First of all, hello to all my BL buddies. I know I’ve barely been on the site this year but I have missed you all.
As some of you know I made the decision to move back to Scotland after living in Australia for 15 years. Last year ended up being incredibly stressful and I wasn’t sorry to leave and come back home with my 2 fur babies.
December 2017
It was great spending Xmas with my family and not worrying that I’d have to leave them and fly off to the other side of the world. The fur babies Tabitha and Suzy were comfortable but cramped in my bedroom but doing well after their long flight.
Jan/Feb/Mar
Once the festive season was over it was time to sort out:
*nursing registration
*get a job
*buy a car (was going stir crazy without wheels)
*find a house to buy
The nursing registration was a fiasco and didn’t get sorted until nearly April. I started having a look for jobs but without my registration I wasn’t going to get very far and to be honest it was nice taking some time off work to get settled.
I found a house I loved even though there were problems with the exiting owners, I am really happy with what I bought and hope to be here for many years.
April/May/June
Registration finally came through and I got a job as a treatment room nurse in a prison. So different to the type of nursing I’ve done before and whilst I’ve settled in and been working there for 5 months now I’m not sure if this is what I see myself doing long term. One thing I really dislike is the shift hours. I end up feeling too knackered to do anything, The whole point of me coming back to Scotland was so that I could be with my family more and reduce my work hours and have a better life/work balance. All I can say to that is that its not happening, next year I'll have to relook at what I want to do and make some changes.
Being back, however, has been a lot more difficult than I imagined. I remember my australian friend telling me that I needed to be prepared for things not being the same when I returned to Scotland. I brushed off her comment saying yeah, yeah, of course things will be different, it’s 15 years after all. I found that so many things had changed and it was different being back for good then just coming home for a few weeks before going back to Oz. It's only hitting me now how much I've missed out on, friends and family whose lives have changed in so many ways and I've missed it all. It's hard to completely regret the time I had overseas but I'm sad at what might have been if I'd come back sooner.
July/August/September/October
Work wise it's just been the same old, I'm still trying to sort my pay out as even with 26 years experience I'm being paid as a newly qualified nurse. Bloody NHS!!!
A sad day for me in August, on the 16th my beautiful fur baby Tabitha passed away unexpectedly, she was only 10 years old. I'd had her since she was a kitten, she was always the little adventurer and once she got used to her new surroundings she loved being out in the country so I think her last few months were happy and contented.
It felt too weird having just Suzy and myself in the house so I decided to get another cat. After much searching I got a 9 week old Calico kitten. Her name is Boo and she is very playful and full of mischief and can't seem to leave Suzy alone for more than a few minutes.
Here she is at 10 weeks.
and here she is at 18 weeks
That pretty much brings me to now, I've just been off sick for a week with laryngitis and flu and whilst off I was contacted by a previous work colleague who told me that a friend in Australia had passed away. I'm gutted, this person was a good friend to me, I worked with her closely when we were managers in the same centre and we supported each other through all the crazy hospital politics.
She talked about coming out to visit me in Scotland but I hadn't been able to get in touch with her over recent months. It turns out that she was having mental health issues and most likely committed suicide. My heart breaks that she felt that this was the only option for her. I'm sad for her, her partner and family, her many friends and colleagues who loved her and selfishly I'm sad that I will never again hear her voice or see her smile.
November/December
It's November now and I guess I'm just gearing up for the end of the year and Christmas in my new home. Most likely I'll have to work but a first Christmas in a new home is still exciting. Next year will be an evaluation of what I want to change but for now I'm going to plod along and get through the next 2 months.
A year of not many highs and far too many lows.
It feels good to be back on BL, I"m not sure why I stayed away so long but the site appears to be less glitchy. Whilst I missed the Halloween bingo I'm going to try and participate properly in the Festive bingo.
Catch you all soon.
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