Quick Post-Visit Update

Just a quick update as I’m still rather jet-lagged and also trying to work through some coursework, but I needed a break so thought I’d come and update on some exciting news.

Managed to score a few interviews on my second week in Blighty.  On the way home from the second interview I got a phone call with a job offer.  To say that I was gobsmacked is an understatement.  It’s a move back to IT, which isn’t necessarily ideal for me these days but it’s got decent pay, good benefits and the firm seems really nice.  So, I accepted the offer.  Needless to say this is a HUGE weight off my mind.  I start 3 days after I get back to England, so not much time to get over the Jetlag when I return, but sometimes it is best to hit the ground running.

Other than that my second week was pretty uneventful, managed to meet up with a few friends I had made online and got to visit with my mother quite often during the week which was lovely.

I look forward to updating you further when I’m back in Blighty next month and when reality finally hits that I’m back in the UK permanently, but for now I’d best get back to my studies!

Best regards to all,

EpR

Back in Blighty – Pre-move Visit

DISCLAIMER:  I’m still jet-lagged, so this post may not have a great narrative structure and feel more like a list of things I did! 😛

Well here I am.  I’ve been back in the UK for a week now, with a week to go on my pre-move visit.

We didn’t get off to an uneventful start, unfortunately, as our flight was delayed by 24 hours due to mechanical failure.  Eventually, however, we made it to the UK.  300 people tired and cranky and ready to get home or move onto their destination.  I ran like hell-fire to get across Manchester Airport and get to the National Express Coach I needed and made it with 5 minutes to spare (which was great because I would have had a two hour wait otherwise).

I have to admit, I sat on that coach grinning like an idiot for most of the journey to Birmingham.  I’d forgotten how beautiful this country can be.  We drove through lanes with high hedges, gnarled, old trees and fields of grazing cattle.  Old buildings lined the route most of the way, adding to the quaint feel of the journey.  It felt good to be back.  Until the 24 hours of stress and travel caught up and I realized how hungry, tired and nauseated I was.

We got to Birmingham on time and there was a nice, teary reunion with my sister at the bus station.  Was good to see her again after 3 years and it was BRILLIANT to meet my 1 year old nephew.  He’s bloody awesome to be honest and I’m not biased at all. 😉  I really think I’m going to enjoy being an Uncle.  You get all the fun of having your own kid but you get to give them back when they start to make strange smells.

The room I rented is quite nice, very spacious and my housemates are absolutely lovely!  So the house situation was definitely a WIN!

I did a quick grocery shop for the essentials and learned that I must really try to contain my excitement when I see things that I haven’t seen for years.  I really don’t want to get the reputation at my local co-op as being “the guy that loses his shit over Custard Creams”.  Thankfully I don’t think anyone saw.  But it was like a strange trip down memory lane, seeing all the foods I used to love.  Really made me start to feel like I was home.

Met with a recruiter and that went well, I already have a job interview lined up for next week so keep your fingers crossed.

Had a lovely tour of Birmingham Town Centre with a friend I’ve been talking to online for months.  I was quite surprised really.  I’ve always had a rather negative mental image of Birmingham, as I think most people do.  I just see concrete flats and horrible office towers in my head.  But really it’s quite different.  I certainly didn’t expect to find things like this in the town centre:

Apparently Birmingham has a thriving canal and wharf district that I didn’t even know about.  Plus some of the buildings in the canal quarter are older than Canada, where I’m moving from, so the area feels like it has a lot of history too.

It really was refreshing to have my initial expectations of Birmingham completely proven wrong.   According to a survey done last year Birmingham has twice as many trees as people, and it’s quite evident as the city really does have a nice green feel to it.

Well, I’ll leave you with that for now as my parents will be getting here soon and I have to get ready for another tear-filled reunion.

Regards from Blighty,

EpR

Trip Preparation

Hi all!

I’m quite busy this week getting ready for a brief trip back to England!  I will be there for two weeks starting next Monday, so there won’t be any posts this week.  But I’m sure I’ll have LOTS to talk about next week when I’m back in Blighty!

Chat soon,

EpR

A deconstructed life!

It has been an interesting few weeks as I draw ever nearer to my departure from Canada.  I’m a massive procrastinator and have put off a lot of stuff I probably should have started months ago.   Mostly the organization of my personal effects which I’ve put off because I have SO MUCH STUFF.  It’s my own fault though since I tend to hoard things.  Not in a “he’s crazy enough to go on a tv show” kind of way.  But I do hear the words “I can’t throw that out, I might need it some day!” in my mind when I look at something I own.

So, needless to say, I have a lot of stuff.  11 years worth of stuff.  In a way they are the physical remnants of my Canadian life so I’ve been reluctant to part with them because it would be the ultimate symbolism of the changes in my life.

Contrary to my initial hesitation though it’s really been quite amazing.  It feels so therapeutic going through cupboards and drawers and taking all those little knickknacks that I’ve held onto, for that day when it will inevitably come in useful, and tossing it into a garbage bag.

It’s been really eye-opening for me.   We construct our lives through memories and objects are often the easiest way to access these memories.  So throwing out all of these so-called memories feels like I’m deconstructing this life, day by day, like pulling down a wall brick by brick.  Last night I sat in the room I’ve finished emptying for a while.  I thought I would feel as empty as the room, seeing all my stuff thrown out, since surely someone as materialistic as me should feel like I’ve lost something, lost part of myself perhaps.  But to the contrary it’s been quite refreshing to unburden my soul of so much materialistic possession.  It’s proven to me that our lives are not summed up by what we own, but by who we are and what we do.  I don’t have all this stuff anymore, but I’m still me.  I think it will give me a new outlook on what I own in the UK, I’m certainly less likely to keep things just in case. 

During the whole process I have tried to follow some simple rules.  My main rule is that I want to travel light, I don’t want to have to ship too much back home as it’s quite expensive, so I’m only shipping things that can’t be replaced or can’t be replaced easily, like my 29-year-old whiskey and my replica Phantom of the Opera Mask (see, I have my priorities straight…*eyeroll*). 

The other rule is that everything else is either going to be sold, gifted, donated or thrown out.  Obviously I want to sell as much as possible as this move isn’t cheap, especially without a job lined up in the UK yet, so I need as much financing as I can take with me.   But, I have this REALLY annoying habit of being a nice guy and I like to spoil my friends, so a lot of things have been given as gifts.  But, at the end of the day if I can leave someone with a smile and something they will enjoy using then it’s a win for both of us!

Maybe give it a try yourself, find a cupboard or drawer of things you put by “just in case”, and really ask yourself, do I need these?  If not, sell it, throw it out or give it away.  Make room for something you really want!

Until next time,
EpR

What is an expatriate and why I am returning.

Hi there!  Thanks for taking the time to check out my new blog.  I decided to create this blog because I wanted a way to record my experiences as I return to my homeland and figured that perhaps my experiences might be useful to others considering the same.

Firstly, what is an “expatriate”?  Well, the Oxford Dictionary defines an expatriate as:

noun
Pronunciation:/ɪksˈpatrɪət, -ˈpeɪtrɪət, ɛks-/

• a person who lives outside their native country

Nice and simply put, thank you Oxford.  So yes, I am a person who lives outside of their native country.  In my case I was born and raised in the United Kingdom, South Wales to be more precise.  However, I’m currently living in Canada and have been here for 11 years.

 

I was 17 when I left the UK.  A mere child, really, but at the time I thought I was all grown up and ready to face the world, plus I was rebellious teen and my family and I didn’t always see eye to eye on how my life should be run. 

 

I started my travels by flying to Phoenix, Arizona, where I stayed with a friend I had met online, a friend that I barely knew.  The plan was to stay with the friend and use his home as a home-base and travel around the states.  This didn’t phase me one bit since I was 17 and seemingly invincible.  Naturally it wasn’t long before things went awry.  Money ran out faster than an ice-cube in the desert and the friend turned out to be a little creepy (a creep on the internet?  WHO KNEW?!).

 

Thankfully another internet friend (one whom I felt I could trust) came to my rescue and bundled me up on the long three day drive to Canada on the Greyhound Bus.  Once I got to Canada I immediately fell in love with the country, the people and my friend (whom I ended up dating for 6 years – but we’re still very good friends)!

 

I decided to make Canada my permanent home.  I’ve spent 11 years here in Canada and they have, mostly, been wonderful times.  I’ve made some amazing friends, found and lost Love a few times, had some amazing experiences and some cool jobs, but recently the call of home has been getting louder and louder until I decided it was time to end the longest vacation of my life.

 

I’ve often been asked, in the months since I announced my decision to return, why I want to go home if I’ve had such an amazing time in Canada.  Well, there are a number of factors.

 

First and foremost even though I don’t always see eye to eye with my family I do still love them dearly.  In the last few years there have been a few deaths and I now have a niece and nephew that I haven’t met.  I felt very detached from my family when I couldn’t attend the funerals and when the children were born and I couldn’t see them.  That was the primary catalyst that began the thought process to return home.  I can’t wait to be a proper Uncle at long last, those kids are going to be spoiled rotten.

 

Secondly, the bloody weather out here in Canada can be awful at times.  Yes, before you say anything, I know it rains most of the time in the UK.  I’m ok with that, I actually quite like the rain.  What I can’t abide is snow.  Canada isn’t short of snow by any means and in the winter the weather can fall as low as -40 degrees here (colder in some places) and I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to the cold.   Conversely, since I’m never seemingly happy, it gets far too warm here in the summer for me.  So, back to damp but more temperate Blighty.

 

Also when I left the UK, as mentioned, I was only 17.  Although I travelled around the UK a lot I didn’t really appreciate it and took it for granted.  I barely know my homeland and that pains me.  I have an overwhelming urge to travel the length and breadth of the UK and experience all it has to offer.

 

Finally, I want to go back to school and study Dramatic Studies.  I’ve been acting on stage here in Canada and have even had a few roles in some independent movies.  I’ve loved it so much that I want to make it my primary career.  So, the plan is to get a fulltime job so that I can save up enough money to go to University (even though it’s horrendously expensive now) and afterwards try to work for the BBC.

 

So, in a nutshell that is why I’m heading home to the UK.  I won’t be returning to Wales but will instead be moving to England.  I’ll pause here momentarily so that all of my Welsh readers can boo at me.  I will go into further details of my current move status in a subsequent posting.  For now though, I think that should suffice.

 

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you here again soon!

 

Regards,

EpR