"I moved from sunny Australia to rainy Scotland - to escape spiders and snakes"
A woman moved from "sunny" Australia to "rainy" Scotland "on a whim" - to escape the bugs.
Gabby Secomb Flegg, 32, was in the UK for a friend's wedding and decided to take a five day trip to the Scottish Highlands while visiting.
She instantly felt "at home" and decided to take a leap to move over - heading back over at the end of the year for a longer trip to "test the waters".
She met and fell in love with her partner, Billy, 36, an artist, on Tinder two months later and planned to make the permanent move to Edinburgh, Scotland, when the pandemic hit - halting her plans.
Gabby was finally able to move over in October 2020 and has loved it ever since.
Gabby Secomb Flegg, 32, was in the UK for a friend's wedding and decided to take a five day trip to the Scottish Highlands while visiting.
She instantly felt "at home" and decided to take a leap to move over - heading back over at the end of the year for a longer trip to "test the waters".
She met and fell in love with her partner, Billy, 36, an artist, on Tinder two months later and planned to make the permanent move to Edinburgh, Scotland, when the pandemic hit - halting her plans.
Gabby was finally able to move over in October 2020 and has loved it ever since.
Transcript
00:00I relocated from Australia to Scotland four years ago and people often ask me why I would leave beautiful Australia for miserable old Scotland
00:06I'll tell you why
00:10I relocated from Australia to Scotland four years ago
00:13And what a lot of people won't tell you about is all the bad parts that come with taking a massive
00:17Life-changing leap in your life not to say it wasn't the best thing I ever did because it absolutely was
00:20But I just want to give you three things that you maybe need to consider before you decide to move to another country or take
00:25A really really big leap. The first thing is is actually really anticlimactic when you get to the other side
00:28Do you think oh my god, I'm making this huge life decision
00:30I'm gonna get there bells will chant people will start to dance in the street
00:33It's gonna be amazing and it won't that won't happen. It's very anticlimactic. You kind of get there
00:37You're like, huh?
00:37What do I do with myself now?
00:39The second not so great thing about moving across the other side of the world is that while people will miss you and they will
00:45It's just like life continues to go on without you and I know that sounds really selfish
00:48But you kind of think well, I'm making this huge like massive life-changing thing
00:51Surely other people will like be interested in that
00:54I want to hear from you all this kind of stuff and what I do and they will love you
00:56Well, they do love you. You will find that people just like will just crack on with their lives
01:01They don't really care and that's like it is what it is
01:02And the third not so great thing about taking the leap is that you really are starting from the start making new friends
01:08We'll be starting a job getting a new place to live
01:10there are a lot of like
01:11difficulties and a lot of decisions that you have to make over and over and over again and that can get really really tiring and
01:17Sometimes can be a bit depressing stuff, but just to end this on a high note because of all these things
01:21I feel like you step into the truest version of yourself
01:23You make decisions that the best version of yourself would make and you get to live a life that you actually want to live
01:28You don't have to worry about the opinions of others
01:30You don't have to worry about anyone back home or any of that kind of stuff because you are truly
01:34Who you actually be and that's pretty amazing
01:36I moved to Scotland four years ago from Australia and the number one question I get asked almost every day is why would you leave?
01:42Australia beautiful sunny Australia for miserable rainy old Scotland
01:45So I decided to tell you three not so great things about living in Australia and why it is much better to live in
01:50I feel like I don't need to say this but bugs cockroaches spiders lizards and snakes. I know they're not bugs
01:56Mosquitoes literally crickets bugs just moths everything
01:59They're just everywhere all the time and they're absolutely fucking annoying and disgusting and I just can't stand them
02:02There are like no bugs in Scotland except for midges and they're only out drinks
02:05The second reason why Australia is not so great is yeah, it is sunny
02:08But we're talking like 49 degrees in the summer. Look how pale I am. I'm so pasty
02:13I literally am rocking a moon tan and I get burnt standing next to a microwave
02:16It's all good to be in summer sunny beautiful weather when you're on holidays
02:19But imagine trying to go to work or school or literally anywhere in 49 degree weather people don't leave their house
02:24They stay inside an air-conditioned house
02:27An air-conditioned house. They keep the blinds down
02:29I don't even go to the beach because the water is too hot in the sand is absolutely incinerating
02:33And the third not so great thing about Australia is we're literally just on an island down there in the ocean
02:39So far away from anything if you want to fly anywhere in Australia, even internally in Australia, it is so freaking expensive
02:46And it takes ages anytime I fly anywhere from here people are like, oh god, it's a three-hour flight quite a long whole flight
02:52I'm like bitch three-hour flight. You've got like eight hour minimums to get anywhere from Australia
02:56Okay, not exactly that but you know what I'm saying?
02:58So yes many cons to living in Australia many pros living in Australia many cons to living in Scotland many pros living in Scotland
03:04But there are three things and three very core reasons why I was more than happy to leave
03:07I relocated from Australia to Scotland four years ago and often get asked why I leave beautiful sunny Australia for miserable old
03:15Depressing rainy Scotland we start by just saying
03:19We get sunshine
03:20the second thing I want to say is that this is all my personal experience and you may not resonate with this people living in
03:26Scotland may not resonate with this and that's totally fine. This is just my personal experience
03:30So one of the first reasons I moved to Scotland is because I actually really prefer a cold rainy climate and that is something that
03:34You do experience very often here in Scotland
03:36But what I like the most about it is that you actually see all four seasons
03:40Whereas in Australia you kind of get the same
03:42Season all year round same level of light all year round and I just really feel like the seasons here give me permission to live
03:48In each of them that being said the not-so-great side of that is during winter when you have like six hours of daylight
03:53It is pretty hard to get used to and you do get a sad seasonal affective disorder
03:57Excuse the noise
03:58But honestly you do get used to it and we just adjust and I just rest during that time rather than push so hard
04:04downside to Scotland
04:06Fucking hills man. Oh my god hills everywhere. One last thing I'll share is that I do live in Edinburgh
04:11I chose to live in Edinburgh. What I love about it so much is it's like a big village
04:15It's not a city like London or Sydney or New York. It is like a big village
04:19I just think that having the proximity to a city
04:21But it not feel like as intense as a normal city would feel is a huge win for me
04:25I've never had that my life ever so I really really enjoy living in Edinburgh and you get to walk everywhere
04:30Die because I'm so unfit at the moment, but you can walk almost everywhere in Edinburgh in Australia
04:34You really need a car to be honestly to go anywhere. Okay, that's some thoughts and pros and cons while I suffer up this hill
04:40You have any questions?