My cultural awakening: I moved around the world after watching Billy Connolly’s documentary | culture

I I was 23 years old and thought I had found my way in life. I’ve always wanted to work with animals and have just got a job as a veterinary nurse in Melbourne. I was still learning the ropes, but I imagined I would stay there for years, building a life around work. Five months later, the vet called me into his office and told me it wasn’t going well. “Not you, I just hate coaching people,” he said. His former nurse had been with him for decades. She knew his every move. I didn’t. In this way, I was unemployed.

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

I’ve always liked Billy: I watched a lot of his stand-up on TV, and laughed at his stories about growing up in Glasgow. But this was different. The programme, released a few years earlier, in 1994, was a love letter to Scotland, full of history, humor 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 coasts – was completely new to me. I found myself completely stunned.

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

After six months I had saved enough money to book a trip. I flew to Edinburgh, and as soon as I stepped out of the airport I felt a shock of recognition, as if something had clicked into place. It was like I grew up in the wrong country. I spent the first week on a bus tour of the Highlands, then rented a car and drove around the south. I got lost more than once, and this was before GPS, but I loved every moment.

When I returned to Melbourne, I knew I wasn’t satisfied. Two years later, I applied for a work visa in the UK, signed up for a job in a pub in London, and then moved back around the world. The plan was to stay in London for a few months, then head to Scotland to work and explore. Things didn’t go quite as planned. A pub job in Scotland fell through, and I ended up following a friend to Belfast on a whim. I thought I would stay a few months. I’ve now been here for 26 years.

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

My parents were supportive of my decision to come here, although I think they assumed I would return after two years. Sometimes I wonder how different my life would be if I hadn’t turned on the TV that day; If I had stayed home I would feel sorry for myself instead of being inspired by some arrogant Glaswegian wandering around Scotland.

Thanks to that one moment 28 years ago, I have a life I love: a house, a cat, a husband and a deep connection to the UK. Unintentionally, it was a real moment of sliding doors, a crossroads. And I’m so glad I chose this path.