Who, what, where and when.

Hello. I suppose this is an appropriate beginning for my first post. You would think that after reading so many other wonderful blogs I would come up with a more interesting and original post, but alas after taking months to decide as to whether I should start a blog I am now at a bit of a loss as to what to write!


I am an Australian living in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. My family moved here in July 2007. My husband applied for a job in Guernsey in January of that year. We heard nothing in relation to the job for several months and so we assumed, that as the job was advertised worldwide, they were not going to contact the unsuccessful applicants. Well, he received 'the' phone call in March, we were on the plane on a whirlwind five day visit/job interview in April, we sold our house in Australia in June and set foot on Guernsey soil in the first week of July.


My husband was worried if we had made the right decision in moving to Guernsey, but I said if we moved there and in a few years it did not work out we could always move back to Australia, but if we do not take this chance we may well be regretting our decision and lack of courage for the rest of our lives.


We have been called 'brave', to our faces and probably 'crazy', behind our backs for moving our family so far from home, but I am a believer in the saying 'You only live once.' I think you need to grab life with both hands, in a choker hold if required, and strangle as much happiness, enjoyment, new experiences and love out of it as you can, as you never know when your time on this world will be over. When an opportunity presents itself, take it, as it will likely never come again.


My husband always laughs and says that we never really have a plan we just seem to lurch from place to place, idea to idea, with a 'that sounds good; lets do that now' attitude and fortunately it has always worked out for the best, eventually.


Nineteen months on and we have settled into our new home. We thought moving to another English speaking country would make for a smooth transition from an Aussie to Guern way of life. How wrong we were! Guernsey is beautiful and the people are friendly but it is all the little things which have involved the near vertical learning 'curve' - slightly different sense of humour, way of doing things, way of saying things, road rules, rules at the supermarket, rules at school, social rules, what is considered rude, what is considered polite, social standing and understanding, all the little nuances of life; basically what it means to be a Guern. We live on this lovely island the very least we can do is attempt to understand it and its people as best we can. It is, after all, these very differences which makes moving here an exciting, once in a lifetime adventure.


I can call it an adventure now, as the initial shock of moving here as faded over time.