isle

Well were to start.
I suppose at the beginning is best....

My name is Mandy married to Nigel and we have a son called Jake (17 next month) were both from Birmingham originally but moved to the the Isle of Wight for 6 years before moving to Australia in October 2008.

Why did we move, well like everyone else we wanted to see if it was a good as what we had heard read and seen on TV ( Wanted down under as a lot to answer to )

Before moving here we came on a 3 week holiday to Queensland to see if it was were we wanted to live. Started in Byron Bay and travelled up the coast to Airlee Beach and thought wow this is lovely I could see us here, then started the trip back down and started having doubts, Could Nigel work outside in this heat, would I get a job. We had already moved Jake away from his school once could we do it again plus the usual questions....

Went back home plodded along but kept seeing how England was changing for the worse and questioning our decision to stay. I moved to a new job I loved selling houses and thought, no why go we have good jobs a beautiful house, good friends, holidays abroad , decent cars what more could we want...

Then Nigel came home one day and suggested we should move if we did not like it we could always come back. We had friends who had recently moved to Perth and loved it, friends who had moved to Brisbane and loved it so we took the gamble and started the visa request. It only took us just over a year, we could not sell the house due to properties not moving so we decided to rent it out so we could just go.

We sold every thing and moved to Qld with just 36 small tea chest and 2 bikes. We spent a month in Perth with friends (Thank you Mark & Nicky) and checked out the area but we decided Qld was for us.

Nigel is a Painter here, works on and off but mostly on, I Manage a Specavers and Jakes trying to get into the Armed Forces once his Citizenship is sorted.

Was it the right move,,,,,,,,,,,,,yes without a doubt.
We all love it here,well except the odd day when I miss family and the odd English thing.

Mrs Isle

Still Game

Great story, as I read I really didn't know which way you were going to go! Glad all is going well for you and hope Jake gets the career he wants.

Dann2000

Really glad its going so well, I manage an Opticians in the UK and also a qualified DO (which I know doesn't count for much in Oz) Could you give me a rough idea of salary structures in optics down under?

Thanks

Danny

carolinephillips

We emigrated in August 2008, and like you think it was a good move. DD is 15 and doing School Cert this year. Don't think she would have had the opportunities she has now if we were still in the UK and the high pressured environment of a home counties grammar school.

Sherlock Holmes

Nice update thanks. Happy for you.

isle

Will PM you tonight.