OzGaz

Online!

2009-04-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

It's taken a while, but we're now finally online at home. The internet here isn't as straightforward as back in the UK. There don't appear to be any deals with unlimited downloads quotas and you have to read the small print to find out what you are signing up for.

Some companies include both uploads and downloads in their limits and others split the limits over peak and off-peak times.

After studying all the options and reading reviews I decided to get the home phone through iinet and the internet through TPG. The internet is advertised as 50GB download limit per month, however that limit is split between 25GB peak (7am-1am) ans 25GB off-peak (1am-7am) so, effectively, it's only 25GB unless I want to get up really early. I guess I'm going to have to start working out ways to automate my downloads overnight.

We did have an annoying issue with our address when getting the broadband connected. We live right on the border of two Sydney suburbs and the phone company had our address in one suburb and the internet company had our address in the other. Luckily, it was sorted after a couple of emails and our broadband is now connected.

The speed is pretty good too. Speedtest.net reported speeds of around 10MB-15MB, which is a lot more than I was getting in the UK. I had a really good Skype video call with my sister back in the UK - it was great to see and hear her.

So, at last we're reconnected to the world - it feels good...

Licenced!

2009-03-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

Today I got my first Aussie drivers licence. It was pretty easy and none of this sending forms off to a faceless department like you do in the UK.

I popped into the local RTA office, handed over my passport, UK licence, Medicare card, rental agreement and the application form and fifteen minutes later I had a sparkling new plastic card with my picture on it. Oh, and I had to hand over my credit card too.

Granted, the RTA office was fairly busy at lunchtime, but I still had time to pop in and grab a sandwich on my way back to work.

Moving Day

2009-03-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

So, we've finally moved into our apartment. It was all pretty easy - pop down the real estate agents and sign the forms, then get the keys and return to work leaving the wife to sort out moving the furniture in!

She did a sterling job too!

Seriously, apart from the tiring job of moving furniture into the flat, it was fairly painless. However, getting the furniture to the flat was far from it. My wife, an Australian, left many of her possessions in storage when she came over to the UK about eight years ago.

She went down to Melbourne over the weekend to arrange for them to be brought up to Sydney to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Despite promises of an early afternoon pickup, the removal guys didn't turn up until early evening and my wife had to re-arrange her flight back to Sydney. Even so, they were still packing the van when she left them and had no idea when she might see her possessions again.

Happily, they arrived pretty much on time and she spent a day unpacking boxes to discover things she had forgotten about and packing stuff in cupboards after cleaning eight years of grime from them. Last night, the place was beginning to look a little more like a home than a storage depot.

Flat Hunting

2009-02-18T21:08:00.000-08:00

Looking for an apartment here in Sydney was fun. actually, no it wasn't. We were looking for something akin to what we had in the UK, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a parking space. They are like gold dust here and no sooner had we seen one on the internet or on the rental list of a real estate agent, it was gone.

Before leaving the UK we had done some research into the areas of Sydney that we would like to live. Initially we had thought that Leichardt would be nice. It's an Italian influenced community and with our love of everything Mediterranean, especially the food, we thought it would suit us well. Further research revealed that the journey from there to the office where I would be working in North Sydney could be a potential nightmare. The suburbs of Balmain, Crows Nest, Newtown and Rozelle were among others that were suggested. Crows Nest, with its cafe culture looked like a favourite and after visiting the area, we decided that its village feel, restaurants, cafes and shops would suit us well, so we concentrated our search in that area.

So, we began visiting every real estate agent in the area and booking up to see anything that was still available.

We visited one place in a large tower block that sounded great. The tower block had a gym and a pool that were used by the residents. Upon visiting it, the apartment looked like a bomb had hit it! You couldn't see the floor for clothes and children's toys! The walls had been drawn on and there were Disney transfers on the windows. We tried to look past the mess, as we knew that it would all be cleaned once the current tenant left, but we couldn't look (or hear) past the traffic noise from the Pacific Highway.

Another time we did a viewing with about a dozen other people. That flat was in North Sydney and was very nice so we took an application form. One of the things that you have to submit with an application for are several forms of id information. They have a points system where a passport may be 30 points, driving licence is 20 points etc. We realised that, because we had no previous rental history in Australia we had almost no chance of being able to come up with the 100 points of documentation required so we didn't bother applying for that one.

A few days later we joined a few other people in viewing a nice flat in Crows Nest. It was a little small but otherwise fulfilled our criteria. We spoke to the real estate agent and explained the issue with the id “points”. She advised us to send whatever we could, so we took an application form. We also said that we would be in a position to pay six months rent in advance, should that make any difference. So, we filled in the application form and faxed it back with copies of as many documents as we could find – passports, drivers licenses, mortgage statements, job offer letters you name it. If it had something on it to show that we could pay monthly rent okay we sent it. The following day we heard that our application had been accepted. Hurray!

The only downside was that we couldn't move in for two weeks so we had to find a place to stay for those two weeks. We were both fed up of living in the hotel, so we decided to find a serviced apartment for a couple of weeks. This would be cheaper than the hotel and would allow us to cook for ourselves and do our laundry without having to carry everything to a laundrette. We found one eventually in Cremorne which although not luxurious, has suited our needs.

So, we move into the flat in a few days. I can't wait!

Settling In

2009-02-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

I've been here a couple of weeks now and I'm coming to the end of my first week at work.

It's been a good start, although a little frustrating at times as we've tried to sort out things like bank accounts, medicare, driving licences and, mainly, somewhere to live as we've got no permanent address or credit history here.

The bank accounts weren't too bad as they were happy to take my work address as a mailing address. We'd set the account up before we left the UK so it was just a case of presenting ourselves to the bank and giving them some more information so we could access the money we'd deposited.

Medicare for me was fairly straightforward and I just had to show my passport to set it up. Once again they were happy to take my work address. However, as my wife is a returning Australian resident she had to prove that she had left the UK and broken any links with them. More by luck than judgement we had brought some letters from our insurance company stating that we had cancelled our house insurance. This and some documents from our shipping company seemed to do the trick.

So, that was the bank account and Medicare sorted we just had to find a place to live. More of that next time.

Arrived, Safe and Sound

2009-02-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

So, we've done it! We're here in Sydney at long last. At the moment it feels like a holiday, but I guess that will change once we start looking for places to live.

The flight was good, despite being delayed by 2-3 hours. Despite this, Singapore Airlines handled it quite well. I was sent a text early in the morning to say that it had been 'retimed' and when we arrived at the airport we were given food vouchers.

Leaving the family was really hard and very upsetting, as you can probably imagine. It was something that we had all been dreading and the tears flowed quite freely as the bags were being put in the taxi.

I managed to grab a few hours sleep on the flight to Singapore, which is quite unusual for me, I guess that was down to exhaustion, both physically and mentally as things had been pretty full on in the days up to leaving, with packing everything for shipping, selling and giving away our belongings and saying all our goodbyes.

The 747 was pretty comfortable with a good amount of legroom in economy, but the food wasn't that brilliant. It was spinach with everything! I don't mind it as an ingredfient, but big sloppy piles of it? No thanks! And spicy beans in the confined space of an aircraft? That's just asking for trouble! Apart from that it was fine.

Once in Singapore, we only had a couple of hours before our connecting flight to Sydney instead of the 5 that we originally had. We went for a shower, checked some email and then it was time to board the A380.

I'd been looking forward to a flight on one of Airbus's new monsters since they were announced and had booked us seats on the upper deck as I thought it would be a novelty to sit upstairs in a plane (at least in economy). The seats were comfy and well spaced and the entertainment system was great. There were even places to plug your USB stick into so you could do some work on the preloaded offfice software or watch a movie from your iPod on the large widescreen monitor mounted on the seatback.

The food was better on this part of the flight, but I wonder why I always end up with a vegan meal on this part of the journey? I always have to request milk for coffee and miss out on croissants for breakfast. It has happened on all the flights from Singapore to Australia.

We arrived in Sydney on time and caught a taxi to the hotel in North Sydney. We then went for a wander about and looked at the area where we are thinking of finding somewhere to rent, Crow's Nest. It looks great with loads of restaurant to keep Gaztronomy busy and a fabulous wholefood store that had more kinds of tofu than I knew existed! Oh, and it also sells Tiptree jam!

From there we caught a ferry across the bay and went to the Rocks and had lunch. We then popped back to the hotel for a snooze before popping down to a local Thai restaurant and then returned back to the hotel where I spoke to my parents on Skype. The wireless internet connection at the hotel is very weak and the sound was difficult to hear sometimes and the session kept dropping but it was good to see them.

So, that was the first day of our new life Down Under. The important stuff like finding somewhere to live etc starts now...

On our way...

2009-01-30T07:43:00.000-08:00

As I write this, I am sitting at Heathrow facing a 2 hour delay to our flight. Not the best of starts, but at least Singapore Airlines have given us some food vouchers.

This week has been really hectic as we were organising moving out of our flat and trying to tie up any loose ends in our arrangements.

We have been selling a few bits on eBay and also giving away furniture on Freecycle and on Monday people turned up for the bed, television and sofas pretty much all at once.

We had planned to sleep on a blow-up mattress for a couple of nights, but due to a mix-up the bed went a day early and in the end we decided that we would stay at the local Travelodge in Tunbridge Wells. The room we had for the first night was pretty much just a box room and the bed was slightly bigger than a single - for two of us!

Anyway, we got moved for the next two nights which were okay, but it certainly isn't the best of the Travelodge hotels, I've only ever stayed in one worse than it.

Last night we went to my parents where we stayed the night and then said a very hard goodbye to my nephews and an even harder one today to my parents and sister. I feel very sad and guilty at leaving, but I know that these feeling for all of us will get better as time goes on.

Farewell Party.

2009-01-26T08:42:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful time at our farewell party. All our friends and family turned up and it was great to see them, although, at the same time it was sad to think that it would be quite a while before we would meet them again.

A few of them - thanks Sue, James and Anna - made us a special cake in the shape of Uluru covered in marzipan kangaroos - brilliant, and extremely tasty.

We'd both like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who came, you made it very special and we apologise for the short amount of time that we were able to spend with everyone before it was all over. We will miss each and every one of you.

Last Day at Work

2009-01-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

Today was my last day of work in the UK office of the company I work for. I'm quite lucky because they have an office in Sydney and I'm transferring there, so it has been one less thing to worry about.

I've worked for this company for about eight and a half years and have made a lot of friends and it was hard to say goodbye. However, the company has quite a fair bit of movement between their global offices, so it is quite possible that I may see some of them again which made it a bit easier. Someone said that, because of that, it was more like Au Revoir rather than Goodbye. I hope that is the case.

For a leaving present I was given a voucher for a meal for two at Beluga in Sydney which, if you read my Gaztronomy blog, you'll realise was the perfect gift.

So, now I've a week before we leave in which we have to finish off our preparations, get our stuff shipped and pack. It doesn't seem enough time...

Getting Closer...

2009-01-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

It's getting closer to the time we leave and we're gradually getting things into place.

We've just about sorted out our finances, although I'm still awaiting various monies to appear from shares I've sold (we picked the best time to move...) but it's all in process. We've also been selling quite a lot of our stuff on eBay including some big furniture items that we're not taking with us and we've given away a few bits on Freecycle.

We've set up our bank account at Westpac and I'm using UKForex to move some money into it. I've used them before and their rates aren't bad and the process is really straightforward.

We've also been cancelling credit cards (I've kept one) various memberships, insurances and changed the address on my driving licence to that of my parents as you have to have a UK address where you can be contacted.

I've arranged the redirection of our post and I've still got a few phone calls and letters to send off next week.

Personally, it's getting hard when saying goodbye to friends and colleagues that I won't see again before I go and it's difficult to handle the guilt at what I'm putting my family through as the time for us to leave gets closer.

Last Cold Christmas

2008-12-27T04:34:00.000-08:00

So, we've just had our last "cold Christmas" with my family and we really enjoyed it. Everyone was aware that we're going to be leaving in about a month, but we had a good time and nobody dwelt on the fact that this would be our last Christmas together, for a good while at least.

We had some nice presents including a photo album with pictures of all the family, and we made sure that we took lots of pictures during the days so that we have lots of memories to take with us, and to leave behind.

Taking Things for Granted

2008-12-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's funny how we take things for granted. I regularly travel up to London to work and never really noticed anything, but the last few times I've been looking around and seeing things that have passed me by during previous trips.

I guess now that I've only a few weeks before I leave the UK, I'm tending to notice things that I will miss. Things like the cluster of red telephone boxes outside Charing Cross station, and the amount of things that happen in Trafalgar Square.

I remember the big screen that was erected during the Olympics and a couple of weeks ago there was an artistic installation where your shadow was replaced by moving images - very clever, and it's great to see this marvellous space being used.

I love wandering through the Victorian arcades, such as Burlington Arcade and Princes Arcade and, at the moment, they look their absolute best in their festive finery. Also, the Bond Street illuminations this year outdo (I think) those of its larger siblings, Oxford and Regent Streets.

I've a few more trips before the end of the year, so I shall have to remember to take my camera with me so I can capture a few memories of London at Christmas time.

Getting the Visa

2008-11-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

I occurred to me while chatting to someone about my forthcoming move that I'd rather glossed over the visa process in my first blog entry. So I though I'd do a quick entry on what I had to do and the rough costs and timescales involved.

Initially we were going to do everything ourselves. However, after my wife had a conversation with someone who said that it had taken her over three years to get a spouse visa, we decided to find an agency to help us.

We visited the Toast Australia festival and met Dianne Perry of Advantage Migration. She gave us some useful information and when the time came to start the visa process we contacted her.

She made sure that we had the latest forms to fill in and was there for us to answer questions when we weren't sure what to write. She also made sure that we supplied the correct documentation and checked everything that we sent before she sent them onto the Australian Immigration department.

Of course, this all costs money. Advantage Migration charge A$3000 for their services and the visa was about A$1500. On top of this was £10 for a police certificate that shows your criminal record (or lack of) and £250 for a medical.

We also had to get character references - preferably from Australians - saying what a fine fellow I was and show evidence that my wife and I had been together for a good while (bank statements, mortgage statements, insurances etc).

One of the most surprising questions was that I had to supply a list of every time I had left the country in the last ten years. As I travel quite a bit with my job, that wasn't an easy task. However, with passport stamps, work invoices and, believe it or not, digital photo timestamps I managed to work out pretty much all of my trips - there were over fifty of them!

I applied for the visa around February/March time and I went for my medical in May. I finally heard in July that my visa had been granted and I have until May 2009 to validate it.

Selling, Shipping and Scams

2008-11-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

We've decided not to take too much with us as my wife still has a fair amount of stuff in storage in Australia. What we have decided to take is a few pieces of furniture, my guitars and amplifier, some books (mostly my cookery books) and personal effects.

The rest of our stuff, my CD's, LP's and various collections for example, will be looked after by my parents until we decide that we want to ship them over (the items, not my parents...) So I've arranged for a couple of companies, Robinsons International Removals and Excess Baggage to give us a quote.

Once of the things we're concerned about is shipping wooden items as we've heard that it can cost quite a lot to get them treated, so that is something that we will want to ask each of them, so at least we'll have an idea on costs.

Finally, my wife has been trying to sell her car on Autotrader. Within a day of the advert going online she had an email enquiry from someone allegedly in Spain who made a very good offer and said they would be sending a Certified Bank Draft for somewhat more than the offer and asking that we send the difference to the shipping company. Alarm bells started ringing and I began Googling to see what I could find out. From the number of people that had received almost identical emails, this appears to be a scam, possibly using stolen Bank Drafts that are cancelled after you have forwarded the money to the "shipping company" leaving you several thousand pounds out of pocket. So, be warned and if you are contacted this way, make sure you check it out thoroughly!

Jobs, Wills and Parties.

2008-11-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

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.

More Death & Taxes and more...

2008-10-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

Having not been completely satisfied with the previous meeting I had about our financial stuff, I decided to go for a "second opinion". On the expat website forum I've been reading I came across the name of Montfort International so we booked an appointment to see them. They offer Saturday appointments which we found really handy.

Having arrived we sat and chatted to Geraint Davies, the owner who explained the various options and history of emigrating to Australia and then quizzed us about our affairs until he had a good understanding of our affairs and what we wanted to achieve.

It's not just our pensions we need to take into consideration, but just about anything financial that we have interests in. But, as well as being told the nasty stuff there are also a few nice tax breaks that might be possible depending on various statuses of our situation.

After the meeting (which wasn't far off of four hours!) we both felt that we had a reasonable understanding of what we might be in for and that Geraint had a good understanding of what we want. So, we asked him to prepare some advice for us and to recommend a course of action for us to transfer our finances to Australia.

Dates and Video Calls

2008-10-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

My wife has given her notice in and leaves her job on 23rd January 2009. So, that seems like a good date for me to finish my UK job and then have a week in the UK to tie up any loose ends before we leave for Australia.

Once we arrive, we've decided that it makes sense to have a week to settle in which means that I'll be starting in the Sydney office on 9th February.

We're planning to stay in a hotel or serviced apartment when we arrive and then start looking for somewhere to rent once we arrive. We've been keeping an eye on the Sydney rental market and we've been told that it is a bit of a nightmare trying to find rented accommodation at the moment as the demand is outstripping supply. I guess we'll probably see what our options are nearer the time and see what happens.

We'll be looking at booking our flights and finding some temporary accommodation in the next week or so. I'm still waiting for the formal transfer to be completed by my firm, but it's all starting to become a reality.

My parents, after years of being anti-computer have decided that they are now going to get themselves online and have bought themselves a laptop. The main reason for this is to be able to keep in touch by email and video call when we're "down under".

Given that neither of them have really ever used a computer at all, they're not doing too bad. My Dad is really keen to master it and we've been making practice video calls over the last couple of weeks. I think he's pretty much got it now and is now trying to work out how to use Google Maps...

Death and Taxes...

2008-09-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Well, just taxes mostly.

The current issue I'm dealing with is trying to find out what to do with my pensions and investments. I've had a pension since I was 20 (I'm 44 now) and Australia has a thing they call Overseas Investments Tax, which means that any income I get from overseas investments will be taxed by the Australian government. I've been to see one financial advisor about it and have an appointment to see another in a week or so and then I'll have to decide whether to transfer my pensions and investments to Australia or leave them here. It all depends on how much growth they are likely to make weighed up (which you are taxed on) against how much they will actually pay out. It's something that the advisors will work out and then recommend a course of action.

I've also got to get in touch with the companies that run my life and critical illness insurances to see if I am still covered when I am in Australia. I suspect not, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The Story So Far...

2008-09-22T14:05:00.001-07:00

Back in 2001 an Australian girl came to work at my office. We got on very well and, by the end of the year we were seeing each other on a regular basis. Her original plan was to stay in the UK for a year and then return home to Australia.

However, she decided to stay in the UK and in 2005 we got married in Culzean Castle, in Scotland.

We decided that as she had been here for a while that I should give Australia a try so we began our preparations to begin our move to Australia.

We decided to sell our house and buy another one that we could rent out while we were in Australia. The process of selling and buying took a lot longer than we anticipated but eventually I was ready to apply for my visa.

I applied in February this year and I was granted a permanent Spouse Visa in July. Our plan is to emigrate in February 2009.

The firm that I work for has an office in Sydney and I have applied for a transfer there. I have been told that it is pretty much a formality and I am just waiting for the paperwork to arrive to confirm it. So, that is one rather large weight off of my mind and one less thing to have to worry about.

All we need to worry about now is finding a property (and that doesn't sound too easy either) and day to day living...