Nine days in July.
 

I think it would be fair to say Mr Bermudashorts and I were fairly indecisive about the timing of our permanent move to Australia. We planned to validate our visas in April and at that time were considering the trip as a holiday and nothing else. Unfortunately we had to reschedule our trip due to the volcano and by the time we finally went in May, our intentions had completely changed from a month earlier. Although it was still a return trip, we had started looking into the job markets and both had interviews lined up. My husband’s interview was a result of a lead on BE!

A week later and hubby had a job offer. A week after that and so did I. My husband’s job is about the same level as he was in the UK or possibly slightly more senior. My role is an advancement, not a major one but definitely an advancement. We returned to the UK and had about four weeks to organise everything for a permanent move. At first I was very daunted but we made lists and ticked things off and we soon got through what we needed to get through and here we are.

So here is my update 9 days in.

Things did not get off to a brilliant start at Heathrow, I wondered if Gate 13 was a bad omen as I `1made my way to it. But we pushed back on time and all seemed well until the captain announced that they could not shut the doors properly and we had to go back to the gate. We finally took off two hours late, I suppose the only consolation was my comfy business class seat and the champagne that kept coming. It did put my two hour transfer time in Hong Kong under pressure though. I arrived in Hong Kong 20 minutes before the gate close for my next flight so headed straight there and immediately boarded the next plane. Arrived in Sydney at 8pm, queues not too bad and I was soon on my way to the serviced apartment in the CBD which is currently my home.

Mr Bermudashorts stayed behind in UK to supervise packing. I had to come on ahead as I started work a few days later and wanted to give myself a little bit of time to adjust. Adjusting to the new time zone was quite difficult and not having Mr BS there made it worse as he would have encouraged me to keep normal hours and also I felt less like doing stuff with him not there and with the constant rain in Sydney during my first few days. I am still jetlagged and get up at about 3am every morning and go to bed shattered at about 7 or 8pm.

I tried to do a few practical things in my first few days; bought a prepaid dongle to avoid the $25 a day internet charge in the serviced apartment, went to the bank and organised internet banking and visa debit cards, applied for my tax file number online and of course there was *that trip* to the medicare office to register, after which I realised I lost my passport. Thankfully the passport was recovered the following day after I retraced my steps and it turned up in a Coles supermarket. A horrid 20 hours though.

I had hoped to view some rental properties during my first couple of days but didn’t quite get around to it and instead just highlighted some possibilities to discuss with Mr BS upon his arrival. Speaking of Mr BS, he travelled the same route as me but a few days later and arrived in Sydney at 8pm on the Saturday night. He had a pretty exhausting couple of days back in the UK getting everything finished so we had a relatively lazy day on Sunday.

On Monday I started work, I remain slightly peeved that I was pushed into such an early start date but on the other hand we feel lucky that we both found jobs on our validation trip. I am quite used to starting new jobs and having to wait days for a logon id and system access, so it was refreshing to find that my arrival was very well organised. I had my desk, my logon, my new starter pack, a calendar full of meetings for the first couple of weeks and business trips to Melbourne and Brisbane are pencilled in. I was offered a blackberry or i-phone and decided to go with the one I know, the blackberry which arrived on Thursday.

There was a lot to take in the first day, the company is going through a period of great change and there are a lot of people in new roles and it is going to be a big challenge for me. I have five direct reports, four in Sydney and one in Brisbane and in turn my direct reports manage 37 people between them.

Mr BS doesn’t start his job for another week and I am very jealous at his time off. He on the other hand would quite like to start work. Instead he is tasked with looking at rentals. He looked at a couple on the Tuesday but he said you could not swing a cat in them despite the rental being about $1,100 a week!

Speaking of cats, the Bermudashorts kitties arrived on Friday! Yay! Slightly bewildered but healthy (and completely uneaten - I am talking to you Alistair Boyle)! I was pretty annoyed at the process though, they landed at 6am but did not get to the quarantine station and hence get released from their travel boxes until 2pm. They must have been in those boxes for a good 36 hours and I am pretty miffed at the 8 hours spent clearing customs and doing god knows what else. :frown:

I have the mobile phone number of somebody at the quarantine station who was finally able to speak to me about the cats at about 3pm. She said they were “cool and cruisy”, had eaten some dinner and were exploring their new temporary home. :thumbup:

Yesterday we had a schedule of house viewings, we were very disappointed. We were looking at fairly big detached houses costing about $700-$800 a week and were shocked at the condition some of them were in; bathrooms and kitchens from the 1970’s and dirty carpets and stained tiles were the common problems. Only one house was a possibility but we realise the journey to work would be a bit of a pain so we are not going for it. So the house situation is a bit of a worry. There doesn’t seem to be much out there at the moment, there was definitely more around last month when we were still in the UK.

Mentally the whole move doesn’t feel quite real yet. We were discussing this last night. Mr Bermudashorts said he feels like he is in limbo. My feeling is slightly different, because I am staying in the CBD and have been working since I got here more or less, it feels like I am on a business trip. I think it will take finding a house and being reunited with the cats before we really start to feel like we have arrived. :fingerscrossed:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Don't forget to breathe, Bermudashorts.

Have you been up to see the kits? We went when ours first arrived, just to let them know we hadn't given them away, and again in the middle of their sentence. We took up well-worn/smelly toys, their favourite food and treats too. It's hard to leave them but it does put your mind at rest a little bit, at least, and also their carer gets to meet you and know the face at the end of the phone.

I think you may end up compromising with respect to your property wish list, especially having animals.

Best of luck with it all.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Wow, you must feel like you have been in a whirlwind. It is great that you both have jobs to go to, one less pressure and I hope you find a suitable rental soon. When we came rentals were in dire shortage so ended up taking one that wasn't suitable but soon moved on to a nicer one (we broke our lease but as rentals were in short supply it got rented by someone else so we only had to pay a penalty of one weeks rent)

Re: Nine days in July.
 

No not been to visit the kitties yet Seasider. They only arrived on Friday afternoon and the first available visiting is Tuesday. I won't be able to go anyway though as at work. :( Mr BS will go along, take some photos for me and bring in a few things for them.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Wow BS, I feel exhausted just reading that.:unsure:
Hope you find somewhere to live quite soon:fingerscrossed: How long do you have in the apt?
Happy settling:fingerscrossed::thumbsup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

We have the serviced appartment until 8th August, but I think we can probably extend if need be so it's not a major deadline. Our main target is to find a house and have keys before the 30 days in quarantine is up for the cats, which will be about the 15th.

We went to see a place yesterday, it was OK and would take cats. We don't think it will get snapped up quickly so we will keep it on a back burner for now.

Mr BS is going to see another today, then there is an open house on one we like on Wednesday and we sent a few more email queries off yesterday too so we will follow up on those today.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

How good of you to remember me!:D

Really though, glad to know that you and the felines are doing well.:thumbup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Hi Bermudashorts.

Hope you're able to find a place and settle in with the cats soon.

I was having a look online at rentals in Sydney also - not for now, but just to get an idea of what to expect. From the photos I agree so many have bad 70's carpet or tiles and some aren't even cleaned properly for the photos - and that just me taking information from the photos so goodness knows what they would be like in real life.

We were looking for a lot less to spend each week, around the $650 mark, and you can just imagine what you can get for that. I had no idea it was so expensive to rent in Sydney. We will also bring our cat over when the time comes and I hear it's difficult to secure a rental that allows pets in Sydney - have you found this at all?

Anyway... hope all goes well for you and Mr B.

All the best
OSM

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Hi OSV

Well we have not found a rental yet, so I don't want to speak too soon and say I have not found having cats is an issue, because general consensus seems to be that it is.

So far, I have not bothered with any of the houses that specifically state No Pets, but most do not and therefore I have asked when we have tried to make private appointments. We just went along to the open days without asking about pets, we thought we would cross that bridge when we come to it.

We have specifically asked the question for about 5 properties that we tried to view privately. In 4 of the 5 cases they said cats would be ok. I did try to pre-empt any concerns though with a well crafted covering letter about us in which I also mentioned that whilst our cats are well behaved we understood that this could be a concern to landlords and as such we were happy to agree to a specialist cleaning upon our departure and / or pay an additional pet bond. Hoping that will do the trick.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Fab update - thank you!

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Bermuda,

Glad its all going well - seems at whirlwind speed from this end as I stutter through yet another uploading expereince.

Will be interesting to see where you get with renting and the cats.

Might need to offer a bond and a specialist cleanings service based on our 7 year old!

Bezza

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Yay! We secured a property today!

Honestly we have not really had that much trouble with the cats, we have tried to make about 12 private appointments and only 2 have said no cats.

We have secured a gorgeous property in the Northern Beaches (Collaroy) and have ceiling to floor windows overlooking the ocean. We move in two weeks at our request, that is because we have the servived apartment paid up for another two weeks and we have no furniture right now anyway. The cats are finished in quarantine in 3 weeks time.

Hubby went to see the cats again today, they are doing OK but putting on weight after less than a week in there. Today he was told that one of the cats (the one in my pic at moment) made a bid for freedom yesterday by hiding behind the door when their carer came in to feed them and he sprinted off down the corridor but in the end had nowhere to go.

Anyway, today has been a good day. I am glad we don't have to do the open hous ething again this weekend.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Fantastic news! Really pleased for you, you should put photos up of the windows and view - sounds gorgeous. Bet you can't wait to get the cats back! all the best
OSV

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Great thread - been following your progress! So happy for you - the property sounds amazing. :thumbsup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Hello, I'm really pleased to read your post as my hubby and I are in a similar position. All being well we will be moving to Sydney shortly with three cats. I have signed up to Domain to get info on house details - and having pretty much the same thoughts about costs, size, availability and lack of pet friendly houses.

I'd be grateful if you could let me know how you found adverts for private rentals, so I could start having a look to see if there is anything more suitable for us.

Thanks for your help, its very much appreciated.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

I used domain exclusively for our home search. Don't put "pet friendly" in the search criteria. Just focus on houses that do not say in the blurb "No pets". I found only a small number did say this.

So for the houses I liked, I sent a carefully crafted query off, shamelessly selling us as good tenants and then adding that we have two gorgeous well behaved cats but we understood landlord's concerns and so would be willing to pay a pet bond. For most places we were able to get a private appointment, a couple of places had open days coming up so we went along to them.

The house we got did not take us up on our offer of a pet bond and also I learned they ditched another applicant that had already put in an application and deposit. Whoops.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Just wanted to say welcome to Sydney! Haven't been online for a while and just noticed on another thread that you have arrived for good now. Glad to hear it's all coming together now and hope that the weather picks up a bit for you soon.:)

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Hope you can get a breath in soon. The new home sounds great, just the thing to remind you of where you are, serviced apartments could be anywhere.

Great update.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

I have just learnt how to upload pictures so here are a couple of the kitties in quarantine.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Wow, what a wonderful permanent rental you have found Mrs. BS! I think you and Mr. BS will be very pleased with your new home....and the kitties too, once they can get check it out.

Your story is amazing. I'm so glad things are working out so well for you both. Congratulations....and welcome to Sydney!:thumbsup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Your grey kitty seems a little upset....but the long haired seems to be taking it in stride. They are both adorable. :thumbup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Spot on. When my husband went to visit the grey one took one look at him, clearly recognised him and went into that white box thing that he is inside in the pic and refused to come out. Major sulk. He is a bit more of an outdoor cat and doesn't like being cooped up. The persian is more of an indoor cat, although he likes to go out sometimes.

The grey one (actually he is a lilac british shorthair :p) has already tried to escape. He hid behind the door and made a run for it when the carer came in, took two people to catch him, apparently they rarely see an attempted escape. Three more weeks to go!

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Hi Nice to know BS . Feel good to hear that you landed job easily:thumbup:
I validated mine on June 1st week and back to Africa again:confused::thumbdown: An year wait again

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Do us all a favor and put a bell on your cats so the young wildlife can avoid them....There are species endangered because of domestic cats....:ohmy:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Lovely pics of the kitties. Was like looking at our two with a colour change. We brought a cream British shorthair girl and a red half Persian boy. Sadly, we lost the boy at the weekend to kidney disease, but he was 15 and had had a great, pampered life. :( Hope your two are none-the-worse for their little holiday and settle in quickly.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Aw sorry to hear about your boy. :( Persians are prone to kidney disease so he did very well to get to that ripe old age.

I used to have a cream BSH, he was gorgeous but he was run over a couple of months after we moved back from Bermuda. He was the half brother of my other BSH (the most well travelled cat in the world having lived in UK, Bermuda and now Australia). Everyone said Lewis had a permanent worried look. :wub:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Ohhhh I love the photo of them on the table, so cute. Glad to see they've gotten used to their surroundings.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Oh no that was my boys in Bermuda. Currently my cats are in quarantine, it is a bank holiday on Monday in NSW and I have managed to make an appointment to go and see them even though it is not visiting day, can't wait.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Oh sorry! oops.

I wondered how they looked so chillaxed already! Good luck with the visit . . before you know it they'll be home and settled and doing little annoying things that make you smile!

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Yes, we lost his brother 5 years ago to the same thing. If I can work out how to attach a picture, here are the two of them very shortly after they arrived in Australia - the toys are ones that Dilly (the BSH) stole from the other cats in quarantine.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Well done Mr & Mrs BS, how spacious is the new permanent rental?

Re: Nine days in July.
 

OMG they are gorgeous!!!:wub:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

They are gorgeous! I have got a moggy and a half BSH/Ragdoll.

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Now they look like two handsome chaps. :) My cats have apparently lost all their toys whilst they have been in quarantine so we are going to get them some new ones this weekend! I am not sure how that happens really. :D

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Its a 3 bedroomed house and I am just going to call it "average" sized to be honest. The rooms are neither spacious nor pokey and two of the bedrooms are doubles, the other more of a single. But it does have great views. :thumbsup:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Av size there would be massive here, however we too have a good view from up high (the only tower in this suburb) - Mount Fuji to the SW, main Tokyo skyscrapers and central biz district to the E. No sight of the sea in the concrete jungle though.

Just make sure the cats can get their bearings pronto. Are they used to living by the sea?

Re: Nine days in July.
 

It sounds fab! When do you move in?

PS I sent you a PM :)

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Did you? Didn't get it ... funny somebody else said they sent me a PM the other day and I did not get that either. :confused:

Re: Nine days in July.
 

love your update, i have an interest in your progess as my OH is accounting and we too also have a cat.

enjoy the views :)

Re: Nine days in July.
 

Picked up the new car today and also went to see the new house again, we don't have the keys yet so just from the outside. Mr Bermudashorts having a walk along the beach and the lurking shadow is me.