At the end of June 2005 we received a letter from the embassy. Julie waited until everyone was together at dinner to open it and there were big smiles all around. We didn’t need to attend an interview and could arrange our medicals!

Our medicals took nearly another month to complete…You forget that perhaps the doctor will be busy and not able to see you all on Monday morning!

We arranged them with a Doctor in Slough. We were all nervous but he was very good at putting us at ease.

Then we gambled.  I needed to give three months notice at work and resigned when the letter arrived. if the application failed or we were not ready for a September departure, I would need to find a new job! We also put our house on the market.

Then came another letter requesting me to complete a further medical examine on his knees (I takes medication for my knees). This was completed and faxed back to the original doctor who sends it to the embassy.

We had a few nervous moments and in hindsight wouldn’t recommend selling your house and resigning your job unless you plan to move anyway.

Today I received an email informing us “Congratulations you have been accepted” that was all we needed to hear. I actually left my job on the the 31^st August and rather than getting another job  we decided  to throw everthing into preparing for emigrating.

We concluded the sale of the house and trudged off to the car boot sales to sell lots of things that we have hoarded over the years!