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one year on heres our story!
Well guys for those that remember me, its been a year since our arrival in australia - and whoaaaaaahhhh what a ride!!!!
lets start at the beginning, my family and I came out here in march last year on a 139 designated area sponsored - which i believe no longer exists now!! anyway, we arrived in stanthorpe - which is a lovely country town out west and stayed with my family for a few weeks, we needed the R&R after a traumatic last week in england, saying goodbye and living in a hotel after we had sold the car and house - frightening thought but exciting all the same. We arrived in stanthorpe excited and looking forward to our new life, and i can honestly say i havent been disappointed yet! We stayed with a friend in a suburb called indooroopilly for a week, which i can definitely recommend as a nice suburb, close to the city. Then our quest began for a house, we trawled the internet and newspapers and first found a house on the east coast at ormiston which was lovely, but unfortunately 4 other couples thought so too so we missed out on that one!! (as is the norm here when renting - especially close to the city) we decided to let fate take its course and pretty much closed our eyes and simply "picked" somewhere between stanthorpe and brisbane, and low and behold along came Parkinson!!! on the southside great suburb nice houses, nice people, good schools etc. etc. so we looked around on the net again and found a house that we liked it was a four bedroom lowset, ensuite, double garage again pretty much the norm for new estates at a cost of $330 per week. We got it and lived there happily on a 12 month lease, parkinson is 30 mins from the city and 45 from the gold coast, 1 hour from the sunshine coast so pretty central to everything, i decided on a complete new career change so decided to retrain in hairdressing!!! we bought completely new furniture from scratch at a cost of approx $15,000 all in all but that can be drastically reduced!!!! we also bought a car etc. arranged medicare, insurances, utilities, tax, usual stuff. as the year has gone on, we have met lots of people along the way, enjoyed bris and the coasts on weekends and just enjoyed life. We have recently moved to the northside of brisbane and are enjoying that too, same size house etc but a bit cheaper lol!! my son is in a new school (he settled ok in his old one) my husband is working a casual stress free job and i finish my course in 8 weeks, i work in a salon part time and they have asked me to go full time when i finish. We absolutely love australia, the stress and stain of the past couple years going through the whole TRA and application is definitely worth it, i have no thoughts or inclination to return to the UK and i dont particularly miss anything about the UK (apart from one or two friends of course!!) i wouldnt swap our life for the world!! we look out of our window and see a beautiful freshwater reserve and park and feel generally much safer here (rightly or wrongly!!) the weather is fantastic 99.9% of the time and even when it rains its still a great day. in a nutshell for me, the worst days here are still tons better than the best days in the UK!! so hang in there people your time will come!! regards vb2 |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Lovely to read this on a grey cloudy cold day in the UK. Glad you're enjoying it we're off to Brisbane in June and can't wait.
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Re: one year on heres our story!
Wonderful uplifting post :)
We're heading to the Gold Coast end of August, hopefully will settle as well as you have ;) |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Originally Posted by vb2
(Post 4550996)
Well guys for those that remember me, its been a year since our arrival in australia - and whoaaaaaahhhh what a ride!!!!
lets start at the beginning, my family and I came out here in march last year on a 139 designated area sponsored - which i believe no longer exists now!! anyway, we arrived in stanthorpe - which is a lovely country town out west and stayed with my family for a few weeks, we needed the R&R after a traumatic last week in england, saying goodbye and living in a hotel after we had sold the car and house - frightening thought but exciting all the same. We arrived in stanthorpe excited and looking forward to our new life, and i can honestly say i havent been disappointed yet! We stayed with a friend in a suburb called indooroopilly for a week, which i can definitely recommend as a nice suburb, close to the city. Then our quest began for a house, we trawled the internet and newspapers and first found a house on the east coast at ormiston which was lovely, but unfortunately 4 other couples thought so too so we missed out on that one!! (as is the norm here when renting - especially close to the city) we decided to let fate take its course and pretty much closed our eyes and simply "picked" somewhere between stanthorpe and brisbane, and low and behold along came Parkinson!!! on the southside great suburb nice houses, nice people, good schools etc. etc. so we looked around on the net again and found a house that we liked it was a four bedroom lowset, ensuite, double garage again pretty much the norm for new estates at a cost of $330 per week. We got it and lived there happily on a 12 month lease, parkinson is 30 mins from the city and 45 from the gold coast, 1 hour from the sunshine coast so pretty central to everything, i decided on a complete new career change so decided to retrain in hairdressing!!! we bought completely new furniture from scratch at a cost of approx $15,000 all in all but that can be drastically reduced!!!! we also bought a car etc. arranged medicare, insurances, utilities, tax, usual stuff. as the year has gone on, we have met lots of people along the way, enjoyed bris and the coasts on weekends and just enjoyed life. We have recently moved to the northside of brisbane and are enjoying that too, same size house etc but a bit cheaper lol!! my son is in a new school (he settled ok in his old one) my husband is working a casual stress free job and i finish my course in 8 weeks, i work in a salon part time and they have asked me to go full time when i finish. We absolutely love australia, the stress and stain of the past couple years going through the whole TRA and application is definitely worth it, i have no thoughts or inclination to return to the UK and i dont particularly miss anything about the UK (apart from one or two friends of course!!) i wouldnt swap our life for the world!! we look out of our window and see a beautiful freshwater reserve and park and feel generally much safer here (rightly or wrongly!!) the weather is fantastic 99.9% of the time and even when it rains its still a great day. in a nutshell for me, the worst days here are still tons better than the best days in the UK!! so hang in there people your time will come!! regards vb2 |
Re: one year on heres our story!
glad to be of service!!!!
never give up on your dreams!! they are closer than you think! regards vb2
Originally Posted by Celtic Roses
(Post 4554050)
Thanks so much for post, having a very bad day with comments from friends and neighbours and family don't even know yet about move so I am feeling like Homer Simpson at moment, your post gave me hope and promise, thx so much. Marie
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Re: one year on heres our story!
Originally Posted by Celtic Roses
(Post 4554050)
Thanks so much for post, having a very bad day with comments from friends and neighbours and family don't even know yet about move so I am feeling like Homer Simpson at moment, your post gave me hope and promise, thx so much. Marie
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Re: one year on heres our story!
Originally Posted by JohnandMichelle
(Post 4557286)
Chin up Marie ;) Michelle x
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Re: one year on heres our story!
Still not met ya..
Pissed about that lol Fab post hun hugs Lace xxxx And yes remember you lol :thumbsup: |
Re: one year on heres our story!
i know i know!!! lol
get yourself over to brissy girl, the water is just fine lol!!! regards hope you ok i am a hairdresser too now lol!! vb2
Originally Posted by lacey21
(Post 4557897)
Still not met ya..
Pissed about that lol Fab post hun hugs Lace xxxx And yes remember you lol :thumbsup: |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Originally Posted by vb2
(Post 4558235)
i know i know!!! lol
get yourself over to brissy girl, the water is just fine lol!!! regards hope you ok i am a hairdresser too now lol!! vb2 Were are you staying now you said you moved north? We are out in May for a recci and are staying in Petrie noth of brissy, It would be great if you could give us some info on the area, or even Pm to arrange a meet up. Sharon. |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Hi thanks for sharing. Great to hear how things have gone. Glad your life is so good. We are headed for Brisbane end of April. Hope we settle as well as you. Thanks again. :D :D
Donna & Neil |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Ohhhh yipeee a hairdresser
knew you could make it. Innit surreal lol hugs Lace xxx |
Re: one year on heres our story!
lol we live five mins from petrie, a little village called kallangur!~!!!
its lovely up here - most places are in brissy! redcliffe beach is 15 mins away and petrie has a wonderful old village to visit and a national park, it is beautiful!! petrie markets are very quaint and its only half hour on the train to the city, australia zoo, maleny etc are not too far either the sunshine coast is right on your doorstep and the motorway isnt far if you fancy travelling a little further up or down the coast! if you need any more info give us a shout regards vb2
Originally Posted by sharon45
(Post 4559113)
Hi vb2,
Were are you staying now you said you moved north? We are out in May for a recci and are staying in Petrie noth of brissy, It would be great if you could give us some info on the area, or even Pm to arrange a meet up. Sharon. |
Re: one year on heres our story!
Where in Bradford did you live Vb2?
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Re: one year on heres our story!
Thanks vb2 for sharing.
It's been a long time since I've been in the forum and the time is almost here for us to go, so it's wonderful hearing some success stories. We've bought a house in Mt Gambier SA, and our place in the UK is sold (subject to contract), so now we have the big move ahead of us. It's amazing that when I tell people that we are leaving in a couple of months all the I ever hear is "Oh we had some friends that did that but they didn't like and they came back!" We have no intention of coming back - it's taken us 5 years to get this far! Thanks again, Karen |
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