#leavingaus

As some of you may have been following my world famous blog over the past 18 months, you will be aware that I and my boyfriend Andy have been travelling and working in Australia and other very mundane and ugly parts of the world. So, now I can’t write about travelling, I thought I would write one last blog about what happens after travelling… And what happens when you then move home? I’m not talking about ‘the UK’ I’m talking about Home Home Home. As in moving back in with your parents at 28 home. Oh and we spent all of our money and don’t have jobs, so this will be our home for a while. And my boyfriend is moving in too. SURPRISE, MUM AND DAD!

 Luckily I have two very nice parents who seem to be quite happy to have us (so far…) but two weeks in and 25 job applications shot out into the abyss we call ‘the internet’, I’m starting to become a little bit frustrated and remember that we are once again living in a country that has an iffy economy. And it is hard. Other travellers said this would happen.

 ‘Why would you EVER leave Australia?!’ a lot of people demanded, squinting at us when we said we were turning down Andy’s sponsorship offer and going home. Because we missed our families. And our friends. And the BBC.

 ‘You’ll regret it,’ some warned. ‘Once you leave you can NEVER come back. It’s almost impossible you know.’ I don’t know what they know about Australia that we don’t know, but I’m guessing there’s some sort of black-hole-cum-bermuda-triangle-esq situation that will stop us from going back for a holiday, but we somehow managed to visit three weeks later. No worries mate.

 We don’t regret leaving Australia, and we feel like we have well and truly gotten travelling out of our systems. What is more, we’ve been looking at England as though it is a new country and with that, a new adventure – ‘Ooh! Wow! A Squirrel!!!’ I actually said on our first day back, whilst a red double decker bus whizzed past and I gaped at it with an open mouth.

 When I used to live in London, I was always struck by how big it was. Driving to Euston a few weeks ago, I was amazed by how many cars could fit onto such small streets. Big Ben and Westminster seemed very petite and all of the buildings looked so old and quaint. Apparently this is a thing called ‘Reverse Culture Shock’ – we were warned about this too.

 So with all of these warnings about going home, is coming home after our exciting travels really as anticlimactic and unexciting as people said? My answer is, no. And here is why:

 We were a bit fed up of living out of a bag for 18 months and not really having any possessions. We are also both very ready, and have been for a while, for a new challenge and to find a lifestyle with consistency.

 There’s also an element of relief in being home. It’s really nice being able to stride through long grass without worrying about dying at the fangs of a snake. It’s nice being able to stroll home without walking into a 5x5ft 3D spider web, in the dark, and weeping into your hands because you can’t see if the poisonous arachnid is still on you. We do have interesting animals and birds here (yes, like squirrels) and subject to the rumours flying around Sydney, Britain does have a sun. It is a bit shier here than in Australia, but I personally quite like it’s lack of aggression.

 And finally, there are the relationships we have with our friends and family here that are quite simply irreplaceable. To be able to sit at a table with people who have known you for a minimum of 10, 15 or even 28 years and to still enjoy each others’ company, is a pretty special thing. And don’t get me wrong, I was worried that over this period of time that we might have changed or they might have changed and that when we saw each other, we would embrace and then sit there awkwardly for an hour because we had nothing in common anymore. But that didn’t happen either.

 And as our lives have been very focussed on travelling, we didn’t want our conversational skills to be only focussed on this, ie. Friend: ‘I have a problem. I’m sad.’ Andy and I: ‘Oh, yes we absolutely understand your problem. We felt the same way when we went to the Killing Fields and saw …’ etc. etc. This would not be appropriate conversational response.