Today was my last day at work. I am officially retired. At least that is how I feel. Not exactly that ecstatic lottery winning moment. Nor like it might feel to score the World Cup winning goal. Nevertheless, it feels good.

As for the move to the southern hemisphere: It’s all becoming very real. While a happy go lucky six-year-old can be oblivious to it, his old dad must get real…

Where the F*#k will we live?

The pre-trip plans are taking a back seat now. Yes, of course there will be some things I forget to do or forget to pack but those are now almost unimportant. My focus is now turning to a basic question. “What the f*#k will we do when we get there?”

This is not panic, even anxiety, or anything like that. The main thing on my mind is; where are we going to live? I have been in Sydney once before but only for a short time. And that was years ago. Back then I wouldn’t have paid any attention to the suburbs.

I have been emailing real estate agents so at least I now have some contacts on the ground before we get there. This is always one of the biggest (if not the biggest) hurdle to settling into any new location. Even a few miles (or kilometres) down the road, never mind the other side of the world.

We have a month in one of those ‘aparthotels’ so not much time to find a suitable residence. Especially when all I have heard and read suggests that good properties in good areas are rented out fast. And what exactly is a “good” area in a new country/city that you do not know?

As always, the only answer to this type of question is that you have to get there and suss it out. Do the leg-work.

Location Location Location?

The area will depend on how easy (or not) it is for Dani’s mum to get to work. For a sprawling city like Sydney there are surprisingly few train lines and no underground rail system. Such details limit the availability of “good” places to live even more. It also leads to the inevitable congestion of road traffic.

It’s that work-life balance thing again. When isn’t it? Maybe more of a non-work life balance in my case but we will get to that later.

When my boy is old enough to read all this blog nonsense I wonder how much he will remember about how he was feeling at this time?