WHY A "NEW LIFE"?

Our "new life" officially began on 8 October 2007 when we arrived at Heathrow on a mild morning. This was almost 4 months after one of the biggest decisions my wife and I had ever made. We has toyed with the idea of leaving South Africa a few times over the previous 2 or 3 years and had had some lengthy discussions about countries to move to and what the pros and cons would be of living there. However, all these really turned out to be were discussions and we couldn't ever justify moving away from the country we had been born and raised in.

This all changed one Sunday morning in June 2007. A close friend of my wife's had had her house broken into by a group of 6 armed burglars. Her and her family, including 3 children had been subjected to physical abuse, verbal taunts, rape threats and the burglars had even played Russian Roulette with her - pulling the trigger of their revolver 3 times. Fortunately no one was actually raped or killed in the attack. The scene of this attack was no more than a mile and a half from our house.

That Sunday we gave our self a deadline - by the end of that day a decision had to be reached - either we were staying in South Africa or we were leaving for England. We spent the day thinking long and hard. We have 2 young sons and their safety was our primary concern. We had a home that we loved and had created over the last 6 and half years. It was the place we had brought our children to after they had been born. It wasn't an easy decision but we made it.

At this point I need to stress that I am not trying to convince anyone to leave South Africa. I love the place - I was born and bred there. But for our own reasons we decided that we felt it would be better for us to leave South Africa and bring our children up in England.

Why England you may ask? I joke and tell everyone it's for the weather! Seriously though, my wife has a British passport which made England the easiest destination for us to go to quickly. She also has 3 brothers, her mother and step-father who live there. So, there would be some sort of support structure when we arrived. It's also close to the rest of Europe and it would be great to be able to travel to so many countries that are so close and be able to give our children these experiences.

It's a "new life" as well because everything we knew has changed. Houses are very small and phenomenally expensive, there's public transport, central heating (thank goodness), gas cookers and ovens, super-fast and super-cheap broadband Internet, NHS, customer service lines that people actually answer and an astronomical choice when it comes to mobile phone contracts, landlines, insurance and utility suppliers. There's a watered down version of the sun which only makes brief appearances to let the owners of "soft tops" test the integrity of their rag top's mechanical storage system even if they have to wear a ski-jacket, scarf and beanie whilst doing so.

I'll touch on a few of these changes and how we have coped in future posts to share my experiences with you. Maybe they will help you save some time or just give you a different perspective but in any case welcome to my "new life"