Forever and a day...

Almost ten years since I started this blog and I’m hoping to return to its original purpose: an update for family and friends far away.
Over the years it was going to be a general update, but that faded out - and some of it I didn’t really feel comfortable sharing in such a public forum.

However, it is now 1 January 2018 and I have been living in the UK for 3 whole weeks.
It doesn’t feel real. I don’t know if it ever will. Maybe it’s my brain denying that I’m missing my old life. We just - carry on.
I’m sure it helps that the dogs all arrived safely and are with us - and settling in faster than we are!

But these smaller details, like hard water... I had no idea what that was! To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure, but it’s wreaking havoc with my adjustments! I’m very happy that recycling is such an accepted thing here and relatively easy to do. I’m still not sure where batteries need to go, but one day I will figure it out.

It’s odd not having a vehicle, though I have lived like that before. I also have to think more before making decisions- I can’t just pick this bank because it’s closest. I need to think long term for things like that.

I’m so grateful for the number of things I can do online. It has been such a help and quite reassuring that I can get it sorted out “right now as I think about it” and it doesn’t have to be a major excursion, planned in advance. The post is a little scary: order a rail card today and it’s here the next day! A letter posted in Germany on Thursday arrived on Saturday.

But I’m hoping that means that the important stuff will arrive quickly.
My ancestral visa in my passport is actually just permission to enter the country for 1 month. Thereafter I’m supposed to have a residence permit to allow me back into Britain. Once again it’s just ticking tasks off the list!

It’s pretty awesome having a warm house, that never happened in SA! But I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to dry clothes in summer as we’re using the radiators at the moment...
Tomorrow is hopefully signing Mum up with the medical center and I might be able to get to open my bank account too, but that also might only be Wednesday.

I’m not sure that starting this on the first day of a new year was a good idea... though it is now after midnight and the date on this will be 2 January!