England is a definite GO!

Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, Juneau, Alaska.

Well, what can I say? I've been working hard this summer and spending most of my off time sorting, purging, packing, mailing, working and saving for my move (I keep writing "trip" like I'm just going on a little holiday).

You'll notice I've set a counter on the left side of the page (----->). I started the clock at about 70 days and it's faithfully ticking away my days here. I'm down to 14 more days in the beautiful Yukon and 35 to the UK. I honestly can't believe how fast the time has flown by. I had all these plans to do all these wonderful things during my last summer here and I've done hardly any. But that's okay. I'm feeling a bit unsettled, being in this between place, so not having overmuch to do has been helpful in this transition.

I had to let my beautiful Bylaw go to a new home. He was terrorizing my landlady's cat and it was simply unfair to her, although he is a sweet boy generally. Three months in and there was no change in his behaviour, so I put the word out and just 12 hours later we had a response from a wonderful lady and off he went shortly thereafter. I'm acquainted with this lady through some of my past volunteer work and my landlady has known her for years. He's gone to a very loving home, where he's the only cat and will have all the attention. I haven't been thinking about him, so that's a good sign. It means I'm not worried about him. I do miss him at night and when I get home in the evenings after work, but I know he'll be well taken care of and that's all I wanted.

You'll notice that my goals (over there ----->) have also been met and exceeded. That goal was achieved today, when I received my pension payout. The rest of the payout is going into a locked in RRSP, which is fantastic. I am thrilled. This whole venture has had piece after piece slip seamlessly into place and I can't believe how much I've achieved in such a relatively short period of time. I started this proverbial ball rolling in March and I have just over a month left until I touch down on English soil for the first time in almost 20 years.

I have mixed feelings right now. I'm going to miss the Yukon desperately, but am so excited to be starting off on a new adventure. I'm going to be a big bucket and just stay open to things, see what happens. Everyone I speak with about it is so excited for me, so the enthusiasm is much appreciated. I'm stopping in Victoria for several weeks - I fly out of Whitehorse on October 6 - to visit friends and then on October 26 I board my cozy Club Class flight for a 10.5 hour flight to London Gatwick where I will be met at my early morning arrival by my brother and SIL. After that...well, it'll unfold minute by minute.

I had a last doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning and got my records on a disc to take with me - handy! I was also happy to learn that my doctor, unlike some (most?) does not close his patient files, so it means that if (when) I come back, and assuming he's still practicing of course, I will still have a family doctor. Exceptionally good news, when the Territory is so desperately short of doctors and so many have never had a permanent family doctor. See? It's all meant to be.

I've had a couple of house/dog sits over the summer which went very well and were good experience. Work has been great for the most part. I've enjoyed it, although I'm finding it difficult to find things to do right now as it's quite slow. I push paper around and flip through things and fuss enough to fill 8 hours. I have no idea how. Anyway, only 6 days left and then I have so much time off I won't know what to do with myself! ;)

But I was long, long overdue for an update. It's not overly newsy, but if it were, it would be ridiculously long and I'm not that focused right now. I'll spend some time getting caught up with all your blogs before I head south, too. At least I can take you all with me!