The Pared-Down Life

There's a hundred things and more to be learnt from living overseas for a time as opposed to a holiday. If you've ever considered the idea at all- do it!
My Australian family and I have been living in Hampshire, England for nearly a year now and in a few months we will be returning to our birthplace, down under.
 It has been a grand and wonderful adventure (not without trial) that I have documented in another Blog- A Tale of Two Shires- but it has almost come time to say goodbye to England.
I would have liked to stay much, much longer, but two of the four of us are missing the heat and dryer weather of Australia, so for now it's time to say good bye to the Northern Hemisphere and head back to Sydney.
When we left Australia we sold our house and cars and got rid of a lot of encumbrances, especially those financial. We heard a lot of "Oh my god, I could never do that!" For a lot of people the security of a regular job, mortgage/house and living in a familiar area weighs far more than the call of adventure and that's fine. If you want to travel but are worried about how it will turn out- do it- it could be the best thing you ever did and it's far better to try that to wonder. All it takes is a big leap of faith! Easy to say, harder to do:) Of course our circumstances were that rent would not quite cover our mortgage so our house-selling was the only way- there are others.
When we finally managed to find another home in England, this time renting, we furnished it with second-hand and inexpensive furniture and a few things loaned from my brother and sister in law in London. Though I really wanted to decorate ( English cottage look for real!), there wasn't much point, so we kept nice but simple.
We  noticed there was a lot of things we got by perfectly without (microwave, good sized freezer, food processer, bake ware etc) and quite a few things we accumulated that only got used once (books, DVD's,  tools etc) We swapped sometimes with neighbours or borrowed when we needed to (a great way to get to know people!) Living lighter was cheaper, easier, more relaxing and definitely more social.
Now that we are returning to Australia, we are considering what we might like to take back with us (via freight), and what we need to leave ourselves with as we take a final holiday after leaving our house.
Also, we are faced with already needing to deal with things back in Australia in order to 'reintegrate' back to our old country- schools, jobs, housing, re-informing a dozen IMPORTANT institutions we have arrived who will no doubt want our new address, banks, phone numbers and so on (all the same as was wanted from us in England when we got here.)
We have a storage unit full of furniture we decided to keep waiting for us back in Sydney as well.

All in all, there is a definite sense  of being harried and harassed to comply with a lot of things. I realised this would be a great opportunity to pare down the complications of our lives and see how few things we really need to live happily and also that we need to plug back  into. How much can we 'get away' with? What things do we do because that's what everyone else does?
I know my husband and I have already discussed an awareness that we will probably get rid of more of that stuff we have paid to store (and are fully aware we will be tempted to  reintegrate it when we see it- "Oh, but we got that when...-", ""Oh, but it's possible we might use that at some point" )
but viewing everything  from a distance, we are really aware that we don't want to don that load of stuff again. Of course in western society I am aware we are privileged to have 'stuff'- but how much of the damn stuff do you really need? I was reading a blog by Hobopoet and he was talking about travelling and that he got everything he needed into a carry-on bag (admittedly he was going to live for a time in a warm climate) and he said that if you can do that, then when you return, do you really need more. It's a gross exaggeration of course, but it does make you think.
My husband Fil is thinking seriously of changing his career of twenty-five years. He has long been unhappy in his work and deserves the opportunity to try something (or a few somethings ) else.
 I personally would like to have a go at supporting myself as a writer with work that that best uses my passions and abilities and there are several options I intend to explore.
 Our boys will have to get used to Australian schools again, one of them altogether new. When we left, one of the boys was 12 and the other 16. When we return they will be young men of 14 and going on 18.
We will be living in a different area of southern Sydney from where we left.  As nice as our new area is, it is essentially in the suburbs, albeit one close to the sea.To be honest I  really have my heart set on the countryside after being so close to it in England. Fil and I realise we share a future dream of living in a largish village somewhere in the countryside. Something for down the road.
Altogether I'm not sure how we'll fit back in there. Will the boys settle back into school and friendships? We have no car or house or jobs yet to return to. Having some money in the bank, makes this feel a lot less stressful, but still there is a heck of a lot ahead of us!
So, come September 2013, this blog will become my Captains Log of our trials, experiments, successes and failures on trying on a new pared-down life- with any tips we can think of to share along the way- to live a life that is richer in time and happiness and poorer in busyness and craziness.
A pinch of thrift, a touch of repurposed, a lot of alternative thinking and a great big whiff off purposeful adventure is what we have planned.
A gypsy caravan is an ideal way of living for me, but until the day as I actually come to live in one, I am going to live my life by the ideals for me that a Vardo represents -
freedom, travel, simple living, enjoying the seasons, family, friends, sharing, travelling lightly, play, storytelling, valuing the simple but beautiful, functionality, leave a small footprint, creativity in all it's forms (make new and recreate old), and of course adventure, both on the road and of the soul.

And so, the next adventure begins...