News from Brisbane (at last!)

Well, just in case you have missed the blog updates since March (no, there haven't been any) I have to tell you that Rene and I are selling our home here in Brisbane and emigrating back to The Netherlands.

We've sold to a Dutch couple (ironic!) from The Hague, which is exactly the city we are moving to at the end of January. We settle here on December 16 then go on a South Pacific holiday and finally depart Brisbane for Europe on January 28.

Rene sold the house himself privately, without an agent, and he feels rightly chuffed about it. It is a beautiful home, and I shall miss it, but we are planning on buying in Den Haag around March next year.

I finish up my job on Dec 2 and I had my last meeting with my network today and they gave me a farewell gift and said lovely things about me (all true haha!).

We still have lots of things happening and loads of quotes to get and bureaucracy to deal with (oh the bureaucracy!).

We will keep our apartment here on the Sunshine Coast (it's already rented permanently) and of course visit often. Tickets to Australia from Europe are considerably less expensive than those bought in Australia heading to Europe. Why is that?

What with removalists to arrange, work to close up, packing to proceed with and of course the Garage Sale of the Century, we have lots to keep us distracted. We are taking our furniture, much of it bespoke, because the last time we left most of it in Nederlands and sold it off or gave it away and it cost a fortune to buy again here.

That's all for now - I plan on picking up relief teacher work in The Hague at my old school and Rene will be looking to get back into his old field of water management and dredging. Last week the UN released a list of the top countries in the world using criteria such as incomes, health, life expectancy, education, happiness etc, and #1 was Norway, a close 2nd was Australia and...3rd was The Netherlands. I might be surrendering the sun, but I am not moving to a difficult country to live in. I'll have to learn better Dutch and also gain a Dutch driving licence after 186 days. I'm sure I can do all that - even learn to be more confident on a bicycle in narrow streets.

More to come later, now that I've resumed after so long. I'm slightly apprehensive about all the things that I/we have to do in the coming weeks, but I'm also excited to be having a change and moving back to the country where I shed a tear or three upon leaving last time two years ago.

Oh, I have a cousin from London arriving around Christmas so we'll have some fun then and welcome Rachel and her family to Brisbane and Queensland, which will always be my spiritual home.