July, 2010

It’s nearly two weeks since I last gave you all an update of our progress here in Oz, and a hell of a lot has happened. I am sat at McDonalds writing this while waiting for some work to be done on Alison’s car, at a place called Ipswich!!! What a small world, as the a house we are now renting is about 15 miles from Ipswich, sounding familiar?

Some of our regulars may be confused as to our housing arrangements as they have changed a few times. The house Alison originally liked had a couple of practical problems, the living area was a tad small for our furniture and we didn’t really have any practical way of finding space for those few guests we knew would be coming over the next few months. So, with great difficulty she gave up the idea of living there and we started searching again.

We then found a lovely house in Augustine Heights, with a killer feature of a range cooker. We even got as far as signing up the application forms at the agents, and then Alison asked questions about the school catchment areas. It transpired that the school we had picked for James wouldn’t take children from that street. Great sadness ensued, and the agents then pulled out the stops to find us a good alternative.

We then found a nice house in Springfield Lakes, which seems to tick all the boxes. So, we signed up and are moving in today and tomorrow. Since then, we have ordered two new beds, a new sofa, fridge freezer and microwave. We have rush purchased a dirt cheap dinner service, kettle, toaster and various essentials. Arranged for electricity to be connected, and phone and broadband. All while organising and sorting the rest of the things below…

So, with a house organised we went down to the school on their child-free day just after their two week school holiday. The principle was amazing, and sorted James out a place. The school looks really good, and we hope it turns out well for James. He started the next day, so we have been having to run him to and from school, a journey of 20 miles each way every day. Now we have moved that will be much easier,

While all that has been going on, I have still been applying for jobs. The early part of this week was getting progressively more and more disappointing as some of the roles that I had previously been getting hopeful about started to fall by the wayside. On Wednesday, I did a trawl of seek.com.au and applied for three interesting looking jobs. On Thursday, I arranged a face to face meeting with the agent that had been making a really strong effort to get me placed, so was all suited and booted when I got a call that resulted in me being required for an interview immediately in the CBD. By the end of the day, I had had two interviews and had been offered a really interesting looking job. I start on Monday.

We bought a car for Alison, and for Tiffany to learn to drive in, on Monday. It is a slightly aged Golf GTI, but in really good nick. So, we have also been running around getting the car “roadworthy” sorted out (which was really the sellers job, but we wanted to get the car quickly), getting our Australian driving licences and getting the car registered to Alison. Add insurance and buying and getting fitted the replacement car stereo system to all of the above and you start getting a picture of what a wonderfully relaxing time we are having.

Just took a call, our beds are being delivered at 7am tomorrow morning, have to get up early to drive over to the house before then, at the weekend too! Gulp.

We are having beautiful winter days at the moment. Bright blue skies, 21 degrees in the shade, 26 in the sunshine. Also, checked the best way to get to the city, and the train is only £6 per day, return. Sounds good.

I’ll try and get more regular updates in…Share

We’ve been in Australia for 10 days now, as residents and not as holiday makers.

Just as we left the UK, apparently they have had a mini heat wave with temperatures rising above 30 degrees Celsius. I say apparently, because there is always the remote possibility that absolutely everyone is lying. Just to rub it in, the winter here is going through an uncharacteristically cold snap with daytime temperatures of only 15 degrees, and it falling to near freezing at night. I was talking to someone in Melbourne the other day, and they have had to scrape ice off their car – a rare treat for Australians.

The journey was the usual mundane endless drone of jet engines for about 21 hours, punctuated by a brief 3 hour respite at Singapore airport. This 3 hours sounds like a nice leisurely break, but it is amazing how quick it disappears if you allow for the time to disembark one plane and then the time it takes to go through the boarding process for the next plane. Singapore airlines were much better than Qantas/British Airways. The interior of the planes were in much better condition than any of they planes from BA that we used last year. The entertainment system was cleaner and much easier to use. And, the staff were very attentive and helpful. The best bonus was the comfort of the seats, which on the longest haul flights is probably the most important thing.

While we were on route, the sale of our house moved on, and we exchanged contracts. We completed a few days later, and the money is on route to Australia as we speak. My savings account gets 6% interest!!

Since we have been here, I have applied for a few jobs and had two interviews. We have looked at 12 houses,visited friends for a BBQ, opened bank accounts, registered for Medicare, applied for tax file numbers, moved from one unit to another and bought a car. Tiff has got a job, too.

The Australian people have been amazing, too. Everywhere that we have needed help, they have taken their time, and been very encouraging about living here. The time that sticks in my mind was when we were trying to work out if a train back from the theatre late one evening would have worked out. We asked the guy at the ticket counter, and he painstakingly worked out every combination of trains while a queue was building up behind us. We were getting embarrassed, and I said that it was OK, we could work out the rest as there are quite a few other people waiting – and he said it was no problem, they wouldn’t mind!

This relaxed attitude combined with the fact that the end of June is a tax year end has meant that it is taking longer to hear back from interviews than I am used to. When I mention this to the agents, they say “welcome to Queensland”.

Better get going, we need to get out for another BBQ today.Share