killerhales

Hot off the press this morning: my daughter just picked up her exam results; she achieved a fantastic overall mark of 39 in the International Baccalaureate and so has met the conditions of her offer from Exeter University of 38 points!

So we are going to celebrate tonight at Sushi-e on George Street.

This is the icing on the cake which I thought had some icing on it already!

In other news, I signed my contract with my new employers last night and sent a copy off by email, and am now selecting options such as private health insurance, pension, car and so on.

The movers come next week so we have been busy putting smaller stuff into boxes which they can put into bigger boxes, sorting through man-drawers of "stuff" (most of it very important, obviously) and putting a few things on ebay.

I feel very lucky to have so many things going so smoothly, although I know my wife has major doubts about living anywhere near my new employers, so that is the next and biggest challenge that we will be facing.

We fly out on February 18th, so there will be one more monthly update from here, and then the March one will be back in the UK!

Good luck to all other MBTTUKers in 2012.

Mummy in the foothills

Yippee, lucky you, not long to go. A big Well done to the student in the family

quoll

Fantastic news - that's a great score and she should be very proud of herself!!! Just goes to show how sensible it is to do the IB to facilitate the international transfer of qualifications!

Gosh, only 6 weeks and you will be gone - the weather is going to be a bit of a shock to your system but you know to bring your damart thermals and all will be well!

Famous 5

Hello Killerhales

Wow - I think you had better buy a lottery ticket as someone somewhere is looking out for you!

Seriously though, congratulations to your daughter on her excellent results and also to you on securing a job in such difficult times. I hope you enjoyed your well deserved celebrations.

Given your experience in going through UCAS I might be asking for advice later in the year because we will probably be treading a similar path (with similar results I hope)!

As a family we are just considering options as our middle child goes into Year 12 this year and there is then a significant gap before schooling is too crucial for number 3. Paying international university fees has always been the off putting element of a return to the UK as she wants to study medicine (or possibly biomedical science followed by a post grad in medicine) and the fees are a little eye watering, but we have decided that if necessary we'll have to increase our mortgage to cope with that.

The other complicating factor is that our oldest will be in his second year of uni this year (of a 5 year program), but is now considering one or two semesters overseas in Year 3 which could work in our favour if he is successful in getting a placement at a UK uni.

However, we have decided that we should at least try and make it happen rather than sit here listing the reasons why we can't move. There are enough examples on the MBTTUK forum to spur us into action and if we don't have a plan, we'll never do it. Whether it all falls in to place in our preferred time scale is another matter, so perhaps Killerhales you can scatter a little luck in our direction!

All the best to you with your move back and keep posting as it is fascinating to hear how people settle back in.

Famous 5

killerhales

We've been buying scratchies on a regular basis as we do think we are on a lucky streak! But in that regard our luck has run out ;-)

Feel free to PM me at any time.

With regard to UCAS I have done a fair bit of research and also haunt sites like "The Student Room" which has excellent wikis and moderators and you do end up picking up some good tips and you can get answers to particular questions.

You'll be well aware that medicine is just ridiculously competitive so the biomedical route is a great idea and appears to be used quite often.

Yes, those international fees are pretty tough, but at least our kids won't come out the other end with a large debt (just us instead!)

I will certainly keep posting and like I said, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Good Luck!

killerhales

On Saturday my daughter received the formal confirmation that Exeter are indeed offering her a place.

International fees are GBP12,600 per year, which is a pleasant surprise as I was expecting GBP14,500. She has now started looking at the various options in halls of residence.

They now offer en-suite rooms; this is very civilised compared to my day in the early 80s when you had to share bathroom facilities!

We had a "strike" over the quality of the toilet paper! It was that stuff they had years ago which was more like tracing paper. The youth of today don't know how lucky they are!

killerhales

The contents of our house are now packed into a 40 foot container. They just about fitted everything in. Compliments to the Crown team who were polite, friendly and efficient.

At 4pm today we do a "pre-settlement inspection" with our purchasers, to make sure we have left what we said we would leave and that the place is in reasonable condition.

We have a Chinese lady coming to clean the house thoroughly at 5pm.

So that's another step on the road.

On Friday morning the sale will be complete and we will be mortgage free! It remains to be seen if we can continue to be mortgage free in the UK. Let's hope so!

Then we fly to NZ for some R&R and to visit some old friends as it will probably be a while before we see them again.

Back here on the 21st then we are into our last four weeks in Sydney, in a serviced apartment at Milson's Point.