Craziest Update So Far

First order of business: If there is anyone who still reads this I must apologise because I owe my old simming pals more than an annual check in. (Its actually been two years but lets not make a thing of it)

Second even if you do read this I doubt I have any right to any of your attention because its been approximately 2 years since I last played the sims. I tried to get back on the wagon but it just never happened. I'm officially a boring old person. 

I have come on here, drawn in by my sense of nostalgia but also a desire let everyone know I am still alive.

So in news, I bought a house exactly one year ago. Renovations are in full swing at present and as of today I have no bathroom but rather an empty shell where soon a new bathroom shall stand. Everything has been kicked into high gear because [trumpet sound] I am selling my house and moving overseas. 

I have officially given notice at the bank to say that I am finishing up at the end of April. From there I am heading off to the USA for a month long holiday. In June I will be popping back to NZ (if the house hasn't gone to market by then) in order to get the house sold (which will free up some much needed capital), after which I am off to Europe, specifically the south coast of Sicily. 

I am very fortunate to have family connections in Italy which really has helped make into reality plans which otherwise would have remained dreams. The goal is to spend one year in Sicily using it as a base for seeing the rest of Europe (as my visa* will allow). While in Sicily I will be doing volunteer work with refugees (Sicily is one of the places where many refugees are sent after being taken in by Italy) and my sister and her husband have already spent two months in Sicily working with the refugees and apparently they are in need of as many hands as can be spared so off I go. 

After the year is up I will likely have run out of my on-call savings completely and will return to NZ. Depending on how it goes I will either pursue my next plans from there or try and find work in Sicily and return (visa* dependant of course). 

Who knows what the future may hold beyond the plans already laid, nevertheless I am currently of the mind that life is an adventure and opportunities are to be grasped as often and as eagerly as circumstances allow. 

I can't promise to make frequent updates but I do hope I can take your best wishes with me as I go.

Your Internet Friend,

SR

*Getting a visa for Italy has been a Herculean task and is still not yet over. The bureaucracy is unfathomable and making headway is difficult when my time is already stretched between work and getting the house done and trying to still have a life. I have family in Cumbria (in England) which is actually where my family is from originally. I do hope to go and visit them but I have yet to figure out what effect, if any, that Brexit will have on the whole visa situation. The whole visa thing is honestly a headache for me even to consider and I am ignoring it to the best of my ability while also cognisant of the fact that I am utterly reliant on getting a visa for these plans to come through. There is light at the end however in that at least for the first year I appear to have almost everything in place. 

Word to the Wise - have a European passport from birth and save yourself the hassles that I have had.