House of Dreams

Weclome to 2021. I logged on and kicked off the new working year today. I think we say Happy New Year, in the hope that the new part of our greeting will fill us with a sense of renewal and optimism. And it can be - given the vaccination programs are building up in northern Europe.  The reality check though is that our vaccinations for the group we fall in - healthy, non-essential worker, young-ish, etc - means we are a long way from being innoculated.  It may be as soon as end of this year....  which means,  as my UK colleagues noted, we will be working from home for at least another eight to ten months. Aghhhhhhhhhh.  

By February, I will have sat in front of my PC screen for 12 months working from home.  Another six months feels easy in the sense that we've survived the first year, but somewhere along the line something has to give. 

How do I say this, and not be perceived to recklessly annul our European adventure plans we had so carefully sewn? Tim and I spoke of this, and we think we have another six months in us, to live through a COVID, self-isolated northern European year. We found much comfort in the warmth of our shared moment of truth.  But after these next six months, we are going home. We have put a line in the sand, and let Thomas know we will be home for Christmas 2021. The decision has been a gentle journey of self-realisation that we need to live our lives the best we can, and doing so in a country that requires us to stay at home for extended periods of time, from one year to the next, is not something we want to pursue beyond two and a half years.  Tim has not been able to find work in this COVID world, and while that hasn't impacted at all, I recognise he too needs to find that sense of purpose to sustain his sense of integrating into this European way of life. 

Putting it in writing on my blog, makes it very real. 2021 will be our final year in Europe, and the extraordinary city of Amsterdam, that has been home to us. We have loved our life in Europe, as contained as it has been, but it's time to plan our return home to Australia. Now for the conversation with my work to see how we navigate the next six months... and the juggernaught of finding flights home in a world of travel caps and quarantine, but that's a whole other story :)