This is my little series on the big move back to Australia. Perhaps I will look back in the future and laugh... or cry!
Part 1: Finding a Moving Company
Past 2: A Slight Travel Panic
Part 3: Comparing Crypto Tax Accounting platforms (Cointracking vs Rotki)
Part 4: A Week in Involuntary Stasis
Part 5: The Last Harvest
Part 6: Letting Go...
Part 7: Putting the name out there!
Part 8: Prohibited Materials:
Part 9: Liquidity Freeze!
Part 10: NOOOOO, Steam Deck Delay!
Part 11: A Father's Guilt
Part 12: Middle of the Night Interviews
Part 13: Poopyitdy Poopydity Poop Poop.... Corona Variant Omicron!
Part 14: Things I will MISS about Netherlands
Part 15: Things I WON'T MISS about Netherlands
Part 16: Last Concerts in Europe
Part 17: The Pre-Packing
Part 18: Stuff is Getting Real....
Part 19: Things I WORRY ABOUT in Australia
Well... it is the day before the big day. Tomorrow, if PCR tests are negative and nothing weird happens, will be the day that we return back to Australia after living 15 years in the Netherlands. We have had a rollercoaster ride of emotions over the past weeks. Farewells, missed farewells and last moments... but it is time for one part of our lives to finish, and another part to begin. So, I guess it is more than appropriate that I finish this little series with things that I am looking forward to in our new home...
Family
This is the big one... family, extended and otherwise was the principal reason that we are moving back after so long away. Living so far away from the family support network has been a huge drain on us, and as we see the extended family grow and multiply, we have started to feel so far away. Taking holidays together, meeting up for dinners and drinks, and just seeing the kids grow up together... these are the things that can't easily be replaced by digital communication and a once yearly visit. These are moments and time that develop whilst living and interacting together and not by appointments... so as we got older and our girls started to grow up, it became quite clear to us that we really wanted to move back to build these relationships.
The Warmth
Oh... there are times in Europe and Netherlands where I just feel like I will never warm up throughout the day. I wake up cold, and then stay cold for the rest of the day... not even a warm shower will fix it. So, in Australia... we are likely to have the opposite problem, where we will be lying barely moving on the ground... sweating to death instead! Still, somehow that seems a little bit nicer than freezing!
I know that the girls are going to struggle a bit... they have not handled the heat that well in the past, so it will take a few summers for them to get into it! But both of them LOVE the beach (their mother does as well), and so there will be more than ample opportunity to experience the Australian beaches... which (apologies to Europe...) are on a different level of quality in comparison to what we have had in Europe!
Still... Canberra will be cold. Australian houses aren't really built for keeping warm, and so mornings in the winter can feel much colder than you expect! So... our future house is going to be well designed and insulated to try and alleviate that!
Being inside the bubble!
It is a hard thing to describe... but living in the Netherlands, we have always felt a bit on the outside. Not that the Dutch were unfriendly or that we didn't try to integrate... but there is a certain sense of shared assumptions and "normality" that a group of people of a certain nationality subscribe to... albeit a range of those. This means that as an outsider, some things that are completely obvious to the Dutch would be incomprehensible or strange to us... and things that we thought should be obvious and straight-forward would be a touch more complicated than we would have thought!
Going back to our native land of birth means that we will now be in the know with all these shared assumptions! However, the kids might struggle a little bit... they have grown up primarily with Dutch ideas from school and friends... so, there might be the occasional embarrassing thing that they say or do that might be looked on weirdly by Australians!
Reconnecting with old friends
This is much like the family thing... it is one thing to try and stay in digital contact, and it is quite another to be physically visiting each other or going out for drinks... or just pitching in when friends need help. Those are the things that real relationships are built out of... and whilst it is definitely possible for people to build and maintain online relationships, it isn't the sort of thing that my wife and I are really adept at doing... and so, for us, it is better to meet people in meatspace instead.
It is especially difficult when the relationships and friendships didn't start online. It is harder to transition from one more to the other.
Finding our home
Hopefully, this will be the last time that we move. My wife and I have relocated quite a number of times... and there was a chance that this last move into the home that we are now leaving could have been our last. However, the pull of Australia and our families was just too strong... and so, it become our second last home.
Owning a home has taught us many things... when we buy our new place, we will have learnt many things about what to look for and how to maintain a house. I'm slightly less incompetent at DIT house stuff... but far from average. But I will have the help of family members who are much more adept at that sort of thing to help and learn from!
We will miss our current home... it looks so strange to be so devoid of life and furniture and all the trappings of a used house. But we are looking forward to slowly building the house of our dreams in a new place...
Starting again!
Despite the fact that it is hard to say goodbye to so many people... it is good to remember that this is just a close, which means that we are starting with a new beginning. The other night, I was talking with my oldest... and we were both upset about all the farewells that we were making. I told her, in a few days... it will be nice to stop saying goodbye, and to start saying hello and hi to people... it is this period of leaving that is the most difficult, and although the future is a little uncertain, it is full of possibilities and new openings!
I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x
Handy Crypto Tools
Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
FTX: Regulated US-based exchange with some pretty interesting and useful discounts on trading and withdrawal fees for FTT holders. Decent fiat on-ramp as well!
MXC: Listings of lots of interesting tokens that are usually only available on DEXs. Avoid high gas prices!
Huobi: One of the largest exchanges in the world, some very interesting listings and early access sales through Primelist.
Gate.io: If you are after some of the weirdest and strangest tokens, this is one of the easiest off-chain places to get them!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.
Stoic: A USD maximisation bot trading on Binance using long-term long strategies, powered by the AI/human system of Cindicator.
StakeDAO: Decentralised pooled staking of PoS assets.
Poloniex: One of the older regulated exchanges that has come into new ownership. I used to use it quite a lot, but have since stopped.
