I was recently talking with some people in the UK, and it suddenly struck me that it was almost exactly a decade ago when we (my wife and I) had moved to the UK. It was an interesting phase of our lives. I had never written about my time in the UK before, so I thought of jotting down some of my thoughts from our time there before they become an even more distant memory.

We had been living in Sydney, Australia for over 2 years before we decided to make the move to the UK. I was keen to live and work in Europe (and UK was very much part of Europe then, before Brexit). As it happened, my application for a work-visa was approved and we decided to move. After leaving Australia, we took a 3 week driving holiday in New Zealand and then spent a few weeks in our hometown of Mumbai. So it was quite a shock to the system when we finally arrived in grey, cold and wet England towards the end of winter.

We were met at the airport by a close friend of my wife with whom we were to spend the first few weeks of our time in the UK while I found a job and we found a place to stay. Their place was in Essex, near Southend-on-Sea. It was great staying with friends as it definitely eased the transition into a new country.

Some of the memories from our time at Essex included visiting Southend-on-Sea as well as visiting some of the parks in the area and seeing the first shoots of daffodil poke out from the earth, heralding spring. Soon, the days started getting longer, brighter and warmer; it was fascinating to see the seasons change.

Shortly after landing in the UK, I landed a job in Central London. It was a long commute from Essex, but a pleasant one. By then, we had started looking for our own place to stay, and we found a place that we liked in North Finchley, London and moved in a few days later.