They say getting married and moving are two of the most stressful events you will face in your lifetime.
Let’s just say that that I’d dance the funky chicken at my 19th wedding rather than move house one more time. Because this time, we weren’t just moving house, which for some insane reason, we seem to do about every 4 years, we were moving State. Lots of states. We were moving to Victoria.
Have you ever talked so much about something that it actually turned into reality? I mean, like something so massive, so life changing, it will not only interrupt your own life but all of those around you as well? It seems that I may have done this.
A few months ago my husband I sat down and realised we were getting nowhere. Building and construction here on the Gold Coast has basically stalled. People are sitting on their hands waiting for something to happen. In turn, Phil hasn’t worked a solid week since Christmas 2010. I’m pretty sure this is the story being told by any tradie on the Gold Coast right now. Confidence is thin on the ground, the Real Estate Bubble burst a while back and people are scrambling to sell at much less than they did two years ago. We could see it coming, but we’ve rode this out here a few times before.
The last time was in 2001 and we only had one child at the time. Phil moved to Sydney where he was offered a great job. I stayed behind and it was relatively easy. Well for me. Although to be honest, we were kind of running two households, flying to and fro and what not. And although I was fine working, running my daughter Mad to day care and looking after ourselves, Phil didn’t fare quite as well. What should be every man’s dream was his nightmare. I mean, nights to oneself, pub dinners, beers with mates and complete control of the remote control sent him nuts. So he came home.
So this time around we were realistic. The mines were an option, but that involved FIFO and weeks away from the family. No go. So we started to investigate. Before we knew it, Phil was offered a job. In Melbourne. Whoa.
So I alone set off in my little car and drove away from the only place I’ve ever known. Away from my brother and two of my best friends in the world, my wonderful boss, all of our lovely neighbours and other friends and family and drove in a semi- straight line to Melbourne. I had one thousand, four hundred and fifty nine things to organise and very little time to do so. But winging it has always kind of been my MO.
As we sat out on our deck before the move, in our modest little seaside home and had a beer, I wondered out loud if we were doing the right thing. The logistics are huge. Phil looked at me and simply said ‘Mate, if it’s not right, we can always come back, what have we got to lose?’ Oh, just my sanity, but apart from that, nothing.
