Hello from auld reekie!
Well, it’s been a while since I blogged about anything. But now that I am quite some distance from home, it seems an appropriate form of jotting down the things I think about while in Scotland that no publication will ever pay me for, but that I still want to write down.
So. Scotland. It’s been a much slower and much faster four months than I initially expected. At the end of June, Chris and I packed up our apartment in Canberra, sent our cat off on her first long haul flight care of JetPets, and flew to Edinburgh.
Bella (kitty) arrived the same day we did, and the three of us spent the next 48-hours in a slightly discombobulated jet-lag driven state while we explored our new city (or AirBnB in Bella’s case).
Bella was probably the fastest to adjust, second only to Chris in that he tends to adjust to everything very easily, being a laid back type. I, on the other hand, still feel like I’m adjusting months later.
My excitement at being here and my homesickness both come in waves, and usually aren’t synchronised, so any given day I feel differently about my new life over here in auld reekie (the cute name that Edinburghers give their city).
Mostly, though, I like it here. I like the city, the history, the out doors, and I like the way I am forced to be more relaxed and have a more chilled out existence purely because no one knows me or expects me to do anything over here.
Before we left Canberra, I was speaking at practically an event a week, coordinating Feminartsy, managing a team for a not-for-profit organisation, doing my own writing, and trying to be a good friend and family member. I feel like I’ve been going non-stop since leaving uni (it’s true, actually – I went from uni to work and haven’t had more than three weeks off in a row since).
In Edinburgh, though, there are no event invitations, no team to manage, barely anyone who even knows or cares where I am at any given time. It’s delightful. I had three whole months of not working at all, and had just enough time to start missing work, before I was employed again and back into a routine.
I spend most of the time when I’m not at either part-time job (comms for an animal welfare org and also for a social care provider) with the horse I share, Amigo, or in one of my three favourite cafes, writing.
I have a few friends, not many, but enough to not feel completely isolated. And I have Chris and Bella, who keep things feeling like home. It’s a remarkably different life to my life back home, but one that feels very comfortable.
I do yearn for Australia sometimes, especially when there’s a new weird Edinburgh thing to get used to (don’t get me started on self-serve grocery checkouts here). But I know that I’ll be back next year, and am enjoying getting out to see as much of Scotland as I can in the meantime.
So, I’ll try to post every now and then here, mostly with writing related thoughts, the occasional book review, and anything else I find interesting. With zero established audience for this blog, I feel free to be as sporadic and unpolished as I like – consider that your fair warning!
X
Zoya