Claire Hanley

Claire Hanley

We bumped into Claire outside of the Bondi bubble recently (yes we DO all get out of the bubble occasionally). Claire is from the UK but has lived here for some time now so we were interested in her Bondi story.

Claire thought she had “landed in paradise” when she arrived here from the UK with her Australian husband and two babies in 2001. “The community, the beach, the city, the freedom for the children was beyond anything I thought life could actually be.

We bought a house (you could do that in those days if you were lucky), had another baby and thought that was that for living happily ever after. Then my husband got head hunted for a big job in Switzerland. We felt we had to take it or spend the rest of our lives wondering “what if”. I agreed, grudgingly, to go for 2 years, 4 maximum. I cried every day for the first six months we were there, I was so homesick for Bondi. Slowly we built a blessed life, with great jobs, new friends and some incredible adventures exploring the world. Four years maximum turned into 12 - then COVID came. We were in France, separated from our oldest sons and unable to travel more than one kilometre from home. If I was restricted to a km from home, there was only one place in the world that I wanted to be. It took a couple of years to get back, what with the border restrictions. The family is still split across continents, but I am enjoying every moment of being back to my happily ever after.”