I had hoped that we would be on our way shortly, but we have been delayed slightly and it looks like it will be the end of February before we can fly out. An opportunity came up for Nadia that was too good to pass, so we have decided to wait until the end of Feb to let her take advantage of that.
So now we are living out of suitcases, currently at my parents in Erskine for a couple of weeks then we will be back in Edinburgh for our last few weeks. I know we have already had farewell drinks with friends, but maybe we can do it all again!
We are both still really excited and looking forward to getting to Sydney or Melbourne and getting ourselves settled and working in Australia.
So what of Brian, Betty, Brenda and Chris. Let's just say they enjoyed the Christmas and New Year holidays. A combination of nights out and fantastic Christmas and New Year parties meant that Brian in particular has bitten back in a last effort to get on that plane with me. The snow meant that I didn't get out for any exercise, which was quickly followed by all the stress and effort required to move out the flat. So I haven't had any exercise worth talking about for a month now.
But I started to put that right today. Even though the weather is not great, I made it out for a 5k run today from my parent's house. I ran through Bishopton, which is where I was brought up and went to primary school. It felt very strange running along roads that I thought were so long and far from home but really not that far at all. It did bring back some memories of the things we used to do and places we used to play as mere whippersnappers. It doesn't look much different now, but we had some great fun in the park and racing home bogeys down the hill in to the swing park. I hope no-one recognised me!
Now that I have the first run of the year out the way, I will get back in the swing of it and use this extra time I have here to hone my beach bod - I wish!
Even after sending our belongings off on the long journey in a container on a ship, we still have too much stuff and I can't afford to take Brian, Brenda, Betty and Chris with me.
A challenge for the next couple of weeks will be to resist all the food temptations that mum and dad have for us. I need to learn to say no to wine with dinner and lots of tasty treats. Not completely of course, all things in moderation!
But it is a new year, an exciting one. I hope you all are looking forward to it as much as we are.


