Wow! Time certainly flies when…you’ve moved hemispheres and are trying to set up a life for you and your seven year old son.

That’s the definition of fun isn’t it? I’m not sure it’s all been fun and games but it’s definitely been an interesting eight weeks.

Two months ago, I traded the sunny skies of Australia for the not so sunny, in fact rather grey skies of the UK, returning to the place my heart calls home. The difference being between this trip and the 19 others I’ve done in the 17 years that I’ve lived life as a token Aussie, is that this time I don’t have a return ticket.

And here I was thinking we’d land, take it easy for a while and cruise on in to British life. Who was I kidding? If cruising on in includes securing a place for us to live within 48 hours of landing, getting Patrick started and settled into school within 7 days, furnishing said house with beds and enough flat pack furniture to make me want to stay put for at least two years through pure fear of having to dismantle it all and completing what was possibly the most challenging of all tasks – getting a UK drivers licence. I should also mention that I’ve bought a car, unpacked what seems like an entire ship, rather than a part-container worth of ‘stuff’ that finally arrived from Australia, taken a weekend trip back to Oz for a wedding (yes you read correctly, weekend trip), written my most successful blog to date and sent over a hundred Christmas cards. I’ve also Skyped into meetings in Australia in my pyjamas at 2am, made some new friends, caught up with some old ones, loved spending time with my family again and to top it all off, I’m going to look at a venue in the new year for a UK based gym that I hope to set up with a friend. And I was worried I might be bored! Yeah right?!

While upon reflection it might seem that I’ve not really had time to think about the enormity of the move that we’ve just made or just how different life on the other side of the world really is (and it very much is), there have been a few moments among all of the craziness where our new life has really hit home!

A really good example of this is that I’ve never appreciated how little time actually exists between the hours of 9am and 3.20pm. By the time you’ve got home after school drop off, washed the breakfast dishes, put a load of washing on, been to the supermarket to buy food for dinner, gone to the gym to do your best impression of a hamster running on a wheel, determined to regain even a shred of fitness; tidied up, hung a couple more pictures, and spent a good half hour on the phone trying to convince some authority or other that you are actually a British Citizen and not a foreigner from the other side of the rainbow…and, suddenly I’m running late for pick up – again!

So I’ve come to the conclusion that, and while thankfully my son would argue very sweetly otherwise, I’m actually not very good at this newly appointed single mother role that I appear to have found myself in. Eek!

And while we’re talking about my limitations (as a mother of one – I must add here, a very sincere ‘hats off’ to those mums and dads out there, married or not, who have multiple children – you’re either crazy or superhuman, or both!) my culinary skills leave sooo much to be desired. Let’s just say that when pizza and dough balls end up looking like they belong in the coal scuttle after long forgetting they were in the oven, only to be reminded by your very hungry son, and then having to resort to fish and chips for the third night in a row, it’s hard not to hang your head in shame. Top that off with your own child feeling the need to give you praise for a job well done when you’ve managed to successfully heat up an Aldi Shepard’s pie and boil some peas and broccoli, citing ‘you’ve done really well tonight mummy’, I’m seriously considering hiring a nanny! Unfortunately, given that being a mum has somehow become my full time occupation, I can’t actually justify hiring a nanny, but it’s a nice thought nonetheless.

So with the new year looming and my life having changed considerably from the crazy gymnastics life I was living some mere 9 weeks ago, I consider what my goals for the year ahead may be. Unfortunately I think my full time mum role might be short lived as a career path although I’m happy to keep doing it as a bit of a hobby on the side. All comedy aside, I’d like to feel fit again, preferable fit enough to climb the 36 steps to my bedroom without keeling over every time I reach the top, oh and I have to run a half marathon in July. Given my friend is travelling 12,000 miles to run it with me, I probably should put in some effort with my training.

I also need to prepare a business case for the new gym, just to make sure I know what I’m doing! I have three more books to write in the Sarah Katie range and if being his mum wasn’t enough, Patrick has requested a seven book, boys series, so I’d best get cracking on that too. At some point, I’d love to explore further the idea of small business coaching and maybe house flipping but I’m hesitant to set my sights too high or spread myself too thin as I reckon there might be some other exciting things coming my way. I am however going to leave whatever they are up to the universe to plan for and organised on my behalf, because quite frankly, I just don’t have the time.

With all this being said, I think we’re doing ok. We’re happy and smiling and while it’s a very different life we’re living, its certainly not a ‘bad’ different and most importantly we’re making the most of everything. So here’s to embracing 2018 with the same excitement as a two year old running through muddy puddles, because let’s face it, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it with passion, or not at all.

There really is no place like home ❤️