farrierswife

Booked tickets today for seven of us me OH and 5 kiddies, although daughter has just turned 12 and is now an official adult!!
Booked to weeks accomadtion as we land on 9/12/07
Totally in weird state as what to do next, have shippers quote next week, car to sell OMG
Havent exchanged yet but estate agent has given us a £10,000 non returnable deposit that we will complete on 7th december as we were getting stressy!
Sort of excited but slightly worried of the unknown, never been to OZ(apart from touch down in Sydney-does that count?), did do a year in NZ but that was with just 3 children.
Just wanted to share or maybe write something down to see if its actually real!

brissydeb

Good luck!! Where are you heading?

Debbie

farrierswife

Have unit booked in Big 4 Geelong to aim to look around Geelong and the Mornington Pennisula - Melbourne

english-rose

wow!!!!

with ONLY 3 kids????

i have 3 kids 6 yrs and under and im not looking forward to flyin to oz, i couldnt imagion flying with 5!!!
if u think 3 kids was ok im sure u will be fine with all 5.

we have just found out today that my hubby has got THE job and we are looking 3/4 months before we are in ur position.

forget feeling scared, embrace it and smile, enjoy every minute its what you have worked for all this time.

it will all go just fine and everything will fall into place.

there are scores of people out there who would give alot to be where u are right now, some never have a chance of even applying.
we are very lucky.
im so excited for u and cant wait till im doing the same!

remember lifes to short to be scared go grab it and enjoy!!

rosie xxhttp://britishexpats.com/forum/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

Cheetah7

I felt completely overwhelmed when I booked our flights, I was so down and kept bursting into tears.

Tonight I was going through some paperwork and I found our visa grant letter, I felt absurdly excited/proud - you name it I felt it and went charging into see hubby and yelled 'we got our visa!' (you should have seen his face)

Although I have gone from being organised and driven, to a useless wreck when it comes to organising anything else - packing, finances - I am so lost

I feel excited, scared, tearful over leaving Dad - I never thought it would be possible to feel so much in such a short space of time.

When you apply for the visa, you think you have researched it all, you think that getting the visa is the be all and end all, you think you know yourself and where you are at emotionally.

The truth is, applying for the visa is the easy part and the real emotions start afterwards.

And when it comes to knowing yourself and where you are at, don't kid yourself because you don't.

Thats how I feel.

farrierswife

Thats absolutly spot on,I myself have done all the paperwork for the visa, just kept sending OH to work, really motivated, now its 4 weeks away and I feel like 'where do I start!'
Emotionally ok at the moment, it will be hard to say goodbye as we are taking a lot of grandchildren away but its a see you soon rather than good bye.

Cheetah7

I find myself getting emotional at night and often wake up panicking. If someone told me this would happen six months ago I would have not believed them.

Im proud of what we have achieved as we were initially told that hubby hadnt done formal training and had no chance.

As my husband is from a 'high risk country' (Algeria), his country initially wouldnt comply with intelligence requests.

We waited 19 months for our visa to be granted, he has sat 2 English tests, we have had 2 police checks and medicals.

So I am proud of us getting the visa, in those two years we have been to hell and back (my Mum dying).

I tell myself that I am more than strong enough to cope with what gets chucked at me.

I just need to believe in it a bit more.

farrierswife

Blimey ,sounds like you've had a year of it, where and when do you go?

Cheetah7

Perth in March 08

estherg

I am with you , we have just exchanged and could be in Melbourne for Jan'08. But its like OK this real now, not some dream from a year ago. I have been to Sydney, but not Melbourne and will not know anyone. At least you did a year away, I have never left England for more than two weeks. Good Luck! I have to say I am you know my pants.

Hutch

Remember well the turmoil. Things will ease fairly quickly though - the path is well-trodden and before you know it, you'll be establishing a whole new family routine in this hemisphere.

Cheetah7

I was doing some packing today, the bloody cat was jumping in and out of the box and thinking it was great to climb in the bookcase.

I found our photo albums from when we first went to Australia and I sat down to look at them.

It was incredible the emotions that these albums brought out, suddenly I remembered the helpless feeling that I felt when we were initially told that we didnt have a chance.

It was like one big flashback of how we never thought we would get the visa yet never gave up.

I sat there and cried, the whole journey kind of caught up with me today and it was also sad sorting out our stuff that have built up over the years, stuff that is so simple yet means something.

Then Gordon shatters the moment and jumps into my box of books, scatters them and all I could hear was the sounds of nail on cardboard.

Katherined0

Good Luck. Just a note. We arrived on 28th Dec with all guns blazing ready to get a rental home etc. and found that everything was shut up until after the New Year (it was about until 5th Jan) -- also be aware that xmas is the middle of the aussie holiday seasons so short term accomm gets booked up well in advance. We had a nightmare -- we'd booked 10 days and then had to move twice more before we could get into our rental on 13th Jan..... I know you've booked a couple of weeks but that week between Xmas and New Year is heavily booked out in advance.....
Dont mean to scare-monger and I know you've probably got a million things to think about but we were surprised that so much was shut down between xmas and new year....

jensteve

in-laws arrived 2 weeks ago and we are still looking at rentals!! Their container arrives in 10 days so they better find something soon that they would like. Although renting they want something with a garden!!!! tried to convince them otherwise but not getting through, and also everything they have looked at is "too small" theres only the 2 of them!!

Well keep fingers crossed looking at another 2 rentals tomorrow.
Jenny

farrierswife

Thanks for t, have decided to buy a big tent and do the campsites for a couple of weeks once the holiday let runs out.Kids think its one big camping trip but at least in means we can travel round.I'm presuming you can just turn up at the camp sites?!