Shoan and Rich

Hi everyone,
I've not been on here for yonks, things have been quite hectic here over the past 3 months.
We put the house up for sale in may after getting all the pimping finished. It was sooo boring/disapointing/stressfull... waiting on viewers and then waiting on a responce and then nothing........ I had imagined the first person coming to see it and snapping it up. Well considering all the hard work we had put in to make it sell .
Anyway by the begining of this month we were totally scunnered and we decided to put the house up for rent and leave in September !! We have to validate in Nov and when we weighed up the cost of the validation trip, the hassle of comming back to try again to sell we decided to bite the bullet and take back a bit of control (I keep telling my self that anyway )
I total feel for those still waiting to sell, I didnt beleive anyone when they said it was worse than waiting on a visa! AND I can also totally relate to anyone feeling like they should be up beat all the time etc... I was feeing like burrying my head in the sand for a few weeks just to not have to think about all the stuff that needs to be done, or can't be done. Its the strangest feeling not knowing what the next 3 months holds especially when its your whole families lives that are about to change. Think it must be the parenting instinct of something
So next week I am going to look in to booking flights (Any tips ?) Planning a well earned wee break some place nice on the way over.(Any tips ?)
we have decided to go with Doree Bonnar, so I will have to get my finger out and fill in all the forms and arrange a date for them to take my stuff away !

Anyway the day I'll be sitting in my best mates garden in Perth drinking tea is drawing closer and deep down I'm uber excited. what a braw feeling it will be not to have to spend your whole waking day thinking about where you want to be and how to get there

It would be cool to hear where everyone else is ??? I tried to read back the threads but i Just get totally confused ??

fingers and toes crossed for all the house sellers out there and anyone who might still be waiting on a visa...... how many of you are actually there already ???? Oh so many questions ???
Shona

lolylew

caroline,

totally with you on that.
my head was in complete overload, trying to organise the flights accomodation all to fit in together, i just sat down and wrote everything on a piece of paper, ie what time we'd be landing, what time & date we'd need accomodation from, etc.....emailed the 1st appartment to see if they'd let us in early hours of the morning........and trust me it did all come together.

i think organise the flights first, then concentrate on the accomodation.

here are the links to the villas/houses we have booked (might have put them already? cant remember so will put them again

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/pho...?home_id=49773

http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/pho...?home_id=41047

the mandurah accomodation are letting us get there around 3am in the morning and not charging us any extra.

dont worry, thing will sort out, just do one task at a time.

lisa

vickys

Lovely to hear from you Shona,
just wanted to say good luck and that it will be worth it in the end. I looked into flights from now until the middle of November and the two cheapest were Emirates and Thomas Cook but this was going from Manchester to Sydney not too sure about Perth. Just one thing for you to keep in mind though is that if you want the extra luggage allowance you will not be able to stop off anywhere en-route. the double baggage allowance will only be for the first leg of your journey and you will get charged a fortune on the second leg for extra baggage. Sorry can't help at all with rentals or holiday lets though. Wishing you loads of luck in these forthcoming weeks.
We are still waiting on our hosue to sell and want to get shut before we move. If nothing happens shortly we will be booking a recci for October (we have to validate by January but the flight prices go up in November and don't come down again certainly as far as March anyway - i got really angry after looking that far the other night!!)

I think you are totally right though, i too didn't believe anybody when they said the waiting on the visa was a piece of cake compared to what followed and now i'm realising it fast. I'm not even half way there yet either!!!

Good luck to you and everyone else for house sales and the couple of visa's that are still left

Shoan and Rich

Cheers Vicky,

Good luck with the house selling. Its not easy
I had no idea the flights went up in price in november ??
I still can't get the hang of trying to book a one way flight with a stop over, I looked at round the world flights but can't seem to book a half way round ticket ??? Am I missing something ?

Take care
Shona

vickys

If you go on the emirates website (http://fly.emirates.com/IBE/SearchAvailability.aspx) and under where it says make a booking at the top there is a tab for one way, on singapore there is a radio button where you can choose one way, thomas cook you choose itinery one way, not too sure about the others though my battery is about to go on my pc

good luck

oanarebeccanegrea

Just wanted to say good luck to you guys( no news for us yet )!Bon Voyage & good luck for anyone who going to australia!!

Dazster

Shoan and Rich,
We booked with Fly Emirates for 12th August to Perth, one way, with a changeover in Dubai. We also requested the free double-baggage allowance and the e-Tickets were updated to show 40kgs for BOTH legs. I'll give you a tip for requesting double-baggage allowance with Emirates - DON'T send them a copy of your visa grant letter - DO send them photocopies of your passport labels instead. This will save you lots of grief as Emirates seem to be view the 2013 date on your grant letter as some visa expiry date (which it really isn't) and assume that you are therefore not going to be a permanent resident of Australia - which we all know is not the case. It's just a small thing but it saves a bit more stress - not to mention your phone bill, and your sanity.

I would also advise you book your accommodation before your flights - although I'm sure others may disagree. We found it impossible to get anything in Brisbane at short notice, but luckily found holiday accommodation in Perth without a problem. It would have been even more stressful if we'd booked the flights first and committed ourselves to a specific date to arrive. Think of it this way, there are flights pretty much every day - but there might not necessarily be accommodation available every day.

We have been extremely lucky in managing to sell our house in July. The missives have just been concluded as well - which is legally binding in Scotland as you know. So we can't back out now!

Two and a bit weeks to go and we're flying to Perth

People in the extended family are starting to look upset now. We feel like baddies for going off and leaving them! Our leaving do this Saturday is sure to be testing. It'll be worth it though - we hope!

Cheers,
Dazster

pomerz

All the best Dazster,
Have a good trip and enjoy the Emirates flight and let us know how Perth is when you get there as its a possible wild card for us should we ever get the visa!
Be Lucky Matt

Cheers,
Dazster[/QUOTE]

jemlei

hey any update on your visa? we got a Co around the same time (got a CO on the 26th of june). would it be okay to ask IMMI about the status of my application since my application is paper based so no update online on status. or should i just wait for decision.

carolinejones3

Thanks for your support guys, its so good to have cyber mates that understand this madness, don't really talk too much about it to peeps at home as they don't altogether get it and I am sure they are fed up with the longest good buy in the world!!

Debby, hope it picks up for you really soon, we have had a mad weekend of viewers, 3 altogether, one was a second viewer and they are really keen, love the house, but have one to sell thats just gone on the market so we will see.

Vicky, I had a fab party, my friend was amazed, as she really didn't have a clue and it was a fab summers day, plenty of champs and wine flowing!!

Hi Susan, great to hear from you. It sounds like you had a fab trip, I thought you had sold the house, but then again I not sure whats going on anymore Hope you sorted other half out, they really can be blind at times to what is going on around them, its like a parralle universe in our house sometimes

Lisa, thanks for you advise and info, great.
I am off to portugal for a week next Tuesday, so will hopefully come back recharged and tackle this validation trip head on with fresh eyes!!

Take care one and all

sub

Hi again!
We are off to Majorca tues not flying from Leeds Bradford are you?

No not sold the house, if we had we'd be going to Adelaide not Majorca!!, but never mind 10 days of sun and vodka will do me the world of good!!!
Its not even that warm in Adelaide!!! By time it heats up the house will be sold!!
Positive thinking and all that!!

Susan

vickys

Dazter,
Don't know if you will know or not but if you have done a recki following your visa being issued (to validate cos your house isn't selling!!!) can you still get the double baggae with Emirates??

Good luck for the party and the best of luck if i don't get chance to say it before two weeks and a bit are up. Hope your new life is totally fantastic and hope to hear an update once you are settled. Take care and i hope the journey is a good one for you's

We were speaking to our rellie's in Sydney in the early hours and they had woke up to frost on their decking area this morning. Apparently it is really cold during the day and has been for a couple of weeks, it's going down to 14 degrees around lunch time (we did tell him that is about the temperature that we start putting cardigans on!!)

carolinejones3

Ha no Manchester, Shame could have had a G and T with you!! We always go from leeds bradford as well, cheaper from Manchester this year
Caroline

Dazster

I honestly don't know, but I would imagine that your initial entry date would have expired so I wouldn't fancy your chances. That doesn't mean I wouldn't try anyway though.

Thanks for the good luck and your best wishes. I probably won't have regular internet access for the first month but I'll try my best to keep up a blog.

I was hearing from friends in Perth today who have been there for 6 days. They say they've had 2 days of sunshine and 4 of rain. In fact they said it was like the summer weather in Dunfermline! I wouldn't have ever imagined frost in Sydney though! At least it will be easy to get acclimatised.

Cheers,
Dazster

vickys

good luck