Thursday 19 May 2016

Welcome.

You found me! And I found you. It's great to meet you and I hope we can be friends.

Here's the backstory:

I'm a girl from a town in Northeast Victoria, Australia. After finishing school, I left my hometown for the big smoke, spent some years at uni and enjoy my singlehood, finally settled down with a good job, bought a flat and met a top bloke. Eventually we found a house together in a great part of Melbourne and got married. Then we knocked the house down and built a new one. It was an exciting experience and we ended up with a lovely house to call home.

Then we were blessed with a little boy, and a few years later, a little girl. Life was good. When we were given the opportunity to live in a beautiful part of the Pacific Ocean for a few years we thought all our dreams had come true. It didn't take much to convince us that we wanted an adventure to grow and test ourselves, plus the excuse to learn a bit of French, so off to New Caledonia we went.

After more than 3 fantastic years of living the expat life, it was time to return to Australia. And here we are, 45 minutes from my hometown, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

It's been a couple of years since our return from New Caledonia. For a long time I felt like we were just on an extended family visit, about to return to our sleepy ville in Provence Nord. But now, wistfully, I've come to realise that the French tropical chapter of our lives is over, fading into the past, but bound to us through with a pile of photos, unique memories and a group of extremely special friends who I will never forget.

Last year we bought a little plot of land outside our new town. It is on the side of a small hill and overlooks the local town. The view stretches across the Murray River and into the majestic hills of New South Wales. We have trees, grass, lots of birds, echidnas and kangaroos and more space than we've ever had before. Soon we will build a house there. It will be the official roots that we finally put down in our new community. It will be our spot to say hello from. 

Our Hill of Hello.