You know the type. We’ve all had a friend who upon finding a new love disappears from sight.

That’s what’s happened to me with this blog since mi novio arrived, and I understand the feelings of neglect the blog must be having. However, I don’t want to be that girl, so I apologise to all and sundry for my disappearance…and want to try and make up for it.

The arrival of mi novio was exciting, surreal and a little strange. For the first couple of days we looked at each other in a kind of “are you really here next to me, in person?” way. It was a bizarre experience to move our relationship back into that face-to-face variety after it had grown so much via Skype, but after day 3 we finally believed that yes, we were really together again.

The past couple of months has been a learning curve for us both with things like his level of English (not as high as I’d thought), my normal life stressing (exacerbated by moving) and my desire that he have a most amazing experience here (while he’s happy to study English and spend time pottering around with my family).

But things are all good.

I am excited about the move to Colombia. I’m happy that mi novio gets along with my family very well (even to the point of being enthusiastic Dad’s vintage machinery interest) and I’m loving spending time with my family.

Meanwhile all the sorting of affairs in order to move to another country for an indefinite timeframe is taking up brainpower and hours. There’s new bank accounts with fee-free international transactions to find and open, old bank accounts to close, superannuation funds to consolidate, copies of birth certificates to get, documents to be witnessed, possessions to be sold, given away, thrown out or stored and, most importantly, the decision on what to take with me. And that’s not the half of it.

It’s quite daunting, but I guess that’s to be expected when you are moving countries and don’t know when you’ll be back (if ever). But I’m not the first person to move overseas, and in all this, I can’t help but feel for those who don’t have the time or ability to collect the documents, pack up possessions and prepare themselves for a move to a foreign country.