After emigrating from UK to South Africa many years ago and during the intervening years when visiting family and friends back in UK it has always been very hard saying goodbye, or rather saying au revoir.

Although there is a tremendous distance between my side of the family and myself I always feel that they are close to me, as they are always in my thoughts. The distance makes it hard to share moments in a real time manner but I know how much we miss each other and that we have always been and will always be part of each others lives.

We have kept in touch with our regular visits to UK and with the ramp up of digital communication it has been easier to find out what is going on very quickly. I can only imagine what emigrating meant for people many years ago when they were sending letters to each other across the world and awaiting replies for months on end.

I keep regular contact via Whatsapp with my pals and they love to get involved in events and travelling themselves and they have become closer over the years I have been away. They still tease me in the way only lads can do who grew up together and who shared so many moments that shaped our lives. I do not have the same kind of friends here in South Africa as the deep trust that friends have is often developed over many years and often commencing during school or varsity years. My friends here are few but precious and I do not express my feelings for them very well….it’s a guy thing…. so fear not my SA pals its part of my DNA…but I can and will change that.

I digress, and getting to the point of this brief but poignant personal blog, my wife and I probably went through one of our most difficult moments today when we bid “au revoir” to family and friends at Cape Town International Airport today. We were blown away with a wonderful send off on our exploration intothestrange, the smiles and hugs that finally turned to tears was wonderful and sad. The little kids Josh, Zoe not really understanding what was going on….and Ian and Isabelle who knew what was happening were somewhat sad to say the very least. You will grow lots and not just in size, fear not kids….I even chatted to Josh this evening who wanted to know where in the world I was….

Our daughter Tylo was so brave and has been amazing in encouraging us to go for our dream and venture intothestrange, knowing she will miss us lots. We leave her in safe, caring hands of our family, that is when they see her as she is back in residence at the weekend and will be back to being busy at her studies and social activities….We know she has fabulous people around her and she has good judgment and strong clear principles that she lives her life by, so this helps when we are away…..Love you more than choccies TJ

Off intothestrange we venture….!