Last days in England

After a stressful day trying to sort out residency and all that jazz in Norway I've decided its the last thing I wont to blog about. I am therefore going to go back in time and touch on my last few days in England as I was too busy to actually right about it at the time.

The last few days in England were surprisingly unstrange, despite packing and leaving Chester, saying goodbyes etc etc it really hadn't sunk in what I was doing. Everything had happened so fast over the last few months there hadn't been time to think about it. This was kind of deliberate as we had just wanted to get out there and settled as soon as we could. 

Saying goodbye to everyone wasn't even particularly sad if I'm honest. I'd been living away from home for 4 years at Uni so I didn't see most people very often and the point which I kept trying to sell to everyone was that the trip to Bergen wasn't that different in length and cost to a trip upnorth to where I was at Uni anyway. Ok its a fair bit more hassle but from where I grew up, its an hour or so to a the airport, a two hour flight, followed by like half an hour from the airport to where we are living in Bergen. In fact if you take out the tedious waiting around the airport the time spent travelling is actually shorter. This is of great comfort to me, I think I would feel a lot more edgy I think if it cost me hundreds of pounds and half a day or more on a plane if I needed to get home.

My advice to people I think would be if your considering a big move, just go for it, don't think about it too much as if your like me you wont be able to truly imagine it anyway just make the decision and go. People were so happy for me and in many cases very jealous. Lots of people I spoke to wished they had an opportunity like the one I was presented with and considered me very brave for taking it. Personally I don't think I've been brave, I didn't want to be anywhere in particular, I just wanted to be with Marianne, and she wanted to be in Bergen. I'd been their, I knew it was lovely, everyone I'd met had been great and every statistic I could lay my hands on seemed to suggest Norway is like the best place in the world for raising a family. It was an easy decision!

I love England, and there are things I miss already and many things I always will and when the plane left the ground at Gatwick airport 8 days ago I was full of strange feelings and emotions. But none of them were regret, and when I touched down in Norway and when I wake up every day, I am a happy man. What more could one ask for. 

On one my last days in England we all went to the New Forest for a hike. Perfect day out to see some beautiful English country side.

Feeding some of the famous wild horses of the New Forest

A cow had gotten out of a field onto the public path and was rather distressed. We all teamed together to herd her back in. (I really hope it was into the right field)

I think I may have been a little half cut at this point but this picture is from my Leaving bash in Basingstoke and nicely shows the decorating by my Mum of a centre photo of me and Marianne with the English flags coming out from my side and the Norwegian ones from here. It was very thoughtful and went down a treat. Maps were also laid out so people could work out where in the world Norway and more specifically Bergen actually was, not unsurprisingly most didn't have a scooby do. 

Officially Ex-Pat!!

It is disgraceful of me that this post has taken me so long to write but I wasnt sure where to start. But here it goes, I am now officially living in Norway arriving here Monday afternoon, greeted by beautiful sunshine. This was a massive treat especially as there were floods all over England as I was leaving. The first evening Marianne's siblings, and nieces all joined us at her parents for a cracking BBQ, I even got a slight tan before running inside to catch the England game (I have never mentioned before I'm a huge footy fan but I will try to not fill up this blog with all that jazz).

It was a great day, as were the few that followed, we have been fairly relaxed most of the time, catching up/meeting people but we have also begun the dreaded job search. It has been less than a week but I can already see that this is going to be a very long, depressing process. It seems the only jobs that dont require to be fluent in Norwegian are Engineering jobs. I just finished a Bachelor in Management and Marketing and have no manual trade behind me so safe to say I'm up the creek without a paddle. The plan I think is to continue to apply for formal office jobs I know I will never get while also wondering around the cafes and restaurants in the city. Barista would be quite nice as its a little interaction, social hours and I've dont it before so fancy myself as pretty skilled.

Anyway thats enough of the pessimism, I am actually loving Norway so far, everyone is being so so kind and patient and I dont think I'll ever get bored of looking out of the window and being surrounded by mountains and just generally gorgeous scenery. I've even pretty much gotten used to and accepted some of the insane pricing here. 

I look forward to posting in a lot more detail about all the interesting observations I'm making over here that make me laugh and think and on a daily basis, but so long for now! 

End of the Chester Chapter

Well that was a stressful few days! Marianne and I have now officially left Chester, a place that was a great home to me for 4 amazing years while I was at Uni. I can safely say the 18 year old boy that left Basingstoke those few years ago is a very different person to the 22 year old man that drove back on his motorbike in the pouring rain yesterday (I now have a cold).

I have learned so much (very little of it taught to me by lecturers), met so many interesting people and had some amazing experiences. I would need a separate blog to even begin going through the many different happenings over that time, I may occasionally touch back. Chester has been an amazing adventure and a very deliberate one. When choosing a University all those years ago I knew I wanted to get away from my home town. By English standards the northern town of Chester over 200 miles was a pretty big commitment, a great choice that I never regretted.

I am now back in my home town of Basingstoke for a few days, where I will be saying my good byes to all my family and friends before heading to Norway on Monday. All becoming very very real!

The famous Chester Eastgate clock

(Stolen from my friend Andy's Image a day blog., it is in my followed blogs and well worth a look)