barry&carol

Hi Everybody - Hope you all had a great xmas and the very best of luck and fortune to all for the new year.

Just an update on my last posting on how we are doing in Australia. To re cap I arrived October 03 and Carol and Cassie arrived December 31st 03.
I found a job in my profession within a few weeks of arriving ( Customs Broker ) and have passed 1st Year of TAFE course.

We rented two houses for 12 months ( Nov-Nov) and have now purchased our first home at Umina Beach (Central Coast). Carol did not need to work and has had the year 'out' but after deciding she needed to go back went for 2 interviews within 48 hrs of submitting her CV to agency and got both jobs offered. She now works in Sydney for a logistics company. I work 10 min walk from her and work the same hours and get the same trains to work and back.

Cassie has done just great ( rising 15 ) and after a very good year recieved 2 dux awards at school presentations including 6th best student in her year 8.
She has made stacks of very good friends and has a boyfreind !!

We have been fortunate and everything has gone well for us and have no problems of missing England and family. Not the same for all I know but if you work hard at it things will go your way I am sure.

Of course the exact same things apply here in terms of working and earning a decent wage to pay the bills but we earn about the same as we did in the UK
but with the promise of better wages to come over the next few years.

We are just waiting for the hole to be dug to put our pool in and thats the house complete !

We have no regrets and we hope that all of you will have good fortune both new migrants and wannabe migrants.

Barry

chrisp6

Hi Barry & Carol,
So pleased to here you have enjoyed your 1st year in Oz, we are heading for Perth around April/May time.
Chris

soapy©

Hi Barry and Carol,
Nice to hear your first year has went so well. Its good to see an update.
Hope u have a great year next year mate.
all the best
soapy

YFitz

You sound like you have done really well in your first year. I hope a year from now I can post such a positive and happy update.
All the best
Yv

shecha

Hi Barry & Carol
So glad to hear you have enjoyed your first year in Sydney and it's really fab to hear postitive things - especially when it's such a struggle to get the visa/sell the house etc.
We should be heading for Brisband in Feb/March and we can't wait.
Thanks for cheering me up!!!!
Shell

chippy dave

Sounds like a success story in the making to me.

Great start and good luck in the future hope we get off to a start like that.

dave

melbournehelp

I think that the main message here is that living in Australia really is all about what YOU make of it.
If you stand around waiting for bad things to happen then you are mearly treading water .
Take opportunities, make things happen ,keep setting new goals for yourself and your family and you will soon realise that you really do make your own luck.


Melbournehelp

Dreamaway 10

Really nice to hear that everything is going well.You seem tohaver a very positive outlook on life and I am sure that really helps when things can seem tough.
We also are hoping to be out in Perth April /May 2005 lets hope we too can
have a sucessful outcome a year or two down the line.
All The best.
Dreamaway

jimtrish

fantastic to hear such positive feedback, thankyou for keeping us informed, it certainly gives us all a boost who have it all to come in 2005.
Trish

tonyk38

If you feel this positive after a year, then things are clearly working out for you! Congrats and here's to many more years of happiness!

debsy

Hiya
Glad to hear that all is working out well for you.
Good luck.

Debs

barry&carol

Thanks soapy and all for the nice messages. All the best to everybody for 2005 and see u again soapy ( and others ) at the next Sydney meet. Barry

Alan&Sonia

Yes I agree with you. No-one can make it happen for you except yourself. When we arrived one year ago my partner couldn't get a job in his trade because of the licencing malarky - he is still waiting for it to be processed. He was out of a job for 5 months and feeling more and more depressed and at one stage he wanted to go back to the UK. He then realised he was the only person who could change things and he started his own property maintenance business and amazingly his business has doubled each month. He was chuffed to bits when he got his first job cleaning windows, and now he is planning on getting his business van, a website and employing someone as he has a few casual workers working for him now. So Attitude is everything. We have moved once and plan to buy something this year. We are in Sydney so it is expensive but I am sure we can do it. This is still the land of golden opportunity. We love it!!

clevs

Barry Well done, doesn't it feel good.....

We have just finished our pool and we had the grand opening today...that was laugh- all four of us attended, but we loved it andhad to pinch ourselves again.

Lara

Go Banana's !!

Good to hear things are going well for you. Hope the next 12 months are prosperous for you.

Best wishes

Warren