Leaving the UK for our trip was always going to be an exciting adventure. We wanted time away from the normality we’ve always known – work, school, house, car, routine…. However, one thing we worried about was leaving our friends and family behind.
Four of our friends are expecting new additions to their families during the time we’re going to be away. There’s also been an engagement since we left! Ruben’s friends are spending their final year at Primary School. And I know that there will be lots of other exciting events happening over the next year that we’re going to miss, being so far away.
However, when anything important happens, I know we’ll be keeping in touch. That’s because our group of friends have managed to do just that – across oceans, seas, continents and countries – for years and years and years.
We’ve had birthdays, marriages, births, deaths and life-crises- and yet during those times, we’ve always managed to send a message, speak on the phone, post flowers, gifts and even Tiffany necklaces…
For this trip, some of our special friends have fostered our beloved Dog Domino. They send us regular photos and videos of her, just to let us know that she’s doing OK and to show us that she may even like their family better… 😉 Another of our friends is providing regular security-guard cover for the belongings we left behind somewhere safe… Our parents are also mucking in: providing a generous storage service for yet more of our stuff and an excellent PO Box service for our mail. They’ve also sorted out a few problems from afar, including our mobile phone access from the UK, unlocking PayPal accounts, and even arranging council tax refunds. We’re very lucky.
On this part of this trip, we have been fortunate enough to spend a few weeks in the home and company of our beautiful friend Hannah. We haven’t seen each other properly for 18 months because normally we live half a world apart. A lot has happened since we last saw each other, yet from the moment we met at the airport, it’s as if the time in-between has stood still. As always, we pick up just where we left off: we share the good, the bad and the ugly. Our kids have got together and are already best buddies, just like us.
And this all reminds me: wherever they live, our friends in Devon, London, Oxford, Suffolk, Wales, South of France, Cyprus and Australia (to name just a few places!)- with the help of this blog, email, texts, FaceTime, Skype, old-fashioned postcards and even phone calls – we’ll be keeping in touch.
The Brooks Family Big Adventure 
Still waiting for the recorded cassette tape…..
mum xx
It’s true! No matter where we are in the world we will always be in touch and like you say nothing changes with our friendships even though big things happen in-between we are lucky to have such good friends and family. And the blog is great we all love hearing about your big adventure just wish we could have reunions more often, I miss our uni days and being your surrogate child!! Xxx