Jobs, Wills and Parties.

It took a little while, I guess the big corporate wheels turn quite slowly, but I have now had my job transfer to Sydney confirmed. The package isn't bad, although I lose some of my yearly holiday allowance which is a bit annoying. I sort of understand their reasoning as it would be a little unfair if I had more holiday than everyone else in the office, however I was led to believe initially that I would keep my current allowance. I can live with it though. However, I get some of it back due to the fact that Australia has more public holidays than the UK. It's not quite the same, but better than nothing.

I've sent my contract off to the people dealing with our finances to see if I qualify for any of the Living Away from Home benefits that Australia offer.

One of the things we've been meaning to do for a long time is to make a will. We did do one a year or so back with someone who was advertising in our local shopping mall. However, they made a real hash of it, getting names wrong etc so we demanded our money back. To avoid nasty things such as inheritance tax, we have to have a will made before leaving the UK. So, we thought we'd take advantage of Will Aid. This is a great idea where we can get a will made through a local participating solicitor and the money that we pay will go to charity. So, I booked up this morning for both of us to visit Thomson Snell & Passmore next week.

Finally, we decided that we'd have to have a party before we went, so that we could say goodbye to all our friends and family and this morning we booked a date at a pub/restaurant in Essex. It looks like a great place, and the person I spoke to on the phone was very friendly and helpful. We're going to pop up there sometime soon for lunch and to have a look around.