One Year Down

Wow! I had the best of intentions with this blog, capturing our first year here. But life got in the way and I just kept thinking what's the point? Then somehow or another I came across it again tonight and realised how long it had been! And there were two comments!! Someone had commented on one of my posts! Scary. That means someone was reading them! Who would have thought??

Well, where to from here? Couldn't possibly capture the whole in one post, so a brief summary of our first year here will suffice. This is how I look at it- we are one year into the settling in process. I think this process is at least 2-3 years. 2-3 years to really feel connected and part of a community. We have made lots of acquaintances and dare I say it, we are making some friends. There seems to be a lot of people who have also moved here in the past few years, so we are all in the same boat. Another observation- smaller towns have a great sense of community. People are genuinely keen to get to know you.

Have I regretted the move? Not for a second. Do I miss my Adelaide friends? Absolutely. Have been back to Adelaide twice but have managed to rendezvous with J on at least two other occasions. Thank goodness for skype and my $1000/ month phone plan!! Do I miss the shopping? Oh boy I miss the shopping. Nothing but lower end chain stores here, but really it has only illustrated how much I shopped before and how much I didn't need to!! Actually, it was a good thing I did before as it was stocking up for life here!

We have bought a house which has helped this feel like home. This is the first hose we have owned where we can actually do what we want as we know we are staying. We can do things for ourselves. So we have renovated the lounge room, transforming it from an exposed brick room with blue ceilings to something that belongs in the 21st century. Have spent what feels like a lot of energy and money in the garden trying to screen us from the gazillion neighbours that can currently look in on us. And yet, we will still have to wait a few years to achieve the desired results.

The kids, well the kids settle the easiest. All three have settled into school, sport etc without so much as a blink of an eyelid or a hiccup. Okay, so maybe B's could have been a little better, but settling into a new school at 15 is more about establishing friendships than academia. Next year though, he wont have that excuse.

That'll do for now. Maybe I'll have other reflections on other aspects later! Especially about waking up in our own home on Christmas day for the first time in 17 years!