Came across this picture yesterday

Was flicking through some photos yesterday and came across this one – thought I’d share it as it reminds me of the beaches back home. My wife took this photo whilst my eldest daughter and I were walking barefoot along the beach saying goodbye before we returned to the UK. It was a hard time for me having to leave but now it just brings back happy memories of the good times we had whilst we lived there. That is all I want for our family – a relaxed lifestyle in an environment where we can enjoy ourselves and just be happy in the sun :-) I don’t know if Sydney will offer that for us but I will get a good idea when we visit. Only 69 days left…

A work colleague of mine came back today after a weekend away in France with a friend and said she was amazed at how different life was just across the channel – I totally understand :-) I also got an email from my friend Rod who is from Sydney. I haven’t seen him since 2004 when we both worked in London so it will be nice to meet up with him when we are over there. He has not yet met my three girls so it will be really nice to have a catch up. I also have to try and get together with a couple of other mates whilst we are out there – it’s just getting round to organising it all…

Brrrr... Its Cold...

The drive to work today was not pleasant. I put the kids in the car and then spent the next 5 minutes scraping ice from all the windows. After dropping them off at nursery, I was driving to work and looked at the temperature on the dashboard – it was -4ºc. Not pleasant at all I can tell you. Just checked the temperature in Sydney and it is 23ºc today – I want that :-(

 

We’ve been watching more of the BBC programme ‘Wanted Down Under’ and the C4 programme ‘Relocation Down Under’. Saw a few based in Sydney and these confirmed my research that we would be able to afford to live in Oz. To be honest, I am getting a bit bored now with these programmes as they are getting a bit repetitive. Actually, after spending the last few weeks doing research on the internet, reading books and watching programmes, I am generally getting bored with the preparation process. I have researched so many aspects of the move that I seem to have come full circle and am now coming across the same information via all mediums. So, I think I may knock it on the head for a little while with the research and just look forward to the holiday instead. If Sydney is all it’s cracked up to be and we conclude after our stay that we have a future in Oz, at that point we can take all of the information I have gathered and look in to it all more seriously. In the meantime, I will continue to post more updates on this blog as there will be all sorts of things that happen which will be relevant to our potential move.

 

For now… I’ll get back to work and put up with the cold… brrr…

 

 

More research...

Today I read another book about moving to Australia with that same title. I must admit that I was hoping to get more from it than I did but all in all, I suppose it wasn't too bad priced at £2.50 from Amazn on Kindle. It gave me the information I needed for the basics that we would need to know should we move to Australia. We have also been watching more of the Wanted Down Under programmes and we have so far watched one episode of Relocation Down Under (a Sydney episode). This gave us the opportunity to see more of Sydney on screen and it looked lovely. We are getting more and more used to the idea though we do still need to see for ourselves when we visit. I also called Emirates today as it occurred to me that we can claim air miles for our flights and should we choose to make the move, these may come in handy. I found out all I needed to know about this and then promptly signed us all up so that we can claim the air miles for our flights that are already booked. Glad I thought of that one :-) I am also hoping that we will eventually get some followers of this blog who can then see our entries and offer advice. Would even be nicer if we could strike up a few online friendships with other Aussies or Expats in Sydney...

 

The dream starts here...

Welcome to our blog! Wow! I can't believe I am actually writing this blog! This is crazy... I have always dreamt of living in the sun but I never thought I'd consider Australia! We moved to Spain a few years ago but that didn't work out for various reasons I won't go in to right now but now we are actually considering Australia. I am still in shock that my lovely wife has agreed to consider it and I have been doing loads of research so that we don't repeat some of the mistakes we made when we moved to Spain. My reason for setting up this blog is two fold. One reason is to share and log the journey from the beginning so that if we do take the leap to Oz, we have a record that we can look back on and see our journey. We did this when we moved to Spain and even though it didn't quite work out, it is still nice to look back at that blog and remember all the good times and challenges we met on the way. The second reason for this blog is to hopefully make some connections with some Aussies or Expats who can share their experiences with us or offer advice through any trouble spots we may encounter. Of course, this may all remain a pipeline dream if all the boxes are not ticked... So, a bit of background history to fill in the blanks...

I am a 35 year old male from Spain who has lived in the UK all his life. I dream of a life in the sun with lots of family time as my family are my life. I am married to a 30 year old qualified primary school teacher who is British. My wife is currently working as a special needs co-ordinator. We have two wonderful daughters aged 4 and 3. We also have a dog who has been our family pet since 2007. My wife has also dreamed of life abroad and always enjoyed all things foreign (I suppose thats one of the reasons she found me interesting...). As I mentioned above, we did live in Spain for 1.5 years but had to return to the UK for various reasons. We always said we would return to Spain when the girls were older but back in September, at a birthday gathering, the idea of Oz was planted in my head and I have not managed to shake it since. One day in November, when we were both having a bad day, I approached the subject and to my surprise, she didn't say no. Before the idea went cold, I decided to research flights to Oz for a family holiday and research trip combined. Within 3 days we had researched it all, booked the flights / accommodation and were talking about a move as a possibility. In the last fortnight I have done extensive research into property around Sydney, the cost of living, exporting our car, house swap schemes for a year, visas, etc. So far we have worked out that we would be in much the same financial situation in Oz as we are now which is good. The advantage to us would be the lifestyle and climate. I hate the cold with a vengeance! I mean it... I don't just dislike it, I really really hate it! Anyway, the main problem I can foresee is my wife leaving her family behind which will be difficult for her but we'll take one step at a time. First we need to see if we like it, then if we do, we need to see if we can get the Visa. If both boxes are ticked, we can then take it from there. In the last week we have been watching the BBC programme "Wanted Down Under" which has been interesting and I have just spotted that 4oD have available the programme by Phil Spencer "Relocation Down Under" which I think we will start watching as well. I have also just finished reading "Jump Down Under" which was a fantastic read and offered a lot of valuable information that we can use if we decide to give it a go. I must get the wife to have a read of this book as it would be useful for her too.

Phew! So, if any of you feel you want to share your experiences with us or that you could benefit in following our experiences, feel free to join in the conversation, add your thoughts and views and lets see how we all get on from here.