We've been a bit silent for the last few months so here's a wee update.

Everything is progressing but slowly although the good news is we only have a few wee things left to do in the house and hope to have it on the market in June.

Once that happens we'll get some quotes from a couple of movers, we spoke to some of them while down in Leeds, and also speak to the vet in relation to our old moggies and see if they will be allowed to travel with us.

Other than that we then need to do the balancing act between a 3 month notice period, house sale and packing up.

It's a year now since we were in Oz but feels much longer :redface:

 

Hi John & Morag,

Thanks for the update, keep intouch and let us know how your adventure progresses. remember to arrange the transport for your cat well in advance as the pet shippers can get booked up quickly.:biggrin:

 

Oh, didn't know that. Might be worth getting the cats down to the vet in a wee kor so then when the wifey is on holiday.

Kind of reaching the stage where we just want it all over and done with and to be in Oz.

 

I think we can all identify with having that feeling at some point :laugh:

 

Yep, i agree i think the waiting and hanging around does drive you insane after a while,, just keep thinking ''not much longer now'' and use your time left to stock shop,lol, and see the family and friends you probably wont get to see for a while.

Cal x

 

Another wee update ....

We have good news and bad news ....

Good news:
We have been offered a couple of months accommodation with family in Oz to get us on our feet.
The house will be on the market next week after the House Report has been done. That will give us the valuation and an idea of our seed money for arriving in Oz.
Pet shippers have been contacted but only 1 has returned quickly with a quote (PetAir) so if no one else bothers their arse to reply we'll be going with them.
Currently contacting shippers to arrange vists and quotes etc.

Bad news:
The family we can stay with is in Sydney, which would mean starting off there, and either getting a job/rental there for a year or so and see how things go, OR have the cats and us go to Sydney, but the container go to Brissie and once the moggies get out of lockup we simply come up to Brisbane and get a rental there.

Biggest problem is that for our rental budget you'll get something really nice in Brissie but end up living next door to the neds and chavs in Sydney. Still, at least we'll be in Oz and we can do wot we like once there.

As an aside, does anyone have any knowledge of the pro photography market in/around Brisbane? I'd happily pack in this IT lark and do something I enjoy and am reasonably good at. Our ideal would be to open a decent sized studio and do portrait/pet/boudoir/modelling shoots. I'll be shipping over a ton of camera kit (assuming it doesn't get "lost" in transit) so could get set up PDQ.

Anyway, enough for now.

J&M

 

Hi, thanks for the update, its nice to see how the posters are progressing with their move.

Just thinking about your thoughts on opening a photography studio! I do not know if there are many in and around Brisbane, perhaps you could work in IT part time while you build up a photography business. Whatever you decide to do, I admire you for looking at all the options. ( and i never said a bad word about Sydney) :biggrin:

Good luck with the move.

 

The split IT/photography is what we were thinking of doing, I'm doing as many courses and practical work over here in as many specialities as possible, and hopefully make some money along with gaining more commercial experience before getting over.

 

Shock horror probe ... We have finally finished the house and it is on the market, so if anyone knows anyone looking for a house in North Ayrshire........

The Home Report we needed to purchase as part of the sale gave the house a clean bill of health and gave us a valuation on the property, lower than we'd hoped but hey ho we'll use that as the lowest figure we'll accept.

We've got quotes for shipping the cats across, scary stuff, it's going to cost about twice what it will cost us to get them to Oz. Last weekend we put down the last 3 ton of grey chippings to finish the garden off and a couple of other very minor jobs, now we can sit back and wait for the hundreds of potential buyers to turn up .... aye right.

We'll be speaking to 4 shipping companies to come and give us quotes for packing up the house and transferring it to Oz ... our only concern is the ship going past Somalia ... don't really want to turn on the TV and see some Somali pirates sitting on our couch and playing the Xbox. We'll be in the loft this weekend bringing down boxes and having a massive purge of possessions, the wee local charity shop just loves us.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Hopefully there will be more frequent updates as things pick up pace.

Still looks like Sydney will be our port of arrival, whenever the house eventually sells.

 

I am sure they will be queuing up the street to buy your house now its finished, well you can hope anyway!!

You seem to be getting things sorted and slowly ticking off all the things you have to get done. It’s when you tick that last item and you climb on the plane you will suddenly realise that after all the planning that its finally happening and you are on your way.

 

Our only concern is not getting into Oz with 2 years left on the PR visa, as that would mean a potential struggle to get an RRV if we have to return to the UK for an emergency, but again, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

Thank you so much for the above...I have had a long day at work and visualising Somali pirates on your couch and x box has tickled me pink! Hope all goes well!