British Expats - 2 years in Lake Macquarie

I don't check in at this forum very often anymore, but thought I'd take the time to post a short 2 year in update. My wife and I plus one dalmatian moved to Lake Macquarie in January 2007, after a 3 year job in Milan, Italy. We are both Norwegians, but we also lived 2 years in Perth as students. So apart from trying to live in Norway for a year inbetween we have been living abroad for about 7 years now, which I think eases the shock of moving.

The first year was a bit up and down for us. We struggled to find a rental at first, so ended up staying the first 4-5 months in a really crappy house. We liked the area a lot though, so we spent a lot of our time getting to know all the suburbs and looking at houses before we finally bought a house. The buying process was a bit stressful as there were several people keen to place a higher bid than ours while we were waiting for the loan approval & building inspection(which was so slow), but the agent was very fair and held everyone off for a week. The house and the area really suits us 100%, and this has helped us feeling at home.
The bad news of the first year was that I lost my dad back in Norway. That was a terrible situation, and living far away doesn't help. In the short term it didn't really matter where we lived, there wasn't anything I could do anyway and we made it back home inside 36 hours. But coming back to Australia again was difficult, I would have liked to have been able to support my mum better. The rest of my family lives practically next door though, and with me going back 1-2 times a year and she coming out here 1-2 times a year it is working out.

The second year has been much better. My wife is pregnant! We still love the area, but are starting to think about an acreage. We both have jobs that are ok, sometimes a bit boring for me but the pay makes up for it. Both my wife and I are very active, she has bought a horse and I sail pretty much every Saturday and play golf badly whenever I can. Sometimes I even try the horse, I wish I didn't yesterday because I can hardly walk today. I've also got myself an old Alfa Romeo that I'm building into a racecar. We aren't the most outgoing people, so for us sports & activites have always been a great way to meet people too. We try to find some time to travel around the place as well, there are just so many great places to go. With my travels back to Norway I'm a bit short of leave, so we are mainly doing shorter trips in the weekends and long weekends.

There are always thing that could be better, but as time goes on fewer things annoy me. The important thing for me is that my family can have a better life here than anywhere else, so I'll leave it to others to ponder the price of meat, selection of tea or whatever.

Oh, and the weather is just great! It makes a difference!

Two thumbs up!