Come in number 16. Your time is up!

This week is disappearing quicker than the money in my bank account (and that has been seriously fast this holiday!). As I write the final UK chapter (for this year anyway) to the blog, it is already Thursday. My emotions are a heady hotpot of worry, nervousness, stress, excitement, happiness and eagerness to get going; all on rapid boil inside me. There is however,  a delicate underlying flavour of sadness at leaving my beautiful Cornwall behind again for another year. It has been at times a hectic stay over the last 6 weeks or so, but I have loved breathing the salty Cornish air, running and cycling in quiet(ish) country lanes, sea swimming with great people and definitely tasting the locally regionally-brewed nectar, that is real ale. Of course I am not the only person in this family and I am pretty confident that the girls (all 3) have had a great time also. Olivia and Evie have touched base again with both sets of grandparents and notwithstanding the dreaded dental work Caz had to undergo, I think she has been able to sort of unwind from the stress and strain of working in Doha. I definitely think some time off relaxing in the Falklands will do Caz the world of good.

I am confident that once we finally get to the Falklands, the sadness of leaving Cornwall will be quickly  dispelled by the excitement of settling into a new home and somewhere so reassuringly different to our Middle Eastern home of the last few years. Don't get me wrong, I am under no illusion that all will be rosy with living in the Falklands. For one thing, at about 7000 miles and an 18 to 19 hour plane journey, it's a bloody long way away from the UK. Just this fact alone presents a number of challenges in living there. This increase in remoteness means even less opportunity to see family and friends for one. I certainly won't be popping home for the odd weekend - Skype it is then Mum and Dad! It's also going to be another couple of years of missing the Cornish Pirates playing down at the Mennaye - something I loved to do before leaving for the Middle East. Well, maybe they will be playing in the Premiership at last, the next time I do get to see them... you never know. The weather is going to be colder on average than the UK, and being only about 2500 miles from the South Pole, A LOT colder than Qatar! A good proportion of this holiday has been spent mining a hole in the bank balance to build, practically from scratch, a new Winter wardrobe for all of us. Aside from school uniforms and work clothes, we have all been living in flip flops for almost 3 years. What makes this prospect worse is the fact that it's Winter in the Southern hemisphere at the moment. My fingers and toes are already tingling at the prospect of running and cycling in cold like that again - cue flashback of cycle commuting to Penryn, Winter 2011...

Although these are significant negatives (and there are others), I do believe and hope that they will be far outweighed by a number of positives for moving to the Falklands. Despite the cold, the opportunity to lead an outdoor life for my family and me is something we have really missed out on in recent years and something that really presents itself on the islands. It's also another part of this wonderful world to experience and savour and I feel that it truly will be a wonderful part of the world in terms of the natural beauty of the land and the variety of fauna on show.  Community life in Stanley, and how well we integrate into this, will also be an important factor in how we enjoy our time there. On this front all the signs do look favourable, at the moment. Caz (being Caz) has made a number of contacts already... Facebook, where would we be without it these days? On top of this, every person we have spoken to with any sort of contact or experience to the place have only spoken of how they have enjoyed their time there.  Lastly, it's another opportunity to develop my career. Although the school will be a lot smaller than DBS in Qatar, the challenge will be no less demanding, and yet possibly even more rewarding.

I guess we will find out soon enough, how all of the above pans out. This time next week we will be well and truly into the settling in process, which will be fine with me, as that epic journey to get there will be over. If I am honest the thought of flying for so long is not the most appealing, to say the least. We have to drive to RAF Brize Norton first, as we are flying courtesy of the RAF. This alone will occupy us for the majority of Saturday. Although fairly seasoned travellers now, I doubt very much whether Olivia and Evie even comprehend how far it is going to be.
"Are we there yet?"
"No Evie, we have only just left the airport..."
"How many minutes more?"
"One thousand and seventy-nine Evie..."

So... that's it for UK for this year. See you in the South Atlantic!