Bluebells

Beautiful Bluebells at Gawsworth Hall, a lovely area in Chester

Just down the road is a road called Maggoty Lane, where the last Jester in England is buried. He was called Maggoty, naturally.

This is one of the first places we visited, the bluebells were everywhere, and so beautiful.

Also, there was a gorgeous 15th Century church.

Entrance to the church.

Stained glass Saints.

The little journey

So the last entry was basically about the motivation to move, to leave that place that you call home. I have been terrible at keeping up with this blogging thing, but thanks to Adrian reminding me, here I am. (Thank you).

This entry is going to detail the journey from King Shaka International Airport to Dubai, and eventually Manchester International.

So King Shaka was a rather difficult experience, and no not as one would expect because of baggage problems or flight delays, but because this is where I tearfully said goodbye to my family, and friends. It's really difficult trying to wrap your head around leaving the most important people in your life behind, parents, sisters, best friends. It was hard. Hugging your sister, best friend and confidante, and knowing it's going to be a long while before you get to chat over a glass of wine again, about things that only she will ever understand. Saying goodbye to the parents who loved and nurtured you over many years, and a little sister whom you adore. Also feeling grateful to an old friend who took off work to come say goodbye. All of the feelings.

So once that was done, it was to wait for a few hours, board the plane and wait to be waited upon. That was all well and good, yummy dinner and free Jack Daniels? Hmm yes, I don't mind if i do. That is until...Turbulence, for six hours. Brilliant. Having not been on a plan for about 9 years this was not fun. So tiny food, and one Jack Daniels aside, feeling as though you may plummet towards the earth at any moment was not what I was hoping for. 7 and a bit hours later, we landed in Dubai, with a rush through the massive, overdone airport to catch the flight to Manchester. Now not having slept for a very long while, cranky, grumpy, and grouchy are the best adjectives to describe me. Luckily the flight to the UK was calm, and quiet, although no sleep was had yet again. (Side note : Emirates provides some really yummy food).

Also, there was a really awesome air host, a really grumpy french man whom I laughed at/with for some inexplicable reasons, I shall list this as sleep deprivation.

So that was the little journey from Durban to Manchester, and I shall leave it there for now. Arrival, and first days shall be forthcoming...

The best place to start...

...Is at the beginning, so a few years ago a decision was made that we leave the Sunny and very hot shores of Durban for a place a bit colder, with a little bit more rain, and filled with beautiful old buildings that I adore so very much.

That place was England, where Chris and I are now living. It's not perfect, no place is really, but there is just something about it that has drawn me to it since the first time I visited here. There is an old world feeling, when you block out the massive billboards, advertising and Burger Kings crowding up the streets in city centers, when you look past all the 21st century goodies and conveniences there are beautiful, massive old buildings with a grandeur that is not lost on me and my daydreams of living within them when they were first built. The churches standing tall with spires breaking through the grey clouds, and their large clock faces...

I may be getting ahead of myself, that is but one of the many reasons that this is where we chose to come, it hasn't been easy, these past 2 moths have been filled with trials and hard times, but also beauty and reconnecting with the past, both historically, and with old friends.

I am not experienced with this blogging malarky so forgive me for my higgledy piggeldy style of writing, my probably many punctuation and grammatical errors, but this is just here for me to tell you how things are going, and to share my experiences with my friends and family who are far away, and who I miss dearly. 

Right so, the title of this Blog is "Grow up and blow away", the title of a song by one of my favourite musical artists, Metric. For some reason it reminds me of dandelions. It encapsulates how I feel about the move, about the growing up and the leaving, the finding of new places and adventures, and the development of oneself, and for me it also holds within those words, a sadness, a loss of home. Think of it as you wish though, that is why music is magical, the subjectivity allows for multiple meanings.

This was a very jumbled introduction into the point of this all, but it needed to start somewhere, and I promise my next posts will be more structured and explanatory, and have some pretty pictures too ( my photography skills aren't great but I shall try :P )

One of the pretty churches <3