No, we're not joking...

When we first announced we were moving to Scotland to start work at a whisky distillery, the most common response was: "You're joking, right?"

It's definitely a dream come true for us both. Living and working overseas is something we've always aspired to, but never quite pulled the trigger. And to get to do it in the mecca of whisky, while working at one of the most famous whisky distilleries in Scotland?? #winning

The idea was implanted almost a year ago, on a typical night drinking whisky with two of our close friends, Cat and Jack. We off-handedly remarked how cool it would be to work at a whisky distillery. Cat, born on the Isle of Islay, said she could get us work on Islay if we wanted. We initially brushed it off as a fantasy but the dream took hold. We started applying for jobs in distilleries.

Unfortunately, the dream lay dormant as rejection email after rejection email came through our inboxes. It's almost like two people with backgrounds in teaching and nursing aren't automatically qualified for whisky distillery work... weird!

Luckily Cat came to the rescue and pulled some strings through family and friends and in mid-January we received an offer from Lagavulin Distillery - to begin in March. 9 weeks to pack up life in Australia and board a plane to London and 2 weeks in the UK to secure and settle into a motorhome. Cue total panic.

Practically distilling our entire worldly possessions down to fit in a small walk-in wardrobe storage unit while packing for a new adventure in Scotland was hugely difficult in the time we had allocated. Whisky and tandem bike - put in storage. Car, motorbike, outdoor furniture - sold. Thermals, raincoat, gumboots - packed.

Every weekend we were frantically packing while at the same time saying farewells to dear friends and family, attending the best wedding of all time, ending the lease of our apartment in Brisbane and negotiating with our employers if 12 months away from work was in their plans also. In Nicole’s case it worked out great and she is now consulting remotely for the same employer in Australia. For me, in the end I needed to resign from headspace. I was very sad to do so as I loved that job/ team and would have gladly returned in 12 months’ time, but in the end the decision was easy and we chose the adventure.

In practice, leaving home was much harder than we originally thought. Emotionally, saying farewell to family and friends this time felt very different and much harder from the past and at different times had us both in tears . Naturally you would expect that going away for 12 moths (with no fixed return date) rather than a few weeks on a quick trip here and there would be different. We prepared for the practical stuff, but were completely blindsided by the emotional heaviness of saying goodbye.

As we raced towards our dream, with some sad farewells and much excitement, we waved goodbye to friends and family before embarking on our greatest adventure yet.

Stay tuned for our stories from abroad, where there'll undoubtedly be many sips and hopefully only a few slips ;) but hey, Sip Happens sometimes!

Cheers!