We live in Elanora (right in the centre of the map). Our house looks down onto Pine Lake (to the left of 'Elanora'). Paul's school is on the corner of Avocado Street and Nineteenth Avenue (top left). The nearest beach is only a few minutes drive away. There's a good website for watching Currumbin Beach from the web cam. If you time it right we can give you a wave!!! Here's the web site - http://www.coastalwatch.com/camera/cameras_large.aspx?cam=1600&state=QLD&t=4:56:56%20PM&camName=Currumbin
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Journey and our first 10 months
I've always wanted to live in Australia for as long as I remember. When I was little I used to read library books about it thinking that I wanted to be there. I don't know what it was about the place. Maybe watching Skippy on tv had something to do with it! I even had the application forms in my hand when I was 16 but was unable to apply as I was under age.
Well, we took our time but we got here in the end. We left Edinburgh airport on 25th March 2008 after a very emotional couple of days saying goodbye to everyone. Lots of people told us we were very brave to be moving our family across to the other side of the world. We certainly didn't feel brave, only excited about the adventure we were about to go on after only speaking about it for all those years.
We flew to Heathrow leaving Scotland and the snow flurrys behind along with temperatures in single figures. At Heathrow we were lucky enough to board the new Singapore Airlines A380. It was only the second week that they had been in service so that was an added bonus for us. We boarded our connection in Singapore and after 24 hours of travelling we made it to Brisbane on 27th March 2008.
We were met at Brisbane airport by my sister Carol and nephew Ross and we picked up our rental car then loaded both the car and Ross's van with our 7 suitcases!
I had to kiss the ground again as we left the airport just as I did when we arrived in Melbourne on holiday 8 years earlier. Chloe was very embarrassed at her daft mum's antics.
It took us an hour and a half to drive down from Brisbane to Kirra where we had booked a unit for 2 weeks while we found our bearings and a long term rental. The unit was just as nice as it looked online so we were all as pleased as punch.
Our first morning in Australia as permanent residents was a wet one! We should have asked for our money back :o/ The view from the balcony made up for it though. It didn't matter that it was raining cats and dogs, we were straight across the road from Kirra beach.
We spent the first 2 weeks running around getting things organised - tax file numbers, driving licences, medicare, buying a car, etc. And we also managed to find a rental which we moved into on 14th April.
Paul started at Elanora State High School (the same one his cousins Dean and Ross went to) after the Easter holidays. He hated school at home even since primary school. He says school here is ok so that's an improvement! Teachers seem to much more pleasant to the kids and they in turn are respected more by the kids so it's a win win situation. It isn't absolutely perfect I'm sure, but Paul likes it better so that's good enough for me. I wish I'd gone to that school especially as the options for PE are the usual rugby, tennis, basketball, etc but with beach walking, visits to Currumbin Wildlife, fishing, etc thrown in too!
Chloe decided that she'd like to study a short college course in fashion illustration. She's always been good at art so it was something that she really enjoyed. Her boyfriend Kyle arrived in May on a temporary 12 month working holiday visa and they have been on holiday ever since!!!!
Both the cats arrived safely after spending a month in quarantine near Sydney. Of course, they were a bit strange with us to start with and their new surroundings. Who wouldn't be after being locked up in a tiny box, then shoved in the cargo hold of a plane for 24 hours? It doesn't seem to have done them any long term damage though. Georgie is still a very sleepy cat except for at breakfast and dinner time, and Libby is still Princess Libby! The heat has been bothering them a bit though. It's very warm in this house (there's no aircon and we've had to buy some fans). They get a bath when it gets really warm to help them cool down. I don't know what they hate most - being hot or the bath.
We've even had our first overseas visitors. Janice, David and Neil came over last winter (our winter) and we really enjoyed seeing them and spending time together. Hope to see you all back here one day ;o) We are always looking for emails from home as we love to hear about what has been happening with everyone so keep them coming.
After 7 months we moved down the street into another rental. This time with a pool ;o) We're happy here but it doesn't feel like ours - that's because it isn't ours! We can't wait until we can buy our own house - our own little bit of Australia that we can do whatever we like to. In the meantime we'll make do here and make good use of the pool.
We've packed alot into our 10 months so far. Our trip to the Great Barrier Reef has been one of our highlights. The lowlight was the sea sickness some of us had to endure on the 2 hour trip out to it :o(
Our Christmas was very different for us - for one thing it was 34 degrees, though not the first one here so we had an idea of what to expect. After everyone had opened their presents we went down to the beach, back to Kirra where we first lived. We spent a couple of hours there and then we came back to the house and had a cold buffet and lots of nice cold alcoholic drinks ;0)
We've made some really nice friends - mainly expats and a few Aussies - and spent new year at Angela and Peter's from Washington (the one in England!). We have found the Aussie's a hard bunch to try to get to know. It might be something to do with the fact that the Gold Coast's population is made up of a lot of 'incomers'. They are all very friendly and want to know our story about why we wanted to move over here but they are hard to make friends with. Hopefully, in time, we will learn their ways and overcome that hurdle. We'll have to get used to a different culture as well as a different country.
We'll also have to get used to the tv programmes! And adverts!! There is no such thing as the watershed here!!!! Or good tv!
One of the things that we have found very difficult here is finding jobs which came as a big surprise to us. It took Kenny 9 months to find work. He applied for more than 500 and didn't get many replies out of that lot. In the end he flew over to Kalgoorlie and handed in his resume in person. That's what got him the job. He started working for KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines) on 6th January and is really enjoying being back at work. See http://www.superpit.com.au/ I'm working in Kmart on a casual basis. Not my ideal job but it'll do for now. Working with the public has never been my favourite past time. Still doing lots of job hunting. Keep you posted on that one.
The area we live in has lots of beaches, surf clubs, lots of fishing, sports clubs, lots of good shopping malls, theme parks, walking trails, is very scenic and is within easy driving distance of the hinterland and the city. There are lots of lovely places to visit like Byron Bay (great shops as well as the beach), Mount Tamborine and Lamington and Springbrook National Parks. It's a lovely area and lots of Aussies come here on holiday but we live here now so we feel like we're on holiday 24/7! We can't wait to show it off to more visitors, so hurry up and come over!!!! We've got plenty of room :o)
I promise my next post wont be as long as this one!
Well, we took our time but we got here in the end. We left Edinburgh airport on 25th March 2008 after a very emotional couple of days saying goodbye to everyone. Lots of people told us we were very brave to be moving our family across to the other side of the world. We certainly didn't feel brave, only excited about the adventure we were about to go on after only speaking about it for all those years.
We flew to Heathrow leaving Scotland and the snow flurrys behind along with temperatures in single figures. At Heathrow we were lucky enough to board the new Singapore Airlines A380. It was only the second week that they had been in service so that was an added bonus for us. We boarded our connection in Singapore and after 24 hours of travelling we made it to Brisbane on 27th March 2008.
We were met at Brisbane airport by my sister Carol and nephew Ross and we picked up our rental car then loaded both the car and Ross's van with our 7 suitcases!I had to kiss the ground again as we left the airport just as I did when we arrived in Melbourne on holiday 8 years earlier. Chloe was very embarrassed at her daft mum's antics.
It took us an hour and a half to drive down from Brisbane to Kirra where we had booked a unit for 2 weeks while we found our bearings and a long term rental. The unit was just as nice as it looked online so we were all as pleased as punch.
Our first morning in Australia as permanent residents was a wet one! We should have asked for our money back :o/ The view from the balcony made up for it though. It didn't matter that it was raining cats and dogs, we were straight across the road from Kirra beach.We spent the first 2 weeks running around getting things organised - tax file numbers, driving licences, medicare, buying a car, etc. And we also managed to find a rental which we moved into on 14th April.
Paul started at Elanora State High School (the same one his cousins Dean and Ross went to) after the Easter holidays. He hated school at home even since primary school. He says school here is ok so that's an improvement! Teachers seem to much more pleasant to the kids and they in turn are respected more by the kids so it's a win win situation. It isn't absolutely perfect I'm sure, but Paul likes it better so that's good enough for me. I wish I'd gone to that school especially as the options for PE are the usual rugby, tennis, basketball, etc but with beach walking, visits to Currumbin Wildlife, fishing, etc thrown in too!
Chloe decided that she'd like to study a short college course in fashion illustration. She's always been good at art so it was something that she really enjoyed. Her boyfriend Kyle arrived in May on a temporary 12 month working holiday visa and they have been on holiday ever since!!!!
Both the cats arrived safely after spending a month in quarantine near Sydney. Of course, they were a bit strange with us to start with and their new surroundings. Who wouldn't be after being locked up in a tiny box, then shoved in the cargo hold of a plane for 24 hours? It doesn't seem to have done them any long term damage though. Georgie is still a very sleepy cat except for at breakfast and dinner time, and Libby is still Princess Libby! The heat has been bothering them a bit though. It's very warm in this house (there's no aircon and we've had to buy some fans). They get a bath when it gets really warm to help them cool down. I don't know what they hate most - being hot or the bath.
We've even had our first overseas visitors. Janice, David and Neil came over last winter (our winter) and we really enjoyed seeing them and spending time together. Hope to see you all back here one day ;o) We are always looking for emails from home as we love to hear about what has been happening with everyone so keep them coming.
After 7 months we moved down the street into another rental. This time with a pool ;o) We're happy here but it doesn't feel like ours - that's because it isn't ours! We can't wait until we can buy our own house - our own little bit of Australia that we can do whatever we like to. In the meantime we'll make do here and make good use of the pool.
We've packed alot into our 10 months so far. Our trip to the Great Barrier Reef has been one of our highlights. The lowlight was the sea sickness some of us had to endure on the 2 hour trip out to it :o(Our Christmas was very different for us - for one thing it was 34 degrees, though not the first one here so we had an idea of what to expect. After everyone had opened their presents we went down to the beach, back to Kirra where we first lived. We spent a couple of hours there and then we came back to the house and had a cold buffet and lots of nice cold alcoholic drinks ;0)
We've made some really nice friends - mainly expats and a few Aussies - and spent new year at Angela and Peter's from Washington (the one in England!). We have found the Aussie's a hard bunch to try to get to know. It might be something to do with the fact that the Gold Coast's population is made up of a lot of 'incomers'. They are all very friendly and want to know our story about why we wanted to move over here but they are hard to make friends with. Hopefully, in time, we will learn their ways and overcome that hurdle. We'll have to get used to a different culture as well as a different country.
We'll also have to get used to the tv programmes! And adverts!! There is no such thing as the watershed here!!!! Or good tv!
One of the things that we have found very difficult here is finding jobs which came as a big surprise to us. It took Kenny 9 months to find work. He applied for more than 500 and didn't get many replies out of that lot. In the end he flew over to Kalgoorlie and handed in his resume in person. That's what got him the job. He started working for KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines) on 6th January and is really enjoying being back at work. See http://www.superpit.com.au/ I'm working in Kmart on a casual basis. Not my ideal job but it'll do for now. Working with the public has never been my favourite past time. Still doing lots of job hunting. Keep you posted on that one.
The area we live in has lots of beaches, surf clubs, lots of fishing, sports clubs, lots of good shopping malls, theme parks, walking trails, is very scenic and is within easy driving distance of the hinterland and the city. There are lots of lovely places to visit like Byron Bay (great shops as well as the beach), Mount Tamborine and Lamington and Springbrook National Parks. It's a lovely area and lots of Aussies come here on holiday but we live here now so we feel like we're on holiday 24/7! We can't wait to show it off to more visitors, so hurry up and come over!!!! We've got plenty of room :o)
I promise my next post wont be as long as this one!
Why Do This?
The reason I want to start this blog is to make it easy for us to keep in touch with friends and family and to keep them up to date with how we're all doing. It's so expensive for everyone to be phoning home all the time if people are not on Skype so it makes sense to do this and then you can decide when, and if, you want to catch up with how we all are.
It also helps all those other people out there who have decided to start the ball rolling in the big adventure called emigrating. I know that we benefited from reading about other people's experiences in this long, drawn out process so if I can help anyone with any of the red tape issues I'll be more than happy.
I wont start off by boring everyone with all the issues we had to go through before coming here but if anyone thinks it might help them just ask.
Next instalment soon! Bet you can't wait!
It also helps all those other people out there who have decided to start the ball rolling in the big adventure called emigrating. I know that we benefited from reading about other people's experiences in this long, drawn out process so if I can help anyone with any of the red tape issues I'll be more than happy.
I wont start off by boring everyone with all the issues we had to go through before coming here but if anyone thinks it might help them just ask.
Next instalment soon! Bet you can't wait!
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Work In Progress
Hi all
I've found a new way to keep everyone updated - once I've found out how to use the thing!
Watch this space.
I've found a new way to keep everyone updated - once I've found out how to use the thing!
Watch this space.
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