Almost four weeks in...

[Happy little Vegemite]

We are almost four weeks in to our new life down under so I thought I would share our journey so far for anyone that is interested, I know reading other people’s stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, has helped us out along the way, so hopefully our story can add a little something to those who have gone before us...

 

 

Some background to our story is that I am a returning Aussie. After much heartache and soul searching I managed to convince hubby that Oz was calling me back too loudly to stay any longer in the UK, having spent the last 12 years living in England. Initially I went to England with the idea of a yearlong working holiday, so my stay was a little longer than first anticipated! Luckily for us the visa process was straight forward for a partner visa, especially with ten plus years and two children together; pay the money, fill out the forms, a medical for hubby, then wait the eight months that it took for the grant to come through. We decided that we would stay in England for the kids to have one more birthday there with OH’s family then make the move shortly after that, around Easter time. Initial thoughts were that we would pick a date and stick with it, regardless of whether we had the partner visa or not, if not then OH would just have to go offshore for it to be granted, but as the time drew closer we chickened out and waited to receive it until booking flights, handing notice in at work, finalising shippers, arranging estate agents to manage our house etc. so it seemed like nothing was happening with the move, then everything all of a sudden, all at once.

 

We've kept our house in England as a bit of security for OH that we haven't cut all ties, so spent the last few weeks in England madly painting, cleaning, fixing, replacing carpets etc. ready for our tenants, who moved in a week after we left. By the time we were finished I quite liked our house again and wished we had of done all of those jobs earlier for us to enjoy rather than someone else, but oh well, such is life! Having this to keep us busy made the time fly and was also a welcome distraction from dwelling too long on the inevitable sadness that was coming with all of the goodbyes. We camped out in our house for a couple of weeks after shipping our stuff, which wasn’t too bad because we didn’t bother shipping our couches, dining table and chairs, fridge or beds for the kids. The hardest bit was having an almost bare kitchen; it seems that I have become far too reliant on our rice cooker and managed to cook the worst rice I think the world has ever seen. After that, we moved in with the in-laws for the last few days so that we could get all of the final jobs done around the house without the kids around, and also to be looked after by MIL so we didn’t have to bother with shopping, cooking, cleaning, childcare….

 

 

We got a taxi to the airport to save prolonging the farewells and to start the journey just the four of us, off on our big adventure. The journey was completely uneventful, everyone got a decent amount of sleep on the flight and we arrived on schedule in Perth to be greeted by my family here (complete with niece and nephew who should have been in bed), new pyjamas from my sister for the kids as welcome presents, and to a temperature at close to 1am that felt warmer than the day temperature that we had left behind in England. My super dad bought himself a new car so that we could buy his old one from him, at the price he was offered as a trade-in, so we got an awesome deal and a set of wheels ready to go right from day one. He is also putting us up for as long as we need, so a roof over our heads too!

 

Our good fortune continued with my sister organising various activities for the kids to keep them entertained, along with organising a house to rent in the catchment area for the school that we want, enabling us to enrol our son to start back at school alongside everyone else straight after Easter. Long story, but in the end we decided to rent a different house, as the first house is still being built and not quite ready yet. Renting was straight forward, we went to view the house (there was only one other lady viewing it and apparently two people had viewed it the week before but not applied for it), agonised over whether to wait for the new build and decided against it, so applied with the usual application form and included a letter of introduction to explain that we have just moved to Australia and included photos of our house back in the UK to show that we are neat and tidy, and also offered to pay 6 months rent up front. Driving along the Mandurah foreshore and seeing dolphins playing in the water on our way to the estate agents was pretty cool! We were accepted for the house and picked up the keys last week. Still at my dad’s right now but we have been indulging in a spot of retail therapy to replace all of the big things that we didn't ship, so it's starting to look like a home and we'll make the move on the weekend. My husband has turned in to a bartering monster and I don’t think we have paid full price or delivery charges for a single thing yet! Almost everything has been delivered next day too which makes a welcome change from the 6-8 week wait for a sofa from somewhere like dfs back in the UK. Our container arrived in Freo on Friday and we heard today from the removal company, they’re going to deliver on Monday, so it's only a few days until we can really start settling into our new house with all our old stuff, just over 7 weeks since shipping, so less than the 8-12 weeks quoted. In our rental there was the small matter of a gas leak from a bayonet in the living room that had to be dealt with, the estate agents got onto it pretty swiftly so now we're just waiting for the handy man to come back and make good the plaster where the pipe needed chasing out to change the fitting. Apparently no such thing as a landlords gas safe certificate is required over here. Also apparently it is the norm for the landlord and/or previous tenant to leave whatever stuff they feel like behind in the house; paint, tiles, bags of concrete, bags of grout?

 

 

Saying our goodbyes in England was horrible, as expected, but the biggest heartache so far for me has been seeing our son struggle at school in his first week. He's gone from a village school with a total population of around 200 and where he has friends that he has had since he was a baby, to a school with a population of around 600 where he knows no-one and everyone speaks with a funny accent :laugh:He's afraid of rejection so doesn't want to ask if he can play with the other kids in case they say no, and he's not super sporty so doesn't want to go and kick a footy with the boys because he doesn't know the rules and doesn't want to ruin their game. By the end of week two things were improving and by the end of this week things are even better, just have to give it time and patience, and provide heaps of support to him in the meantime. He started Auskick on Saturday and there are a few boys in his year that were in his team, so that should give them something in common to bond over at school, fingers crossed.

 

 

The award for most ridiculous company to deal with so far has to go to Telstra, hands down. I ordered our home phone line to be connected last Friday and didn't think any more of it until the day came and I thought I should give them a call to check that everything was OK and that we didn't need to be home or anything. It turns out that everything wasn't OK as I hadn't passed a credit check so they weren't going to put the phone line on. They didn't think to let me know this straight away, of course. "We can give you a phone line to receive incoming calls only and no broadband if you like?" "No, I don't like, I am an Australian citizen, I've lived most of my life in Australia and have just come back from living abroad, how are we supposed to keep in contact with family back in England and how is my son supposed to do his homework without the internet?" The conversation goes on and it turns out that if I apply with my maiden name and previous address as the one that I lived at over 13 years ago, then I pass a credit check and can have a phone line and broadband.... Huh? I sure do hope that most new migrants don't encounter this sort of ridiculousness when they arrive, welcome to Australia!

 

 

I started work this week and found the commute from Mandurah to Perth quite a joy, apart from the ridiculously early start, allowing some me time reading a book and listening to music. Seeing pelicans and black swans outside on the way up and kangaroos on the way back is great. I'm sure the novelty will soon wear off, especially as I acclimatise and the weather gets colder! OH is taking on the role of house husband initially and after one day said he was knackered. “Ha, ha, ha” I replied, “Yes, I know, a three year old that doesn't stop talking and asking questions can be very draining on a grown up!”

 

Popped around to our rental this evening and it seems that Telstra may have come good in the end, we appear to have a phone line that is working, let’s hope it stays that way! Off to enrol at the doctors tomorrow so that we can arrange for the kids to get up to date with their immunisations, I believe they get more here than they do in the UK…..

 

My advice to those making the move, don't rush around trying to get everything done all at once, it's not a race, take time out to enjoy yourselves

[beandownunder]

great update HLV! glad all is going relatively smoothly. well done on the job and I hope your hubby adjusts to being a house husband

:-)

keep those updates coming xxxx

[cocolevi]

Great post , where have those weeks gone it seems like every thing is moving so fast on pp

Good to hear your doing well x

[leah2408]

Great read thank you for sharing :-)

[jo and scott]

fab post happy little vegemite !! glad your all settling in well. xx

[nikkiwd]

good to hear you are all settling in to your new lives.

[portlaunay]

What a great read on this damp, warm, autumn Sunday morning.

[Lou8670]

Great update HLV! We're gradually getting sorted...a car is next on the agenda!