Well the fact is, I’ve probably felt almost that amazed ever since, with every day I’ve lived here. London has been a fantastic place to live, filled with wonderful friendly people. (So why am I leaving? More on this below.)

For anyone reading this who hasn’t been to London, who might be thinking of doing the “2 year working visa” trip, just bloody do it. It is probably the best thing you will ever do in your life.

There are loads of reasons.

I arrived in London with £200 and a backpack. I leave with a lot more. And most of that is because London was definitely the city of opportunity for me. I feel so very fortunate to have worked for wonderful British employers, who funded me through 2 accountancy qualifications, countless other courses, sent me on business trips around the world, encouraged me to develop my career, gave me brilliant opportunities to do so (especially at PwC) and through whom I met some wonderful, decent, salt of the earth people, ex colleagues who I am proud to call my friends.

There was only one place in all of 21 years of working here where I experienced homophobia and at first had a pretty rough time – not a bad run rate really and probably meant to happen, to help me appreciate how lucky I had been overall. And I won’t let it colour my memories of London, life goes on. It could happen anywhere.

Living in London helped me to travel the parts of the world that were always that bit too far from oz – Europe in particular. I will never forget my trip to Moscow and our holidays in Greece.

Living in London – south London – was a wonderful experience. I spent the first 6 years in a Council flat, a classic one built in the old fashioned way in the fifties – and I met the most down to earth people you could ever wish to know. People who had bugger all but would still help you out with some milk or by taking in parcels for you etc. And I then spent the next 15 years in my “ideal” London house, in the friendliest, most neighbourly street in Camberwell. What can I say about our neighbours, fantastic. Once neighbours, now friends. Love them all.

Over those 21 years, the much maligned NHS saved my life (yes, it was very close), I had my car broken into only once, my house never, and I can’t remember receiving more than 2 parking tickets. Not bad at all.

Yes indeed, London will be the hardest act to follow. Friends, neighbours, opportunities – the bar is definitely set very high.

So with all this gushing over how wonderful the place is, why am I leaving?? I’ve had this discussion quite a bit lately.

Three reasons.

1 – I always said I would go back to Oz one day, and I want to go back while I am still young and healthy enough to really enjoy it, to either build a business or a career, to get a lovely home and so on

2 – I figured that if I stayed in london for another 5 years, my life, though enjoyable, wouldn’t really be that much different to today. Except that I’d be 5 years older. Whereas, in Oz, its bound to be different – and hopefully just as exciting.

3 – I believe that life is lived in phases – I’ve done the western suburbs school phase, the inner-Sydney uni phase and the London phase and now I’m totally up for the “living by the water in northern Australia” phase. Bring it on! It keeps life exciting!

And what’s life if you don’t take risks. Boring, that’s what!

I will definitely miss London, but I will definitely come back to visit.

And I recall what my dad said those 21 years ago when I told him I was coming to London. He was upset and worried, like any parent probably would be, but he said something along the lines of he would never stand in my way and I should always do whatever makes me happy.

It made me happy to come over, and now it makes me happy to finally go “home”.

Since my last post was some time ago, here’s where we are as of today:

- crossing everything possible and hoping our house exchanges next Tuesday. I’ve signed the contract, taken a moment in the nearest starbucks to reflect on what a lovely home it has been and am now preparing myself for the trauma of finally saying goodbye in around 4 weeks time after nearly 15 years.

- hoping to confirm cats flights, shippers and temporary accommodation in London some time tomorrow. With a bit of luck, we will be able to stay in an apartment overlooking the Thames at Westminster and next to the London Eye. That will make for interesting morning viewing.

- I’m exploring a couple of brilliant job opportunities in Oz, most likely in Brisbane but possibly in Melbourne. Have had two skype interviews for one of them and its looking promising. Hope to hear in the next week or so. The job market in Oz for ecommerce / online is, according to an agency, about to take off big time and is a couple of years behind where we are in London – so hopefully things are in my favour.

- still also planning to work with Hector at some point, even if just on an ad hoc  basis for a while. All in good time.

- oh, and we now fly to Sydney on the 1st July, which fits in better with the sporting calendar. We now fly out the day after the England / Australia one day match at The Oval on the 30th and arrive in Sydney before the third state of origin, which is on the 7th July. I’ve got a ticket to the first and hoping to get tickets to the second. Also training Sue to hate cane toads and cheer on the blues.

- planning on settling in Brisbane at least for a year or so when we get there. If we don’t like it, we can always move.

- have started organising the important things. Mum is going to get foxtel connected in the apartment on the Sunshine Coast, where we will stay until we move to Brisbane. Broadband is apparently easy to do the day we get there. And we’ll probably unlock our google phones and take them with us.

- on the boring side, we’ve set up things like bank accounts, found our tax file numbers, changed our addresses, applied for our bike import permits and so on. I’ve started the sterling / Aussie dollar shuffle and brought all the Londonforfree billing up to date.

There’s still loads to do but every day I get closer to “home” and it makes it all worthwhile. As I’ve said all along, London is a wonderful city and I will miss it and the wonderful friends I’ve made here. But Australia will always be my home and I just can’t wait to get back!

In the past month, I’ve:

- sold our house (hopefully)

- given my notice at work (unofficially)

- brought our flights forward (now, 6th July – or 128 days from today)

- arranged with my friend David to kindly take us in his black cab to the airport (its the details that matter!)

- learnt more about the FTSE and economics than I ever ever ever wanted to (sadly)

We’ve also decided on our plan for the time between leaving our lovely house in London (gulp, sniff sniff) and buying what sdf calls her dream house in Oz.

Basically, we will be having a holiday – holidaying in a short let apartment in London on the riverfront for a few weeks before we fly over, and holidaying in my apartment on the Sunshine Coast when we arrive in Oz. One long, long holiday – oh yes.

Things will probably become even more frantic over the next month as we start selling stuff, cancelling stuff and arranging to ship stuff. But its all exciting!

The only downside is of course the exchange rate, abysmal for the Aussie dollar. But you know, I came over here with bugger all and even if I leave with less money than I’d have had a few years ago, it will still have been the best spent 21 years of my life.

And we’ll make do with what we take – after all, its only money. I have a million memories to take back with me, loads of lovely friends and contacts to keep in touch with across the miles and a lovely family. Much more important.

Right, better get on with selling stuff ……… oops, there’s the doorbell again…

But there are a few things.

• watch the Aussie cricket team play England live (I am holding out for tickets for the Oval ODI in June, fingers crossed!)
• re-visit some of my favourite museums, such as the Imperial War Museum and the British Museum
• update some of the London walks
• check out the i-Max cinema at the South Bank
• see a couple more west end shows
• try and fit in as many Saturday morning trips to Borough market as possible!

We were also hoping to do a couple more trips to Europe before we left for Oz, but given everything we have to do to organise for the big move, this may not now be possible. Oh well, places like Greece should hopefully still be around for a while yet.

On the subject of London, I’m not quite sure what I will miss about the place and maybe I’ll only realise it once I am back in Oz. I know already that I will miss my friends and my house and the feeling of being in the midst of history as I walk London’s streets. But life goes on. I’m quite looking forward to not living in a big city, and to being self employed / working part-time.

And in “never say never” style, who knows, we might come back to London one day for a visit. After all, its “only” a day away! So I guess there’s no harm in leaving a few things unchecked on the list.

Now the waiting starts. No idea how long it will take until we hear from the Australian High Commission in London, who apparently will do the application processing. We might also need to go in and have an interview with them. Some say it takes weeks, some say months. Still, we’re in no  major hurry.

In the meantime, I have started simplifying my life here. Am stepping down from the TandRA after the fete in September, and after the big project goes live at work in Oct, SDF and I will be having a mega sale on eBay Time to seriously declutter.

Am also showing more interest in the property markets and currency markets lately. Sad, I know, something I really don’t like doing. I’ve never wanted to know the value of my house – its just my home and all that – but needs must if I am going to sell it in a year or less. And if we can get a place in Sydney – inner west – without needing a mortgage, that will be ideal. Hence, trying to see what places are selling for on both sides of the world.

I’ve also discovered a great FX company called UKforex (aka Ozforex) – no transaction fees and better rates than banks. Now I’m waiting for the currency to hit the heady heights of 1.97 (those days of a pound being worth 2.32 are sadly a pipe dream for a while, I fear.) 1.97 and I’m happy…..

So I feel we are slowly making steps towards the big move. The next things to do will be to start the ball rolling with the cats moving over and getting estimates for our stuff to be shipped. But not until SDF gets the go ahead to have her medicals and police checks.  It will happen soon enough – hopefully!

What I hadn’t done after 20 years in London I was probably never going to do – and I was getting very bored with corporate life generally, 5 days a week.

And then my father gave me a wonderful opportunity. He asked me to take over the running of his company when I return to Sydney.

No bosses to report to, no mind numbing processes, no time wasting politics, just being in sole charge of decision-making (after initially working alongside him while I learn the ropes), deciding my own hours and making things happen in order to continue to grow the business.

For the first week or so after we discussed it, I think I was wandering around stunned, overwhelmed by all the possibilities and opportunities it offered. I’m now slowly getting my head around it all and just can’t wait!

Now its hardly BHP but its a good, solid and profitable business with  low debt and an established operating model and customer base. It also has a reliable supply chain and a growing distribution network across eastern Australia. And its got loads of opportunities for further growth across the rest of Australia and into NZ.

I’m no expert in the stuff it makes and sells – which currently includes fire pumps, pressure cleaners, generators, compressors, plate compactors and so on – but there are plenty of technical guys there who know loads about it.

My job will be to steer the business, steadily expand into new markets, continue the development of new products and ensure we continue to build on the brand values of low price and high quality and great after-sales service.

There’s also loads of warehouse and office space which I can use to run an internet business – which opens up even more opportunities. haven’t even started to get my head around this bit yet.

So the first thing I’ve got to do is unpick my life in London and then hopefully we will move back in the next 12 – 18 months, depending on visas and so on.

Meanwhile, since returning to London I now have a whole new attitude to work. It’s simply a job, not a career, just something fun to get me through until we are organised to leave.

And I feel so much better. Thanks Hector.

Unbelievable that next week it will have been twenty years ago that I left Sydney for London. A 6 month trip soon became a year, then 2, then 5, and now 20. But the time is right for me to bring my family to Australia to live – yes, sdf, I can hear you saying “its about bloody time” as you start packing.

I’d been thinking about it for a few months but as soon as I drove past the Sydney Cricket Ground this morning in the beautiful Sydney winter sunshine, I knew in my heart this was where I now need to be – I just knew. It has to be done.

Its going to be scary. I’ve got a load more to think about than I did when I left Sydney with a backpack and £200 in my pocket. But I’ll do it – and I will use this part of my blog to write about the fun and games I have in packing up my life in London and resettling somewhere in Oz (probably, but not necessarily, Sydney).

I will be inspired by the beauty and simplicity of inner Sydney, the classic Aussie pubs, the ease of buying decent fresh food, the wonderful outdoor places and the friendly locals. It doesn’t mean I have become tired of living in London – London is a wonderful place too – I just know that its time to come home.

So this trip is a reckie mission. Checking out what I need to think about, talking to people, making sure its the right decision, creating a plan and so on. Had a great chat with Kimberly today about it and I reckon Hector will be delighted to help me when I see him on Sunday.

I reckon there are 3 key things that I need to sort out when I get back to London:

1 – figure out the best way of getting sdf over

2 – start getting pet passports for the girls

3 – sell my house and get rid of / prepare to ship my stuff

No definite timing yet but hopefully within the next 12 – 18 months. Which also puts all my work stuff into perspective, finally, as it now becomes a case of getting whatever experience I can which is likely to be of use to me when I get to Oz.

I can’t wait to tell sdf. Its going to be a great adventure!