Perth 3 months in and........
Jul 7th 2006, 9:18 am
#1
Happy Member
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2005
Location: On a rollercoaster
Posts: 1,913
Perth 3 months in and........
We finally have broadband!!!!!!
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Jul 7th 2006, 9:50 am
#2
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Mount Tamborine
Posts: 17,426
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
I'm so pleased for you! You've really got stuck in and gone for it - well done 
I'm glad you're enjoying it and most importantly glad the kids have settled so well and so quickly bless them.
Kath xx
I'm glad you're enjoying it and most importantly glad the kids have settled so well and so quickly bless them.
Kath xx
Jul 7th 2006, 9:59 am
#3
BE Enthusiast
Joined: May 2006
Location: Greenwood, WA
Posts: 575
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
How inspiring! I wish you and your family continued and long happiness!
I hope me and OH can post something so positive so early on into our new life later this year - visa permitting (touch wood/plastic/formica).
Paula
I hope me and OH can post something so positive so early on into our new life later this year - visa permitting (touch wood/plastic/formica).
Paula
Jul 7th 2006, 11:17 am
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Cooma, NSW
Posts: 211
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
That's lovely, really good to read and glad you're settling to life in Auz so well. We're hopefully leaving here on 21st August for rural NSW if the house goes through ok early next week!
Best wishes,
Sara
Best wishes,
Sara
Jul 7th 2006, 11:26 am
#5
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 2006
Location: Riverland, SA - Beds/Cambs/Nhants was home in UK
Posts: 1,503
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by Silky Chicken
That's lovely, really good to read and glad you're settling to life in Auz so well. We're hopefully leaving here on 21st August for rural NSW if the house goes through ok early next week!
Best wishes,
Sara
Best wishes,
Sara
Hey Sara, nice to see I'm not the only one going rural - made me laugh when Kris said they're a whole ten mins from sea - we'll be about 2 hrs!!!
Jul 7th 2006, 11:41 am
#6
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,337
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Good that you are settling in 
Not to shabby here is it?
Not to shabby here is it?
Jul 7th 2006, 12:28 pm
#7
here and staying
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: happy in the hills of Perth......
Posts: 4,351
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Well done Kris, brill post
Will phone you if/when we get there! still waiting for exchange on house!
Will phone you if/when we get there! still waiting for exchange on house!
Jul 7th 2006, 12:35 pm
#8
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Mount Lawley, WA
Posts: 117
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Glad to hear you're settling in - I look forward to being where you are! And thanks for the heads up on the car buying - I knew second hand cars were pricey but I had no idea about the contract thing!
Oh and Perthforme - loving the avatar! Giggedy giggedy!
Oh and Perthforme - loving the avatar! Giggedy giggedy!
Jul 7th 2006, 1:05 pm
#9
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,337
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by noonard
Oh and Perthforme - loving the avatar! Giggedy giggedy!
Jul 7th 2006, 1:08 pm
#10
Living the Dream!
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Cleveland
Posts: 6,515
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by kris maynard
We finally have broadband!!!!!!
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Jackie x
Jul 7th 2006, 1:19 pm
#11
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 4,918
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by kris maynard
We finally have broadband!!!!!!
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
great post Kris...glad your settled and enjoying it
Jul 7th 2006, 1:27 pm
#12
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Poole, Dorset
Posts: 1,217
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Great post. So pleased to hear that you are settling in well.
Jul 7th 2006, 2:42 pm
#13
Chocoholic
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Betchworth, Surrey.
Posts: 2,899
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Hiya Kris,
Glad you're loving it over there.
Fab post BTW
Are you still not smoking?
Julie. x
Glad you're loving it over there.
Fab post BTW
Are you still not smoking?
Julie. x
Jul 7th 2006, 4:08 pm
#14
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: sunny Redland Bay
Posts: 422
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by kris maynard
We finally have broadband!!!!!!
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Now the real update..........
This could be a long one so grab a cuppa and a pack of biccys!!! Whilst waiting for the visa reading others updates kinda kept me hopeful that one day that would be me and here i am 3 months on and loving life in Perth.
Just in case nobody remembers me we are a family of 5 me hubby and 3 girls 13/10 and 4 we arrived in Perth on the 16th of April after never even visiting Australia picked up our hire car (Avis collected from airport dropped off in Joondalup excellent) and headed for our 6 week rental that we had organised!!!
That first 6 weeks have got to be theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee most stressful 6 weeks i can remember EVEN more stressful than the visa application trying to rebuild your life and put roots in a place you have never even visited was extremley daunting especially when you have 3 kids in tow. Although that now feels like a distant memory!!!
CAR HUNTING
Finding 2 cars we found absoloute hell I just wanted a small runaround for taking kids to school shopping etc Rob being a bloke wanted the truck!!! We ended up with a hire car for an extra 2 weeks i ended up with a new car i couldnt believe the price of 2nd hand cars anything that looked safe to drive i found not much cheaper than buying new (and believe me we went everywhere) Rob ended up with the dual cab ute couople of years old very tidy luvly!! (ecept it wasnt a 4 wheel drive) JUST A QUICK NOTE WHEN YOU BUY A CAR OVER HERE YOU SIGN AN AGREEMENT TO BUY(CANT REMEMBER THE PROPER NAME) ONCE YOU SIGN THAT YOU ARE HAVE SIGNED A CONTRACT TO BUY SO DONT SIGHN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ARE SURE!!
PLASTERING WORK
Rob being a plasterer bought the West Australian paper to check out the job situation and there are loads !! Rob rung one guy but it seemed that because Rob was English didnt want to know he had apparently taken on a few brits who had been rubbish hey ho any way he got a start through another contact joining a team which for skimming he needed to as the plastering system here is totally different they use a lime base which has putty added to it (or something like that) so he worked in this team for about 3 weeks but they were horrendous they smoked dope all day Rob was working his nuts off for rubbish money BUT it done him a favour as he learnt the system and is now subcontracting and just working on his own earning good money .
HOUSE HUNTING
House hunting again was hell the prices are ridiculous and also as we were not sure of suburbs etc were going in circles we were renting in Kinross for 6 weeks but just didnt like the feel of kinross its a perfectly nice clean suburb my eldest daughter goes to Kinross College and loves it but for us it didnt have the right feel although at the time we were looking at ocean reef ,quinns, Iluka all the beach side locations which unfortunatley were out of our reach as when we were looking Rob wasnt working we had no idea what he was realistically going to be earning so we erred on the side of caution and let our brains take over our hearts and ended up in Carramar which is a whole 10 minutes from the ocean!!! Im sooooo glad we did we have a nice house with the all important pool our verandah overlooks a couple of roofs but then the bush and it also face s the direction of the sunset which is fantastic.The kids play out the front with the other kids (we live in a cul de sac so quite safe !!! So although ideally would love the big ocean front house we are happy here for now!!
All 3 of the girls have settled REALLY well my eldest has a great group of friends and even after just 8 weeks of being here it was her 13th birthday i was concerned about her not having made good enough mates to have a party but i neednt have worried she had a fab bbq with all her mates they all ended up in the pool (freezing) but she had a really fun night .
My 10 year old goes to Carramar primary and again has made good friends and settled really quickly!!
My youngest bless er has gone from full time school in England to Kindy here which as Carramar is full and Kindy isnt compulsary i have got her into lake joondalup kindy which she loves although really its like play school in England but shes happy and will start pre primary in February!!!
SHIPPERS
We have been really lucky we moved out of our rental straight into our own home on the Saturday our stuff arrived Monday all in one piece we used overs from the UK and kents unpacked it here, although i do have to say that overs packed pot pourri and the muddiest pair of wellies you have ever seen so lucky they were never picked up at customs!!!!
HOMESICKNESS
I was totally unprepared for the homesickness although i have renamed it people sickness as i dont miss ANYTHING about the uk at all (ok maybe tescos a tiny bit oh and Primark) but missing people is really hard to deal with i dont think you ever get over it just learn to live with it!!!
All in all we are really happy here (and its winter) we do something different almost every weekend we have a good social circle and have already made some really good friends which for me is a huge bonus to meet people is fairly easy but to meet friends who you can trust, rely on and turn to when feeling crap this early on in our new life is amazing and i feel extremeley lucky those people im not sure if they visit this site much but they know who they are!!!
I think that should have bored everyone to tears by now good luck to those still on there journey here !!!
Be Happy
Kris xx
Keep us all updated kris and good luck with your new life. We have just sold the house so hopefully be in Oz by September.
Jo x
Jul 7th 2006, 4:22 pm
#15
Account Closed
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,693
Re: Perth 3 months in and........
Originally Posted by kris maynard
We finally have broadband!!!!!!
Kris xx
Kris xx
Remember your posts from UK
Congrats on the move , cheers for the update, keep them coming.
Carramar maybe for us one day too.
All the best
Dave