My thoughts as I sit here today? This is home. Chatting to the rest of the family, I think the consensus is that we are all happy here and feeling very settled. Rox has had a couple of moments of homesickness - she particularly misses her South African friends, and some of the activities she did with the children in South Africa - but she says she would never consider going back and on the whole she really loves it here. I personally feel like I was always meant to live here. It's weird, but I feel more comfortable and at ease here than I ever really did in South Africa, where I was born and raised, it's really surprising to me! Maybe my DNA was just programmed to be English? (considering my DNA is about 90% English I suppose that shouldn't come as a total shock 😉) Before we left, I was bracing myself for a struggle, for homesickness and periods of sadness and grief.... other than a little wobbly in March, I've hardly felt any of that at all. To be honest, unless I see a Facebook memory, or someone mentions it, I don't ever really think about South Africa, or life there at all.
Having said that, there are some things I miss:
* family that are still in SA - it sucks that we can't get together for a braai and a good chat every now and again. I am eternally grateful that Rox, Jon and the kiddies live just down the road and that Paula and Cal will be moving over very shortly! I miss Impi SO much and wish he could come here too, thankfully he's coming over for a visit next year and I can't wait!
* there are a few restaurants that I would LOVE to bring over here - Tommy's sushi, La Pizza Pazza, Spur (unbelievably, yes, I miss Spur!).... Good, affordable, restaurants is an area where I feel South Africa runs rings around the UK, particularly when it comes to kid-friendly restaurants... man we miss the indoor play areas!
* our house..... this is a weird one. In some ways I miss it and in others I don't. The little flat we are living in is very, VERY humble compared to our home in SA.... not that we lived in a mansion in SA, but still, it's chalk and cheese! But, surprisingly, I am quite happy here - I'd love to rip out the carpets and gut the kitchen and bathroom and re-do them completely, but I've learnt to kind of draw a veil over those things and move swiftly on. Our flat is ideally located, it's in a small, friendly, complex of only 8 flats, it has a little communal garden, so - 70s fittings aside, it's got a lot going for it. As far as our Durban home goes, I miss my en-suite bathroom, my awesome Smeg oven, and my beautiful wooden floors, the verandah where we would sit and have sundowners every night, and the deck where we would have loads of happy family meals in the Summer...BUT I don't miss cleaning that big house (trust me, I REALLY don't miss that!), and hassling with maintaining it and the garden, I don't miss the burglar alarm and the monkeys that would harass us daily and just all the other kak that comes with a large and lovely home. So yeah, it's a weird one, I miss it and yet I don't.
* My pets. I so miss my pets. Our dogs passed away before we moved and we made the heart-breaking decision to have our elderly cats put to sleep before we came. (It was a ghastly decision to have to make, and one I still wrestle with daily, but I really don't think they would have coped with the move, so please, please respect that we made the best decision we could under the circumstances) I think about our pets and miss them every single day.
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| View from a walk we did on our holiday in Cornwall |
Things I particularly love about being here:
* There is so much to do - we could be busy all weekend, every weekend, if we chose to. We are in a rural area, so this comes as a surprise to me! There is an endless array of festivals and days out, craft fairs, canal festivals, music shows, markets... all in close proximity to where we live. We haven't done half the things we intended to do this Summer because we have run out of time and energy!
* The countryside. It is just so SO beautiful and it's there for the taking. I am still not used to being able to walk for miles, on public footpaths, through woods, meadows and farmland. It is absolutely my very favourite thing about living here! I also love that each month brings something new - poppies, bluebells, snowdrops, daffodils, blackberries... there is always something fresh and lovely to see. I am so deeply grateful to be able to experience this whenever I feel like it.
* The weather - bet you didn't see that one coming!! I can, hand on heart, say that so far I prefer the weather here. Having said that, I believe we had a mild Winter, so I might come back here after next Winter and take back those words! Interestingly, I genuinely do believe that we have had less rain here than we had in the same 9 month period back in SA... I don't know how that can be possible, but really, we have had very little rain (global warming??) I was never a lover of the hot and humid Durban Summers, so this Summer has suited me just fine! I expected to absolutely hate the Winter, but I enjoyed it. So yes, the weather so far has been great.
* Magic radio - I thought I'd never find a radio station that I loved as much as ECR... and yet, I DID!
*The people - The Brits get a bad rap for being unfriendly and aloof, yet that has not been our experience at all. We know all of our neighbours by name (we lived in our house in SA for 6 years and never met our neighbour!), the people we have dealt with in shops etc have generally been very friendly and I love that most people will greet you as they pass you in the street or on the footpaths, and some even make a bit of conversation. There are obviously exceptions, but in general I find people in our area to be friendly. (There are some really uncouth, awful people too, but they are in the minority and I guess that is the case wherever you go.)
*The pubs - we generally pop into a pub once a week or so for a drink. We used to only really go to the pub that is a short walk from our flat, but lately we've been branching out and have found a couple of really nice pubs on our travels. I love the pub culture here, so very English! Every man and his dog propping up the bar... makes me feel right at home.
So that's the round-up of our first 9 months in our new home! I couldn't have wished for a softer landing.
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| Watergate Bay, Cornwall |
