Well thought I would do our update as im off work today and on the 18th we have been living in Perth for 3 months.

Myself and my wife, Georgina, came over on a 457 visa in February after I was offered the position of Managing Director of the Perth office of the same company I worked for in Manchester.

We flew Singapore Air on the 17th Feb from Manchester and had a great flight, arrived in Perth on the 18th and made our way to the apartment in South Perth my company had put us in for the first week. As we only had a week in the apartment we were very aware that the pressure was on to find a long term rental pretty quickly and we were obviously worried about this given all the stories about how hard the rental market is out here.

After having a good nights sleep we headed into the City to confirm our identities with Westpac Bank who we had set up immigrant banking with before we came over and had already transferred our money to. This was an easy process, very helpful and simple, and we were also told that we had been approved for Credit Cards which was a great start.

Then in the afternoon we headed to my office in Welshpool to say hello to my new colleagues and more importantly to get some net access to start house hunting. We looked at lots of places but one in particular stood out and when we called the Real Estate agent she told us that she was at the property that afternoon and if we wanted to go and have a look we were free to go down.

The house was in Manning and was a 3/2 rear unit and although it was above our initial budget it was fantastic and fully furnished and we knew straight away that this was the house for us. At 9am the next day we were at the Real Estate Agent putting in the application and paying the bond - that afternoon we had confirmation that the house was ours for 12 months and we moved in the following Monday

I had a car supplied by the company but George still had no way to get around, we were lucky enough to have savings which we brought over from the UK which were earmarked to buy George a car and as she has always wanted a Yaris we headed over to City Toyota to see what was available. After spending a few hours chatting to the sales guys over there we had agreed a price and signed all the contracts on a brand new car which would be ready for us to pick up in around a week.

I headed into work while George took my car and started job hunting, we were told before we came out that George would have "no problem" getting a job but never thought it would be as easy as that. She got the newspaper and started calling round a few agencies, some didnt even bother to call her back (great start!) but one job in Welshpool caught her eye and the agent arranged an interview. The interview went really well and she loved the place, two days later she received a call saying that the job was hers and she started the following Monday.

2 months in we had settled into a really good routine, we are both enjoying work and were starting to find our way around everything. After the initial shock of how much we were spending (bills are very expensive compared to the UK and food was costing us a fortune) we had started to find ways to get food cheaper and learning to cut down on things like Air Con as the temperatures dropped. We love the lifestyle, barbies every night and beaches every weekend is exactly what we came here for and WA definitely doesnt disappoint its just amazing!

We had also met quite a few people and got a good set of friends, the large majority of who are pommies but there is one aussie in there as well and we are keeping trying to see as many people as possible so we get a good network of mates out here.

At the end of April things were going great, we were both very happy with the life we were building and the people we had met and although we missed family we couldnt have asked for more and then the bombshell hit us.....

My brother is 27 and suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, a disease which affects the lungs, and he had been in hospital for 6 weeks. Nothing much to worry about in itself as he regularly went into hospital to get himself sorted out but this time in hindsight was different, he had contracted pneumonia and although the doctors were not overly concerned he was struggling with his breathing and couldnt get the stuff which was gathering in his lungs off them. On Monday 21st April as we walked into a concert at the Burswood I got a call from my Dad saying that Mark we very ill and the doctors had said that they had run out of ways to treat him.

The next few days were very surreal, I stayed at home as I was in no fit state to work and kept in touch with my family 24 hours a day and as the week progressed things were looking up. George had her birthday on the Thursday and my brother was fighting well and had been in touch with us a few times saying that he was starting to feel better and the stuff was starting to move from his lungs. Then on Thursday night at about 10pm we received the call we had both been dreading, Mark had taken a bad turn for the worse and had been told by the doctors that there was nothing they could do for him. After having the hardest telephone conversation I have ever had in my life where we chatted about how bad he was feeling and what we meant to each other we decided to go back to the UK to be with him, we were on a flight back via Dubai at 6am the next morning.

The flight to Dubai was a complete blur, one minute were were chatting then the next we were in floods of tears, ive never experienced that before and it just highlighted how far away we were from the family. We arrived into Dubai and as soon as I got off the plane I called my Dad to be told that Mark had passed away at 7:15 that morning - we were both absolutely devastated.

Once we got into Manchester we went to see my family which was of course very emotional and we spent as much time as we could with them to help each other through this very hard time. The funeral was a week later and we decided to stay in the UK for another week before heading back to Perth on Saturday.

This time our parents came to see us off at the airport, it was obviously very emotional and the flight over was very tiring. We arrived in Perth on Sunday night and although it was nice to be home something was different. Its been quite an emotional couple of days back with quite a lot of guilt, im feeling guilty for leaving my Parents and Gran back in the UK dealing with the death of Mark and George is feeling guilty that she didnt see her parents more while we were in the UK and wont be seeing them again until the end of the year.

I am hoping now that we can get back into the routine we were in before all this happened but the distance between us and our families now seems to have become an issue in our minds. We still love being in Perth and can not see ourselves going back to the UK and now im selfishly hoping my Mum and Dad make the decision to move to Oz but we cant rely on this as we are only temporary residents at the moment and my parents are both 50+ so have very little chance of getting here without sponsorship.

The next few months for us and our parents are going to be crucial for us, we are both back to work tomorrow which is going to help and we both have to get back into the positive frame of mind we were both in before. Our love for Perth hasnt changed and im hoping that we can deal with the distance in our own minds and my parents can start to live with the massive loss sooner rather than later.

So there we go, its been a rollercoaster 3 months and at the moment we are hoping that time will be a good healer. We are in the house of our dreams, with great jobs and a fantastic life but the distance issue has been forced onto us - hopefully we are strong enough to remember what we came here for in the first place

Lovely post.
So sorry about your brother, at least you were able to provide comfort to your Mum and Dad.
You've just had a horrible and stressful experience, give it time for things to settle.
Wishing you the best of luck,
Tracey

That is such a sad post, you have certainly had to deal with a lot over the last three months.
I do hope you can settle back , and start enjoying your new lives now.

All the best

Nicky

I think that once you get back into your lives and the immediate pain of your brother's death fades, things will possibly get back on an even keel. You can't feel guilty about not being there for your family, you are there, just not physically. You could have been on holiday or even living a few hours away.

Take care.

Just like to say good luck to you both

Mick

So sorry to hear about your brother, I hope things pick up for you in the near future.

Take care,

Lynn xx

Welcome back to Perth.

So dreadfully sorry for your loss.

May the sun shine on you again soon.

What a post!
So sorry to read of the loss of your brother.
It is natural that you feel more unsettled now, you are grieving. I doubt if you would feel too much different in the UK in that respect.
Emotional support is much more important than geographical distance & I am sure that your parents are not feeling abandoned.
You are young & full of life so live it. I doubt that your brother would have wanted it any other way.

I am so sorry for your recent loss and hope that things start to get a bit better for you soon. Your brother would have wanted you to take life and it's opportunities with both hands and give it your best shot.
Good luck for the future and for now I hope things become a little more bearable.

So sorry for your loss. It is indeed at times like these that the distance becomes the issue. I hope you can get settled back into your lives again and find that things are as good as before.

Thanks for the best wishes everyone, it has been a hard few weeks but being back in work today has helped quite a bit.

We have decided to go on a few weekends away over the next couple of months and then a trip to Hong Kong to visit our friend in July so hopefully getting out and about will keep us occupied

A good sleep helped last night as well, we both absolutely love Perth and the fact is that we are only 24 hours away from the UK - we proved that a couple of weeks back when we had to go back.

What a lovely post. Im so sorry about your brother, but it does show that you are only a flight away. Glad your settling in, myself and my fiance are heading out to Perth once our 457 comes through. We are worried about leavign our parents behind as well, but we need to do this for ourselves, and we will be coming back next june as we are gettign married in the UK!

Hi all me again

We have made the initial decision to go back to the UK, the plan is to spend a year out here to do what we need to do and see what we need to see and then head back to the UK to be near family. All our family and friends are also visiting us over the course of the year so at least they will also get to experience what Perth is all about.

We are both getting to that point in our lives where we are thinking about children and since Mark died we have been very aware that we would like our kid(s) to have granparents and other family around them while they still can. Probably something we should have thought about properly before we came here but its amazing how blinded you get by the just wanting to come here.

We have also been investigating the housing market and unfortunately if we bought a house over here we wouldnt be able to live the life that we came here for, not even close. We are spending over $2500/mth on rental at the moment and if we bought anything half decent that would jump up to well over $3500 (at the current interest rates) which would just cripple us. Its amazed us just how people survive living over here because combined we are on what I would consider to be a more than "above average" wage

Anyway, thats the decision at the moment and I know we are going to change our minds lots over the next few months but at the moment we are going back so we can concentrate on enjoying the time that we have left here and live it to the full. I'll be gutted to go back but if we do end up going that way at least we have tried it here which I suppose it more than what most people have done

Watch this space!

You certainly have been through it. Sorry to hear of your loss of you dearly loved brother.

I have been here just a month more than you and like you we love it but if i were in your position i honestly dont know which way i would go either. Its your heart that is hurting at the moment and only you and George can make your decision. After a year here you may even find it to difficult to go back to the UK then. I definatley will be watching this space.

Good luck and enjoy the time you have here whether it be for a year or maybe longer .

Rip Mark