Because sometimes you just have to...

Because sometimes you just have to (because it's what you need to do)

YAHOO!Holidays!

In a few weeks, I go overseas with my family for a few months. Awesome, I know. Fantastic. Brilliant. But it has not happened without a shitload tonne of planning and prep. 

The house, which will have been cleaned and mopped, tidied, and overhauled, will have other people living in it, looking after our menagerie and tending the garden etc. The mail will be collected, and hopefully the pets will not miss us too much. 

We have told our workplaces that we will be gone, and leave has all been arranged. We have bought the backpacks, got the passports, bought the clothes and shoes and clean undies. The first aid kit is packed, and all repeat scripts and two months worth of meds done, with accompanying letters to show authorities we are not drug runners, just medicated peoples.  

Skimming rocks with Daddy

We have been working hard, all of us. I have done lots more teaching days, hustled my butt off with art, the teenagers have hardly been home because they have taken on so many shifts, the youngest has been collecting plastic bottles like mad.

With only a few weeks to go till we leave there is a sense of excitement, but also we are weirdly calm, like it is all a bit of a surreal thing - in that it is still not quite actually a real thing at all.

We have put a lot on the line, and pushed back other projects so we could do this. We have said no to other things, and shelved other plans. There have been testy discussions and deals done.

Koh Chang lunch shenanigans

We are a volatile, but loving family, and I would be lying if I said I am not absolutely a little bit terrified of how we will all cope with each other for 8 weeks in close proximity with lots of stresses. 

So why do it? Why spend so much money, why do this? Why go through the stresses and strains and worry? 

Because we have to. 

Because we want to show the kids where their dad grew up,(he immigrated with his folks when he was in mid high school) and where their grandparents came from. These kids grew up on a steady diet of BBC TV shows and kitchen table discussions of ye olde country, and feel English, even though thy have never stepped foot on English soil - yet.

Because we also want them to experience, taste, smell, see, hear other languages, foods, cultures, people, toilets, weather and sights so different from where they live in our small pocket of country NSW. 

Watermelon slushies, Thai style

Because if we can give them a tiny taste of the big wide world, make them want more, if we can pique their interest, and ignite further the desire to travel and experience the beauty and complexities of this amazing world... then I will be happy. 

Because my parents took me to Indonesia when I was very young, which began a childhood of going to wonderful places both overseas and in Australia. My love of travel was a gift given to me and nurtured by them. I am so grateful for these times and memories, for them opening up the world for me. 

Because truthfully I want to do this for my own kids too. 

Because our family has more than enough STUFF, and we want to not just buy the kids more things as presents, but give them experiences instead. 

Because as a family, we are on the verge of great changes. Our eldest goes off to Uni next year, and leaves the family nest. We need to make some more memories, and share this special time before everything changes. Travel together does this for us. 

My kids

Bangkok peacocks

Because memories from the overseas trips we have done - like riding on elephants, and swimming under waterfalls in Thailand, and landing on glaciers in New Zealand are part of the weft and weave of our family tapestry.

Because every holiday we have had together, we have created things, laughed at things, seen things that we still remember years later. It's not just the photos, it is the collective experiences that we now share.

And that is WHY we have to. Why we are doing this thing. Because you never know what is around the corner, what will happen, and we want to create memories that will live on in our hearts forever, no matter what the future holds. Surely that is worth the money, the stress, the planning, the preparation, the hassle? 

 Hooker Glacier walk, NZ

So when you do not hear from me for a few months, my blog goes silent for a bit, you know why. 

Because I just have to!

My intrepid family