I guess now that the affected parties have been notified, it’s time to announce it here too.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the high cost of living in Toronto, and some personal reasons, our little family is moving on again. This time, we’re staying in the same country, thank goodness, but are moving to Calgary, Alberta. It doesn’t sound like much, this interprovincial move, but it’s a big deal to us.

When you’ve hopped countries twice, the sight of empty boxes causes a knee-jerk reaction and feelings of oh crap, it’s happening again. I’m not a nomad. I know people who are nomads, people who live for the thrill of discovering a new place, learning its secrets, the culture, then moving on to do it again elsewhere.

I crave roots and stability, the kind of place where you spend a lifetime and still find joy. And though I did experience some of that in Toronto, I’ve realised that this isn’t the place for my family. For now, all I can do is sincerely hope this will be our last big move.

Another thing I’ve realised is that our friends and family in South Africa struggle to grasp the span of this move. South Africa is a country that is only slightly bigger than the province of Ontario, where we currently live. Everybody back in SA understood that we could drive back to Toronto for a weekend visit, since it’s more than possible to drive from one province to another in no time in South Africa. We certainly could drive back to Toronto for a weekend visit, if we drove for three days to get there.

Calgary is approximately 3500km from Toronto – 4 provinces and 2 time zones. We’re planning to make the drive for a bunch of reasons, but one of them is we may never get the opportunity to take on such an epic road trip ever again. It’s daunting, make no mistake. The trip will take us 5 days, since we don’t want to kill ourselves along the way, and we’ll get to see some beautiful places painted in autumn colours, but it’s still five days in a car with a four-year-old.

Aside from getting there, a move to another province means having to visit all the government buildings again, new phone numbers, new schooling system with new rules, and all the things you’d typically expect from immigrating to a new country. Okay, that’s a bit of an overstatement. It’s not quite as involved as immigration, but it’s involved enough.

I think the most depressing thing is we did all of this just last year. The planning, the paperwork, the boxes, but most of all, the goodbyes.

To those of you who have helped us find a place here in Toronto, the people who have been so open-hearted and kind, the people who became such an important part of our lives – thank you. You’re all so appreciated and loved, and you make saying goodbye so impossibly difficult. Thank you for what you mean to us. We’ll miss you.

Yolandie (& Co.)