Winds of Change
I'm surprised to find that this blog has been going now for about 18 months - we've been in Australia for almost a year, and in 9 day's time it will be a year since we physically left the UK.
I find myself wondering, what purpose this blog is serving now? My intention was to provide a two-way link between us, Michael/Sara/Ella/Patrick as we moved away from all our friends to start a new life in Australia, and the family and friends we have left behind.
I wanted this blog to be a source of more information and reassurance about us, what we're doing AND I wanted it to be a way of communicating across time zones when phoning doesn't always work... I viewed it as a tool to go alongside things like the Skype numbers we arranged so that people could phone us for the cost of a UK telephone call rather than paying international call fees, email, writing letters, sending postcards etc.
But I have to say that it isn't really working in the way I anticipated because I'm NOT GETTING ANY FEEDBACK! Writing this blog has become like putting messages into a black hole: I put lots of stuff in and, with a few exceptions (you know who you are!), I get virtually nothing back. Maybe this blog has done its job TOO well and those of you who read it regularly know what's happening to us, what the shape of our lives is, so there's nothing left to talk about if you call.
Pathetic, aren't I? I think I've hit a bit of a 'wall' being here. The reality of how far away I am physically from my old life and how, after a year, you have to get on with your busy lives without me in just the same way as I have had to make a life for myself without you, are hitting home. I do feel really, really 'sick' for the old certainties of my life which I guess is a reaction to twelve months spent trying to cope with a lot of new stuff... I am definitely tired. There's still a huge hole where my friends and family used to be, and it takes time to make new friends and create a 'whole' life in a new country.
Anyway, the upshot of all this introspection is that I've decided to 'retire' the off-to-oz blog. We're not 'off to' anywhere; we're here; we've been here for almost a year. Time to start thinking about other things. So here's what will happen: I will stop posting to off-to-oz shortly, although the blog as it is now will still exist so you'll be able to visit and look at photos etc if you want to. Michael and I are going to do a new blog together that will document the amusements of our house building project (as and when that starts!), and I'm going to start using my art blog more.
Both the house blog and the art blog will probably end up with some 'family' stuff on them, but in the main I think we're going to go back to the old-fashioned methods of communicating via the post, telephone and email.
So ta-ta for now and I'll drop you an email with the new blog details in due course.
Sara xx
I find myself wondering, what purpose this blog is serving now? My intention was to provide a two-way link between us, Michael/Sara/Ella/Patrick as we moved away from all our friends to start a new life in Australia, and the family and friends we have left behind.
I wanted this blog to be a source of more information and reassurance about us, what we're doing AND I wanted it to be a way of communicating across time zones when phoning doesn't always work... I viewed it as a tool to go alongside things like the Skype numbers we arranged so that people could phone us for the cost of a UK telephone call rather than paying international call fees, email, writing letters, sending postcards etc.
But I have to say that it isn't really working in the way I anticipated because I'm NOT GETTING ANY FEEDBACK! Writing this blog has become like putting messages into a black hole: I put lots of stuff in and, with a few exceptions (you know who you are!), I get virtually nothing back. Maybe this blog has done its job TOO well and those of you who read it regularly know what's happening to us, what the shape of our lives is, so there's nothing left to talk about if you call.
Pathetic, aren't I? I think I've hit a bit of a 'wall' being here. The reality of how far away I am physically from my old life and how, after a year, you have to get on with your busy lives without me in just the same way as I have had to make a life for myself without you, are hitting home. I do feel really, really 'sick' for the old certainties of my life which I guess is a reaction to twelve months spent trying to cope with a lot of new stuff... I am definitely tired. There's still a huge hole where my friends and family used to be, and it takes time to make new friends and create a 'whole' life in a new country.
Anyway, the upshot of all this introspection is that I've decided to 'retire' the off-to-oz blog. We're not 'off to' anywhere; we're here; we've been here for almost a year. Time to start thinking about other things. So here's what will happen: I will stop posting to off-to-oz shortly, although the blog as it is now will still exist so you'll be able to visit and look at photos etc if you want to. Michael and I are going to do a new blog together that will document the amusements of our house building project (as and when that starts!), and I'm going to start using my art blog more.
Both the house blog and the art blog will probably end up with some 'family' stuff on them, but in the main I think we're going to go back to the old-fashioned methods of communicating via the post, telephone and email.
So ta-ta for now and I'll drop you an email with the new blog details in due course.
Sara xx
posted by Sara Bowen at 3:19 am
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