An Introduction

Deb Westerberg’s move to France …. 

Background: In 1995, I took a year’s leave from my job in Perth, Western Australia, and travelled to the UK. I left my son Paul home looking after the house and attending university. I spent the year working London, travelling in Europe and further afield. I returned to my job in Australia for two years and then returned to the UK (Scotland), to remain indefinitely.

After several more years of working and travelling, and eventually re-mortgaging my home in Perth to the hilt to buy my flat in Edinburgh - I met my soul mate and best friend in the world, Steve Kemp. I moved across to Glasgow and we got married. We had both, in our previous lives, visited various parts of France. Together, in June 2005 we drove to France and had a fabulous holiday. Steve was by this time not well – in an ideal world, our dream was to have taken early retirement and eventually move to France, with family visits back to Australia and the UK. Sadly, I lost Steve in November of last year. I now feel that there is nothing to make me want to stay in the UK. I could have gone back to Australia – and perhaps one day I will – but I feel that if I do make that move, it will be a permanent one. And I don’t feel quite ready to commit to staying in the one place for the rest of my life. I figure that if I did move back to the Australia now, I would be very unlikely to move back to the northern hemisphere again. Although I am looking forward to a new start and a project to focus on, the move is tinged with sadness. So now, with more than a little trepidation, I find myself packing up and once more heading off to a new country. 

I have over the years maintained a website, mostly containing family and travel photos. I also used to keep travel diaries of various trips I’d done. Although I’ve kept up with the posting of photos to the website, these last couple of years the ‘diary’ side of things has certainly gone by the wayside. But as I will be cancelling my internet account when I leave Scotland shortly, and there will be a gap before I get sorted in France with a new ISP, I have probably put the idea of maintaining a ‘proper’ website to bed. And so I’ve decided – and been encouraged by friends – to publish a record of my move and new life in France. An easier way for sure than writing many long and detailed emails. So I’m joining millions of others out there who are publishing their Blogs.