Paulkyville

Well, here I am almost, 13 months since I arrived in Australia, and I thought it might be time to give you and update! Firstly, I had an amazing time in the USA (which seems so long ago now!).  I visited my family in NJ and had a great time in NYC, before heading down to more family in Miami and then over to LA.  Then we took a brilliant two week coach trip through California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona where we saw the Grand Canyon (utterly spectacular), Yosemite (beautiful), Monument Valley (epic) and many, many other places.  The only place I didn't take to was Las Vegas, but mainly because we'd spent a week in the wilderness and then hit this incredible, sleazy, colourful city in the middle of the desert.  Plus it was unusually humid. And so after this wonderful trip full of happy memories, we arrived in Perth on 4th September 2010.  I had some work already lined up at the Perth Royal Show and was grateful for the money I earned in the 10 days there, which paid for some o

Well, everything is now in place; contracts exchanged and a move date agreed (30th July) and flights booked. The Exit Strategy being previously planned (see earlier post!), we fly to New Jersey, then to Miami, then to Los Angeles before finally going on to Perth. When I started this blog I had envisioned a long, tortuous process beset by delays and disappointments; what I got was a relatively smooth ride and little in the way of hassle. Now admittedly I'm not out of the country yet, and I may be tempting fate here, but all seems to be going well. I think now is a good time to let sleeping blogs lie and I suspect this will be my final post for a long while. So to the patient reader (I think putting readers is tempting fate) out there, thank you for reading my drivel over the last year. Have a good life and enjoy. If anyone ever tells you something can't be done, laugh in their face and do it. TTFN...

Well, I have been most lax in keeping you informed of progress! Since my last post, not much has happened on the house front; still waiting for contracts to be exchanged, but that should be this week sometime, hopefully! Did manage to make my visa validation trip, so am now an official Australian Permanent Resident. The Icelandic volcano did scupper my plans to fly in April, however, so I had to put my trip back to May, but that went well and I got everything done that I needed to, including opening bank accounts and registering with recruitment agents. We are now entering the final phase, and once the contracts on the house are exchanged I have a feeling things will hurtle past very fast!

Much to our utter amazement, we accepted an offer on our house on Thursday! It took a couple of days for it to set in, and we do keep expecting the other shoe to drop at any moment, but so far things look good. If this plays out as we hope, it means we could be leaving the UK in June, much quicker than anticipated! So now the hard work begins, of sorting everything out; what to ship, what to sell and what to chuck. All this and I'm off to Oz in 11 days time. What a whirlwind this month has been so far!

Two posts in one month! Things must be hotting up! Our house (finally) went on the market yesterday. Though we do not yet have any photos or a sale board outside, someone has already requested a viewing tomorrow, so hopefully this will be the start of the flood! I have also successfully set up the bank accounts in Oz and just have to verify my ID when I get there. So things are moving along in the right direction!

Well, gentle and very patient reader, I notice I have not made a post in two months, which is very lax of me! To be honest, not much has happened; the house still waits to go on the market, mainly due to the lethargy the dreadful winter brought on us. Though we are now in the process of getting our worthless Home Information Pack (HIP) done, so that we can then put the house on the market. Even our solicitor thinks the HIP is a waste of time, but the Government, in its infinite wisdom, has spent much money on training people to do the job and are very unlikely to change it now, so we have to go through the rigmarole in order to sell the house. In less than four weeks I will be in Perth on my validation trip, and I can't wait! This in spite of the terrible storm they had yesterday, which has caused millions of dollars of damage. You can read more about it here . According to my mother-in-law, this is the worst storm she's ever seen, and she's nearly 84! I shall be packing a