Back in the UK

So, I've been back for a couple of days and already I'm feeling settled and back into the swing of UK life. My jet lag seems to be going and it's almost like I never left. Almost.

Some things have changed, mainly with me. I feel more confident (not that I wasn't confident before) and more prepared for life ahead. I'm pretty sure I now know where I want to go both career-wise and in life in general. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but whereas before it felt like my life was an out of focus image, it now feels very sharp.

What has been a real confidence booster after what happened in Oz is how well the job hunting is going. Lots of interest in me and I'm actually able to be choosy about what I go for. I think my mum worries when I tell her that I've turned down interviews because the role wasn't right, but hopefully she trusts me enough to let me do what I'm doing.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me that I find something soon :)

Goodbye Australia

Well it’s Sunday and more importantly it’s my last day living in Australia. I’ve had a rollercoaster of a ride the last few months (lots of blogs written but never posted for some reason) but now I’m heading back after one last set back.

I’m heading off on a flight at 9.45 tonight and will arrive in Newcastle at around 12 PM on Monday.

I have to say I’m nowhere near as upset as I thought I might be about leaving, in fact I’m almost relishing the fact that I’m going home. Australia hasn’t been that kind to me but I am taking lots of positives from the experiences. It’s also helped me decide what I want to do in my future. All I need to do now is put my thoughts onto paper and get cracking with it.

I’ve also had some clarity about my life in general and wrote a list of things I want to achieve over the next year or so. I’m not fixing any defined time line to these actions as some of them are evolving items rather than ‘hit a target and it’s complete’ but if I could have all of them under way by the end of 2012 I’d be happy.

The list so far (again, this list will increase as time goes on, I’m sure) is –

Return to Europe

Get a job I enjoy

Get fit / lose the belly / tone up

Find a boyfriend

Travel more

BE arsed to do things!

Enjoy my friends more

Focus more on experiences and less on ‘things’

Learn from my experiences so far

Be honest with myself more often

Set down some roots

Get a dog

Learn to ride a motorbike

Improve my French

Walk more

Take lots more pictures

Go to more gigs

See more shows

Go to the Opera

Learn to use my DSLR properly

Buy some property

Now I know this seems a bit like a bucket list, and in some ways it is, but whereas a bucket list is purely about experiences, this is about some personal goals too.

So, watch this space, I might actually achieve some of these goals.

Holden or Chevy?

I’m not sure if you’re aware (unless you’re from Australia or are a car nerd) but in Australia one of the biggest car brands Holden. It’s part of the GM family and has been since the 1930’s. It’s got a very interesting history, but since it became a GM subsidiary it has built both KD’s (Knock Downs - basically models from other countries sent as a flat-pack to Australia and built in factories there) and own-designed models. In more recent history it was the Aussie version of Opel, in the same way Vauxhall is in the UK. However, in 2005 that changed and GM-Daewoo Chevy’s started showing up in the line up. Now, foreign cars are nothing new in the Holden line up. Over the years they’ve taken models from Nissan, Toyota, Suzuki and others, however this was a more longer-term strategy as over the years less and less Opel’s and more GM-Daewoo’s turned up in the line up. Now, pretty much every car with exception of the Commodore/Calais (home-grown car), Colorado (Isuzu pick up) and Combo (Opel small van) are GM-Daewoo’s.
GM-Daewoo’s are now rebranded as Chevy’s in most places in the world (one exception I can think of is Vietnam where they still sell them as Daewoo) but the manufacturing/design is done by GM-Daewoo in South Korea.
However Australian’s aren’t fooled, they know about this and know that they share models with the Chevy brand, however what surprises me when I look around the cities I’ve been to in Australia is the amount of cars that have had their grilles/trunk badges replaced. Gone are the Holden badges and Chevy badges have taken their place. Anyone who know’s anything about badge engineering will say it’s no big deal, people have always ‘up-spec’ed’ their cars. But this is an iconic Australian brand, and Australians are normally so vehemently patriotic when it comes to Aussie brands and will extol virtues where often there aren’t any, so for them to give up on an Aussie brand with such heritage surprises me. And as an outsider I find it even more confusing that they’d want to ‘up-spec’ they’re cars to GM’s equivalent of a budget brand. I can understand if they were putting Caddy or Pontiac badges on their cars, but not Chevy.
Who knows, maybe in the next decade we’ll see the posing Lion be exchanged permanently for the golden cross. Only time will tell.