These are NOT my friends! Image courtesy of The Brisbane Times

As I’m writing this post, one of my closest buddies is out back home with all my other closest buddies on her hen’s night.  And I’m not there.  Next week she will have her wedding and I won’t be there.  This post is not about London, this post is about how to survive living away from your friends and family.

This is probably the first time I’ve really wanted to be back home since I arrived in London.  It’s a bit of a tough feeling – the push-and-pull of loving where you are and what you’re doing verse desperately wanting to be around the love and comfort of your friends and family back home – and one I’m sure that everyone who has ever lived somewhere else has felt at some point.  In truth, having kept this feeling at bay for three months is probably pretty good.

This is not the first time I’ve lived away from home.  I spent two months on exchange in France when I was 16 and was so terribly homesick I ran the risk of not enjoying the experience at all.  I spent a couple years in Canada in my early twenties and barely thought about home at all – I was having too much fun with my future-husband.  But I did have nightmares about something happening to my mum every couple of months which was my signal to call home.

So I have enough experience of this feeling to know that it will pass.  What I was a bit stupid about was not planning something else to do.  I should have known that such an important event would trigger an episode, and I know the best defence is to plan something fun to do in your new home.  But I didn’t – I planned a quiet weekend!   D’OH!

I was smarter about the holiday season – see you for skiing in Switzerland for Christmas and party time in Barcelona for New Year! WOOP!

PS. I know I know, life is TOUGH.  This post is not meant to sound like I am not appreciating the opportunity I have here.  It is simply stating the fact that every now and again, no matter how much fun your having, this feeling will likely creep over you and at that point, not much else matters.

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