Everyone used to say to me ‘Well, at least you’ll have better weather back in Australia’.  And it’s true; we have had some beautiful winter days where the sun has shone constantly and the temperature sat at a lovely eighteen degrees, showing all the promise of the summer ahead.

I actually laughed at the weather report last night when they said it was going to be bitterly cold with a top temperature of six degrees, because I’ve worked winter days back in England where it never got above minus six.  So, everyone was right about that one.

I was slightly worried that my first sporting love, Aussie Rules Football, was something I’d grown out of, or possibly moved on from.  Turns out the problem really only was because it was on in the middle of the night back in the UK and that’s why I didn’t watch it for twenty odd years.  I can’t believe how easily I’ve slipped back into watching multiple games each weekend, even the poor teams whose players I don’t know, or particularly care about.  And how gutted I am that my own team, Collingwood, has been so rubbish since I’ve come back.  The week before I left Cumbria, they were top of the table and looking a good show for the finals, since I’ve moved home, they’ve lost all their games bar one, and look pure shite.

I was driving down to Bunnings (think B&Q for UK folk) on Saturday afternoon, listening to the footy on the radio, just thinking how bloody Aussie I’d become in just a few short weeks.

There are a few things I will miss from the UK and one is the relatively patient and courteous drivers.  In England they flash you out of side streets, or along single lanes and are generally pedestrian friendly.  Not so in Australia.  You don’t want to slow an Aussie driver. Not ever.  They never wait for pedestrians, if they aren’t forced to by law to do so, and if you show any indecision on the road as a driver, you can be sure that the person behind you will be waving their arms and berating the shit out of you for wasting a few precious seconds of their day.

The battle with red tape and bureaucracy continues at its preferred the snail’s pace and I’ll be glad to put most the three months of constant wranglings with idiotic local councils and government departments behind us where it belongs, as a frustrating inconvenience that pops up only from time to time.

It’s been great to catch up with family more frequently, and that was pretty much the basis for our move but until Kerry and I get settled and working we both feel like we are on a sort of holiday, except it’s not a holiday at all because it’s a new reality, and it all feels somewhat strange.  In England we both know where was the best spot to buy something was, or where you should go to get some other thing.  But neither of us really know much at the minute and we’re bumbling along learning as we go.  It’s like the confusion you have when you’re travelling, except we’re at home.

Admittedly, things felt a lot more normal when Chloe came out of quarantine and continued treating us with the cool indifference that been the hallmark of our three years together since her rescue.

Its finally time for us to get a car.  People looked at us strangely when we said we would walk somewhere or other, like it wasn’t the done thing.  It’s not that people don’t like walking, it’s just that the whole Australian way is set up for cars. Footpaths are sporadic and morph into dusty gravel carparks when you get to shopping precincts.  I knew while I dodged angry drivers who had every intention of running me down as I walked to the bank, that it was better to join them than let them kill me.

All in all, it’s great to be back.