England became my new home on Sunday 15th July 2001, staying this way until 1st October 2005 when I head to India for a few months and then back to Australia eventually. It has been a wonderful experience to live and work in England, an opportunity I wouldn't have missed for anything. My first job was a temporary accounting job in Bristol for three weeks, before I landed a permanent job at Transco in Exeter. Here I made two really good friends named Paul & Chris, had a fantastic boss called Steve and got to drive up and down the motorway to Cardiff in Wales to visit my boss every week or so. After doing this for about 11 months (covering a person that was on maternity leave), I got a job as Principal Accountant in Social Services at Swindon Borough Council and I am only just leaving this job now after a period of 3 years. During my time at Swindon, I have made some great friends including Kara, Sue, Shirley, Claire & Jenny. I have also been privileged to work with Graham on Adult Services and learn something new every single day. I really love this job and still wonder why I have resigned, although the call to travel back to India and then on to Australia to be with the family again is strong ! I will really miss Swindon Borough Council and working with everyone towards achieving that 'Star' that I think is now well deserved ! No doubt I will have a few tears on my last day, probably made worse by the fact that we will be drinking all afternoon, but I must make sure somebody gets me on my plane to India the next morning ! Whilst I have been living in England, I have also had the chance to explore many different countries that would otherwise have been too far away and expensive to visit from Australia, so don't forget to check out all my other postcards to see where I went. One place I will need to mention now is Guernsey in the Channel Islands (since it doesn't appear on the picklist), I visited here in October 2001 for a long weekend and did lots of hiking and sightseeing, including a day trip over to Sark as well. Sark had no transport on the island other than pony & trap, so I tried this out before hiring a bicycle and seeing the rest of the island that way. In December 2001, Darren stayed with me for a couple of weeks and we travelled to Belgium, Ireland & Wales. Driving around Wales was an experience, especially when they had really heavy snowfalls everywhere and in particular we got stuck in the snow for a bit in Llangollen, North Wales and could only go 30 miles/hr. There was even snow on the motorway, as we headed back down from North Wales towards Exeter, although the roads cleared once we got past Bristol. In June 2002, I went to visit my friend Judy (who lives in Newcastle) for a long weekend and we ended up going travelling around Scotland which was great. That same month, I spent another long weekend away, this time by myself in Belfast where I had a fabulous time. Belfast is a place I have returned to several times since, each time I end up doing tours to the Giants Causeway, Londonderry and the Belfast Murals & Peace Wall. It's a shame so many people won't go there because of the 'troubles' of the past, I have never had a problem staying in the city centre and wandering about by myself.