Had a wonderful day today and saw a lot more of Brisbane as friends of ours came to fetch us and spent the day showing us around. We went to Brisbane University and walked around the beautiful grounds. Then we went up to Mount Coot-tha and had a look at the beautiful views of Brisbane. We had a snack at a picnic spot in the area and then our friends took us to their place for a swim and for lunch. We also had the chance to see some of the houses around some of the suburbs near The Gap. We had a very enjoyable and relaxing day – we still think this place is great!

A good night's sleep

Last night and the night before we basically slept through till morning - including Abi - which is great and we are now in 'the zone'.
Thursday evening was great and we had our first Ozzie BBQ (we even had boereworse - does that cancel the Ozzie bit out?). And we were also taken to the local supermarket to get some heavy items like washing powder etc - which was very helpful and we were so grateful.
Today we went to South Bank and met a lovely couple and their 2 children for a play in the water and sand and for a bite to eat - it was to nice to meet up and we had a really lovely time
Nothing else to report except that we are really suffering from sand fly bites. The only bad thing so far!
(note the beautiful Jacarandas in the picture below!)

Hello Brisbane

The Flight

The flight wasn’t as bad as we expected – I suppose it helps to expect the worse– then its never that bad. Abi slept most of the flight from London to Singapore. The stopover was short enough to be bearable and the worst part was the onward flight to Brisbane as it was daytime for us – but we needed to sleep as we were arriving in the morning – and Abi was having none of it. But all in all, she was very good considering – enjoyed having her own seat and her little meals – but did get frustrated at being strapped in. When we landed she kept telling everyone who would listen that ‘we landed!’

Monday 20^th October

We got the keys to our apartment at about 9am and got settled – to be honest the first day is pretty much a blur. We unpacked as much as we could (given the fact that we had no hangars!); did the inventory check (rubbish job best gotten over with asap) and also walked to the nearest little shop to buy basics like bread, milk etc. We all had an afternoon nap and then went for a walk to a nearby park to keep ourselves awake. The first night Ab woke up about 5 times – either to go to the toilet, find ‘puppy’ or just woke up a bit confused I think. She has settled in so well and even refers to her room as ‘my room’ already and the apartment as ‘home’. How adaptable children are.

Tuesday 21^st October

Day 2 and we went a bit further a field today, walked a bit further to a larger cafe with more expensive arbitrary food (we need to get to a supermarket asap!) and in the afternoon we caught the ferry to South Bank. This was our first view of Brisbane central and we were so impressed. It is so clean and South Bank is great – a

lovely water area – man made beach and ‘pool’ right next to the Brisbane river with loads of restaurants.

Wednesday 22^nd October

So Day 3 we decided to spend the day in Brisbane, planned to get our drivers licence sorted out and get online at the library. Stumbled at the first hurdle at the Queensland transport office as we did not have any suitable evidence of address – which we needed at the library too. So we just did some walking around, found some great shops and LOTS of food – looks like it will be hard to stay thin here. We did manage to change our address for our Australian bank account at HSBC – good evidence to be used for the drivers licence etc.

Thursday 23^rd October

We have our Australian Driver’s licences! Excellent, and we also joined the library – where I sit now writing this (Great Library!). Guy has an appointment to see an employment agent this afternoon. We have also signed up to get online at home – so hopefully tonight we will be online. We are going out to dinner tonight to a friend of a friend who has kindly invited us around and we are very much looking forward to that. Would you believe it – the family next door are South African! The lady there says she knows were the SA shop is – Abi misses her pronutro.

So I think we are over the worse of the jet lag. We are finding our way around now and getting settled in slowly. Will keep you posted on progress.

Goodbye

We are leaving in a few minutes for the airport and we are very excited... We have 5 suitcases and 3 hand luggage - a buggy and car seat... etc. We are just within our baggage allowance of 120 kg +21kg hand luggage!

It has been very hard to say goodbye to everyone - we will miss you all so much, please keep in touch.

We Exchanged!

Well - would you believe that after all the hassles we have had - we have exchanged contracts this afternoon - so we have sold our house! Completion date is 14 November.

Bit of a disaster today - Guy sprained his ankle quite badly - mmmm now who will carry all those bags tomorrow?!

Plan B

Today we are full steam ahead for 'Plan B' - ie. renting out our house. Had 2 rental agents round today taking pictures and signing paperwork as we are very sure that the sale will not happen now and we leave in 2 days time.

Our buyers have come to us at this last minute and reduced their off by £10k - we have met them half-way, as we really want to sell, but we have no confidence...

It was Abi's last day at the nursery today - it was very sad to say goodbye.

No Going Back

The packers finished up today and all our worldly belongings are now on-route to Brisbane.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning - and preparing to rent the house out as the we have still not exchanged contracts.

We thought that the DIY was over!

The packers arrived today and packaged most of our things. The container arrives tomorrow. We have moved into our kind neighbour's place next door. When we took the mirror down from the wall in our bedroom – the wall underneath was still pink – while the remainder of the room had faded to almost white! So we have just painted that wall again.

We have also not sold the house yet as we have not exchanged contracts. We are progressing with renting now as the sale could go either way now – hence still working on the house – Guy put up blinds in the bathrooms and the kitchen on Monday and we also put up light shades in all the rooms. So we have had a very busy week – running on adrenaline I think.

When will rest come?

Cousins

Lovely time was had by all on Sunday - Abi is kitted out for her new occupation in Australia.

1 Week to Go

Well - one week to go today until we fly out. We have not exchanged contracts on our house yet - Friday was d-day, but it did not happen. We are hoping to exchange on Monday... the only big thing getting us down - and the impending "good-byes" too of course.

We have started packing our suitcases and there are half filled cases and boxes everywhere!

Abi is coping very well so far and keeps saying "I'm going to Australia soon" - we are not sure that she understands what that means, but she seems excited about it.

VISA Timeline

10 May 2007 - Guy skills assessment sent to ACS
28 September 2007 - Guy skills assessment approved
12/26 January 2008 - IELTS Test Written/Passed
28 January 2008 - Applied for 175 visa online
3 April 2008 - Tracey skills assessment sent to ACS
16 May 2008 -Tracey skills assessment approved
1 August 2008 - Case officer assigned
7 August 2008 - VISA Granted

The Journey Begins

Only 10 days until we fly out of Heathrow and onto Brisbane to start our new life. We are in the middle of packing up our home into various boxes and suitcases. It is all very exciting.

This is a blog of our big adventure – our move from the UK to Australia.

Chasing the Dream