People & Places
Montoya's Australian blog August 07
Catch up on life with the Montoya's from the Gold Coast in the depths of an Australian winter and find out why Linda has not missed the UK one bit (apart from friends and family)
G'Day all! Well, it's still Winter out here on the Gold Coast and it's a cool 25 deg on average, we have even hit as high as 28!
You may recall that my wife Linda had the sad event of flying back to the UK last month to bury her Father. As you can imagine, it was a tough thing to do. The fact that Linda had lost her father and the fact that this was her first return in two years to Ole Blighty! The funeral went as well as a funeral could go and is something we both would not like to experience again in the near future.
After Lin's arrival to the UK and the burying of her Father, she managed to spend ten days or so visiting family and friends and tried to remember (very easily) why we left the UK almost two years ago. At first, Lin tells me that it was very emotional meeting her Mother and Sister at Heathrow airport. Emotions ran high as you can imagine. More emotions came as Lin met her nan, nieces, nephews and all my side of the family. Lin had done the rounds of catching up on old times and what we had accomplished over the last 23 months. She started to enjoy her trip slightly after the earlier sad events, although Lin was starting to become very home sick for Australia!
Yes, it seemed that after the first ten days or so in Britain, Australia was calling! Was Lin missing her children and caring husband or just the fact that Australia was home? It seems all of the above; yes, of course, Lin missed the stress of four kids and her husband (who wouldn't?) but more importantly realised why we all left the UK back in September 2005! Yes, seeing family and friends was very nice, but did not make up or compensate for the fact that we moved to Australia for a better life. No matter how Lin looked at the situation she came back to the same thing, there is no way she would ever move back to the UK or ask her family to do so. Life was much better out in Australia as a way of life. Not saying that things were easier (finances, missing family, etcetera) but the quality of life far outweighed all that the UK could offer.
Weather was a great topic; the UK has had many weeks of rain and early 20s in temperature for its Summer, and Queensland has had 20 to 28deg for its winter! Lin ended up wearing jumpers and coats in the UK, something she has not done for a very long time. At the end of the day, Australia has worked for us for now as a family and we hope that it will continue to do so!
Lin is safely back home now after very emotional farewells again at Heathrow to all the family, especially her mother and sister. Not to mention the emotional return to Brisbane Airport! It will be remembered as a rather strange event: Lin's father's funeral, Lin's birthday over there, our 15th wedding Anniversary up in the sky whilst flying back by herself, myself running a home with four kids and a job for three weeks! (A life experience for some males in itself). But mainly for the fact that it reassures us all that we made the right move, life Down Under!
Good Luck to you if you are on this journey, that's it for now...
Till next month!
Montoya's Down Under!
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