The other side

There wasn’t a single event, conversation or experience, but one day a few weeks ago I realised that our transition to life in Australia is done. We’re LIVING in Australia now.

We moved to Sydney 20 months ago and I finally feel we are enjoying life rather than running on the transition treadmill.

The transitional treadmill

Until recently our transition to life in Australia was hard work. The things we needed to do and questions we had in order to feel established and complete everyday tasks were ongoing. How do we do our tax returns? Where should we get our car serviced? Which are the best extra-curricular activities for the kids? These questions, and many more, have been answered.

We’re used to life in Australia

When we first arrived we had loads of practical questions and we felt overwhelmed by the things we felt we ought to find easy, but that weren’t the same in Aus. For example, the relaxed (no worries) attitude to life (and customer service) took some getting used to after years in the London rat race.

We’ve stopped comparing

Importantly I now feel we’ve stopped comparing our new life with how things are in the UK and London; we’ve accepted things as they are here. When I enter a new situation or need to organise something for the family I no longer think, “This isn’t how we did it in London”. I take situations on face value, as part of my life rather than part of the tide of change that was overwhelming me during the initial stages of our move.

The seconds

A significant component influencing my change in attitude is time, and the fact that we’re completing many tasks and activities for the second time. Our children have each had two birthdays in Australia. We’ve done our tax returns once and are in the midst of organising them again (groan), and our car inspection and registration is up again (double groan). The difference is that the things I am doing aren’t new and scary, I don’t have a million questions and concerns about the way things are done here…we’re just LIVING.

The visits

As well as becoming familiar with everyday tasks and activities here we’ve been fortunate to have received several visitors from the UK; my parents, our best mates and more recently my Grandmother. In an article published when we first launched Mum’s gone 2 Aus: Decisions and Distance, I discussed the pressure distance puts on families migrating to Australia from Europe. I didn’t know whether I’d be able to cope with being so far away from family and friends.

The visits we’ve had so far have shown me that we can cope and we will make it work. We’ve never spent three weeks with my Grandmother so her visit was a truly special time. My parents are visiting again in the New Year so we have that to look forward to and I think their second visit is going to be even better than the first, because we’re more settled.

Getting into the rhythm of visiting friends and family, and learning to enjoy long term house guests is something you need to get used to when moving overseas. We’ve had to work at keeping the kids in a routine whilst enjoying our house guests but it’s been worth it and now the children are getting used the drill, we can relax and enjoy the visits we have planned.

The two year transition

Something else we’ve written about at Mum’s gone 2 Aus is our sense of belonging and when \ whether we will ever feel like we belong in Australia. I explained that our moved to Sydney has added to, rather than replaced, where I’m from: Moving to Australia doesn’t change where you’re from.

Many people say that two years is the length of time it takes to transition to a new life abroad. This sounds like a sensible bench mark. We will soon be celebrating our two year anniversary in Australia and we already feel like the transition is done.

The only thing we haven’t done is return to the UK for a visit which sometimes scares me. Whilst I’m LIVING my life in Sydney I can easily forget the things I love about the UK. I know a return visit will be enjoyable but I’m scared it might fuel a longing for home that I’ve managed to quash over the last two years.

Whichever way we look at it we’re currently at a good stage of our relocation, we hope you are to.

If you are at the planning stage of your move to Australia we hope you enjoy the articles and information available at Mum’s gone 2 Aus, please send us any direct questions you have.

If you’re already in Australia, how are you feeling about your relocation? Are you still on the transition treadmill or have things started to cool down? We’d love to know. Thank you!

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