Gosh I’m a terrible blogger.

My last blog post was the first week of January. It is now the last week of January and I was supposed to post at least once a week.  Or at least that was my original plan. However after my last post bragging and complaining about Sydney not much has happened. Oh wait! We did go to the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Where I discovered this beautiful music!

We went back to our little town in the outback and went back to work on the grain plant. In an attempt to shift the holiday weight we’ve both joined the gym across the road and are enjoying the local hot baths. And whilst I am ever grateful that I have a job, a roof (not a car roof) over my head and stability in our lives, I’ve been getting homesick.

It’s not nice to admit but it has been growing over the past few months and the closer we get to our flight date to go back to UK it grows even more. I did expect this though. As soon as New Years was over I knew the questions would start pouring in about whether we’ve booked our flights yet or not. The more I think about home, the weirder it gets. 

I used to hate the cold, wet, miserable weather of the UK. Now whenever I go outside it feels like I’m in a goddamn sauna surrounded by 40 hairdryers on the hot setting. My lipsticks have all melted in the car and doing your hair in any kind of style seems to be an exercise in futility.

There’s no cold water unless you put it in the fridge. All the stuff out of the plumbing comes out luke warm. And don’t even attempt to go barefoot outside! You will more than likely suffer third degree burns on the soles of your feet.

I’m sick of the flies, spiders, snakes and poisoness barb shooting caterpillars, which are genuinely a thing. And I’m not too keen about the fact that I have to travel 8 hours return journey in the car to buy the mascara of my choice. Guess I could just order it online. Poor little me. 

Sounds kinda trivial now I’ve put it on “paper” but I’m not gonna deny that all these little things haven’t been mounted up. The majority of the homesick mountain consists of less trivial things though. Like how I really miss Rosie’s sofa, glasses of wine with the girls and making fun of everything that’s wrong with the world. I even miss her fiance’s poor attempts at making conversation leaving us with familar awkward silence. I’m even looking forward to the inevitable inquisition.

I miss my mum’s ah-ha moments when I show her something new on the computer and my sister when you laughs at something completely ridiculous or none existent (I swear she still has an imaginary friend.) I also miss this idiot…

I can’t wait to have hommity pie in Bakewell with my dad again, catch up with old friends over coffee, check my niece isn’t getting taller than me and we still have to meet a new member of the family yet, she’ll nearly be 2 by the time we get back! I can’t wait to hear my grandparents praise/complain about my hair. And my cat! Awwww I’m gonna cuddle him until he claws my face! And then I’ll cuddle him some more! There’s lots of people I miss and can’t wait to see again! Plus, that mascara will be a 15 min bus journey aware from my house! Yuss! Bonus!

I’m not sure why I’ve been so down about it all, I guess it feels like I’m stuck in the arse end of nowhere, doing a job that could easily be replaced by some up-to-date software. Yeah, that’s probably it. Maybe all this mushyness was due to Blue Monday too! You know most Australians don’t know that’s even a thing.

They have Australia Day instead. Which I spent indoors in the aircon drawing cartoons and watching Moana. Because trust me it’s too damn hot outside! The only pro about going outside at the moment is putting this on, because well it just smells effin’ fantastic. Why did I not buy this a year ago?!

Well, Blue Monday is behind us. We’re rolling into February and things can only get better right? *Looks at the world news* Yeesh. Okay, fair enough. 

Okay so to at least make this post slightly useful and not end up on a downer. Here are the things that I do to alleviate the homesickness and not fall into the spiralling pit of despair and broken dreams (dramatic much)

1. Talk to people. This works in two different ways. You may feel better by talking to people back home online. Or by ignoring the tech for a while and talking to people around you and connecting with them. Try both and see which works.

2. Try to recreate some home comforts, for me this is blasting the aircon on the lowest it will go (not enviroment friendly I know), putting some wooly things on and making a sunday dinner whilst watching something British. I suggest Blackadder, Spaced, Fawlty Towers, Black Books and anything Sherlock Holmes related.

3. Exercise. I’m not an expert but apparently it’s a fact that exercise makes you feel better about everything. So does chocolate. But exercise is better for you. Apparently.

4. Speaking of chocolate, here’s what NOT to do…

Don’t drink, do drugs, gamble, spend or eat your pain. It’s easy to do and a slippery slope. Where does this slope lead? Remember the pit of despair and broken dreams? Yeah, there.

5. Fill your spare time with other things rather just just wallowing in self pity. Examples are this are…

a) A healthy hobby such as painting, photography, writing, reading etc, 

B) You could finally get around to those boring time consuming tasks that everone puts off, like organising photos or  computer files, evaluate your finances, clean your backpack 

c) Plan ahead, write a bucket list or things you want to do in the future you can look forward to,

d) Connect with others that feel the same way, you can find plenty of other blogs just google “homesickness”. Easy!

e) Write out your thoughts. What do you miss about home? What don’t you miss? What don’t you like about the place your in? And more importantly what DO you like about your current location?
Realise it’s all just a trade off, you swap one set of problems for another. Sorry but I don’t think paradise really exists. It is what you make of it though. List as many good things as possible and practice gratitude daily.

6. Check your travel insurance policy! Really this should be number 1! Most people won’t know what’s covered under their policy. You might be able to claim up to £450 for a trip back home as long as it is under 21 days depending on your policy. Check the terms and conditions and contact the company to see if you qualify. 
You might be able to come home for a couple of weeks in which time you’ll have enough time to see everyone get over your homesickness get bored and go back on your ‘holiday’ without wasting your visa or spending too much of your own cash. 
You won’t know if you don’t ask! 
I know reading insurance policies is the most boring thing on the planet and seems like a punishment from the devil himself but it’s actually important! Check your policy!!!

7. Laughter! Limit your intake of neggy stuff. And overdose on the funnies! I’m not just talking internet memes, vines and youtub videos of people falling over. There’s good old fashion stand up comedy and board games! Let me recommend this Estonian board game… I’ll not explain it. Spoils the fun.
Also if you haven’t heard of Cards of Humanity…well, give it a look.

I contributed to a funny blog post a couple of weeks ago… if you’ve experienced hostels at their worst a few of these are ridicuulously and sometimes painfully relateable!

Dear Hostel guy!

If that doesn’t make you laugh I’ll leave you with this photo of me and my brother.

P.s
Again just a little reminder to listen to this artist, Roshani.