The "Cat" Is Out Of The Bag

BYRON BAY

All along we knew what a big milestone it would be to inform and discuss our news with close family. For at least one of us, this is the absolute last point of no return. Once the news is shared, it's really happening!

So it was with great excitement we ventured back to Sydney for a wedding. Still almost two and a half years out from leaving, it would be the perfect test to put our plans through their paces. We were eager to find out reactions, and it also served as a sanity outlet given this has been bottled up for almost 18 months just between the two of us!

The wedding was stunning and everything we had hoped for the happy couple! We were fortunate to be invited to the "honeymoon" - a family holiday after the main event to spend some quality time together.

We headed up north to Byron Bay. Being right across the road from the beach, it provided the perfect nautical setting! After the first couple of days we knew it would be wise to get the news out soon so that we had the rest of the week to relax and talk more about the big adventure.

When breaking the news we were nervous yet excited to have it shared and out in the (albeit private) open. Our family (who travel whenever they get a spare dollar or minute!) were of course very excited for us and felt the news was "about right", assuming that we would move from our current home of Singapore at some point. I guess they probably weren't quite expecting us to buy a boat and travel the seas, but they certainly took it in their stride! We celebrated in traditional style with drinks and dinner. On reflection I think the reaction was exactly as we expected it to be - excited yet reasonably contained while it all sank in. A bigger concern is the lack of proximity to us when we leave... It will be sometime between trips and visits, so fairly bittersweet all up.

We polished off the week with a trip out for my birthday to see the dolphins and turtles on sea kayaks. This definitely gave us a sense of what ocean recreation life might be like and the type of awesome activities that would be in our big blue backyard.

All in all a super trip and a wonderful reaction - bring on the next one!

-Ben