London, Take Two

On Thursday I got a letter from my current school formally telling me what I already knew: there's no money for a job for me next year. I knew it would happen but it still wasn't nice to see it in writing.

By coincidence, on Friday afternoon I had an interview with a recruitment company for teaching in the UK. I'd booked it on a whim when I saw them on the job search website, thinking I'd just go along and see what was on offer. I didn't have any intention of actually going - I have a cat and car and furniture and stuff, I can't leave the country, can I?

But when I saw what they offer (a whole heap of help and financial incentives), I suddenly craved the experience and began to reassess.

Furniture can be sold. Cars can be sold. Stuff can be taken with me or stored, and God knows I have too much of it! And amongst all of my friends and family there must be some loving soul who will take Jemima and give her a home and love her as much as I do. I will miss her horribly, I'm sure, but for heaven's sake - it would be a disservice to myself to give up the adventure of a lifetime for a cat, even a cat I love. I'll find someone to take her who will keep in contact and send me pictures and let me visit her when I'm visiting Perth. I'll make it work.

So this is the plan: when school winds up this year I will get a full-time job out of the education industry - perhaps back with the optometrist chain I used to work for - and work my butt off for four months, saving and decluttering and getting rid of everything I don't need. Then I'll fly to London just after Easter, in time to get settled in for their Summer term which starts on April 19th. I'll work relief (supply over there) for a term and find out what I really want in a school, then work in whatever & travel over the summer holidays while organising a permanent full-time job for the 2010-11 school year. I do't know how many years I'm going to stay yet, but I do want to see Europe and northern Africa while I'm over there, as well as getting back to Perth for a visit at least once a year. I'll live cheaply in share houses and I won't really be buying possessions, so I hope I'll be able to make all my dreams come true.

I've got my passport interview on Tuesday and I'll book my flight tomorrow or Tuesday as well. Then I'll have six months to get things like my British passport, immunisations and federal police clearance sorted out, and to work out what I'm taking, what I'm storing and what I'm letting go.

I'm terribly excited and energised, and in obsessive research mode - I can't stop looking things up! I've already established that there's an active SCA branch in London hehe. I'm loving the adventure already.

It's a huge decision and I'm exhilarated. The sights of London and Europe that I've wanted to see for years are almost within reach - I can almost touch them - and I'm wondering how I can last six months!

I haven't announced this on Facebook yet - I'll wait until I've booked the flight and spoken to all of the people who I feel need a one-on-one announcement! I'll also pop back to BtN sometime in March and let all my English BtN friends know that I'm coming. But I had to talk about it here - I'm too full of excitement not to let it out.