2 years, one month, and an unspecified number of days!
Mar 10th 2008, 7:18 am
#1
BE Forum Addict
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: Melbourne's Inner North
Posts: 1,003
2 years, one month, and an unspecified number of days!
January 19th 2006 - we arrived in Brisbane. March 10th 2008 - we're still here!!!!
So we've now completed over 2 years living in Australia and it's still a bit of a fairytale story.
Not much has changed to be honest.
We moved out of the place we were in at the Gabba in January and we've had a heap of trouble with both the Landlord and the agents.
To cut a long and tedious story short they don't have much of a leg to stand on so we're taking them to court. It might seem a bit excessive but a) its the principle of it and b) being a law student I do this kind of stuff for fun! Just a word or warning... before you move into a house take pictures of EVERYTHING, go totally overboard and have pictures of walls, carpets, windows, the roof, the whole shebang!!! When you move out use the carpet cleaner they recommend, and even stump up the extra money to have someone like James Home Services come round and clean it for you. Might seem like a bit of a wasite, but it gives you plenty of evidence if they start playing funny buggers!!!!!!
Both of us are still loving uni. The OH was rewarded with the Academic Excellence award last year for being in the top 5% of the uni. She was also invited to join the Golden Key Honours Society. We weren't really sure what all of that was about but someone recommended that it would be useful for contacts for her for after graduation so she did it.
We've had the in-laws over to visit! (that's her parents!) and although it was marginally difficult at times, we had a brilliant 3 weeks with them and even dragged them off to Melbourne for a long weekend. It was very exciting for them because it was their first EVER trip abroad, and father in laws first ever trip on a plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but yes........
We still don't mind the heat, we still cover up in the sun, drink proabbly don't drink enough water anymore, and the dogs play with lizards now instead!!
all in all i year two as been as good as the first and both of us are still has happy!
So we've now completed over 2 years living in Australia and it's still a bit of a fairytale story.
well we've now been here for a year and 5 days... I can hardly believe it!!
Our arrival and first couple of weeks weren't the best to be honest. I had the flu (proper flu), so the flight was pretty horiffic for me. Thank goodness we'd decided to treat ourselves and fly business class, because if I was that sick in cattle class I may have just had to kill myself (or stay in hong kong till I got better!).
The day we arrived it must have been esaily 49c (ok mid 30s!!) and coming from Scotland it was a real shock to the system (+ the added problem of flu!). Previously I've always arrived in melbourne at the beginning of december so it's always been slightly cooler.
The first week was spent house hunting, me with flu - hels with sunstroke!!! NOICE!!!!!! The intro to renting a house in australia was hardcore. every house we went and saw had about another 10-20 people viewing it at the same time and I just wasn't comfortable with that at all. I also felt really strange looking round houses when the tenants stuff was still in there.... still don't like that idea to be honest. We found a great (but slightly expensive) house in Woolloongabba and moved in at the beginning of feb.
The end of th feb found us heading off to get the dogs from quarantine. Someone (me!) got the dates mixed up and we ended up having to stay in sydney for an extra night, and bomb it back up the road so we were home in time for school on monday!!! the dogs were over the moon to see us. Brogan had lost a bit of weight, but bailey was really really sick with an hear infection that the AQIS folks either hadn't noticed, or hadn't done anything about. So getting that sorted was our first trip to the vet!!!!!!!!
The rest of the year faily flew by.... april was my birthday and we had a bbq in the yard. couple of expats made it along and a very merry night was had by all.
June/july we headed back over to the UK for 2 weeks to sort out some stuff which hadn't been dealt with before we left. And although it was great to see everyone again - it didn't feel like home at all. we were really relieved to get back to brisbane again.
August I sat my motorcycle test, and since getting a bike I've made an unreal amount of new friends out there in biker land. I spend every friday night at the coffee club in milton, and most of the weekends I'm out either riding the bike, or being a flag marshall at bike/quad events (anyone see the bike and monster truck thing at the RNA on saturday??? I was there in the thick of it!!!!)
adjusting to life here has been pretty easy to be honest. being at school, and getting a bike has helped both of us meet and make new friends, and the routine provided by school got us both settled down really quickly. Our neighbours have been great, and are always inviting us round for drinks, and food. they cut the grass and put the bin out for us!!! couldn't ask for more!!!
We don't mind the heat, we cover up in the sun, drink plenty of water, and don't let the dogs play with toads in the garden!
all in all it's been totally the right decision to move here and I don't think either of us could be happier.
Our arrival and first couple of weeks weren't the best to be honest. I had the flu (proper flu), so the flight was pretty horiffic for me. Thank goodness we'd decided to treat ourselves and fly business class, because if I was that sick in cattle class I may have just had to kill myself (or stay in hong kong till I got better!).
The day we arrived it must have been esaily 49c (ok mid 30s!!) and coming from Scotland it was a real shock to the system (+ the added problem of flu!). Previously I've always arrived in melbourne at the beginning of december so it's always been slightly cooler.
The first week was spent house hunting, me with flu - hels with sunstroke!!! NOICE!!!!!! The intro to renting a house in australia was hardcore. every house we went and saw had about another 10-20 people viewing it at the same time and I just wasn't comfortable with that at all. I also felt really strange looking round houses when the tenants stuff was still in there.... still don't like that idea to be honest. We found a great (but slightly expensive) house in Woolloongabba and moved in at the beginning of feb.
The end of th feb found us heading off to get the dogs from quarantine. Someone (me!) got the dates mixed up and we ended up having to stay in sydney for an extra night, and bomb it back up the road so we were home in time for school on monday!!! the dogs were over the moon to see us. Brogan had lost a bit of weight, but bailey was really really sick with an hear infection that the AQIS folks either hadn't noticed, or hadn't done anything about. So getting that sorted was our first trip to the vet!!!!!!!!
The rest of the year faily flew by.... april was my birthday and we had a bbq in the yard. couple of expats made it along and a very merry night was had by all.
June/july we headed back over to the UK for 2 weeks to sort out some stuff which hadn't been dealt with before we left. And although it was great to see everyone again - it didn't feel like home at all. we were really relieved to get back to brisbane again.
August I sat my motorcycle test, and since getting a bike I've made an unreal amount of new friends out there in biker land. I spend every friday night at the coffee club in milton, and most of the weekends I'm out either riding the bike, or being a flag marshall at bike/quad events (anyone see the bike and monster truck thing at the RNA on saturday??? I was there in the thick of it!!!!)
adjusting to life here has been pretty easy to be honest. being at school, and getting a bike has helped both of us meet and make new friends, and the routine provided by school got us both settled down really quickly. Our neighbours have been great, and are always inviting us round for drinks, and food. they cut the grass and put the bin out for us!!! couldn't ask for more!!!
We don't mind the heat, we cover up in the sun, drink plenty of water, and don't let the dogs play with toads in the garden!
all in all it's been totally the right decision to move here and I don't think either of us could be happier.
We moved out of the place we were in at the Gabba in January and we've had a heap of trouble with both the Landlord and the agents.
To cut a long and tedious story short they don't have much of a leg to stand on so we're taking them to court. It might seem a bit excessive but a) its the principle of it and b) being a law student I do this kind of stuff for fun! Just a word or warning... before you move into a house take pictures of EVERYTHING, go totally overboard and have pictures of walls, carpets, windows, the roof, the whole shebang!!! When you move out use the carpet cleaner they recommend, and even stump up the extra money to have someone like James Home Services come round and clean it for you. Might seem like a bit of a wasite, but it gives you plenty of evidence if they start playing funny buggers!!!!!!
Both of us are still loving uni. The OH was rewarded with the Academic Excellence award last year for being in the top 5% of the uni. She was also invited to join the Golden Key Honours Society. We weren't really sure what all of that was about but someone recommended that it would be useful for contacts for her for after graduation so she did it.
We've had the in-laws over to visit! (that's her parents!) and although it was marginally difficult at times, we had a brilliant 3 weeks with them and even dragged them off to Melbourne for a long weekend. It was very exciting for them because it was their first EVER trip abroad, and father in laws first ever trip on a plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but yes........
We still don't mind the heat, we still cover up in the sun, drink proabbly don't drink enough water anymore, and the dogs play with lizards now instead!!
all in all i year two as been as good as the first and both of us are still has happy!
Mar 11th 2008, 5:24 pm
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Tropical North QLD
Posts: 21,434
Re: 2 years, one month, and an unspecified number of days!
Lovely to read such a happy & positive post
Mar 12th 2008, 12:02 pm
#3
Crazy Cat Lady
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 65,493
Re: 2 years, one month, and an unspecified number of days!
Great to hear. Here's to the next year, and the year after that, and to the year............
Mar 12th 2008, 12:26 pm
#4
BE Forum Addict
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: Melbourne's Inner North
Posts: 1,003
Re: 2 years, one month, and an unspecified number of days!
thanks guys!!
this year I think I'm going to learn to spell and check my posts before posting them!! lol
this year I think I'm going to learn to spell and check my posts before posting them!! lol
