One year on

This evening is the first anniversary of our arrival here, so we had a small celebration with a Chinese takeaway and bottle of 'bubbly'. The last 6 months in particular have gone past very quickly and we can still look back quite clearly to the uncertainty (and exhaustion!) of when we arrived, not knowing what was going to happen over the next few weeks and months, such as where we were going to be living or which schools the girls would be going to, as well as if we would all be happy living here!

Overall though, the experience so far has been very smooth and it's a relatively easy society to settle into, with the same language and mostly positive attitudes, although as mentioned before, we're finding it quite difficult to make social friends with the Australians and so the relationships we've built so far have been with other Brits and a few South Africans. The girls have had no problems at their school however and have all established a good circle of friends and are feeling very settled, as well as enjoying the better school environment here.

We all seem to have established a daily routine now, particularly over the recent winter months, and during the school terms. The business is getting busier, although it's a slower process than in the UK, but the signs are reasonably positive at this stage.

We also realise that we have a big country out there to explore, as we've hardly been outside the Sydney (and Northern Beaches) area in the past year, but hopefully there will be a chance to do more in the next year or so. However, we're also all looking forward to the trip back to the UK over Christmas to see everyone again and to appreciate what's familiar or what may have changed since we left.

So we start our second year tomorrow with some more certainty about what life here will be like and it will also really be this next year that will determine whether the business will develop enough to enable us to apply for a permanent visa.