Our First Twelve Months
Nov 14th 2004, 9:43 am
#1
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Joined: Nov 2002
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Our First Twelve Months
It's high time I wrote a long post about our life and strife in the brave new world so here it is blood, guts an all from the beginning to date. It's a ramble and somewhat disjointed but here ya go.
Our plans to emigrate were not a dream or a vision of living a life in the sun with the beach a few steps away, it was more a culmination of several life changing events that all happened at around the same time. My parents, both are retired, were doing a very leisurely circumnavigation, after eight yrs they had arrived in NZ. During this time they had returned home only a couple of times and we had holidayed with them about the same. On a visit back from NZ our nine year old son managed to hitch a lift back with them and stayed for the next 18 months of their continuing journey. Whilst he was away our daughter suffered a serious sexual attack aged only 15 [that's in an earlier post] My Dad whilst in NZ [with our son in tow[ was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and during the visit to pick Josh up we talked about his options and ours. Sitting in the yacht club at Mooloolaba on the last evening of our six week stay with them Josh said he wanted to stay with them in Australia and my dad wished to stay in the warm climate of Qld as it suited his arthritis better than the cold of the U.K it also helped that an old friend of his was a leading cancer professor based in Darwin.
Deb and I returned home with Josh and after a couple of days we had made a decision to go and live in Australia and spend a little "quality time" with my parents.
Our paperwork was all to hand and the TRA was approved in record time [less than a month] our application was received in Adelaide and we tidied up the house over a period of time and sold it within a week of marketing it.
We arrived November 14 last year and as the builders had not fulfilled their promise we spent a very cramped 7 months living on the same boat as my parents. Sounds idyllic living on a yacht in the marina at Tin Can Bay, watching the dolphins play and sitting on the jetty eating prawns as they're unloaded from the trawlers,swimming in clear blue warm water before breckie. After a few weeks of walking a K every time you needed the loo and the same twice a day for a shower the novelty quickly wears off. Thankfully we moved into the house my folks had built in May, incidentally the last day it actually rained so we were left with 2 empty water tanks and have had to buy water all year. Recent rains have quickly filled both tanks and we now have a third waiting to be plumbed in. [edit: it's plumbed in and full so we have 16k gallons now]
Trade licensing for me proved to be a bloody nightmare I began the process in November and was finally granted a licence to work 9 long months later. Don't want to dwell too much on that it's in the past and won't have to be repeated unless we move interstate. Any potential "tradies" wanting advise send me a pm and I'll be glad to help. I'm now a qualified licenced wall and floor tiler fully insured and BSA approved Deb and I run our own company and I'm happy as a pig in shit. Work itself is plentiful and we're struggling to fulfil our commitments to one builder and trying to do work for others at the same time to keep a hand in more pies. Wages are far better than I was earning in the U.K but it's not "like for like" as I was employed there and am self employed here.
We've bought a block of land right on top of a hill about 20 mins from the town and 45 mins from Noosa. Tin Can Bay is 20 mins by 4x4 forest track. We're hoping to build early next year finances allowing. Lovely panoramic views and negligible gardening as the slope is way too steep for grass mowing so it's going to stay unspoilt bush for the time being teaming with wildlife Roos, Koalas, bloody noisy Flying Foxes and thousands of beautiful exotic [to us] birds.
When we arrived way back in Nov my parents were in the process of applying for their 4 yr retirement visas. Just before Christmas they went for medicals and Dad expected the worst for the application, he had the blood tests and they came back negative hell of a shock but they were repeated twice and still negative no prostrate trouble. Celebrations were cut short when he had the X-rays and he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma [asbestosis] that kind of knocked us for six and we had a very subdued Christmas. Things are a bit better now and we accept that he's not going to get well again and take each day as it comes I guess if I'm on a downer it reflects in my posts on here a bit so I don't tend to post as often.
Ten months down the line Mum and Dad have their visas we're still living with them in the same house, saving like mad to build our own home. We've bought everything we need for our house slowly from the wages we earn leaving our cash invested in the bank.
Are we still glad we came? too bloody right we are. Deb loves her life Josh does too, Amy well she's run away with an Aussie to live and work in NSW so I guess she's happy too. I'm so busy working I don't often get time to dwell on things I miss other than a quality pint with the lads life's much the same. It's warmer, we eat out more often, kids are more welcome and more accepted in leisure activities / social gatherings than where we lived in U.K. I did realise the other day I'd been here nearly a yr brought all my diving gear and used it only a couple of times, I'd been hoping to dive with the kids but Amy cleared off to another state and Josh has had trouble with a perforated ear drum for the last few months, ahh well best laid plans and all that. We also have a windsurfer now, he's mad keen to try that out so that's next time we have a spare day.
I wake up early some mornings 4.30-5ish the birds are singing the suns shining it's lovely and warm and I think Sean your one lucky bastard to have the chance to live anywhere you want and your here, why?
I'll tell you the answer to that when I know it
Our plans to emigrate were not a dream or a vision of living a life in the sun with the beach a few steps away, it was more a culmination of several life changing events that all happened at around the same time. My parents, both are retired, were doing a very leisurely circumnavigation, after eight yrs they had arrived in NZ. During this time they had returned home only a couple of times and we had holidayed with them about the same. On a visit back from NZ our nine year old son managed to hitch a lift back with them and stayed for the next 18 months of their continuing journey. Whilst he was away our daughter suffered a serious sexual attack aged only 15 [that's in an earlier post] My Dad whilst in NZ [with our son in tow[ was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and during the visit to pick Josh up we talked about his options and ours. Sitting in the yacht club at Mooloolaba on the last evening of our six week stay with them Josh said he wanted to stay with them in Australia and my dad wished to stay in the warm climate of Qld as it suited his arthritis better than the cold of the U.K it also helped that an old friend of his was a leading cancer professor based in Darwin.
Deb and I returned home with Josh and after a couple of days we had made a decision to go and live in Australia and spend a little "quality time" with my parents.
Our paperwork was all to hand and the TRA was approved in record time [less than a month] our application was received in Adelaide and we tidied up the house over a period of time and sold it within a week of marketing it.
We arrived November 14 last year and as the builders had not fulfilled their promise we spent a very cramped 7 months living on the same boat as my parents. Sounds idyllic living on a yacht in the marina at Tin Can Bay, watching the dolphins play and sitting on the jetty eating prawns as they're unloaded from the trawlers,swimming in clear blue warm water before breckie. After a few weeks of walking a K every time you needed the loo and the same twice a day for a shower the novelty quickly wears off. Thankfully we moved into the house my folks had built in May, incidentally the last day it actually rained so we were left with 2 empty water tanks and have had to buy water all year. Recent rains have quickly filled both tanks and we now have a third waiting to be plumbed in. [edit: it's plumbed in and full so we have 16k gallons now]
Trade licensing for me proved to be a bloody nightmare I began the process in November and was finally granted a licence to work 9 long months later. Don't want to dwell too much on that it's in the past and won't have to be repeated unless we move interstate. Any potential "tradies" wanting advise send me a pm and I'll be glad to help. I'm now a qualified licenced wall and floor tiler fully insured and BSA approved Deb and I run our own company and I'm happy as a pig in shit. Work itself is plentiful and we're struggling to fulfil our commitments to one builder and trying to do work for others at the same time to keep a hand in more pies. Wages are far better than I was earning in the U.K but it's not "like for like" as I was employed there and am self employed here.
We've bought a block of land right on top of a hill about 20 mins from the town and 45 mins from Noosa. Tin Can Bay is 20 mins by 4x4 forest track. We're hoping to build early next year finances allowing. Lovely panoramic views and negligible gardening as the slope is way too steep for grass mowing so it's going to stay unspoilt bush for the time being teaming with wildlife Roos, Koalas, bloody noisy Flying Foxes and thousands of beautiful exotic [to us] birds.
When we arrived way back in Nov my parents were in the process of applying for their 4 yr retirement visas. Just before Christmas they went for medicals and Dad expected the worst for the application, he had the blood tests and they came back negative hell of a shock but they were repeated twice and still negative no prostrate trouble. Celebrations were cut short when he had the X-rays and he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma [asbestosis] that kind of knocked us for six and we had a very subdued Christmas. Things are a bit better now and we accept that he's not going to get well again and take each day as it comes I guess if I'm on a downer it reflects in my posts on here a bit so I don't tend to post as often.
Ten months down the line Mum and Dad have their visas we're still living with them in the same house, saving like mad to build our own home. We've bought everything we need for our house slowly from the wages we earn leaving our cash invested in the bank.
Are we still glad we came? too bloody right we are. Deb loves her life Josh does too, Amy well she's run away with an Aussie to live and work in NSW so I guess she's happy too. I'm so busy working I don't often get time to dwell on things I miss other than a quality pint with the lads life's much the same. It's warmer, we eat out more often, kids are more welcome and more accepted in leisure activities / social gatherings than where we lived in U.K. I did realise the other day I'd been here nearly a yr brought all my diving gear and used it only a couple of times, I'd been hoping to dive with the kids but Amy cleared off to another state and Josh has had trouble with a perforated ear drum for the last few months, ahh well best laid plans and all that. We also have a windsurfer now, he's mad keen to try that out so that's next time we have a spare day.
I wake up early some mornings 4.30-5ish the birds are singing the suns shining it's lovely and warm and I think Sean your one lucky bastard to have the chance to live anywhere you want and your here, why?
I'll tell you the answer to that when I know it
Nov 14th 2004, 9:52 am
#2
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Fab post Cresta. Had a few ups and downs haven't you 
Really pleased things are going well. Have read past posts, but not known the history before. Hope your dad stays well for a long time yet.
Really pleased things are going well. Have read past posts, but not known the history before. Hope your dad stays well for a long time yet.
Nov 14th 2004, 10:06 am
#3
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,814
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Excellent post Cresta! Glad you wrote it before drinking all the contents of the fridge 
I shall read again in detail later while having a small glass of something .... 
I shall read again in detail later while having a small glass of something ....
Nov 14th 2004, 10:37 am
#4
Hot and sweaty member!!
Joined: Apr 2002
Location: WA I think!
Posts: 2,031
Re: Our First Twelve Months
lovely post sean....
we too have been here a year now. left uk sept 18th last yr
hmmph..maybe i will post a..."our first 12 months" 
we too have been here a year now. left uk sept 18th last yr
hmmph..maybe i will post a..."our first 12 months"
Nov 14th 2004, 10:58 am
#5
Banned
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 595
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Good luck to you, great post.
Nov 14th 2004, 11:15 am
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Thank you Sean for your post.
You certainly havent had it easy but from what you say it sounds like you and your family are now settling in and the business is doing well.
Im sorry to hear about your Dad and hope he stays well.
Good luck and thanks again,
Cheeky
You certainly havent had it easy but from what you say it sounds like you and your family are now settling in and the business is doing well.
Im sorry to hear about your Dad and hope he stays well.
Good luck and thanks again,
Cheeky
Nov 14th 2004, 11:19 am
#7
Master of verbal pish©
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 22,198
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Great post, hope the next 12 are better than the last. that could be hard 
Nov 14th 2004, 11:35 am
#8
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: May 2004
Location: Birkdale QLD
Posts: 7,642
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Originally Posted by cresta57
It's high time I wrote a long post about our life and strife in the brave new world so here it is blood, guts an all from the beginning to date. It's a ramble and somewhat disjointed but here ya go.
Our plans to emigrate were not a dream or a vision of living a life in the sun with the beach a few steps away, it was more a culmination of several life changing events that all happened at around the same time. My parents, both are retired, were doing a very leisurely circumnavigation, after eight yrs they had arrived in NZ. During this time they had returned home only a couple of times and we had holidayed with them about the same. On a visit back from NZ our nine year old son managed to hitch a lift back with them and stayed for the next 18 months of their continuing journey. Whilst he was away our daughter suffered a serious sexual attack aged only 15 [that's in an earlier post] My Dad whilst in NZ [with our son in tow[ was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and during the visit to pick Josh up we talked about his options and ours. Sitting in the yacht club at Mooloolaba on the last evening of our six week stay with them Josh said he wanted to stay with them in Australia and my dad wished to stay in the warm climate of Qld as it suited his arthritis better than the cold of the U.K it also helped that an old friend of his was a leading cancer professor based in Darwin.
Deb and I returned home with Josh and after a couple of days we had made a decision to go and live in Australia and spend a little "quality time" with my parents.
Our paperwork was all to hand and the TRA was approved in record time [less than a month] our application was received in Adelaide and we tidied up the house over a period of time and sold it within a week of marketing it.
We arrived November 14 last year and as the builders had not fulfilled their promise we spent a very cramped 7 months living on the same boat as my parents. Sounds idyllic living on a yacht in the marina at Tin Can Bay, watching the dolphins play and sitting on the jetty eating prawns as they're unloaded from the trawlers,swimming in clear blue warm water before breckie. After a few weeks of walking a K every time you needed the loo and the same twice a day for a shower the novelty quickly wears off. Thankfully we moved into the house my folks had built in May, incidentally the last day it actually rained so we were left with 2 empty water tanks and have had to buy water all year. Recent rains have quickly filled both tanks and we now have a third waiting to be plumbed in. [edit: it's plumbed in and full so we have 16k gallons now]
Trade licensing for me proved to be a bloody nightmare I began the process in November and was finally granted a licence to work 9 long months later. Don't want to dwell too much on that it's in the past and won't have to be repeated unless we move interstate. Any potential "tradies" wanting advise send me a pm and I'll be glad to help. I'm now a qualified licenced wall and floor tiler fully insured and BSA approved Deb and I run our own company and I'm happy as a pig in shit. Work itself is plentiful and we're struggling to fulfil our commitments to one builder and trying to do work for others at the same time to keep a hand in more pies. Wages are far better than I was earning in the U.K but it's not "like for like" as I was employed there and am self employed here.
We've bought a block of land right on top of a hill about 20 mins from the town and 45 mins from Noosa. Tin Can Bay is 20 mins by 4x4 forest track. We're hoping to build early next year finances allowing. Lovely panoramic views and negligible gardening as the slope is way too steep for grass mowing so it's going to stay unspoilt bush for the time being teaming with wildlife Roos, Koalas, bloody noisy Flying Foxes and thousands of beautiful exotic [to us] birds.
When we arrived way back in Nov my parents were in the process of applying for their 4 yr retirement visas. Just before Christmas they went for medicals and Dad expected the worst for the application, he had the blood tests and they came back negative hell of a shock but they were repeated twice and still negative no prostrate trouble. Celebrations were cut short when he had the X-rays and he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma [asbestosis] that kind of knocked us for six and we had a very subdued Christmas. Things are a bit better now and we accept that he's not going to get well again and take each day as it comes I guess if I'm on a downer it reflects in my posts on here a bit so I don't tend to post as often.
Ten months down the line Mum and Dad have their visas we're still living with them in the same house, saving like mad to build our own home. We've bought everything we need for our house slowly from the wages we earn leaving our cash invested in the bank.
Are we still glad we came? too bloody right we are. Deb loves her life Josh does too, Amy well she's run away with an Aussie to live and work in NSW so I guess she's happy too. I'm so busy working I don't often get time to dwell on things I miss other than a quality pint with the lads life's much the same. It's warmer, we eat out more often, kids are more welcome and more accepted in leisure activities / social gatherings than where we lived in U.K. I did realise the other day I'd been here nearly a yr brought all my diving gear and used it only a couple of times, I'd been hoping to dive with the kids but Amy cleared off to another state and Josh has had trouble with a perforated ear drum for the last few months, ahh well best laid plans and all that. We also have a windsurfer now, he's mad keen to try that out so that's next time we have a spare day.
I wake up early some mornings 4.30-5ish the birds are singing the suns shining it's lovely and warm and I think Sean your one lucky bastard to have the chance to live anywhere you want and your here, why?
I'll tell you the answer to that when I know it
Our plans to emigrate were not a dream or a vision of living a life in the sun with the beach a few steps away, it was more a culmination of several life changing events that all happened at around the same time. My parents, both are retired, were doing a very leisurely circumnavigation, after eight yrs they had arrived in NZ. During this time they had returned home only a couple of times and we had holidayed with them about the same. On a visit back from NZ our nine year old son managed to hitch a lift back with them and stayed for the next 18 months of their continuing journey. Whilst he was away our daughter suffered a serious sexual attack aged only 15 [that's in an earlier post] My Dad whilst in NZ [with our son in tow[ was diagnosed with prostrate cancer and during the visit to pick Josh up we talked about his options and ours. Sitting in the yacht club at Mooloolaba on the last evening of our six week stay with them Josh said he wanted to stay with them in Australia and my dad wished to stay in the warm climate of Qld as it suited his arthritis better than the cold of the U.K it also helped that an old friend of his was a leading cancer professor based in Darwin.
Deb and I returned home with Josh and after a couple of days we had made a decision to go and live in Australia and spend a little "quality time" with my parents.
Our paperwork was all to hand and the TRA was approved in record time [less than a month] our application was received in Adelaide and we tidied up the house over a period of time and sold it within a week of marketing it.
We arrived November 14 last year and as the builders had not fulfilled their promise we spent a very cramped 7 months living on the same boat as my parents. Sounds idyllic living on a yacht in the marina at Tin Can Bay, watching the dolphins play and sitting on the jetty eating prawns as they're unloaded from the trawlers,swimming in clear blue warm water before breckie. After a few weeks of walking a K every time you needed the loo and the same twice a day for a shower the novelty quickly wears off. Thankfully we moved into the house my folks had built in May, incidentally the last day it actually rained so we were left with 2 empty water tanks and have had to buy water all year. Recent rains have quickly filled both tanks and we now have a third waiting to be plumbed in. [edit: it's plumbed in and full so we have 16k gallons now]
Trade licensing for me proved to be a bloody nightmare I began the process in November and was finally granted a licence to work 9 long months later. Don't want to dwell too much on that it's in the past and won't have to be repeated unless we move interstate. Any potential "tradies" wanting advise send me a pm and I'll be glad to help. I'm now a qualified licenced wall and floor tiler fully insured and BSA approved Deb and I run our own company and I'm happy as a pig in shit. Work itself is plentiful and we're struggling to fulfil our commitments to one builder and trying to do work for others at the same time to keep a hand in more pies. Wages are far better than I was earning in the U.K but it's not "like for like" as I was employed there and am self employed here.
We've bought a block of land right on top of a hill about 20 mins from the town and 45 mins from Noosa. Tin Can Bay is 20 mins by 4x4 forest track. We're hoping to build early next year finances allowing. Lovely panoramic views and negligible gardening as the slope is way too steep for grass mowing so it's going to stay unspoilt bush for the time being teaming with wildlife Roos, Koalas, bloody noisy Flying Foxes and thousands of beautiful exotic [to us] birds.
When we arrived way back in Nov my parents were in the process of applying for their 4 yr retirement visas. Just before Christmas they went for medicals and Dad expected the worst for the application, he had the blood tests and they came back negative hell of a shock but they were repeated twice and still negative no prostrate trouble. Celebrations were cut short when he had the X-rays and he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma [asbestosis] that kind of knocked us for six and we had a very subdued Christmas. Things are a bit better now and we accept that he's not going to get well again and take each day as it comes I guess if I'm on a downer it reflects in my posts on here a bit so I don't tend to post as often.
Ten months down the line Mum and Dad have their visas we're still living with them in the same house, saving like mad to build our own home. We've bought everything we need for our house slowly from the wages we earn leaving our cash invested in the bank.
Are we still glad we came? too bloody right we are. Deb loves her life Josh does too, Amy well she's run away with an Aussie to live and work in NSW so I guess she's happy too. I'm so busy working I don't often get time to dwell on things I miss other than a quality pint with the lads life's much the same. It's warmer, we eat out more often, kids are more welcome and more accepted in leisure activities / social gatherings than where we lived in U.K. I did realise the other day I'd been here nearly a yr brought all my diving gear and used it only a couple of times, I'd been hoping to dive with the kids but Amy cleared off to another state and Josh has had trouble with a perforated ear drum for the last few months, ahh well best laid plans and all that. We also have a windsurfer now, he's mad keen to try that out so that's next time we have a spare day.
I wake up early some mornings 4.30-5ish the birds are singing the suns shining it's lovely and warm and I think Sean your one lucky bastard to have the chance to live anywhere you want and your here, why?
I'll tell you the answer to that when I know it
Cheers,
JTL
Nov 14th 2004, 12:06 pm
#9
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Aug 2003
Location: Near Duloc
Posts: 4,638
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Ditto, that was really good... good luck to ya!
Nov 14th 2004, 12:18 pm
#10
Home and Happy
Joined: Dec 2002
Location: Keep true friends and puppets close, trust no-one else...
Posts: 93,814
Re: Our First Twelve Months
I wake up early some mornings 4.30-5ish the birds are singing the suns shining it's lovely and warm and I think Sean your one lucky bastard to have the chance to live anywhere you want and your here, why?
OK, now back with good beer in hand! Couldn't stop before, the bath was overflowing (give me an overflowpipe! please!!)
Yours is one of the stories I've followed, don't really know why, guess the style of writing appealed, and on meeting you I wasn't disappointed. Always have a good time when I'm with you.
Hasn't been easy for you, but you've managed to think that the glass is always half-full.......I am still learning to see it that way instead of half-empty! I take a lot of inspiration from posts like yours because they aren't all "Yes, we've been here a year, its lovely and sunny and everything is great"
You tell it as it really is, and that - I think - is what people need to hear. They may not Want to hear it, but they Need to.
Keep posting - your wit is amazing, your view of Oz realistic, and whatever traumas you are going through, they rarely show unless you want them to. Threads that come to mind include the one on plugs...legal to change or not....?
Really hope that The Bloke and I can catch up with you next year - maybe en route back from MILs for a de-stressing beer or two! In the meantime, celebrate your anniversary and good luck for the next year
Polly
x
Nov 14th 2004, 7:48 pm
#11
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: Perth, WA
Posts: 368
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Cresta
Nice post. Hope everything works out with your old man. Must be difficult living with parents, gives me shivers thinking of living with mine. All the very best for your futures.
Nice post. Hope everything works out with your old man. Must be difficult living with parents, gives me shivers thinking of living with mine. All the very best for your futures.
Nov 14th 2004, 8:19 pm
#12
Account Closed
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: Cairns, Qld.
Posts: 2,863
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Wow, that's an amazing story Cresta and very inspirational too. It goes to show that moving to the other side of the world can easily coincide with life's rough and tumbles.
Whatever the future holds for you, you appear to be settled and living in a place I'd give my left arm for (I'm left-handed!) Keep posting as I for one would love to hear how you are getting on from time to time.
Good luck and thanks for the story!
Whatever the future holds for you, you appear to be settled and living in a place I'd give my left arm for (I'm left-handed!) Keep posting as I for one would love to hear how you are getting on from time to time.
Good luck and thanks for the story!
Nov 14th 2004, 8:39 pm
#13
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: Perth
Posts: 471
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Really enjoyed reading your post Cresta. Good luck for the future.
Cheers
Yv
Cheers
Yv
Nov 14th 2004, 8:48 pm
#14
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 226
Re: Our First Twelve Months
Brilliant post Cresta! Thanks for sharing with us!
Thanks for sharing with us!
