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Do you know when you have those ‘little’ jobs to do around the house that you’ll get around to doing eventually? Well, that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing for the last few weeks.

Having finally got over returning back to the UK to be faced with sub Zero temperatures and snow I’ve been hitting all the DIY jobs that I’ve been meaning to do for the past 7 years whilst the missus has become master packer / tidy uppa.

The house is looking half decent although there’s still a few jobs to do before we get the valuers round in preparation for putting the house on the market.

Anyway, back to the painting.

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Perhaps the UK government is scared of loosing to many of its citizens to the Aussie lifestyle

I remember seeing these ads on the news when we went on our Rekkie to Perth (what seems all of a lifetime ago now).

But alas, the country that gave the world such risque comic acts as Benny Hill, the Two Ronnies and Little Britain has banned Australia’s new “bloody hell” tourism ads from television because they are just a little too rude.
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Oh the irony, after 40 years the UK has finally decided to review its immigration policies by adopting a Australian-style points-based immigration system.

The system will be put in place to attract the “brightest and the best” from the developing world to work and settle in Britain.

A slightly flawed assumption however is that the workers from the newly enlarged European Union will mostly fill low-skilled labour shortages. The door will in future be closed to unskilled migrants from the developing world outside the EU, however any unskilled migrants from the EU can still pop into the UK whenever they please.

The white paper, Making Migration Work for Britain, published yesterday also proposed that financial bonds guaranteeing their return home should be demanded from migrants whose personal circumstances or route of migration suggest they may breach the immigration rules. Employers will also be expected to ensure that migrant workers comply with the rules of their visas.

The system will reward those with money to invest and the most highly skilled migrants who come to work in Britain with the right to bring their families and a faster route to citizenship than at present.

This contrasts sharply with provision for a very limited number of temporary low-skilled workers from the developing world who will be able to come for a maximum of 12 months, will have to leave their family at home, and may have their wages paid into their bank accounts back home to ensure they leave the country at the end of their contract.

The system will also include changes in the way overseas students come to Britain, and the working holidaymakers scheme, which has seen more than 70,000 Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans come to Britain, will be open to far more countries.

Hmmm, this all sounds somewhat familiar. A little too late for us but hopefully longer term the changes if implemented successfully will bring longer term benefits for the UK.

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Brrrrrrrrr. Oh I’m so happy to be back in the good old UK (insert tones of sarcasm here).

The trip back was pretty uneventful. Our little boy slept during the Singapore to London Leg of the trip for just over 8 hours so this made the 13-hour journey a little more bearable for all of us.

Landing in London at 5am UK time (1pm Perth time) to be met with cool crisp air and very low winter sun (great for driving with a dirty windscreen and no screen wash).

Three hour journey back ‘up north’ and then off to Asda to feed a craving for bacon and eggs that we’d all acquired followed by a few hours staring into space after the realisation that for two of us at least, it had been over 36 hours since we got out of bed.

Little boy in bed for approx 7pm, we were in bed (dead on our feet) for about 10.

They recon the best way to avoid jet lag is to spend plenty of time in direct sunlight to help readjust your own body clock whilst trying to stay awake as long as you can so that your going to bed at a normal time. Sounds good in practice doesn’t it?

Next morning – Bing! Wake up bright as a button at 4:30am can’t sleep so get up early to enjoy a freezing day. Snows forecast but nothing to be seen in Yorkshire, in bed for 10pm dead on my feet.

This morning – Bing! Wake up, bright as a button at 4am. First day back in the office today. Manage to force myself to remain in bed with my eyes open for 2 hours and then time to get back into work mode.

Get ready for work and go outside to find the car resembling an ice block. No de-icer. Scrape, scrape…. In the car, sit in traffic for 40 minutes driving all of a few miles.

So here I am, it’s coming up to 9pm Australia time and I’m taking a break for lunch. I have some software called weather watcher on my PC and the temperature displayed in my PC’s toolbar shows me that its 23 degrees in Perth at time of typing.

It’s actually forecast to be 33 degrees (91F) tomorrow. Damn I really do miss that sun! Weather watcher is a pretty cool software package and I highly recommend it. Its only small but if the sun and the hot weather is one of the things that attracts you to a life in Australia then its a nice thing to have to remind you of how nice and warm it can get over there.

You can find more information and download weather watcher by clicking here (link opens in new window)

I’ve just about managed to get through the 300 e-mails I’ve been sent and I’m seriously missing Australia and its lifestyle like mad! I know the sunshine isn’t everything but Australia, particularly Western Australia offers the full package in my opinion and I’m really glad that we took the time to visit our future home.

We still have so much to do. The house is the main focus now so we’ll be spending every opportunity we have making sure the house looks presentable in preparation for putting the house up for sale (hopefully in the next couple of months).

Sad though it sounds, were also in the process of pulling together a ‘project plan’. The enormity of this project is only just starting to become clear. What’s for sure is that we’ll be kept pretty busy for the months to come.

Also, I’ve not forgotten about the pictures, which I promised to upload to the site. I’ll aim to share these this weekend.

Cheers all

Mark

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Oh well, here we are. Almost three weeks on and we’ll be leaving the beutiful country of Australia to travel back to the UK tomorrow afternoon at 4pm Aussie time.

Well probably spend our last day at Kings Park before heading back home to watch the sunset at about 7pm. Then it’ll be time to eat whats left of the food in the fridge.

We had the brother-in-law, his missus and their son over to stay from Sydney in the past week. They really enjoyed the laid back lifestyle of Western Australia although they were surprised how expensive property had become.

The view from the ‘East side’ seems to be that you can still pick up properties for £50,000.

Now although you may be able to do this in the outback the number of Immigrants moving to the west coast is slowly starting to push prices upwards.

Take Sorrento and Hillarys for example. The number of $1 Million + houses being build and sold is staggering although even for these properties, similar properties in Sydney would cost you 4 to 5 times this amount.

Having said all this, compared to the UK, what you get for your hard earned money over here is significantly better. A house of ‘mansion’ proportions could still be yours for under £200,000 if you had this sort of cash to hand.

I think we’ve made the best of our time here in WA. We’ve got a really good feel for the different suburbs, we’ve identified a school for our son. We’ve got a good feel for house prices and what we’ll get for our cash. From a work perspective I’ve also met with a number of recruiters who’ll I’ll continue to keep contact with when I get back to the UK.

I’ve also taken hundreds of picks which I’ll upload to the site when we get back later in the week.

For now, more updates when we get back to the UK. Just a short 20 hour flight and we’ll be back in Blighty. Oh joy!

I’ve added some pictures of some of the houses we visited so check out this post titled – What will you get for £150k in Australia for more info.

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We had a tour of the school we’ve identified following some good reviews on the web.

Absolutely fantastic is all I can say.

The school is a primary school but more importantly it offers a pre-primary school or kindergarten (kindi)

We were taken on a quick tour by the school principal (headmaster).

Compared to UK schools I’d say its of a similar size but the quality of the facilities is what really gave it the two big thumbs up.

Nice big, colourful, airy classrooms.

We had a walk round some of the classrooms whilst lessons were taking place. I guess we were only there during registration but the rooms seemed to be buzzing with energy.

In the Kindi sections the kids were literally having a song and a dance with the teachers. What was really nice is that the parents were not rushed through the door as soon as registration started and were encouraged to take part. If anything (the principal said) they were encouraged to remain with the kids at this early stage to reduce any anxiety and slip out when they felt the kids were happy.

Each day is started with some form of physical exercise. On the way in we noticed a group of older children doing stretching exercises in the playing fields..I know I’m probably making all this sound like some kind of boot camp but the kids were genuinely enjoying their start to the day and in my mind this is a much better way to start the day then sat in a playground eating chocolate and Crisps.

As a second language the children are taught Japanese which makes some sense with Australia being so close to Japan and the rest of Asia. A little different from the French or Spanish I was taught as a kid.

We saw some of the older children having an IT lesson. One very new looking PC per child with the class size being no more then 15 kids.

In essence it appears to be an excellent school.

Thankfully It also fits into the area where we may or may not eventually settle.

I say this because sorting or at least identifying a good school was near the top of our list for this rekkie.

Having said this some of the schools (similarly to the UK) have quite strict catchment areas meaning that if we selected this school we would have had to find a house to rent within the catchment area.

Fortunately, this particular school does not have this strict policy and although it encourages parents to live in an area close to the school (if anything down to the social aspects of school life) it will accept pupils from outside its ‘local’ area. It is a popular school though so understand why the school requests that our application is lodged a year in advance of the actual school year in which our son will start to attend kindi (bless!)

I’m really pleased that one of our more important tasks appears to be completed. However I would suggest that parents contact prospective schools early by e-mail or phone to understand how much notice they need to register successfully for the more popular schools otherwise they may be disappointed.

Thankfully the Internet is a wonderful thing and you’ll be surprised about the number of Schools have their own very detailed websites providing info about their curriculum, surroundings, culture and all those other great things.

Ok, whats next on the list…

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Oh, times are hard.

I must say, the quality of the beaches here in Western Australia are fantastic.

We spent quite a bit of time on the beach next to Hillarys boat harbor yesterday. What a great beach!

For families its ideal. Being enclosed within the harbour, the sea is almost lake like in its calmness. There is also an area on the beach specifically set aside for famalies with no smoking zones, plenty of large tent like beach shades and a decent sized play area for the kids.

There seemed to be lots of Britts on the beach yesterday although we were there during the hottest time of the day.

Between 10am and 2pm is the hottest time of the day during the summer months in Western Australia when the UV index seems to hover around the ‘extreme’ levels.

I guess most local Aussies will be a little more sensible during this time of the day whilst the Brits like me are just extra intent on getting that tan. Continue Reading

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Ok, blatant sweeping statement but the jet lag over the last couple of days has meant I’ve had insight into the world of the folks who wake up and get going before 8am. Well actually. Lets go for 5am!

Over here in Perth its just starting to get nice and light at 5am and renting a house which looks out onto the main strip of Sorrento beach, its amazing the numbers of people having a quick run or ‘power walk’ prior to a starting work.

Were talking between 5 and 6am here! Yesterday was the most impressive. We were woken, just before 6 to the words.

“Right guys, are you ready….3….2…..1…..go!”

Wiping the sleep out of my eyes I looked out of the window to see a group of approx 20 people, skipping, running on the spot and throwing medicine balls at each other whilst the personal trainer walked back and forth barking out the next motivational order. Continue Reading

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Well g’day from down under

I was hoping that I may still be able to post small updates and it looks like, due to the wonders of technology I can.

Well, actually, thanks to the wonders of smartphone technology.. For anyone remotely interested. I’m currently using my SPV M2000 to post updates to getting down under (google SPV M2000 for more info).

I had roaming activated on the phone so I’ll be posting via the Vodafone Australia network. I wasn’t sure if the roaming had been activated in time as I never got the SIM update I was promised but thankfully it appears to have worked.

Not sure how much the GPRS roaming costs will be but the posts won’t be that big since using the small thumb keypad on the m2000 isn’t particularly conjusive to typing massive entries.

Anyway, here I am in Sorrento Perth. Its 6:50 am which is a whole 2 hours later then it was when I woke up yesterday morning. Jet lag is a curious thing but I slowly appear to be getting over it.

Staying at the London Heathrow Hilton was an interesting experience. Nice hotel but damn, very expensive. The plan was to use the Hilton to reduce the stress of rushing to the airport first thing in the morning. The hotel links directly to terminal 4 at Heathrow airport so you can stroll over from your room, check in and then stroll back to your hotel room to relax until about an hour before departure where you can then wonder on back to your departure gate for your flight.

Only problem was, Singapore Airlines departs from Terminal 3 at Heathrow airport. Doh!

So, one train ride to terminal 3, a taxi back to the hotel to check out and a second train ride back to terminal 3 later, we were checked in.

Then we had to wait 45 minutes to get through security (due to some increased security checks…cue increased stress levels) culminating in a 1 mile run to the gate (literally).

The gate was displayed as ‘closing’ as we made our final dash and we could only run so fast due the the limited sprinting abilities of our 3 year old little boy. .

It reminded me a little of an old TV program that I used to watch called ‘treasure hunt’ presented by Anika Rice (spelling!) where she had a set amount of time to find clues which she would do before shouting ’stop the clock, stop the clock!’ But we made it, and theres nothing like getting yourself, hot, bothered and sweaty in preperation for a 17 hour plane journey!

The flight itself was excellent. We have flown with Singapore Airlines 6 times now and I would highly recommend them. The inflight entertainment is excellent although with a three year old to look after, we didn’t see that much of it.

The flight time was a little shorter then I was expecting. Just over 12 hours from London to Singapore and then 5 hours flat from Singapore to Perth. It’s longer by about 2 and a half hours on the return (something to due with jet streams apparently).Our little boy slept for approx 4 hours of the first leg and 2 hours of the second which really helped us with the flight. Last year when he was just over 2 he didn’t sleep at all! Saying that, neither myself or the missus slept this time, however, reduced inflight stress made this flight a much better one and we were both really proud of how well our little boy did this time around

So, we’ve landing in Perth, go though immigration and get our visa’s stamped. Two years of blood sweat and tears and we’ve made it. We are now officially Australian Residents!!

I actually thought our Visa’s (the sticker they insert in your passport) would be stamped. However the lady in immigration just stamped our passports as normal.

She explained it’s the date on the stamp which is this important thing. The paper Perminant residency Visa is the Actual Visa but the date on the stamp in our passports validates the visa as it was dated within 12 months of issue.

We now have a further 5 years to settle perminantly in Australia although we know it will be much sooner.

So, the perminant residents pick up the hire car from Hertz and drive the 45 minutes north from Perth Airport to the beautiful town of Sorrento.

The drive was great and we were thankful for the aircon. It was 32 degrees C when we arrive at 2:30pm but who’s complaining. After the miserable weather we’e had in the UK of late it was a seriouisly refreshing change.

The layout of the highway network in and around Perth seems really well organised and pretty logical, almost modular. With my co-driver/primary navigator at the side of me, it wasn’t long before we came over the brow of a hill and caught our first glimpse of the Indian Ocean and Hillarys boat harbor…Stunning!

Off to the estate agents to pick up the keys for the house were renting here in Sorrento. Get to the houe (nice!) drop the bags off, back in the car again to find a shop for some grub (it was getting near dinner time) and some wine of course! Back to the house and time to finally sit down and relax.

First impressions of Sorrento? Fantastic. Compared to the East Coast of Australia Sorrento seems so much more chilled out. Lots of people chatting and walking along the beaches. There are mainly residential areas lining the beaches in Sorrento. Dee Why beach near Sydney where we stayed last year by comparison seemed alot more commercial. More cafes and shops.

I know there will be places more like Dee Why in Western Australia to, but for the time being I’m liking what I’m seeing.

Time to check out now, typing on this small ‘thumb board’ is going to leave my thumbs permanently deformed if I’m not careful. However I’ll post further updates as our Aussie adventure continues.

Small sidenote: My roaming charges came to over £100! Next time I’ll get an Australian SIM card

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Ok, bags are packed and we travel down to London Heathrow tonight, flying out to Perth via Singapore.

We’ve decided to stay overnight in the Hilton next to the airport and fly out early tomorrow morning. The plan being that this will reduce stress… Ha!!

So….no more posts from me for just over 3 weeks. Well..unless I can find a cyber caffe anyway

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It’s been pretty hectic this week (hence the lack of updates). Why? Well, were flying out to Perth this weekend on a rekkie.

I’ve always fancied Perth since I went out there on business last year.

We were in Sydney at the time on Holiday and I used the opportunity to take the “short” four and a half hours flight from Sydney to Perth.

I think Sydney is a beautiful city, but for me it’s not the sort of place where I’d like to bring up our son. House prices are also extremely high within a 30-minute commutable radius from Sydney as well so if we did move there it would take an age to get into work every morning.

When I was over in Perth, I met an Aussie chap out there who had also spent some time living in Sydney before moving to Perth (via Melbourne). He made a comparison which I think sums up the lifestyle in Perth pretty well.
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Ok, for starters (and because I didn’t start this site until we actually received our Visa’s. I thought it might be a little useful to give a little background about how and why we ended up getting to the stage where we are now

Please also keep in mind; I’m a pretty typical bloke with an average education. I may not necessarily have the literally talents of Shakespeare or J. K. Rowling so please stick with me through the typo’s. Please also keep in mind that we’ve done a lot before we got here. As a result, some of these earlier sections may be a little long but I’ll type as fast as I can to try and get up to date

Anyhow, I won’t get to heavily involved in the specifics about how we did this, how we did that. However as the site matures I’ll make sure that all these areas are covered and will link to and from certain sections of this article to help you guys navigate around the site.

I guess it all started in the summer of 2004. I took voluntary redundancy from the company I was currently working for at the time. My wife and I had been to Australia (Sydney) in 2002 to catch up with my brother-in-law who has lived and worked in Sydney as a permanent resident for over 7 years.

We fell in love with the place, the weather was fantastic, the sky was blue and probably most strikingly, the friendliness of the people and the Australian culture as a whole took our breath away.
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Getting down under was created by me as an online resource for people within the UK (and anywhere else I guess) who have a yearning or an interest in emigrating to Australia.

2006 is going to be a massive year for my family and I. We have our permanent residency visa’s but we’ve still to pack a single box. The house hasn’t been put on the market yet and we still have tons of stuff to do.

I thought it’d be a good idea to launch a website which documents the highs and lows of our journey from the UK to Australia. I’ll aim to update the site regularly with updates and will add as many snippets of useful information and advice that I can along the way.

Unlike many folks who emigrate to Australia. We did everything ourselves. We didn’t utilise the expertise of a Migration agent so we had to do tons of digging along the way.
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