sammyg

We thought that now was the time to do our first update!

Our planning/journey started about 6 years ago when we were fortunate enough to go on a proper bo cruise around Australia!...we realised quite early on that we needed to live there!

We got back to England on a big downer and thought about what we needed to do to get there!!!!!

Basically, we hit a brick wall and the only way to get there was for one of us to train or get a degree with work experience in something which we knew was a demand or a job that would be more than likely to be on the MODL!!
I was working as a Teaching Assistant so it was quite a natural progression that good old Tony Blair decided to pour money into education and stump up money for a my Teaching 'Foundation degree'!

I worked fulltime and and studied for three years and finally got my degree, however i knew that my experience and foundation degree still wouldn't get us to Aus so i continued into my BA Honours to get into teaching....but on New Years Day 2007 we noticed that a role called a Child Care Coordinator was on the MODL. This role was me!!!!

We began to collate/plan/dream about our possible life in Aus!!

I first did the TRA and after a quite quick reply (although it didn't feel quick) we were successful!!! -that feeling was unbelievable!!!

So on we went to the Visa and as you can see we got it!

but not through lack of more worrying, infact, i learnt how to get bad anxiety!!

Still though, we couldn't leave as we couldn't sell our houses (we had a buy to let to get rid of too as we wanted to start afresh) ....9 months of stress, even more anxiety....until we sold at a very low price!!

With hindsight however, we did the right thing as we've since been on rightmove to view the houses and prices in our old area and we actually think we did ok for once!!

After the ABSOLUTELY soul destroying goodbyes we left for the Queensland sun!

We stayed with family near Ipswich for a short while while we checked out Brisbane, in England we thought we saw ourselves living in Fig Tree Pocket/ Kenmore etc but that wasn't to be...after we'd visited the coast we knew we had to be near the ocean... don't get me wrong brissie subs are extremely nice but niether me or husband had to live near the city for work....therefore we settled on the Gold Coast.

First of all we got a rental in Oxenford, which was again in hindsight a lovely area, but we didn't think that when we had GIANT cockroaches running around us( i hated it for a while and wasn't happy!!!)

Our daughter also wasn't getting on at the local school - she had bogan shitbag kids telling her to get back to pommie land!!:curse: and crap teachers burying their heads and not speaking up!! Her first day at school was a nightmare when she came out, got in car and just burst into tears. I could have easlily got the next flight home then!!

We thought hard though and spoke about it and decided to move her wouldn't have been a good life lesson and to help her work though it would be a harder option but the best!

I would cry on our shite foamy matress from Super Amart(while we were waiting for our container to come.... 3 months later it arrived!!), sobbing 'this is not what we came here for'!!!!

I must, however, mention our super dooper neighbours they were fab and sooo welcoming! They really helped us by inviting us for BBQs and taking us and our daughter out in the waterski boat on the lake we were next to, we are still in touch and they are lovely

Looking back it wasn't so bad after all but we had no money coming in and two house sales pending in the uk which LUCKILY did go through this time.

Anyway....
living in a Giant cockroach infested house made us want to get our own house, with a GOOD school!!
So...we finally found our little tropical paradise in Varsity.

We love it, we have the pool, which we dreamed about and it's just great. My anxiety problem is slowly going but everyday i get up, go for a walk by the lake and just smile!!
The daughter is Very happy at school, i can't praise Varsity enough!!
She has a fab social life..at a sleepover sat and then back for a pool party today!!!!

My oh has to travel to acacia ridge at the mo for his job which is 75k each way but the money is better than down here, this hopefully won't be forever though as while we were at oxenford he completed his police preparation course at Bond uni at the weekends and will be applying soon. I am working as a family day care coordinator in nerang, which is ok but will again be moving on soon...have to take whatever gets you the $$ at first i guess??

We are financially about the same at the moment but hope to make that better very soon.
The Gold Coast is BEAUTIFUL! we thought it may have been 'tacky' and all those things that people slag it off about but, if Blackpool was like the Gold Coast i would have stayed in England and moved there!!!
Even Surfers Paradise is nice to have a lively night. There's always something to do on the Goldie!!!

Then there's the BEAUT hinterland, Tamborine, Springbrook etc

We've been camping and had some fab times already!

We love it here and although i've had a tad of homesickness this week i wouldn't change a thing and just look forward to the family and friends coming over!!

I have to say a special Thankyou to Kath, Dale and Nikki and Alex who helped us to socialise, helped us to secure a rental and are just good friends -Thanks for everything!!

Anyway, i think that's about it..apart from another Thank you to loads of supportive people on this forum, in particular, Stevo - thanks for the help with TRA and school advice and Ian S again for help with the TRA
We didn't need to use an agent as there were sooo many helpful peeps on here
THANK YOU


UP THE GOLDIE - WHOOOO HOOOOOO

claireg

Hi

I really enjoyed reading your thread we (me husband and 6yr old daughter)will be arriving over there in 3-4weeks and have 3 area's inmind to look at but you have just gave me another!

It sounds like you are really enjoying it and have put my mind at ease (a little - not sure of the cockroach things!!)

Once you arrived did you stop in a hotel or did you have accommodation before you got there? this is my big worry. As we are flying to Brisbane we were going to book into a hotel there for a few nights and through the day drive to the Gold Coast and have a look around for a rental.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Claire

sammyg

Thanks

We didn't stay in a hotel as we stayed with OHs sister just south of Brisbane for 2 weeks. Staying near Brisbane gave us chance to sort of the boring stuff out, banks, TFN etc (although, everything can be done on the Coast too)

However, we wished that we'd got a rental in a complex with a shared pool and all that, as they are cheaper and seem to have lots of kids playing out.

We decided that the house we would buy would be in the area that we really liked rather than an area which was best for work! We wanted to be close to the beach, with greenery and lots of amenities nearby and a good school....and that is what we have. North Burleigh beach is just over 5 mins away, our garden backs onto a nature reserve and Robina town centre (which is going to be huge and very nice!!) is 10 mins walk away.

OH does have a crap drive everyday but we aim to change those things now we are where we want to be!!

It can be hard at first so if you ever need anything you just have to yell!!...there are people all over the coast who would be happy to help!

Are you shipping furniture??

Where are the areas you were thinking about (most are very nice)??

Sam

curly

Sam that is a brilliant update Blimey never knew you did all that studying to get the visa! You certainly deserve it all

Long may your happiness continue
(Oh and your very welcome you're great mates to have )

sammyg

Thanks hun
When are you going to do one??

sam xxxx

Clippy

Great update Sam, it just occured to me that despite the drunken nights we've spent together I had no idea how you got over here!

Hope the homesickness goes soon chick, you know where I am if you fancy a drink or a coffee(tea sorry )

curly

Hello

Have done already well done two in fact On the 'other side'

claireg

Hi Sam

We are looking at Helensvale, Pacific Pine (i think everyone looks there!) and Ashmore. We like you want to live near the coast and want a good school for our daughter to go to. Oh is a brickie so he's not fussed about travelling to work as he does it here most of his jobs have been at least a 45minute drive!

Yeah we are shipping our stuff over they are coming next Monday to start the packing Hopefully they reckon we should get it just before xmas but i'm not expecting ituntil the new year!

Do you know of any rentals? like i said all the info you can give me will be a great help!

Thanks Claire

sammyg

Lol!!!
Thanks for the offer, i'll txt you
xx

ooppps, i shall check them out!!

Looking forward to the party!!

xx

sammyg

Hi Claire,
All those areas you have mentioned are good. Curly lives in Pac Pines and is very happy. Pac Pines is newer and Ashmore and Helensvale are a bit older, all very nice though!!
It's soo hard to judge an area until you've actually lived in it.
We did some research on burglary/crime ratings etc to rule some areas out. I'll see if i can find the link for you, although, sometimes i'm sure that doesn't truly reflect an area!!!

We looked for rentals on realestate.com, however, when we got here we found it easier to drive around the realestates and pick up their print out on the counter as there would be houses not in a newspaper of on the tinternet.

We also looked at seqrents.com.au , that has a lot of complexes!

What have you been looking at??

sam

claireg

Hi

Like you we have looked at realestate.com and decided its not worth doing much until we get there. Even thinking about just staying in Brisbane a night driving down to the Gold Coast and booking into a hotel for about a week and seeing what we can find. Someone has recommend Pelican Cove so i might take a look at that and get some prices. Until we have a definite date for flying i wouldnt want to book anything yet - i have this feeling things will come crashing down around me and i'm dreaming!

Claire

stumpysean

Hi, we're looking at coming out end of May time (me, hubby, and 2 boys 8 & 11). We're having to come out on a student visa after 3 long years of stuggling to find a way to do it! I'm going to do a year at the 'imagine college' in Southport, then hopefully get sponsored in a placement as a childcare co-ordinator. I already have the quals from the UK but unfortunately haven't got the experience through having own kids and running own business with hubby.

We're just waiting to sell our house and plan to leave the Uk end of May ready for me to start the course in July.

I'd love to keep in touch with you guys for advice and to meet up once we arrive

Sally Simpson

Great update, really interesting

Just a word of warning, hanging out with Kath & Nikki is very bad for your health

sammyg

[QUOTE=claireg;6810895]Hi

Like you we have looked at realestate.com and decided its not worth doing much until we get there. Even thinking about just staying in Brisbane a night driving down to the Gold Coast and booking into a hotel for about a week and seeing what we can find. Someone has recommend Pelican Cove so i might take a look at that and get some prices. Until we have a definite date for flying i wouldnt want to book anything yet - i have this feeling things will come crashing down around me and i'm dreaming!

Claire[/QUOTE

We booked our flights and then our house fell through:curse:, luckily Singapore Airlines moved without any charge but booking it did cause us more stress than i think we really needed!!!

I think we called Pelican Cove and they weren't great (pricewise!)
Someone called doub on here has a very nice looking apartment that we wished we'd have booked for the first week or 2, do a search for him and it's in his signature!

Sam

It's a shame to hear about your struggle...if Child Care Coordinator hadn't come onto the MODL we were concidering doing the student thing!

There is a BIG shortage of qualified childcare staff here. They are using trainies to run pre-school rooms which should be the job of a level 3 group leader!!

Since being here i've seen a few desparate Child Care centres, who i'm sure after employing a good member of staff for a while who would consider sponsoring!
I went to an early years meeting last week and there is a lot of work that is starting (early years hubs -copying Sure start) on the Northern corridor (Coomera, upwards) as the size of the area is going to grow sooooooo much there is concern about what the communities will be able to access!!

So...there will be more opportunities in this early years coming up!
Also, QLD government is set to have 240 kindy centres by 2010??? and they will need staff too!

I'll keep in touch and let you know what's going on, and yes it would be great to meet when you get here!!
Sam
i know they've dragged me into the gutter with their antics.....sometimes i cry, no more CSC, no more


Sam

curly

and when was this occassion I seem to recall it was "more more more"