A 'Semi-Expat'

I said earlier that I would write a bit about the title of the Blog and why I term myself as a 'semi-expat...... I am English and live part of the time in UK (in the West(ish) part of England about 40 mins from Stonehenge and 45 mins from the beautiful city of Bath) in a very tiny village between the market towns of Devizes and Marlborough - both great places each with a weekly market and each with their own special charms.

For the rest of my time I am very lucky to live in the vibrant and wonderful City of Melbourne in Australia. My husband was offered the opportunity of a job in Melbourne back in September 2006 and he "ummed and aaahed" about taking it for a while as I said that at that time I could not join him full time as my daughter (my DDD - dearest darling daughter, actually!) (his step daughter) had not finished her education in England.

Eventually in January 2007, Mr SE decided that the opportunity to work in Australia was too good to ignore and I also wanted him to follow his dreams too and he came out to Melbourne. It has not been easy I have to admit and the first few months were horrendous - he thought he had made an awful mistake but we have persevered and we have managed to see each other regularly since then - me coming over to Australia for a few months at a time and he with regular travel for work back to Europe too. We truly do have a long-distance marriage but it does work for us - when we are apart we speak twice a day on the telephone and we also email each other once a day too.

This July my DDD finished her education and is now taking a 'gap year' before University in September 2010 - at the moment she is back in our cottage in UK and hopes to earn some money before coming out here to Melbourne in January 2010 with VHB (very handsome boyfriend!) for a few months to live with us, work locally and then take the opportunity to do some travelling around Australia.

So there we are - the background to the title of the Blog... and sorry, have not yet this weekend mastered the art of uploading photographs - promise I will next time :-)

First day

Well, I am back after a very busy first day at the very beautiful shop Peony - proud because I managed to get through on my own and balanced takings etc. at the end of the day too.... - yes, I know it may sound a bit pathetic but I was a little nervous - like a five year old on the first day at school....!

We had quite a few new customers saying that they had read about the store in the Melbourne Magazine which came out today with the daily newspaper -'The Age' - apparently Peony is quoted as one the top 5 perfumeries in the area (and we were listed first too - so all good). I love The Age - mainly because of the Saturday GW (Good Weekend) magazine that comes with the newspaper and the fact that the wonderful Maggie Alderson writes there each week too - fantastic!!

Sorry, I really meant also to post a photograph of what I wore for the first day.... but I have not really figured out A. how to take a photograph without the flash appearing in the mirror and B. how to upload to the post - hopefully will sort it out this weekend... - LATER!!! have now figured out how to do this so... this is what I wore - dress - Lounge Apparel (Australian make - one of my favourite dresses - so easy to wear and comfortable too) - underneath - T.Shirt by American Vintage - quite sheer on its own but lovely as a 'layering' garment, leggings by ?? sorry, can't remember where I bought them but definitely in Austalia and metallic slingback flat shoes by Boden (UK) - oh and turquoise and antique silver necklace bought on a holiday 9 years or so ago in Istanbul, Turkey....

Bon Weekend to all.......

Introductions and hello

Ok... so here I am - I have pondered about doing a blog for a while now and having decided to give myself a go I though I would try with 3 weeks or so to see if all works out - so, .....why now?

Well, this Friday I am beginning a 3 week session 'caretaking' a beautiful business in Melbourne, Australia (my home for some of the time - hence the title of this blog - "Semi Expat "- more about that in a later post) ...... The business I am looking after and running on a temporary basis is a fantastic boutique perfumery called Peony www.peonymelbourne.com.au owned by a dear friend of mine who is going off to Europe (Paris and Florence - not that I am jealous at all of course!) - well she IS going on business (but I am sure she will enjoy herself and get a little shopping done too, and why not?)

I thought I would write about my time working there at the end of each day and make a record - really for me to look back on too as a sort of diary and to see how I get on ..... also, I thought I would post a photograph each day of what I wore to work as the owner of Peony - the lovely Miss J, wears beautiful clothing to work with a fair smattering of Chanel (not that I have much of that - a lovely and very treasured necklace from Mr SE given to me recently for a 'big' birthday which I will wear - probably at least once during the babysitting process of the shop) and I have got some ideas of outfits to put together to wear in such a lovely shop....... So here goes - tomorrow afternoon I go to Peony to get all my final instructions from the lovely Miss J and to pick up the keys ready for Friday morning... wish me luck!