My Cultural Awakening: I moved across the world after watching a Billy Connolly documentary

I was 23 and thought I had found my path in life. I’d always wanted to work with animals, and I had just landed a job as a vet nurse in Melbourne. I was still learning the ropes, but I imagined I would stay there for years, building a life around the work. Then, five months in, the vet called me into his office and told me it wasn’t working out. “It’s not you,” he said, “I just really hate training people.” His previous nurse had been with him for decades; she knew his every move. I didn’t. And just like that, I was out of a job.

I drove home crying, feeling utterly adrift. I wasn’t sure whether to try again at another vet clinic or rip up the plan entirely and do something else. After spending a few days floating around aimlessly, trying to recalibrate my life, I turned on the TV, needing something to take my mind off things. And there he was: Billy Connolly, striding across a windswept Scottish landscape in his World Tour of Scotland documentary.

I had always liked Billy: I’d watched plenty of his standup shows on TV, laughing at his stories about growing up in Glasgow. But this was different. The programme, which had come out a few years previously, in 1994, was a love letter to Scotland, full of history, humour and stunning scenery. I had never studied British or Irish history at school, so everything he was talking about – the castles, the battles, the wild coastlines – was brand new to me. I found myself completely transfixed.

It wasn’t one joke or moment that got me, it was the combination of it all: his warmth, his irreverent humour and the rugged beauty of the country. I thought: I have to go there.

Six months later I had saved enough money to book a trip. I flew into Edinburgh, and as soon as I stepped outside the airport I felt a jolt of recognition, as though something had clicked into place. It was like I had grown up in the wrong country. I spent the first week on a coach tour of the Highlands, then hired a car and drove around the south. I got hopelessly lost more than once – this was pre-GPS – but I loved every moment.

When I returned to Melbourne, I knew I hadn’t had my fill. Two years later I applied for a UK work visa, signed up for a live-in pub job in London, and flew back across the world. The plan was to stay in London for a few months, then head up to Scotland to work and explore. Things didn’t go exactly to plan. A bar job in Scotland fell through, and I ended up following a friend to Belfast on a whim. I thought I’d stay a couple of months. I’ve now been here for 26 years.

There was something about Belfast that drew me in. It was a smaller, more approachable place to build a life, and I felt people were willing to give me a chance in a way I hadn’t experienced before. I worked in a bar, and it was there that I met my future husband, who was also working there at the time. We got engaged a year later, and eventually fought a long, hard battle with the Home Office to get permanent residency, which I finally received in 2018.

My parents were supportive of my decision to come here, although I think they assumed I’d be back after two years. I sometimes wonder how different my life would be if I hadn’t turned on the TV that day; if I’d just stayed home feeling sorry for myself instead of being inspired by a mouthy Glaswegian wandering around Scotland.

Thanks to that chance moment 28 years ago, I have a life I love: a home, cat, a husband, and a deep connection to the UK. Without meaning to be, it was a real sliding doors moment, and a fork in the road. And I’m so glad I chose this path.