and Happy Birthday from me Corinne too! (picked a good time to go away for a birthday celebration then!)...

*************Have a lovely Birthday Corinne**************

********************************************

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, OH surprisingly took day off and we went to lunch with the kids which was nice. Off to Spain on Friday and cant wait!!!! Love c xxx

Doh, i thought you had gone last friday!
Glad you had a lovely lunch on your birthday! Have a fab time in Spain.
What part are you going to ?

We've just booked another short break away. Andy is 40 next month - and we were originally planning to go on Eurostar to Disneyland Paris with the kids - but our car is broken and we know it's going to cost more than £400 to get fixed - so we've had to opt for a cheaper option. So now we've booked to go to the Elvedon Center Parcs - which we love anyway...
Cant wait - it's the only time i ever get to ride a bike nowadays!
We were originally expecting not to be in this country for his 40th - otherwise we'd have hired a hall and had a big party. We dont want one at home though as we're trying to keep the house as nice as possible!

Enjoy the sun in Spain, if the weather's anything like Majorca was it's going to be very warm!

take care
Cathy

Hiya, yeah it was really good, if he had had to have gone back it would have been devastating and he is thriving perfectly well with the older kids!
Love Launceston and the area and we are feeling quite at home already, although we are doing the student visa route and our house sale back in the uk fell through and its all been very stressful :curse:so I think it will be some time yet till we feel some permanance! Still glad we came though its beautiful here. Julie

Hi Julie, glad to hear you have no regrets about moving to Tas!
I really wish we'd visited Launceston and Devonport on our visit last year, we keep hearing such good things about the North (as well as the South!). We're so undecided on what to do really... I think when our time comes we'll definitely have to visit both area's and make a decision... Ultimately it'll depend on the work offers for my OH but we're open to any possibility really.
Sorry to hear about the problems with your UK house sale. Is it still up for sale now? I've been reading stuff this week about they're possibly going to be stopping stamp duty for a while, so fingerscrossed that goes ahead and will help the bad property situation a bit...

If you dont mind me asking - what are you or your OH studying ?

Cathy

Hi Cathy, wish I was already in Spain!!! he he. I love Centreparcs, we are hoping to go in November for Josephs 3rd birthday with some friends (its my mates birthday too) will have to count the pennies when we get back from Spain and see. We have a villa in Costa Blanca, a place called Villamartin, its great as its our place we feel at home straight away. Would be good if they did stop stamp duty for a while, but knowing the UK government there will be a catch somewhere along the line!!! he he. Good luck with putting the house back on. x

Hi Corinne, i dont blame you for wishing you were already on holiday!
Centerparcs is great isn't it? i remember the 1st time we went we just didn't want to come home we had such a great time.... Cant wait to see Jared's face when we're pulling him along in one of those bike trailers! He'll also love the swimming area - especially the sand play bit in the toddlers/baby bit... Andy wants to do a few activities like archery etc this time if he can...

I've not heard of Villamartin, but my Dad's sister lives in Alicante in the Costa Blanca - she's been out there for about 20years now...She has no intention of ever returning to the UK although i think the place has changed somewhat since when she 1st arrived out there...
Lucky you though having a nice holiday home of your own! Just a tad jealous there!

You're probably right about the government / catch thing - there normally is one! and thanks for the good luck wishes for our house.... Hopefully we'll get a buyer before our visa's expire in 2012!

take care & enjoy your hols!
Cathy

Alicante is about 45 mins from us. Thats where we are flying into this time with Easyjet as Ryanair to Murcia was far too expensive!! Yeah my kids have never been to Centreparcs as we last when when we were childless!!! he he. Be a bit of a shocker going back this time with 3 kids and a huge belly!!! he he. Joseph has one of the bike tent thingys that Mark pulls along behind his bike and he loves it. We used it quite a bit in Tas with the bike rides along the river we used to do.

When are you looking at putting your house on the market? Are you using a different local agent, we used Beresfords in the end and they were really good, sold it really quite quickly compaired to the other agents that we had used. If the stamp duty thing goes ahead it should hopefully kick start the market again. You never know we may all be on the same flight out!! hehe.

Hi Corinne, i've heard that some Ryanair flights can work out expensive...
So you're not too far from Alicante, i know it's nicer though the further out from there that you go...so you must be in a nice spot.
I imagine CenterParcs will be a bit different going back with 3 kids and a big belly! At least they can never complain of being bored somewhere like that though! I remember Eden used to fall asleep through sheer exhaustion after we'd been out and about there all day!
We just need to get tidied up at home - what with the holiday etc - the gardens etc need a bit of work to bring them up to scratch for new photo's etc... and i just need to blitz the place, ie, clean everything and wash windows etc etc.... so i imagine we'll have the agent round in a couple of week's time. We are using Beresfords this time ourselves. They've been ringing Andy constantly to try and secure us going with them and we will use them as they are the only one that has a colour page spread in the local paper everyweek - plus they're photo's etc always look more professional. They agreed to the same percentage we'd had with Bairstows anyway...
Our car is broken at the moment though - and we're trying to sort out transportation for that to a garage in Hornchurch that we want to use.
But all our hanging baskets are at a friends who was watering them for us in Hornchurch so we need to get those back before we have pictures done... Fingerscrossed they'll still be alive by then!

It's funny i was quite looking forward to coming home....but having got the bus home from work last night at 9.30pm in the centre of Romford, it's funny how i'm all of a sudden not that fussed about moving away again!!!

Hi Cathy well after our first visit to Tas 5yrs ago we had every intention of settling around Hobart but when we arrived this time something kept pulling us up here, think if you can spend a few weeks driving round you will get a feel for a place thats what happened with us

Hi Kay, you're not the 1st person i've come across that's started off initially in Hobart and has ended up North! I think you're right, we'll definitely need to have a drive about when we 1st arrive just to get a feel for where we like best.... Unless Andy is offered a mega-bucks job (unlikely ), then i guess we'd go wherever that is!

Whats the weather like for you guys at the moment? is it still pretty cold?

We had thunderstorms last night. It was VERY hot and humid - i didn't go to bed till gone 1am as i knew i wouldnt be able to sleep! I spent ages downloading more than 200 holiday pics onto a Kodakgallery website and sending the link to loads of people - only to check this morning and it looks like the website's down at the moment so i'll have all my friends saying "the link doesnt work!!!"....

Oh well, such is life on the worldwide web!

Have a great day!
Cathy

Hi Cathy

Weather not bad at all at the moment, have been walking on the beach the last few mornings and warm enough to take my jumper off (or maybe that's just because I'm so unfit, I get hot quicker) Even if its a bit grey to start with, the sun is usually out quite quickly, we've had some lovely sunny days lately.

Think Possums is right, if you've the time then drive around to see where will suit you best, we didn't because we were anxious to get the children enrolled into school and find a rental, also the job contacts that Angus had made in the UK were both in Hobart, so we still haven't been up north yet! (Apart from brief visit to Launceston last year) However, we really like it around here and feel pretty sure we've picked the right area for us and the children, although we are still debating the rural versus town dilema for where we will eventually settle, both have advantages, we'll have to see.

Have you got your house back on the market yet, will send lots of positive vibes your way

Sam

Hi Sam,
Sounds lovely if you've been getting to go for a walk along the beach of a morning! mmmm....i'm a bit jealous there! I really liked the beach in Blackmans Bay, is it a bit breezy in the winter on the beach there? Although we were there in November i can recall that there was a breeze and i think in our photo's you can see the long grass/hedge bits near that restaurant blowing about a bit...
Andy is always saying that he doesn't mind the cold at all if the sun is out.
I think it changes everyone's attitude/perspective on their day when the sky's not grey!
Are you walking loads of sand back into your house? i've often wondered whether if you live near a beach whether you're forever sweeping grains of sand out - especially when the floors are tiled! We had a nightmare on holiday with the 4 of us in our Hotel room - we'd all walk loads of sand in even though we'd attempted to wash it all off before going up!
and me and Eden still had sea-weed/sand and other sea-stuff come out of our cossies when we removed them!

How are you coping with walking up that hill ? I would imagine within a couple of weeks you'd be used to it ?

Hopefully we will get to have a good drive about when we eventually get to Tas. Otherwise, hopefully we'd have the opportunity to go up North even if we were living in the South just of a weekend etc, that's the good thing about renting initially i guess because at the end of that 6month lease you know that you can just up and go somewhere else...

I'm glad you're all feeling very comfortable and at home in Blackmans Bay though...

Our house will be back on the market in a couple of week's time.
With all the sun / rain during the last couple of week's the garden is so overgrown that we need to do a lot of work on it before the new pics are taken. Andy has a golf tournament in Brighton this weekend, a charity one he goes to every August, and the kids have a birthday party to go to Sunday afternoon so i doubt we're going to get anything done this weekend!

I'll let you know as soon as it's back on rightmove - then perhaps you can tell me whether the pics are better than the last lot with the other agent!

take care - talk to you soon!
Cathy

Hi Cathy, sounds like youv'e got your hands full for the next couple of weeks before it finally goes back on the market. The stamp duty thingy is making people a bit happier by all account (well according to the news anyway)!! Had a look at some of your photos, they are great (till the site went down) will look at the rest later when site is up.

Know what you mean about 9.30pm in the centre of Romford!!! one place I dont miss at night!!!!! must admit even though we want to get back to Tas next year, will miss Romford to a degree as its where I was born and bred. Wont miss the hoodies and gangs and pubbie clubs though!! God I'm definately getting too old!!! he he.

We had the storm too last night, at least its cooled it down a bit, just had another storm here, albeit smaller.

Our place in Spain is in a really nice area, surrounded by Golf Clubs and the beach which is great. Its more residential than touristy where we are which is nicer, although we are only 10 mins away from restaurants etc if we want that.

Will catch up with the threads when I get back as off to finnish packing now, flying early tomorrow, cant wait.

Bye Love C x