A short trip home

It feels like forever since I’ve been on this thing. Lots to catch up on so I’ll be short and sweet about it (I hope). As you know I made the decision to go home for two weeks, see friends and family and all things Aussie. It was wonderful, I had such a great time and did nothing that I intended to (except for the catching up part). Before I went I made a huge list of things to do, intending to act like a tourist, go and see all my favourite places in Sydney, catch up with friends, swim and sun bake every day and eat at all the food places I’ve missed. Yet I basically did the total opposite.

I flew home with China Southern and it took me 36 hours, which included a stop over in China for 14 hours. Lucky I didn’t book a hotel for the night and intended on hanging around the airport because they surprised me with a room in a 5-star hotel as I landed. It was heaven and made my long journey just a tad better. By the time I had landed in Sydney all I wanted to do was get home (and have a shower!) but an electrical storm meant that we were delayed with our landing and then again in collecting our bags, my poor mum almost gave up waiting for me. As I walked out of arrivals to see her of course she gave a massive scream and embarrassed me as best as she could but it was even better seeing my brothers there and it was then I realised how much I actually missed them.

It was late so I stayed at Mum’s and caught up with everyone, sharing stories and giving them their gifts and horrifying Mum with how much stuff I’ve brought home for storage but I finally managed to get to sleep and some how missed the jetlag Hooray!

The next morning I went around to see my dog and by surprise my boyfriend had also taken the day off. I was thrilled and didn’t know which one to kiss first. All my plans for that day had gone out the window and were spent with them. If you thought seeing my family was tough this was even worse. I knew I missed these two both not nearly as much as I realised once I saw them. It was like it wasn’t real and at that point I was sad that I only had 2 weeks here. This would be tough, so I’d have to make the most of it.

The weather really didn’t go in my favor whilst I was there so instead of sunbaking and playing tourist every day I spent it sleeping in, catching up on Aussie TV, walking the dog and every meal was spent catching up with friends.

Even though we have Facebook, Skype and instagram there is nothing like seeing your friends face to face. I’ve known about all their milestones like getting engaged, married and having kids but nothing beats sitting down and having never ending conversations with them. I really miss that big time!

I also managed to go to the beach twice. The first time with Becky and only for a few hours but somehow got so incredibly burnt (I really am turning pommy I guess) that I could hardly walk for two days and it hurt to even get from my front door to the car and the second just near the end of the trip when the sun decided to come back out so my desired tanned and bronzed skin wasn’t quite achieved…silly me!

However, I’m ok with what I did and instead of treating it like a holiday I now look at it as a privilege and opportunity to see my friends and family again. I went straight back to doing pretty much exactly what I normally do and I loved it. The first day or so I tried to convince myself that nothing had changed and it would be easy to go back to London but by the end of the first week I knew that wasn’t true. I realised that it wasn’t only my friends and family that I missed but it was the Australian lifestyle. We are so lucky to have the lifestyle we have in such a beautiful place. I’ve always been about colour and London I realised, can’t give me that with it’s grey skies and buildings and dull days, Australia, even in Winter can do it for me.

Week Two saw most of the same structure but with a few more arranged catch-ups with friends and a visit to my old school where I’ve also made some wonderful friends. Even just walking around the school put a smile on my face. It made me proud to be Australian and proud to be a teacher. As I walked past the classes they were calm and I could see some quality-learning happening. The classrooms were bright with beautiful art and work displays and every teacher had a smile on their faces. Don’t get me wrong, London has that too but the weather just makes everyone miserable I think and it just so happened that it was a nice day in Aus so this was the contrast that I was provided with. It just so happened too that I had came to Australia at the right time and after some discussions it was clear that my return to home would be much sooner than expected.

My mind was made up, my days in London were limited. I had decided that I would go back to London, finish the school term, travel a bit of Europe, doing the countries I have yet to explore and return home, ready for Term 3 in Sydney and it just so happened that there was a job opening available to me. Everything fell into place within the last week and I was excited about it all.

Knowing I would return within a few months made it much easier to say farewell to everyone however once at the airport I begun to plan out my last weeks in London and how I would tell my family over there because it was now that I begun to imagine my weeks without them once I returned to Sydney again. It gave me new light for London and I hopped on that plane with the eyes of it being a mini holiday and a better attitude to treat London as an adventure. Yet that all stopped when I got off the plane to snow, cold and misery. I began to wonder why I even came back. To stop these horrible thoughts take over once again I made a bucket list for London, in the hope that it makes my last few weeks more exciting.

London Bucket list

·      Stonehenge and Bath day trip

·      London Dungeons

·      Museum of London

·      International Rain Room

·      The Lion King

·      See a ballet

·      Take in the view from Ally Pally (requires a sunny day!)

·      Night out in China town

·      Cookes pie in Hoxton (recommended place)

·      Thorpe Park

I’ve been here for 5 weeks and done none of this (way to go Holly!) so with my last 3 weeks I guess I better make a move on and I guess by thinking that if I put it on here it may force me to actually do some, if not all of these. Wish me luck!

 P.S There is an extreme lack of photos as i completely neglected my camera on this trip so whatever was taken on the iphone is all that i can provide..and its really not much as we can clearly see i mostly take photos of the dog whoops! Enjoy..

London Living

My goodness time goes quickly! This week will mark one month since my whirlwind European adventures came to a halt and just how much has happened in the month is crazy! To begin- I LOVE London and everything about it. I guess because I have family and partly grew up here I can say it really is a second home for me.

My frist week back was filled with catching up with family, sight seeing with friends, going to a job interview and many goodbyes from those fellow travellers whom made their ways back to London in order to fly home. Danielle and Nat were here for a week and saying goodbye to them was rather hard. When you travel with people for so long you really do become a family and even though I was looking forward to being grounded, having routine and some long-awaited alone time you still do miss having them around all the time and suddenly you start to feel lost for a few days whilst you adjust.

So now the 'holiday' is over it is time to start turning that decrease in my bank account around to an increase! In order to do that I need a job. Toma and I were on the ball and sadly got straight into resume writing in our final weeks. Within days we had job interviews set up. Being a teacher I had no problem as they are always in demand for Aussies over here and there is plenty of work. Toma, on her life-altering adventure went with a recruitment agency called Reed and they helped her set up plenty of job interviews within the travel industury. Wanting a change from the typical travel consultant role it took a few interviews to find something suitable (and with the right pay-some job prices are ridiculous) for her. So whilst I pretty much went straight into work, Toma managed to still sneak in some relaxation time and plenty of lazy sleep ins.

I went with Vibe Teaching Agency, a predominately Australian-based agency and was guaranteed supply work (Mon-Fri) until Christmas when we will then review what is on offer for me. Many people have asked me what this is like and are intrigued about the schools in London. Firstly- they aren't as bad as everyone thinks (although I have seen some rather odd things) and secondly it is quite different in many ways yet still seems to be easy to manage as a supply/casual. Yes i do go to a variety of schools (5 so far) however there are two schools that I go to regularly. I choose to do supply as this means I don't have to take work home and can enjoy weekends yet there are some days when I crave the consistency of my own classroom. This agency is great and aims to be consistent in where they send you, allowing you to build professional relationships with the staff and students. The curriculum is relatively the same- much more structured than NSW and it is just the history and geography which is different- mind you I've hardly taught any of that yet.

The kids are a little more 'wild' but nothing too draining and each classroom has a teaching assistant which have all been absolutely wonderful and extremely helpful when you have no clue about the school's procedures or daily structures. As a beginning teacher this seems to be rather good for me. The structure means that everybody knows what we are doing, it is clearly set out and once you've got the idea it is easy to follow. However the only downfall is that from what I have seen, Australia has a bit more flexibility and creativity in their lessons/planning and school structures. Yet as always there are going to be pro's and con's in a job/environment change.


It seems that a lot of people struggle when trying to 'live' in London and its a wonder how many two-year visas get wasted when it comes to the crunch. As we travelled through Europe we saw plenty of people who gave London the brush in the hopes that they will return back to Australia, save up and come back for the 2013 European Summer, believing that they can earn just as much, if not more back home. That is true-I believe that if i went home and saved I would return with more money next Summer but I also know that if I return home now I might not come back next Summer and instead choose a different destination. Plus for me, its not so much about saving and living but more so about enjoying the time I have with my family over here. Toma and I were lucky enough to return to London with more money than expected so this has been put away for a 'rainy day holiday decision'. For now we love London, are excited for Christmas and NYE (as cold as it will be) because having a 'proper Christmas' means a stronger Christmas spirit and mostly...a change of scenery for us.

We are both adjusting to 'life out of home' as we each receive our weekly paychecks (finally off Aus dollar and onto the pound-no more conversions) and manage our money between bills, a new wardrobe to acclimatise to the weather and going out for 'catch-up' or 'farewell' drinks. One thing for sure is that it is safe to say that London NEVER stops drinking- we couldn't wait to have a break from this and it is always in our faces! I've joined the gym (hoping to lose what Europe latched on to me) and am finally back in the kitchen making healthy dinners full of all the foods we missed-mainly veggies!!

Each week we get asked when we are coming home about four times from various people and each answer is always different (almost like a therapy session). We definitely have our days where we miss home and begin to contemplate possible return dates but for now it is safe to say that there is no return date as of yet and we 100% are here until at least January, battling through the brute of Winter but enjoying a different Christmas experience. My cousins 18th birthday on Christmas Eve, a big family occasion on Christmas (and I'm sure lots of skyping/vibering) and a relaxing Boxing Day. New Years Eve is still in the decision-making process.

We have the hopes of booking a holiday soon and jet-setting somewhere for a quick 'break' from the London life so stay tuned!

London Tea Party

Now just before we explained how well the British can throw a party. My Mum recently came over to see the family too and it just so happened that it correlated with her 51st birthday. She has a twin brother that lives over here and seeming as though they didn't quite get to spend their 50th together we decided to put that little extra effort into it. We had a lovely garden party in my Aunty and Uncle's house and just to throw in the good Aussie tradition they brought a BBQ for 'us Australian's' to take control of. As we all got excited for a rather large family reunion (more like getting ready for the ' the last time I saw you Holly you were this big') we were constantly checking the weather to ensure that we wouldn't all be ducking for cover the whole afternoon but for some reason, luck was on our side and it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful 'summery' day.

Australian BBQ's: Buy some meat such as steaks, sausages and kebabs, bread, condiments, alcohol, everyone comes over, catches up, has a laugh, gets drunk then it turns into fights or D & M's. Everyone loves them and they are an Australian tradition that I so dearly miss!

London 'BBQ': They decorate the place (again maybe the craziness of jubilee?) with British buntings, british cutlery, British cups and plates, British everything, buy lots of picky food (pork pies..yum!!) but don't think of your chips and dips like we do, no it is more like cold meats. Then lots of oven food, warm food. The alcohol is plentiful and we were introduced to Pimm's, the most delicious punch! They even hire a jazz band. We were amazed and all my Aunty could say was 'don't you guys do that?' Nope. We put on whoever's ipod wins the bet. Then comes the puddings, the most delicious puddings!!!


It was truly a spectacular day and I loved catching up with all my British family and friends. The boys handled the BBQ well, even teaching our cousins 'the art' of a perfect steak or sausage and everyone had a laugh and dance. It even hit the spot for my love of Aussie BBQ's.