At the MCG! - we were first ones there - Anyone surprised!
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The sunrise from Tony's Fishing boat a little early to be honest - and only the one fish!
Monday 24 December 2012
A few Pics!
The sunrise from Tony's Fishing boat a little early to be honest - and only the one fish!
Sunday 23 December 2012
Day 14 - So that's why we came here!
As we see the second full week in Australia come to an end, and as our frantic efforts to get our lives in order down here start to reap reward, we start to see the reasons why this part of the world has such appeal, and why we hope that this will become an excellent spot to settle.
We have now sorted our accommodation, and enroled the kids in school. I have even got a second interview booked up and a number of other hot possibilities for work coming up over the next few weeks. So we have been able to relax a bit in the hot run up to Christmas, and have spent a couple of days on the beach to unwind, and have had a day in the city before we saw the Melbourne Stars beat the Sydney 6ers in the T20 big bash, which the kids adored so much that I have had to book tickets for the rest of the short season. I have even managed to get out fishing at a rediculously early hour in the morning, and caught my first fish!
As we take breath ,we suddenly start to see around us the advantages that exist in the Australian lifestyle, which is far more rounded. The greater opportunities to enjoy the outdoor environment has definately created a culture that encourages and promotes health and wellbeing, and the result is that everyone is extremely fit!. Steph and I are definately feeling the pressure to get ourselves back into it.
There is a simple reason why the beach lifestyle is Australia is so great in comparion to the UK, and this reason comes without involving the obvious weather differences. With such a large country and such an expanse of available beach, and so few people (approximately 20million) the available beach space per head on any given sunny day is immense in comparison to the UK, which means that when you want a spot in the carpark, and then a spot on the beach, and a swim in the sea, you do not need to be rubbing sholders with the folk from East London who also see your chosen beach as the 'local option' for a weekend break
This is not just about a 'beach lifetsyle' though and the advantages of Melbourne in particular are demonstrating themselves in a number of ways. A trip into the city with the kids took 20 minutes by train, and was without complication, risk or irritation. The options of restaurants are not confined to the 6 major chains that now overrun the british highstreet. The traffic allows me to plan a journey with relative accuracy without plugging extra 30 minute chunks due to a chosen road. People appear to be content in their work irrespective of the position and as such are happy to serve you in a petrol station or a 7-11 without grunt or attitude.
For fear of over stating it or showing premature smugness, I will leave it there, as we shall see how it starts to unfold as we get oursleves properly settled, but initial indications are very good
We have now sorted our accommodation, and enroled the kids in school. I have even got a second interview booked up and a number of other hot possibilities for work coming up over the next few weeks. So we have been able to relax a bit in the hot run up to Christmas, and have spent a couple of days on the beach to unwind, and have had a day in the city before we saw the Melbourne Stars beat the Sydney 6ers in the T20 big bash, which the kids adored so much that I have had to book tickets for the rest of the short season. I have even managed to get out fishing at a rediculously early hour in the morning, and caught my first fish!
As we take breath ,we suddenly start to see around us the advantages that exist in the Australian lifestyle, which is far more rounded. The greater opportunities to enjoy the outdoor environment has definately created a culture that encourages and promotes health and wellbeing, and the result is that everyone is extremely fit!. Steph and I are definately feeling the pressure to get ourselves back into it.
There is a simple reason why the beach lifestyle is Australia is so great in comparion to the UK, and this reason comes without involving the obvious weather differences. With such a large country and such an expanse of available beach, and so few people (approximately 20million) the available beach space per head on any given sunny day is immense in comparison to the UK, which means that when you want a spot in the carpark, and then a spot on the beach, and a swim in the sea, you do not need to be rubbing sholders with the folk from East London who also see your chosen beach as the 'local option' for a weekend break
This is not just about a 'beach lifetsyle' though and the advantages of Melbourne in particular are demonstrating themselves in a number of ways. A trip into the city with the kids took 20 minutes by train, and was without complication, risk or irritation. The options of restaurants are not confined to the 6 major chains that now overrun the british highstreet. The traffic allows me to plan a journey with relative accuracy without plugging extra 30 minute chunks due to a chosen road. People appear to be content in their work irrespective of the position and as such are happy to serve you in a petrol station or a 7-11 without grunt or attitude.
For fear of over stating it or showing premature smugness, I will leave it there, as we shall see how it starts to unfold as we get oursleves properly settled, but initial indications are very good
Sunday 16 December 2012
Oz Day 7 - Progress!
At the end of the first week it feels like progress has been made, but we are still a long way away! and there have been a number of highs and lows so far.
Transfer to Melbourne from Sydney was swift and simple on Wednesday, and once we had picked up the hire car and driven to our serviced apartment in Brighton, we were bubbling with excitement. The Brighton area is very nice, and all that has been described to us by others, no wonder Shane Warne and Liz Hurley chose this area to live in!
We got straight to work and packed up Thursday, Friday and Saturday with School viewings, house viewings and car viewings, filling every available slot that had not been filled from our work in Sydney.
My Job hunt turned to shorter term casual work as well as longer term opportunities, although with 2 interviews sorted and some ongoing opportunities, my nerves about work have settled.
Steph and I feel the stark reality of what we are trying to achieve quite difficult in the morning, often glancing at each other with a clear 'What the Bloody Hell are we doing' expression on our faces. The big low came on Friday though, when on a drizzly day we managed to lose the car we wanted to buy, view about 4 rubbish houses in a row, and got told that our circumstances make our capability to fill in a house rental application near impossible, the number of hurdles seemed to double in about an hour. Anyway, the last low I hope!
While Steph and I are a little edgy about the task ahead, the Kids are absolutely fine, water off a ducks back! they look a little scared when visiting potential schools, but love seeing houses and helping to decide which one is best, which room will be theirs and so on!
By saturday we had bought a car, a 1997 Ford Laser with 286,000 miles on the clock. Placed an application on a house right on the sea front, and chosen our preferred school, which is perfect for the house.
We are all fans of the T20 big bash cricket going on down here at the moment, and have booked tickets to go and see our chosen team 'Melbourne Stars' this Friday at the MCG, we are all looking forward to seeing this.
We had a great Party on Saturday night at Tony's which introduced us to a whole bunch of people, and had a very relaxing sunday doing absolutely nothing! - a well deserved break! - we drove into the hills just outside Melbourne and had a walk with a great view back to melbourne and the sea.
Today (Monday) we are going to see another school and then going into the city by train for the first time, I have an interview, but it gives us a chance to see the city. Hopefully we will get some good news about the house, at which point we can start to buy some beds and sofa's etc to get us in before Christmas, which would be amazing.
Transfer to Melbourne from Sydney was swift and simple on Wednesday, and once we had picked up the hire car and driven to our serviced apartment in Brighton, we were bubbling with excitement. The Brighton area is very nice, and all that has been described to us by others, no wonder Shane Warne and Liz Hurley chose this area to live in!
We got straight to work and packed up Thursday, Friday and Saturday with School viewings, house viewings and car viewings, filling every available slot that had not been filled from our work in Sydney.
My Job hunt turned to shorter term casual work as well as longer term opportunities, although with 2 interviews sorted and some ongoing opportunities, my nerves about work have settled.
Steph and I feel the stark reality of what we are trying to achieve quite difficult in the morning, often glancing at each other with a clear 'What the Bloody Hell are we doing' expression on our faces. The big low came on Friday though, when on a drizzly day we managed to lose the car we wanted to buy, view about 4 rubbish houses in a row, and got told that our circumstances make our capability to fill in a house rental application near impossible, the number of hurdles seemed to double in about an hour. Anyway, the last low I hope!
While Steph and I are a little edgy about the task ahead, the Kids are absolutely fine, water off a ducks back! they look a little scared when visiting potential schools, but love seeing houses and helping to decide which one is best, which room will be theirs and so on!
By saturday we had bought a car, a 1997 Ford Laser with 286,000 miles on the clock. Placed an application on a house right on the sea front, and chosen our preferred school, which is perfect for the house.
We are all fans of the T20 big bash cricket going on down here at the moment, and have booked tickets to go and see our chosen team 'Melbourne Stars' this Friday at the MCG, we are all looking forward to seeing this.
We had a great Party on Saturday night at Tony's which introduced us to a whole bunch of people, and had a very relaxing sunday doing absolutely nothing! - a well deserved break! - we drove into the hills just outside Melbourne and had a walk with a great view back to melbourne and the sea.
Today (Monday) we are going to see another school and then going into the city by train for the first time, I have an interview, but it gives us a chance to see the city. Hopefully we will get some good news about the house, at which point we can start to buy some beds and sofa's etc to get us in before Christmas, which would be amazing.
Monday 10 December 2012
Oz day 3 - Manly
Sent from my Xperia™ smartphone smartphone
Oz Day 1 - Panic!
Yesterday was a sedate and relaxed day, as we recovered from the trip, and attempted to reinstate normality as the surreal world of cruise life was left behind. People aboard the boat spoke about post cruise blues, and we dismissed this as a possibility for us, as the new adventure would keep us energised. The truth is that the opulent and enclosed environment does have an effect on you, even if only exposed to it for 16 days ( made maybe worse for us as we did not get off at all), and the dissembarkement does thrust you back into the world you left behind with so much excitement for the trip ahead. Suddenly cash and directions and bags and everything else need to be thought about!
Anyway the short period of blues were quickly overcome this morning and replaced with panic, looking out of the window of the 67th floor of our apartment down onto our new country, we knew that we had a million things to do, and whist we knew this day would come, the big question of what to do first never got answered. So we have spent the first 2 hrs this morning trying to do everything at the same time. We have:
- Booked three school showrounds
- Written steph a CV
- Booked 2 house viewings
- Arranged meetings with 2 job agents
This success has calmed us down a bit, but I feel we will be flitting back and forth from panic to excitement over the next few weeks, and essentially until we have a school, a job and a house sorted out. - Yikes!
Sunday 9 December 2012
Sydney
We awoke this morning at 4:45am in
preparation for our cruise ship's entry into Sydney Harbour. It was
still dark but the sky was starting to show the first signs of
morning. I went out onto our vernanda and the bright lights from the
skyscrapers of Sydney could just be seen, so I hurried Steph and the
kids and we were up on the top deck about 10 minutes later. The kids
were determined to see this epic last stage of the cruise, and the
momentous end to the Journey that started back in Mid September,
however the lack of sleep from an exhausting last evening at Kids
club was taking its toll, and we had few smiles! (as you will from
the pictures below)
three large tug boats appeared from
behind the headland destined for our vessel, and another water cannon
boat behind them, with its water cannons blasting high into the sky
from three directions. This honour was sadly not due to the
anticipated arrival of the Cole family, but because the Celebrity
Solstice, our ship, was making its first appearance in Sydney. This
grand ceremony provided at such an unlikely hour, did however make us
all feel very special, and as the tugs turned around and tucked into
our sides and front, just as the bridge and opera house came into
view I doubt there could be a more dramatic way to be greeted by our
new country.
The sun rose over the opera house as we
enjoyed a cup of tea from the deck, before returning to bed for a
couple hours sleep in time for our departure at 10:00am
Might have to find a place on the wall for this one!
Monday 3 December 2012
Day 9 on the cruise
We are cruising past the great barrier
reef, our last port was Darwin but we have been at sea for 3 days
since then. All is very well, we see less and less of the kids as
they spend more time with their friends, in fact we can see them for
less than 5 minutes between 9 in the morning and 10 at night.
Steph and I are 2 of the 4
representatives of the UK at the Pool Olympics, which we are into the
4th day of competition. Steph and I won the synchronised
swimming yesterday with an astonishing display of finesse. Oh yes we
are getting involved!!
Meeting lots of Aussies, we are
becoming quite well known around the boat as the nutty immigrating
pomms!
Little else to say, everything great!
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