African Adventure

As I write this sat in my Dining Room I’m surrounded by open, half-packed suitcases, piles of paperwork, and gadgets in various states of recharge. Today is our last day in the UK as a family for… well, not really sure how long. Because tomorrow we’re flying to Angola for Karen to take up her new posting to the British Embassy in Luanda.

We’ve done this before. 2006/7 were spent living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (you can read all about it at Neal of Arabia). So this time it’s a little easier. I’m a little less scared, a little less anxious, and a little more excited. Moving to a totally different culture, and committing to living there for two years when you’ve never been there before, never even seen the house you’ll be living in, can be very daunting. But I know from our previous experience in Riyadh that we’ll survive, and that as long as we approach it with a flexible, open mind we’ll have a great time.

I trust the Foreign Office to provide us with safe, comfortable accommodation, and I trust that our personal belongings will get there in one piece. My main concern is communications. Internet and phone connectivity are vital, both for keeping in touch with family and for my own work. If the internet isn’t usable then I’m going to have a problem doing my job, so once we arrive and get settled in getting online is going to be the main priority.

I use this blog to comment and rant on any and all aspects of life, so stories about our new home in Luanda are going to be mixing with the usual nonsense. To make it easier for you to navigate I’ve set up an “Angola” category, so as we go on you’ll be able to filter out all the general crap and just show the Angola-related stuff by clicking the category in the right-hand column.

Right, off to finish packing now. Tomorrow afternoon it’s taxi to Heathrow, then to Luanda via Frankfurt on Lufthansa, meet our driver in Luanda on Monday morning and be taken to our new house. How long it will be after that before you hear from me again is anyone’s guess!