D-DAY (PART 2)

So here it is. I've made it back to Australia. After my final two weeks in a little hire car, gradually shedding the last of my possessions at friends' places, saying a lot of goodbyes, and even taking my dog on a tube ride through the heart of London, I finally rocked up to Heathrow airport with 2 suitcases and a crated spaniel. I'll be spending most of the first month squatting in Melbourne and having my heart broken twice a week by visits to the quarantine centre. However, the hound has done remarkably well and is coping admirably (unlike yours truly). I really like Melbourne, though my old home town of Darwin is going to be my base for the next little while, I'm thinking it's likely I'll move down south within a year or two. Melbourne is high on the list of potential destinations...

D-DAY (PART ONE)

The day has come. Not only is this my first proper blog post in years but, after 8 years away from Australia, I'm returning home. I made the decision in December last year, as work had been stagnating for a good 18 months and I felt I had reached the top of a very short career ladder. I spent a lot of the latter half of last year applying for other jobs without much success. With rapidly rising fuel costs, life has steadily become more expensive in the UK over the last couple of years - and my salary hasn't budged in 3 years now -  and while once I had a little spare change at the end of every month to stash away in nest egg fashion, it is reaching the point where I'm having to budget for basic car journeys.

BEAUDELAIRE BY THE BEACH

I think I would be happy in that place I happen not to be, and the question of moving house is a subject of perpetual dialogue I have with my soul ~Baudelaire.
 
Which is another way of saying I've decided, for a multitude of reasons, that it's time for me to move on - back to Australia. I've given myself a generous block of time to get ready, and will be heading off for the antipodes by Spring.

CHEMIN

I popped over for a short trip to Paris recently to catch up with my mother (who regularly visits France to see her family). As opportunities to catch up with either of my parents are rare these days, I booked us a lovely room in my favourite part of Paris; Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter.

SPIRIT PLACES

One of the things I enjoy most about my village life in the UK are these woods. A small copse of remnant forest from the days when all of England was but a tangled woodland with a few clearings carved into the heart of it. Massive oaks, rare hornbeam trees and a glut of wild raspberries every summer, there was rarely a day that I don't make it down here with my hound. I'll be leaving soon and it's inevitable that a little piece of my heart will stay here in these woods. Of all the people and places I will visit during future holidays, this little speck of land will always command a return visit.

SUMMER IN BRIGHTON

Despite the fact that the tragically hip town of Brighton is an embarrassingly short drive from where I live (about 90 minutes by lovely country back roads), I have only just got around to visiting recently. Considering how utterly full it is of awesome street art, amazing op-shops, wonderfully and imaginatively dressed folks, ultra cool cafes and bars, and a good portion of ex-Londoners who are leaving the increasingly inaffordable artist enclaves of the nation's capital in droves, I'm really baffled as to why I haven't taken some time out to wander round this way before now. Anyway, it's skyrocketed up to first place in my favourite places to visit over the weekend, here's a few snaps from some recent wanders...