Tuesday 9 February 2016

Hello from the Other Side!
Mind the Gap!! I'm Busy Relocating from South Africa to England!!!



Hello Everyone!  After 7 years of blogging I am writing my first post from my mobile!! No idea how this will work!!!  I haven't posted in a few weeks so here's an update of what I'm up to. Very soon I will be boarding a plane to England, which is to be my new home.

I can't believe the time has finally come - it has been a long time in the making with a huuuuuuge amount of planning & administration.  Living in the UK without a British passport (or an EU passport) is no easy feat to accomplish. The amount of red tape involved is phenomenal. Certainly not the simple process it was in the past.

I will be there for several weeks with just my 2 younger children & we will be looking for a home, schools & of course a source of income.  We are hoping to settle in the South West.  Really, it was like playing 'Pin the tail on the Donkey' figuring out what area best suited our requirements!

For the past few weeks I have been making plans for the other side as well as sorting through our possessions, which will be arriving in a container in a couple of months.  Yet again I have been faced with the task of thinning out our possessions to fit into a smaller home, something I have done 3 times in the last 10 years. While it's an arduous task I am grateful for the opportunity to reassess our priorities & bless others with our excess. I feel lighter already!  

Currently I am aboard a coach from the Eastern Cape to Durban. I have spent the last few days settling my son into his very first apartment, close to the university he attends. It has been lovely to be together cleaning, purchasing & styling his place into a cosy home. I'm confident & happy that he will have all he needs for the next couple of years, to complete his education in South Africa. 

Of course we would love to have him with us in the UK but he is midway through his degree & if he studies in England it would be as an International Student at over 3 times the price of what we are paying :/. My husband & older daughter will be joining us in several weeks, once the transfer of our house is complete, as we need to take the proceeds :).  All in all an exciting time for all!

I have been travelling like a pop star for the las month.  We spent Christmas & New Year in Cape Town, fondly known here as 'The Mother Ciry' as it is all round awesome.  A week after returning we travelled into the Drakensberg Mountains here to say goodbye to some old friends then the day after returning we flew BACK to Cape Town for the funeral of my Step Mother-in-Law who passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

The day after we returned I hopped in the car with my son & embarked on a 2 day road trip! Now I am on my way home again :-D. I haven't switched my laptop on since December!!  Creatively speaking I still have a few projects to share but that will have to be from my laptop once in the UK, when I have a moment & have caught up on a fair bit of sleep!!!  I am not going to be creating whilst I am waiting for our container to arrive as my luggage allowance is going to be full of winter clothing for the nrxt couple of months.

I am so excited to experience Winter! I know all about air-conditioning but nothing about heating!!  I am thinking about starting a new blog to document my journey from Southern Hemisphere living to Northern & my experiences as an African abroad.  If I manage to do that I will add the link to that to my sidebar of course.  I have resigned from all my Design Teams except for Prima, who have been very understanding of my current situation as I am forced to take a Leave of Absence until my supplies arrive.

I have no idea what the future holds for me from an artistic perspective.  I would love to have the time & space to create but at this point I can't place it high on my list of must-haves.  Hopefully the next few months will be nothing more of a creative hiatus & perhaps I will find my groove again sooner than I imagine!  So for now I'll say Goodbye & talk to you on the flip-side!!