Well,
It's been a good long while since I last blogged - but I felt that now was the right time to start again. What happens when you realise that you have run your race in a place - when you have done everything that you can to make the town work for you and you can't seem to find a way out of your problems. I guess what we used to do was move to new places - places where we could find a new life or at least new opportunities. But we stopped doing that as a matter of course at some point in the past, we became settled and dependent even expected the right to live where we have always lived without change. Politicians and social workers have made it easy for us - why else do we see such significant variations in unemployment rates across Australia - Northern Tasmania is full of out of work trained miners and yet at the same time in Queensland and WA they are screaming out for such.
So I guess faced with similar issues I am forced to consider what options I have to make a difference in both my family and professional life. I have to consider leaving all I know behind including friends, church, work and history (28 years worth) dragging my somewhat unwilling family with me to stop the worst possible results occurring. I guess I should admit that we looked at the idea of downsizing in Canberra, but nothing here will make a significant difference to myself or my families' situation. So I begin to look at new ideas - new things to do and new places to live.
Can I say that obvious thing to do is to find a place with a lower cost of living - where a person of my limited skills can still find a good job. This is a big decision, we will lose a lot in the leaving but we have a second haven - mostly thanks to the presence of dear friends both old and rediscovered. So I have looked at the estimated cost of living and found that Brisbane has a lot going for it - easy access to schools, beaches and public transport - good Christian presence (especially in the south east of the city) and a strong and diverse economy.
Now we just need to decide that this is the place for us - I think that it is but a few problems do occur - one My son's unfortunate response to mosquitoes - two the change is school systems - three burning some bridges in Canberra.
So now we will see what will happen - friends of ours have offered accommodation for us to come up and spec the place out. I have seen some beautiful houses online and some good jobs as well - now to move forward.
more to follow
