Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

– Mark Twain

I’ve moved a fair bit in my short life.  When I was younger my Dad’s job required our whole family to uproot itself once or twice every few years; I can safely say I have criss-crossed Australia more times than I care to count.  I’ve lived in the picturesque Adelaide Hills (place of my birth) on two separate occasions, as well as in suburban Adelaide, a rural mining district, a remote farming and fishing town near the Nullarbor Plain, a suburb of sultry Darwin, a drought-stricken suburb of Brisbane, and now in my present home, in the leafy western suburbs of good ol’ Bris-Vegas.  At one point my family were supposed to move to Papua New Guinea - I have the TB vaccination scar to prove it - though it never eventuated.

For one reason or another I always took moving for granted.  We first moved when I was two years old, so I imagine the whole notion of packing up a life in boxes and shipping it across the country is somewhat ingrained in my psyche.  It wasn’t until recently, having FINALLY been given my British Study Visa, that I started to realize just how much paperwork and faffing about a big move requires.  My Mum told me that she used to keep a list in her diary of things she had to sort out prior to moving, and she used to go over this list every time Dad came home with the announcement that we were starting a new adventure.  It’s prompted me to come up with my own check-list, geared more to a big international move:

• Check visa requirements and apply if necessary.  If it’s the British Consulate you’re applying to, prepare yourself to wait in near-suicidal depression for months on end whilst they give you increasingly conflicting information about the status of your application.
• Check passport is up to date and will not expire while you’re abroad.  If, like me, you originally thought you would only be going overseas once (maybe twice) and you only got a passport with a small number of pages in it, I urge you to reconsider and invest in a larger one.  You never know when you’re going to meet a mildly frustrating but annoyingly good-looking Welsh guy at a funeral and decide that you actually need to spend half your time in the United Kingdom.
• Check you are properly vaccinated and your medical records are up to date.  Edinburgh University seems to have a pessimistic side when it comes to student health - the note I received in the mail from them the other day was in 26pt black underline and read, ‘WE STRONGLY URGE THAT YOU HAVE THE MENINGITIS C VACCINATION PRIOR TO STARTING YOUR STUDIES‘.  Whilst Meningitis C is not a compulsory vaccination for entry into the UK, I’m not risking the wrath of the bold underline. Read the rest of this entry »

  

I received this list in a forward from Sarah G a few weeks ago, but have been chuckling over it ever since. I’ve bolded the ones I find particularly apt, especially as I’ve had to explain many of these cultural issues to numerous Brits over the last few years:

You Know You’re Australian If:

• You know the meaning of the world “girt”
• You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn
• You think its normal to have a leader named Kevin
• You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse
• You’ve made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden Read the rest of this entry »