The final few weeks of 2012 are upon us. So much has happened this year it is difficult to remember it all clearly! For Jess and I the year began in London and while Jess is back home in Sydney there is a possibility I may end 2012 in London as well. We've had the Olympics, the Golden Jubilee, floods, the Ryder Cup, a brilliant season of Formula 1 and more recently the news of a new addition to the Royal Family and an almost immediate prank from an Australian Radio show and extremely saddening circumstances following that.
Christmas Day 2006, Mount
Donna Buang, Victoria
AUSTRALIA!
People will say this year has gone quickly. No it hasn't. It was a leap year, 366 days! It may feel like it has gone quickly but I've said before that time can seem to have GONE quickly, it never seems to GO quickly. Jess had a great way of making the time pass when she was here. She'd want something to look forward to in order to break down the time until she went home. I would have to say it worked very nicely for her and it's probably the biggest reason that Jess and I did many of things we did while she was here. The Irish holiday was an amazing week and accounted for my first real blog entry, and when I look back at photographs and diary entries and things like that it just reminds me that despite all the anguish and pain I've suffered in the last 4 years, I really have been extremely lucky as well. There are some people I know who very very rarely make it out of Bovey Tracey, let alone out of Devon or out of the country. If I look at it like that I can't help but feel fortunate.
It doesn't seem too long ago that Jess was still here in England. It doesn't seem too long ago that I was over in Australia. Relatively speaking, it wasn't that long ago and now the focus is on upcoming events and wondering what 2013 will bring. Firstly, Christmas is just 16 days away. New Year is 23 days away. It's 88 days until Matt and I go to see The Darkness again, in London. And now it's "only" 124 days until the first possible day my visa could come through. Doesn't seem too long ago I blogged with 153 to go.
The realisation is slowly starting to creep in that I will be leaving this beautiful home of mine in England and I will never live here again. I know I've recently done a 2 week trip to Australia, but once I'm there it's not exactly going to be easy to just pop over here again and see people unless I come into an absurd amount of money! 124 days isn't long enough to save up for and do all the things I'd love to do before I go. I've mentioned a pilgrimage to Germany to see where I used to live, I'd love to see Spurs play a few more times, I'd love to see Formula 1 in my home country when I grew up so close to Silverstone. A lot of this will not happen, and so it's the more important things that I need to appreciate while I can. My niece is growing up so fast and is becoming more and more attached to me as she grows up. Naturally I have thought the world of her ever since she was born so leaving my family behind is going to be vastly upsetting.
Ultimately I will have to sacrifice a lot in order to have the life I desire in Australia. The example I look to is my Father. He left his home in Cheshire in order to join the RAF when he was just 16, and while his siblings all still live in Cheshire my Dad has lived all around the UK and overseas in Germany too. He left and got his independance and his own family life miles away from his family and made his home elsewhere. I am doing the same, just a fair bit further away from my family. Dad was 16 when he moved out, I will be 27. A slight difference but perhaps having twice left home for 7 months at a time to the other side of the world I am a little more prepared for how life may be. As much as I am wishing the time away until that day I know that once my last Christmas in Devon is over I'll be wishing that it didn't have to end so soon.
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