Well I Guess This Must Be The Start.....

I've kept a diary now for 13 years - since my first day at Uni. Writing a diary has been a real pain the in arse but it is like an addiction. I have to do it everyday, whatever state I am in. It doesn't take long, maybe 5 minutes, and most days it is full of the same old drivel.

But I am hoping this blog will be different. It's about time I set up one of these anyway.

You see, I am about to leave the UK with Helen, and move to Australia!!. We met there in 2000 when we were both backpackers and after coming back to the UK, and spending 5 years in Bristol, we have decided it is time to go back. I applied for residency in 2004..and got it !! (I used this company to help get me my visa. They were great!!) We leave for Australia in February.......but we are going through South America en route.

Leaving our friends and family behind is going to be rough. But it is something we both feel we have to do. We don't want the "What if?" question hanging over us. Is that selfish? I don't know, but as hard as it is to go, it definitely feels like the right thing to do.

So we leave in just over three weeks time. We have both handed our resignation in and it definitely felt a little strange, leaving the comfort zone, especially as I don't have a job to go to (neither does H), let alone have anywhere to live. But it still doesn't feel very real. Maybe because we are so busy at the moment getting things sorted and seeing as many people as possible. I guess it will hit us at the airport after we have cleared passport control. And said "See you later" to our parents.

We are flying to Brazil to start with (for the Rio Carnival!!) before heading south to Uruguay, Argentina and finally Chile where we fly from to Sydney, arriving in May. It promises to be an exciting road trip, and hopefully I'll be able to document a lot of it on here. And when we get to Australia I'll update the blog with details of our new life Down Under.

Enjoy!!