Yep. I'm home as declared in the previous post. After a three month stint at my parents bludging, enjoying family, catching up with friends, playing games and looking for work I had emptied my bank account and moved onto my credit card when I packed my bags to move on.
I had planned since before I left the UK to not set up the next stage of my life in my hometown. For one, I struggled greatly when I fell into my post-adventure rut after my year in the USA and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I believe there was more to it and I'm still dealing with stuff but there was definitely a deflation after an excitable year away. So I had thought enough to keep some adventure happening this time around. For two, I needed to keep exploring myself and stretching myself. I decided to head to a big city for the ease of finding nanny employment and also for the opportunities to try new things and explore my art skills. I further decided to make sure I was still nearby family after missing their company for the last two years. So to continue my adventure in this fashion, I brought my packed bags to Sydney late June to begin my new job and move into the next stage of my life.
Starting somewhere new is something I always find particularly difficult being an introvert and not a currently well-balanced one. I really have to push myself and regularly step out of my comfort zone. I gave myself the space to settle into my new job. As a live in nanny this requires a couple of months for me to feel completely at ease and settled. New kids to understand, plus the parents, the local area, the routines and how it all works on top of all the "me in a new place" stuff. I started working three days a week which was a nice, relaxed lead in to a new job in a new city. Come September it moved up to four days as agreed. So I work caring for two small boys who are 3.5 years and 1 year with the older one going to daycare two days a week. It's already been a delight to see how the 1yo is changing and growing. He's just started walking in the past week or so and now has about eight teeth all grown while I've been here. The 3yo, who I don't spend as much time with, is well, three years old. When he's tired he drives me nutty and some days I feel like I'm a broken record with "Get off your brother" "Let him go". I find him a bit of a challenge as he's the most requiring interaction child I've cared for. Unless he's watching tv or playing the computer he generally has to be in the same room as me. Not what I'm use to. But all in all, it's pretty good. Kids grow and the family is a good family to work for. And we do some fun stuff too. The family are pretty easy to live with. It's quite a relaxed atmosphere granted the energy of the kids. They also gave me the masterbedroom so I have my own big room with tv, en suite and private balcony. It's great to have my own space within a shared house where I also work. The hours are pretty good working 8am-6:30pm Mon to Thur with a long weekend every weekend.
It's lovely to have some family just a simple train ride away out in the Blue Mountains and it's fantastic to escape the city there. Since I'm not really a city girl. I love being able to hang out with family from time to time and would more if I were closer. I've still been able to get back to Victoria a few times in the short time I've been living in Sydney and I'm quite glad for that. Another trip booked in for early November.
Life is rolling along here. However, I'm still in a bit of a limbo state. This job is a 12mth contract and the mum has already mentioned future ideas for when the youngest boy is a little older which doesn't include such full time nannying. It's quite possible I will only be needed for the year meaning I need to make the most of this twelve month period to figure out what I'm going to do next. So I've got some serious thinking and exploring and sorting out to do. That being said I've signed up for some classes to continue exploring art and simply trying to broaden myself. I'm really enjoying doing more art and excited about some fabric stamping and screen printing classes I have coming up. For increasing my knowledge and understanding I'm going to a World Religions class to hear about a different belief system each week and I've signed up for a seminar that looks at how to be your best self through things like personality and understanding how you function as an individual and learning styles and such. I also might sign up for a charity run which I have never done before since my jogging has been much improving.
Hopefully this year will be an interesting year with lots of growth and expansion.
I had planned since before I left the UK to not set up the next stage of my life in my hometown. For one, I struggled greatly when I fell into my post-adventure rut after my year in the USA and I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I believe there was more to it and I'm still dealing with stuff but there was definitely a deflation after an excitable year away. So I had thought enough to keep some adventure happening this time around. For two, I needed to keep exploring myself and stretching myself. I decided to head to a big city for the ease of finding nanny employment and also for the opportunities to try new things and explore my art skills. I further decided to make sure I was still nearby family after missing their company for the last two years. So to continue my adventure in this fashion, I brought my packed bags to Sydney late June to begin my new job and move into the next stage of my life.
Starting somewhere new is something I always find particularly difficult being an introvert and not a currently well-balanced one. I really have to push myself and regularly step out of my comfort zone. I gave myself the space to settle into my new job. As a live in nanny this requires a couple of months for me to feel completely at ease and settled. New kids to understand, plus the parents, the local area, the routines and how it all works on top of all the "me in a new place" stuff. I started working three days a week which was a nice, relaxed lead in to a new job in a new city. Come September it moved up to four days as agreed. So I work caring for two small boys who are 3.5 years and 1 year with the older one going to daycare two days a week. It's already been a delight to see how the 1yo is changing and growing. He's just started walking in the past week or so and now has about eight teeth all grown while I've been here. The 3yo, who I don't spend as much time with, is well, three years old. When he's tired he drives me nutty and some days I feel like I'm a broken record with "Get off your brother" "Let him go". I find him a bit of a challenge as he's the most requiring interaction child I've cared for. Unless he's watching tv or playing the computer he generally has to be in the same room as me. Not what I'm use to. But all in all, it's pretty good. Kids grow and the family is a good family to work for. And we do some fun stuff too. The family are pretty easy to live with. It's quite a relaxed atmosphere granted the energy of the kids. They also gave me the masterbedroom so I have my own big room with tv, en suite and private balcony. It's great to have my own space within a shared house where I also work. The hours are pretty good working 8am-6:30pm Mon to Thur with a long weekend every weekend.
It's lovely to have some family just a simple train ride away out in the Blue Mountains and it's fantastic to escape the city there. Since I'm not really a city girl. I love being able to hang out with family from time to time and would more if I were closer. I've still been able to get back to Victoria a few times in the short time I've been living in Sydney and I'm quite glad for that. Another trip booked in for early November.
Life is rolling along here. However, I'm still in a bit of a limbo state. This job is a 12mth contract and the mum has already mentioned future ideas for when the youngest boy is a little older which doesn't include such full time nannying. It's quite possible I will only be needed for the year meaning I need to make the most of this twelve month period to figure out what I'm going to do next. So I've got some serious thinking and exploring and sorting out to do. That being said I've signed up for some classes to continue exploring art and simply trying to broaden myself. I'm really enjoying doing more art and excited about some fabric stamping and screen printing classes I have coming up. For increasing my knowledge and understanding I'm going to a World Religions class to hear about a different belief system each week and I've signed up for a seminar that looks at how to be your best self through things like personality and understanding how you function as an individual and learning styles and such. I also might sign up for a charity run which I have never done before since my jogging has been much improving.
Hopefully this year will be an interesting year with lots of growth and expansion.
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