Last UK hair cut!

A good while ago now, my hairdresser Sally cheerfully announced that I was four haircuts away from emigrating. It was a bit of a shock at the time, however since then it has pretty much been the timeline I've been working to.

Slightly odd I know, but a haircut has become a benchmark against which to measure time and progress.

So today was the last of those four - purposely arranged to be done just before I went so it is all neat and tidy with a fresh colour and now I don't have to worry about it for a few weeks. It felt like a major event. It was a major event.

I have been trying to persuade Sally to come with me. She is, without a doubt, the best hairdresser I've ever had, patiently helping me to transform my hair from very short to longish. And totally refusing to cut a fringe back until it is the length I really want it (not that I know the answer to that one), about which, as much as I huff and puff, she is probably right.

One thing I am not looking forward to is trying to find a hairdresser in Australia anywhere nearly as good as Sally. I have heard it could be difficult.

Perhaps I should kidnap her..........

Cheryl x

This green and pleasant land.....

This weekend has seen me off on a trip to Cardiff to see friends from uni that I haven't seen for a few years. We've been trying for ages, but the fact I am disappearing soon has meant we have got our acts together and actually done it. And it was great. It was lovely to see Cardiff as the only other time I have been was for two hours and it was tipping it down. But it was fantastic to catch up with four very good and much missed friends.

I decided to go down on the train at the last minute rather than drive - and boy am I glad I did. The weather was gorgeous both there and back - and the scenery was stunning. The train trundled through Shropshire and Herefordshire and into Wales - lovely rolling hillside, old and very impressive trees, rivers and streams, and young lambs playing in the fields. Signs of spring all round, but with the trees still without leaves, which is when they are at their most striking to my mind. The book I had taken to read never even got looked at.

Ok, it wasn't perhaps so pretty when the train got to Newport - but we swapped the green and pleasant land for backyards - nice and nasty - and the opportunity just to be downright nosey!

I'm glad I chose to take the train rather than drive. I got a really good look at the sort of countryside which defines this country, and it felt good to do that before I swap oaks and fields for gum trees and bush.

I didn't even feel 'this is beautiful- I'm really going to miss it', I just felt 'this is beautiful - and I'm really glad I got to see it this way'.

The countryside in Australia is very different, but still has the potential to be beautiful (or at least striking) in its own way. I think I am going to have to find an Oz train to take a long ride on, on a glorious day.

Cheryl x

Last days and Lamingtons

Tuesday 31 March was my last day at work, and I really thought that with such a major event, I would want to right down lots here. But I don't.

It all just feels very strange. It doesn't actually feel like I have really left either. This might be because the leaving do's don't finish until next week, or equally it might be because I know I have to pop in again to finish some last minute tidying up.

People keep asking if I am excited, and yes I am - excited at the new adventure, but also at the same time sad to be leaving so many good friends behind, and very nervous of what the future holds. People have also said 'lucky you' to be escaping - and on the bad days when the computer is playing up and nothing goes right, then I have thought 'yes, lucky me', but in a job I enjoyed, with people I enjoyed working with, I have also thought 'what the hell am I doing...'.

And people have been so kind - emails and cards and presents. People I haven't expected to taking the time to pop by to say goodbye and good luck and we'll miss you.

Yet still it all feels strange. It feels like I am sort of detached from it all - but maybe this is just a self-preservation thing holding the tears at bay.

However, whatever, on my last day I decided to invite colleagues for tea and Lamingtons, and finally, finally, after threatening to for months, actually got around to making my first batch of Lamingtons. I wasn't impressed to start with, and ended up making all sorts of other things in case they were awful, but in the end they turned out just fine, and I haven't heard yet that anyone has been a casualty of my decidedly dodgy baking skills.

And just to prove it, here they are!

Yours, feeling a bit odd (but nothing to do with the baking!),

Cheryl xx