British Expats - Been here 5 weeks

I haven't posted since moving over so I thought I would put a few words together.

Flew out on 3rd October to Brisbane, spent the previous weekend getting absolutely p####d saying goodbye to everone. I must admit I didn't realise how hard this would be especially with the parents etc, I must admit I dont think we left the UK looking ahead more wondering what we had left behind. The flight to Brisbane seemed to take an eternity and wasn't the same as looking forward to coming for a holiday. We went with Singapore who again were very good, we managed to get a free upgrade to business class for my wife and daughter from Singapore to Brisbane because I was a PPS Gold Club member, me and my son however were sat at the back in cattle class with the rest of the rif-raf ;)
While my wife and daughter lapped it up in Business class I was unfortunate to have some old man who was sat in front and keptputting his hands over his head holding onto the headrest with his dirty old fingers protruding onto my TV screen.
We stopped in the Brisbane Holiday Inn for 1 night to get a good nights rest, and certainly did that as we only woke up at 11:00am and we were supposed to be out for 11. The hotel was ok, it was clean and is close to Queen street etc. From here we then stopped at the Big4 caravan park in Aspley, didn't really have time to see any of the park however it seemed to be ok although not as good as the Brisbane Holiday Village in 8 mile plains. For a few days we ran around the various home maker stores trying to sort out things for our rental which we moved into 3 days later, we needed beds, mattresses etc and the basic essentials. Moved into our rental in The Crest - North Lakes at the weekend and had beds etc coming that day, so we could have a good nights rest in our new home for the next 6-12 months. My son who is 5 struggled to understand what was going on he didn't know whether he was coming or going, he thought it was some kind of holiday with all the moving around, he kept asking "where are we going next dad?"
For the next week or 2 we did the usual running around appying for Medicare, Centrelink etc which was quite easy but again like any other government agency you have to sit and wait in a long queue and then you find out either you have not brought something or the clerk cocks up and you have to return to sort out the problems etc.
It probably took about 3 weeks until we started to settle into some sort of normality, we had the kids just starting school and the wife got a job working in the local XYZ Childcare Centre which they seem to have a national monopoly on childcare centres. With the wife and kids out working or at school I have been a man of leisure taking life nice and easy however it is now a little boring and I am looking forward to work (never thought I would say that!!). The job front was a little frustrating, the potential jobs that were planned before we came out never materialised for one reason or another (mostly due to the fact the job never really existed and the agencys or companies were just "fishing" due to possible expansion or potential contract waiting) I have now however got a job and start on Monday, which comes with the perks of a company car, laptop and mobile etc. So for all those worried about getting work etc when you come over then I wouldn't get too stressed, just be patient and something will eventually come up. I was gonna give it a few more weeks and then maybe go for any job to start getting money in for xmas, I was even looking at sending my CV into Bunnings, I think I would have been pretty good working in there and misadvising people which things to buy etc. The wife isn't enjoying here role at the XYZ centres as she is casual and they dont treat her with any respect, just more of a 'skivy' role doing the jobs no one else wants to do. Like we said we had both built up careers in the UK into nice postions and like everything else there is always a danger that you may have to start at the bottom again, which my wife agrees however there is a difference between starting at the bottom and being treated like crap. However now that I have work and the school summer hols are nearly upon us she will probably stop working and she will take on my role as a person of leisure.
All in all it has been a bit of a roller coaster ride both physically and emotionally over the last 5 weeks but I think we are now settling ok, there are things we miss and there are things we dont miss, most of these are minor things like Coles/Woolworths etc being absolutely s##t, I never thought I would say that I miss being dragged around Tesco or Asda but the grocery shops over here are very poor, we went into Woolworths last week and it was very grotty, half the shelves were empty and the aisles just seem to be a disorganised mess. Like people say this is Australia not the UK, things are different and you have to accept that. The biggest thing we miss is family, having the ability to just 'pop around' to the parents etc for a quick chat is something that completly out ways any of the other trivial things.
Each day we are becoming more and more settled and when you have the ability to take the kids to the beach at the weekend in nice weather and enjoy the outside life more it certainly sinks in that this is a excellent place to live for a family and the kids will certainly have a better life over here.

Good luck to anyone still trying to move out here or is still unsure, Australia can be what ever you want it to be, but if you dont try it then you'll never know.

bye for now

Ian

Is it time for a beer yet? :beer: