One year on I wrote a re-cap about our first year in Australia, the first year was most definitely a rollercoaster of emotions and adjusting to living in a new culture, but by the end of the first year I had just started to find my feet and was starting to feel settled in Perth.
So what was year 2 like?
As we finished our first year in Australia we both were working pretty good jobs and had just moved in to a beautiful old cottage in Wembley with a swimming pool and beautiful tropical garden for the summer. We packed up our bags for a long weekend and head to Sydney (psst click for sydney blog posts) where we got to know some of Australia's most iconic landmarks like the Opera House and Bondi Beach. We had an awesome time, but felt much more at home when we got back to Perth.
It was relatively plain sailing counting out the rest of the year, we got to know Perth city a little better and at the middle of December welcomed Dan's family for a month. We celebrated christmas with the English family and the family who already live in WA, spent time on their boat, playing on paddle boards and watching dolphins in Mandurah.
Not long after Dan's family flew back to England we hopped on a flight to Brisbane and explored the tropical Gold Coast. We teamed our flights to land not long after my mum, who was visiting a friend from England, and after a week in Brisbane we all flew back over to Perth. The timing was impeccable (I can't lie it was totally planned) as mum was able to help us pack up our short term rental to move up the coast into a longer term rental. We had a few short days with mum in the new house before she went back to the UK. It was heartbreaking as ever waving her goodbye, knowing she's so far away. Whilst mum was visiting I gained a clinical nursing position in the community.
At the start of March we welcomed number three in to our mini family, Jessie the border collie. Our lives changed forever and we fell totally in love with our crazy little ball of fur. The next few months were filled with walks, puppy school, crate training, obedience training and doggy day care (yes, it's a real thing). There were some horrid nights of being awake all night, but slowly Jessie somehow made us feel more and more at home, and after a camping trip for my birthday in April, where we spent the weekend watching her run up and down the beach, I thought I really really like living here. There was a love forming like nothing I had ever imagined, for a four legged friend, so unconditional that all the sleepless nights, peed on carpets and chewed shoes seemed so insignificant.
The next few months were a total blur, and I grew to totally neglect blogging and social media. Our lives became balancing acts, but we formed amazing new friendships with people at work, started taking the 4WD out more and generally started to feel like Perth was becoming home. Almost in sync, both our careers took off and we expectations at work increased, we saved every cent we earned and our evenings quickly became consumed with working from home.
After a few months of work, work, work I realised I was beyond unhappy in my job and despite it sounding incredible on paper I was unsupported and over worked. A break was much needed so when an email landed in my inbox from a hotel in Bali we realised it was a sign we had to go and not long after we were floating in a pool with a Bintang in hand, the holiday flew by and on the way back I turned to Dan and said 'where are we going?' and he replied 'home'.
When we got back we spoke at length and crunched numbers and realised the stress, the toll on my health and the lack of free time at my job just wasn't worth it..so one Monday morning, not long after getting back from Bali, I bounced in to my managers office resignation in hand.
I felt a new wave of motivation and creativity. I threw myself in to new hobbies, jumped out of bed at 6am and felt a fire burning inside me that had been put out months before. The stars obviously aligned quite quickly, because before I had even worked my notice I had landed an incredible new role with identical pay but a lot less hours.
I started my new job at the middle of September and was able to maintain my new hobbies, my twice daily dog walks and occasional stops at the gym for spin class. By the end of September we decided that Perth would be our home for a good few years, so started researching buying our first house together and hope to be in to something new in the next 6 months.
Once again, it's been a total rollercoaster, however we have grown umpteen amounts. We are no longer young people, but young adults with career paths and yearly plans, we have our own fur child who is the most incredible ray of sunshine on the darkest days.
xo