Consulate Boy - 6. Consulate Chapter 6

By the time we reached the 3^rd Term Spring holidays, we had all settled in well to our new life on Flinders Island, and both of my parents were enjoying the challenge of a new career as teachers, as they had originally planned. Dad informed us one evening, that the threats to the family were due to a decision made by Dad and his direct supervisor – the deputy consular general, to reject a visa application for someone in Zimbabwe.

Although not caught yet, there is a major hunt in progress to try and locate the individual, who has managed to slip into Australia, and once caught, he will be sent back to Zimbabwe and expelled for life from any future attempts to apply for entry into Australia.

Until that has happened, we would be remaining in Australia, and living on Flinders Island, until the individual has been caught and sent back to his homeland, only then will my parents be permitted to continue their work with DFAT if that is what they choose to do.

It was another three months later, in mid-January, when we received some unexpected news. “Hello sir, any news on our situation?” we heard my father say, as we were all seated at the dining table eating dinner, when the call came, and we waited as Dad listened to the response, and the frown on his face looked unlikely that we would be leaving Finders Island soon.

“I see… yes, that will be difficult to do, unfortunate too, but it must be done, I will speak to you in a few days, thank you,” Dad said before ending the call. “So, no luck on capturing these guys responsible?” Mum asked half-heartedly. “As I said to the director, it will be difficult and unfortunate, that the children will have to move again, and difficult to get it done so quickly, but yes, we are leaving the island, and moving to a new post to the Consulate in Vienna,” Dad announced, which brought a loud cheer from us all, even thou we would now be doing a fast track course in the German language.

With just one week before the start of the new School term, which we would not be attending any more, we would instead be packing what we have brought with us to Flinders, storing some of our belongings, and preparing for the long flight to Austria. After the mad dash to get everything packed, the family would be spending our last two days in Tasmania in the state capital of Hobart, where we tried to relax as much as possible, as we had a heck of a lot of travelling to do.

On the Saturday morning at 6.05 am, we will be on a Qantas flight out of Hobart, and landing in Sydney 1 ¾ hours later, where we would have a 4-hour layover, before boarding our 6 ½ hour Singapore Airlines flight bound for Singapore, arriving there at 6.15 pm local time, where we would be staying overnight.

The following night at 11.40 pm, we will be boarding our 13-hour Lufthansa flight bound for Frankfurt, Germany, arriving there at 6.35 am local time, where we will have a 2-hour layover, before boarding our final flight with Austrian Air, which will take just 1 ½ hours, arriving at 9.45 local time.

We will be in the air for 23-hours in total, with a 19-hour overnight stop and 6-hours of layover time, during our journey to our new home, so it will be a two-day journey there. Sadly, Martyn and Jonah and families would not be following us to Austria, so it was a very sad farewell to them at the Hobart Airport on the day of our departure.

During our journey, which was made a lot easier with us travelling in business class, we learnt from our parents that we would be living in a house, located north of the Danube River and the centre of Vienna. Our new home is approximately 12-kilometres north of the consulate, and just 5-kilometres away from the Vienna International School that we would be attending, and the house even has a small garden, which was an added bonus for us to have the extra space, plus we have a large park across the road as well.

It took us a while to get used to the German language, but soon we were able to settle into our schooling and get back to our usual life of being consulate kids, with us been transported to and from school each day in an official consulate vehicle, which was a much better way to travel than using the public transport.

During the three wonderful years in Vienna, we got to spend our holidays skiing in the Austrian mountains, as well as do some travelling all over Austria, as well as to Southern Germany, Northern Italy and Liechtenstein, and my siblings and I were all fluent in German within six months of us arriving at the new posting, and now we knew that we would soon be heading off to a new posting, which would mean packing up and settling into a new country, a new home, a new school and probably a new language also.

When we sat down on the rare occasions that the family had an evening meal together, my siblings and I were totally surprised and happy at our parents announcement, that Mum had resigned from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and that Dad would remain for another six months, based in Canberra, while we would resettle back on King Island in Tasmania, which will become our permanent home.

A few days later, we made the telephone call to Tasmania to let the family know that we would be soon returning to Tasmania on a permanent basis, and that Mum has been given her old job back at the high school. This time it was not a mad rush to pack up and leave, so we took our time to say our goodbyes to our friends that we had made over the past few years, and with most of our belongings to be air freighted back to Tasmania, we would carry with us just what we needed to get back home.

Just a week before leaving, Mum and Dad announced to us that we would be going via England, where we would be having a two-week holiday, before we begin our long journey back home to Australia, and while there, we saw all the tourist sights, and we even did a quick trip up to Edinburgh for two days, which was great too. Once again, it took us two days to travel the long distance back to Tasmania, and we spent two days just resting at a hotel in Hobart, before making the last stage of our journey to King Island.

All out relatives were there to greet us on our arrival, and much to my surprise, my good friends Martyn and Jonah were there to welcome us back as well, which was awesome. Now aged 15, we had all grown a lot in the past three years that our family had been away in Europe, but it was like that we had never left, with he only difference now is that we were all fluent in German, which meant we could have a lot more fun talking without others understanding what we are saying while at school.

Arriving back home in Tasmania during the middle of the summer holidays shortly after Christmas, we still had a few weeks before we had to restart school again, so I spent most of that time with my good mates, who had kept in touch with me for the whole time that we were away, with weekly video chats, as well as regular messaging on our phones.

I was now feeling a lot happier with my life, knowing that we would no longer be travelling all over the world, and not having to relocate every two to three years to a new posting, plus I was now fluent in five foreign languages, and that was enough for me. Our family was now permanently home in Australia, and this would mean I would no longer be stuck with the label of Consular Boy.