Paulkyville

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...

I am attending the Down Under Live exhibition on Saturday 30th January; it's an expo with seminars on migration and will have recruitment, studying and various other services on hand for those wishing to get out of the UK. I'm hoping I'll pick up some useful job contacts. If anyone else is going I'll see you there!

It's been awhile, faithful and patient reader, but I'm back on the blog! I hope you had a great Christmas and I wish you a very Happy New Year! This is the year it all happens; I have my visa trip in April and the house will be going on the market in the next month or so. From then on it's a waiting game for a buyer and then we're off! And whilst I have you attention for a moment, can you spare any money for the poor people of Haiti? I'm sure you've seen the devastation caused by the recent earthquake, and the millions of people this has affected. The Disasters Emergency Committee has set up an appeal, and you can donate by clicking HERE . Thanks.

With Christmas rapidly approaching I am coming up to the first of my UK lasts; the last UK Christmas! The last cold, wet, grim, sitting-in-front-of-the-telly-'cause-there's-nothing-else-to-do Christmas! Christmas 2010 will involve being on a beach at some point in the day! Mrs Paulky tells me she has never been on the beach at Christmas, so I think it's time to start a new tradition! I'm sure it will still involve copious amounts of food, only cooked on the ubiquitous BBQ! Just a little over four months until I make my visa validation visit and the house should go on the market next month, so things are starting to move in the right direction: i.e. southwards!

Much to my surprise I find that this month I am featured in the current issue of Australia and New Zealand Magazine . I did a bit of a blog post on their website a while back on how lucky I was to get my visa (I find out recently that the criteria for all migrant visas changed in September and mine would probably have slipped down the pile somewhat; some visas are not being looked at until 2012, and the world may have ended by then!). There was also some feedback from another poster there and my replies to her, all of which have ended up in the Mag! So anyone coming here after seeing that, welcome! There really isn't much to see here, but leave a comment and I'll try and help if I can. I'm not a migration agent, just someone who went through the Spousal visa process and came out the other side, victorious! No other news to report at the moment, just gearing up for my last UK Christmas!