necessary, but somewhat tedious process, but can also be rather an uncomfortable experience, stirring up issues around death and mortality.
Where were you on the afternoon of Monday March 26th 2012?
All sounds a bit like a police interrogation, but I dare say that most of you will confirm that you were actually doing something fairly normal.
The reason I ask is that at that precise moment, I was shutting down my laptop with a flourish at the end of my final presentation in Australia. A symbolic action that provided a suitable full stop to my lengthy Australian career and marked a temporary cessation of my working life.
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