10 years ago...
... i left south africa to come here to the united kingdom. the original plan was to come here for work & travel and, oh my, so much has happened to me in the last 10 years.
{this was taken at the airport when my family came to say goodbye. janine, heleen, andre & karlien.} WOW they all look so young!!!
i can't believe it's been 10 years already! looking at the photo above, it looks like this was taken 10 years ago but it doesn't feel like it.
a short summary of the 10 years:
i started of in scotland and lived & worked there for a year at 2 different hotels & and at a ski resort
i then went home for my sister karlien's wedding
after spending 3 months in south africa, i decided to come back here since i still had about a year left on my visa. so i decided to go to London.
i lived in this house in walthamstow (we went for a visit here) with a bunch of other south africans. this is also where i met my lovely husband wayne.
later my sister and her husband joined me & also lived in the same house.
{photos above from our stay in walthamstow}
it was awesome to have my sister & andre here and we went to see quite a few places like Greece & Scotland. i miss my sister and wish they lived closer.
in the last 10 years i've been to moto gp about 4 times.
we've travelled to Paris (about 5 times - so easy and quick with the earostar) {more photos click here and here},
New York,
Turkey, Germany, Holland, Brugge,
Lille, Brussels,
Venice (see rest of the post here),
Mauritius (for our honeymoon).
we've also travelled through the UK to see places like wales, portsmouth, bath, isle of white, bournemouth, cambridge and oxford to name a few. {to see more places we've been to click here}
so many things have changed in my life in the last few years.
with BIG things like meeting my future husband, {photos above is a few of the loads he sends me from work}
moving into our own place,
our wedding {see the rest here} &
birth of riley {see more here}.
to small things like these:
this is his first day going to work on a bicycle. (the previous day we walked for 3 hours on the cycle route so that he would know exactly where to go.)
the first time wayne met my family.
when i met wayne's mom & dad, when they came for a visit (and went to Paris with them).
when we became british citizens {this was taken at the ceremony}
christmas in london (see rest of photos here)
new year in london (see rest of photos here)
snow in london {see more here and here}
visit tourist places in london like the london dungeon {photo} and natural history museum
and going to see my favourite band linkin park not once but 3 times - thank you husband {see rest here}
wayne took my to my first football match (at Old Trafford in Manchester).
all these amazing things happened to me & it made me a better person, stronger person & more self assured. i'm very fortunate to have been able to see and experience all of these things. but i also missed out on a lot with my family & friends in SA. and this still makes me sad and miss home & everyone there ...
thinking back to 10 years ago when i (as a scared and excited girl) got on that plane in south africa, i would have never thought that i'll be where i am today. i've had some hard times (and like i said, it's still very hard to be this far away from everyone in SA), but i had (and still have) more awesome and great times than bad.
{getting the photos & links together for this post, just made me realise how much i love this blog}
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