Wow! It’s been 12 months to the day since we boarded the plane at Melbourne airport bound for the UK and our next big (massive) adventure. After 17 wonderful years in Australia, I was going home!

A far cry from the 25 year old, bright eyed, very blonde, very naive, young girl that landed in Sydney all those years ago, I boarded the plane on 23rd October 2017 with tears stinging my eyes. I was trying so desperately to hold it together and be strong for Patrick, who too was walking away from everything he’d ever known.

We landed in the UK in Autumn, which really is a beautiful time of year. The sun shines a little more than usual (if you’re lucky), the evenings are starting to draw in but it’s not dark at 4pm like in the middle of Winter, and the morning frost and gorgeous autumnal colours make Britain a very pretty place to be in October.

As pretty as it was and so lovely to hug family after another long twelve months apart, the bump back down to earth reality came in the form of no house, no car and no job! I couldn’t get a bank account until I had an address (chicken and egg) and I had to give up my Aussie drivers licence if I wanted a British one. And to top it all off, our ‘stuff’ was on board a ship somewhere, expected in two months. The only thing we did have (apart from our family and friends and each other) was a place at a school for Patrick and he was starting in a weeks time! Very much eek!

I could have quite easily curled up into a ball at that point, too scared to face the mammoth task of starting a new life in the UK, or just as easily jumped back on a plane and gone back to the life I…we, knew.

But I didn’t, we didn’t..and here we are 365 days later and what a year it’s been! It’s possibly not turned out quite as my brain had either planned or originally wanted it to, but here we are…and you know what, we’re happy and we’re doing ok!

We had an amazing Winter filled with more snow than I think I’ve ever seen. We made snowmen and snow angels and sledged down very big hills. Our Summer was the hottest since 1976 (happy for that to be repeated next year) and we definitely made the most of the sun. We’ve been abroad, more than once, enjoyed the European sun, beaches and short flights. We’ve explored parts of the UK that neither of us have been before and made many new and wonderful memories. We even went camping (well maybe glamping – I did take my mirror with me!)

We’ve both made some amazing new friends, spent wonderful times with old friends and family and we’ve both cried on more than one occasion for the ones we miss everyday back in Oz. We’ve been very lucky to have had SOOO many visitors in our short time here and can’t wait for many more to come and stay so we can show off the British sights (Goele, you’ll need to come again as seeing the inside of Accident and Emergency, teaching my classes for me and sitting in a park nursing my broken toe wasn’t really the adventure I had planned for your visit!)

I think Patrick has found his thing. He has lots of ‘things’ to be honest, but he lives, eats, sleeps and breathes football, and while my knowledge of what a good little footballer looks like is limited, I reckon he might just do alright at it if he keeps going the way he is.

He is happy and that makes me happy. He’s as sensitive as he’s always been, as loving and caring as you can get, more in tune with my emotions than I ever give him credit for and he’s the one person who can brighten my world even on the darkest days. He’s my little hero and I’m so proud of him. I know it’s tough for him too and we acknowledge that in our own way and he will have the best Christmas with his Daddy in just a few short weeks, a trip we are both looking forward to very much.

I tried to apply for jobs, I actually applied for two! But when I saw that I could only have 4 weeks annual leave and thought I might have to wear a uniform (and lanyard, heaven forbid) and then actually turn up on time, I quickly made the decision that working for myself seemed like the best option (for everyone).

I toyed with lots of business ideas, from business consultant to personal trainer but gymnastics got the better of me (again), this time with business partner on board. And Ambitions Gymnastics was borne. That was back in June and we now have over 250 members, a team of 7 coaches and a permanent venue on the horizon with lots of amazing plans for the future. I’m not sure I really envisaged the amount of equipment lifting as we do but hey, it saves on the gym membership!!

Missing Flyaway and my Australian gymnastics family has probably been the hardest part for me in the last year. I know I am so very lucky to still be a part of it, to still be their ‘leader’ but as I sit and watch their adventures, successes and triumphs through the wonderful world of social media (always with immense pride) I can’t help but feel like it’s slipping away from me just a little. I hope not because it is still very much a part of me and who I am. Ok, time to stop on this subject before the tears come again.

I have sooo many exciting things on the horizon to keep me even busier than I already am. I’m hopefully going to be involved in a new project working with school students developing ‘life skills’; I’ve just signed up to do a child psychology diploma and mum really inspired me today to pursue (in some way, just not sure how) my long term goal/dream of being an inspirational speaker/life coach, so I’m going to try and get the ball rolling on that one.

Above all though, I hope to continue to be a good role model and mum to my boy. I will continue to trust my journey and try to enjoy all the lessons that life chooses to pass my way. It really is a roller coaster!

So after all things considered…life in the UK is good. We are busy, we are happy and we are enjoying our adventure so far! We can’t wait to see what the next 12 months brings 💕