This blog is to further set the scene on how I ended up in the UK and meeting Rick, who was keen on travel too. This doesn’t really have any information but more about my memoirs on how all really started for both of us in our travel endeavours.
I have been in UK for over years, coming over from NZ on the ‘Big OE’ (overseas experience) – being part of the Commonwealth we are allowed to come and work in the UK for 2 years.
I flew straight into Scotland, and had some friends there who warmly welcomed me. The first memory was flying in after a 30 hour flight from Auckland-Melbourne-Singapore-Heathrow-Edinburgh, and they took me to the pub. As you can imagine I was rather dazed, was introduced to White Lightening Cider (woah!!!) and sat next to a Scots that I could not understand AT ALL.
I stayed in the ‘rugby’ house, as one of my friend’s had a rugby contract there – so instantly I met so many people. I remember the very next day going to a temp agency for work and then walked around Edinburgh for a couple of hours to familiarise myself. I got back to the house and was told the temp agency had been trying to get hold of me as I was to start a new job the next day at the Scottish Development Agency! Yep, there were no such things as mobile phones back then, it really does make you wonder now how we did without.
I worked at the SDA for 5 months and as travel was now firmly in my bones, I was there long enough to plan what to do next. I remember hiring a car and driving around the Highlands of Scotland and encouraged a work colleague to come with me – she had never left Edinburgh so it was all new to her too!
I found my own feet and moved into a large flat, but I have to say the flat was freezing, a metal bath, and the people were miserable. That did put a bit of a downer to the stay but I was never intending on staying there long anyway – and found a job via The Lady Magazine (once again, no internet back then for job hunting). But it wasn’t in Scotland, it was at the furthest point away in the UK at the bottom of England as seasonal staff at a traditional hotel in Studland, Dorset.
Cutting a long story short – I met my ‘stud’ in Studland, Dorset working at the Knoll House Hotel and he was as keen on travel as I was! Which is lucky as we ‘have’ to keep going back to NZ approx. every 2 years to see family (and normally visit a different country on the way). We have now been happily married for 30 years and have actually lost count on how many times we’ve flown home.
PS – We have 2 kids who seem to have captured the bug as well. They both finished university and are currently in NZ (different parts of the country).
