The Adventure Starts Here
Back safe and sound
Bah!
The adventure is all over .... back in UK. Only took one encounter with a Heathrow Airport worker for me to want to get on the plane straight back out. It really hits you just how bad the UK has become once you've been away for 5 weeks. So well done Maggie Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown for ripping the heart out of this country.
Upcoming plans, will be to get the work on the house finished, mainly the ceiling in the hall and flooring for the kitchen. The good thing about being away for so long is that it gives you a fresh look on things when you get back and the house isn't as bad as we remembered. Upstairs is pretty much decoration and tarting up the surrounds of the new windows. The hall is the main problem and needs a couple of days of tearing down the ceiling and replacing then decorating again. The kitchen just needs painted and then a floor put down, again a couple of days will see that done. Outside of windows need repainted but again a couple of (dry) weekends will see that done.
Once all that is done we can get a valuation done and see about getting it onto the market in preparation for shipping out to Australia. Hopefully the house stuff will get done over the Scottish "summer" and I have to give 3 months notice at my work so realistically we're looking at tail end of year before anything major will happen.
We now know that we have some substantial support networks in Brisbane and Sydney so it is likely that we'll end up in one of those 2 cities to start off life in Australia.
The adventure is all over .... back in UK. Only took one encounter with a Heathrow Airport worker for me to want to get on the plane straight back out. It really hits you just how bad the UK has become once you've been away for 5 weeks. So well done Maggie Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown for ripping the heart out of this country.
Upcoming plans, will be to get the work on the house finished, mainly the ceiling in the hall and flooring for the kitchen. The good thing about being away for so long is that it gives you a fresh look on things when you get back and the house isn't as bad as we remembered. Upstairs is pretty much decoration and tarting up the surrounds of the new windows. The hall is the main problem and needs a couple of days of tearing down the ceiling and replacing then decorating again. The kitchen just needs painted and then a floor put down, again a couple of days will see that done. Outside of windows need repainted but again a couple of (dry) weekends will see that done.
Once all that is done we can get a valuation done and see about getting it onto the market in preparation for shipping out to Australia. Hopefully the house stuff will get done over the Scottish "summer" and I have to give 3 months notice at my work so realistically we're looking at tail end of year before anything major will happen.
We now know that we have some substantial support networks in Brisbane and Sydney so it is likely that we'll end up in one of those 2 cities to start off life in Australia.
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Comment by John on June 4, 2009 at 12:24pm -
I loved the driving around ... the girlfriend (now wife as we got married in Sydney) was complaining that she never got a shot. Always keen to see something brand new around the corner.
There wasn't really one highlight to the trip, although seeing a couple of black snakes sunning themselves in the garden out at Moree was memorable in an EEK kind of way.
I read your book while across and loved it but have 1 comment to make about it which I'll mail you. But more than happy to pick your brains.
We looked at rental properties in Caronvale and Eight Mile Plains, looked in Cleveland too but way too expensive :) Toowoomba was nice but be better if they had some water although after the storms the situation may have improved.
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Comment by Vicky Gray on June 4, 2009 at 12:02pm -
Wow John, sounds like you have your work cut out for a while!
Still, it'll be worth it when it's all done and you get back over to Oz permanently.
What was the highlight of your trip?
Let me know if you need any pointers on Brisbane or Queensland...
Vicky x
www.australiauncovered.com
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