Marshs Down Under

We have finally unpacked our suitcases and do our own thing without being conscious of intruding on Stu and Maria. The rental is absolutely lovely, all mod cons and brand new, has internet and cable, even movies! Cant tell you when we last watched tv! Went for a walk, the beach is 5 min walk down the road, all palm trees and grass areas with bike tracks, the weather over the weekend has been lovely, sun and 21.0C.

Went to do our first supermarket shop, the prices seem the same on average as UK, but the alcohol is sold completely seperatley in liquor stores, no children allowed. Spirits are very expensive, but beer and wine ok. Woolworths is one of the big supermarkets over here, known as big W, they also have petrol stations, there is also Safeway and Coles, which is where we went. The washing detergent is Omo (persil), I remember my mum buying Omo!!!

The thing I am going to have to get used to is the local way of shopping. Imagine Golborne being full of great shops, grocers, butchers and street cafes, well that’s what its like in Sandringham and all the other little towns In Melbourne, like going back 20 years in the UK before supermarket power.What is surprising is that these shops are much cheaper than the supermarkets, fruit and veg actually taste of something, dont think Ellie knew tomatoes had a smell!! So I will be shopping local most of the time.

We did buy a car yesterday, opted for the new Murano, 3.5l V6. The Aussies just don’t do small cars. We did test drive a 2.4l Honda CRV, but because they are automatic (dont do manuals here) felt really underpowered, but petrol is only about 70p a litre! They only have one  diesel car, wasn’t very good though,so  we collect it Tue if everything OK.

Going to speak to the principal of school again tomorrow, hopefully will get a decision, and then to see the dog, have bought her some tennis balls!

Thanks for all your comments and keep them coming, it really helps to keep in contact with you all, as I’m feeling a little homesick at the moment and they cheer me up! Ellie has been amazing, no tears or anything, she has been much stronger than me, taking it all in her stride and being really positive, only one problem, no Lush shops!!!!

Went to visit Xena yesterday, over 100 dogs in quarantine there, she is in pen 70. You have to sign in, then get one of their rope leads, and are allowed to take them onto grassy areas that are penned in. All the dogs we walked past were at the front of their pens barking, xena was mooching around in her bedroom! She was so excited to see us she almost wagged her back legs off the floor! She was making such a noise, you could just imagine she was saying ‘Oh my god, you’ll never guess what I’ve been through………..!’ We gave her a chew and she played with her toy, but at 12.00 she has to be returned to her pen, she didnt want to leave us, so sad. She will be released on June 4th. We can only visit twice a week, so we will go on Mon again.

We have been twice so far to visit a potential school for Ellie, Mentone girls school. They go to the beach in summer to have lessons as it is only a 5 min walk, how great is that. The deputy principal we have been dealing with emigrated from Scotland a few years ago, and has been great. The system in Aus is different and you can choose which year group is appropriate for your child, Ellie is age appropriate for year 8, but we had her reports which he copied and read through, he thinks she is better in year9. He has given us the weekend to think it over, and I have an appointment on Mon lunch to go back. The only potential problem is that we are not living in their zone, so we will have to see if they will give her a place.

We spent most of yesterday looking at cars, as we need one by Tuesday, thats when the hire car goes back. We want another honda crv type, we test drove loads yesterday, Mazda, Volkswagen, Nissan to name a few. The Nissan Murano is really nice, leather seats etc, I think it will be a toss up between that and the CRV, depending on who can give us the best deal! So that’s what we will be doing today, the Nissan sales guy was a geordie, so we had a good chat.

Got a bloody parking ticket for parking in a loading bay, have to get used to the weird symbols on the roads and what they mean, that’s karma, because we didn’t pay on the tram, Ggrrr…….

Steve starts work on Mon, so I will have to drive around, have done a little bit, and know I have to do it, but still nervous. Got to ring the agent now about viewing a couple of properties they have which look really nice

Our first full day in Melbourne, have lots of things that we need to do. We drove around a couple of areas to look at potential places to live. It feels very like Florida here, long 2/3 lane highways with stores located along them, and housing estates leading off them. The areas nearest to the city are older and more established tree lined streets and big character houses, feels like you are in Cheshire! We have an appointment at a girls school in this area (Canterbury), but we wonder whether we can actually afford to live within their school zone, looks like all doctors etc, expensive rentals! We are also viewing a school on the bay area this afternoon, area is a bit more affordable though.

We have broken the law already also! Its difficult to drive into the city, so we parked up in Canterbury and caught the tram in, but the payment system is swipe card or coins in a machine, th driver doesnt take payment. Steve only had notes, and explained to the driver, who just said ‘dont worry mate, if the inspector gets on I’ll give you a shout!’ Coming back we did have coins, but not enough as it turned out, so travelled back for free as well!!  Beter not do that again tho.

We spent 2 hours in the bank, sorting out accounts and credit cards. The interest rate has just gone up now 7%, mortgages slightly higher, personal loan rate 14%!! The chap nearly fell off his chair when we told him what it was in the UK. You have to pay a small amount ($5) a month to bank also.

So we now have medicare, bank accounts and a place to live for the next 6 weeks. We are going to look at cars today, looking for similar to what we had in the uk.

Have just phoned the quarantine place, xena has arrived, has been seen by the vet and is fine, and we can go and see her, so off we go!!

Hi everyone,

we had a nice relaxing last day around the pool on our last day in Singapore, there was more of a breeze but you had to keep getting in the pool every 10 mins or so to cool down. The hotel let us keep the room until 2pm, then gave us a courtesy room, it really has been a fab hotel. They turned the beds down every evening, put a fresh orchid on the pillow, set low lighting and put relaxing music on the Bose sound system in the room! Everything was electronically operated from a control pad, I definatley need one of those!

We left the airport on 11.20pm flight, tried to sleep but not easy, landed at 08.30, that’s another nights sleep gone! Steve’s mate Stuart collected us from the airport and gave us a mini tour of the city, and drove along the bay road to his house.We stayed at a beachside cafe on the way home, it was lovely, got chatting to a lady that had a retriever/poodle cross (cant remember what she called it), and she was telling me about the areas where dog can run freely on the beach, Sandringham is one of these areas, which is where we are staying.

So we are now staying with Stuart and Maria until Sun lunch time, they have been so helpful. We went to a big mall to get a sim for my phone, so I now have a mobile again, Ellie was looking at blackberry’s of course, not bad prices. We also picked up forms for medicare (bit like NHS), registered for a tax number, then on the way back arranged a hire car. We have a Nissan x-trail for a week!

We did have appointments to goon a school tour last night and 09.15 this morning, but we feel so washed out, we decided not to go. So shortly, we are going to look at a few areas we think would be nice places to live, then look for schools in those areas. Think we will need a few days before we start feeling ok again. The weather is sunny at the moment, we did have some rain yesterday, but we have to remember that it is going into winter now, bit like our October, so not too bad, still 20.0c!

I think xena will have arrived in Melbourne now, bet she is in shock!! Will ring later to check she is ok, we will be able to visit Thur or Fri, need to leave them for 24 hours to settle in apparently.

Hopefully will be able to speak on skype  to you soon, will be happy when we get into our rental for 6 weeks though, fed up of living out of suitcases now!

Just got back to the hotel after the safari night tour, it was very good and we were able to see lots of jungle type animals – tigers, lions, elephants etc, up close, but it was so busy. There were only a few British people in the whole place, I have never seen so many Indian people in one place, thousands of them, in the usual small groups of 15-20!!

The weather has been VERY hot and humid, 36.0c today and about 70% humidity!! You just cant walk anywhere without feeling faint. We bought tickets for the hop on/off tour bus today, and used it to do all the tourist stuff. We decided to go to little India for lunch,felt like we had been transported into Bangladesh, lots of shanty type eateries! We chose one place and ordered a taster platter, Ellie was nearly sick and refused to eat when they presented it on a banana leaf!! Saves on washing up I suppose!

Visited the Raffles hotel its lovely. Was going to have a Singapore sling but they wanted 50 pounds for the privilege, dont think so! The shopping is great, but not good value as the pound is so weak, they have New look, Topshop and River island, same prices of course.

Well, to bed now, moving on to Melbourne tomorrow night!

Hi everyone,

well we managed to get 2/3 of the way there, I am writing this from the Fairmont hotel in Singapore! Didn’t think we would make it, especially after the day we had on Thursday.  We left the lodge in the Lakes just after 09.00, and drove down south of Shrewsbury to deposit the dog, where she will stay until Monday, when she will fly out with Quantas from Heathrow. This journey took a lot longer than we anticipated, then drove back to Warrington to hand the car back to the dealers,then Barry drove us back to mums. We were supposed to spend a relaxing evening with the family, Our Jo, Terry and Angie, and nephew Chris were also there. It was lovely to see everyone, but we spent it in the garage, rearranging all the luggage, We had a 30kg baggage allowance, which sounds a lot, but when you are emigrating, it is not enough!!We had to leave stuff behind at mums, very hard saying goodbyes to everyone also.

Anyway, we are in Singapore now, it is SO hot and humid – 33.o!!! The hotel is fabulous, they were kind enough to give us our room when we arrived at 08.30, so we have slept for 4 hours then went out to explore a little, you need a constant supply of water in your hand though!!

We plan to do a city tour, and a night safari, as Singapore is tropical, all the nocturnal animals come out, god knows what we will see! Hope we can get a good sleep tonight then we will be back in the right time zone.

The flight was ok, Singapore airlines were very good, but 13 hours is a long time on the plane, watched 3 films though!

Oh, by the way, I passed my English exam, so I can get a job as a nurse in Aus now:(

write again soon, flying on to Melbourne Mon night, 11.00pm

Sam has forwarded this link, it’s the Aussie latest road safety campaign, which is shown on national tv, the title of this campaign is “Dont be a dickhead!” You just can’t imagine this advert being shown on tv here!!

Please leave me a  message in the ‘comments’ box to let me know you have visited my blog!

click here to view the video

Had a busy weekend, much packing! The shipping container arrived on Friday, wasn’t too bad for blocking the close, but we had warned the neighbours and a lot of them moved their cars just in case!

Had a good night on Friday, went to the chinese restaurant in Lowton, we were the last people still in at midnight, and a few people had a little too much red wine (Brian and Pat!) Up early Saturday, to continue with the cleaning, really should have got a professional firm in, but would have cost 300 quid!

Had a great family party on Saturday evening, my family had organised a party for us at my sisters house, was really great to see all the extended family together, but also very sad to be saying goodbye to everyone. We had Aussie cork hats, a kangaroo cake and Rolf Harris music!!!

So we have finally vacated our family home for the past 12 years, will really miss our neighbours, they have become really good friends, the new tenants move in on Tue morning, really hope they look after my home! They seem really nice. We are now staying in our lodge in the Lake district, having a few days of R+R before taking Xena down to the kennels on Thursday, no doubt there will be tears again!

What a busy 2 days we have just had! The shipping company were due to arrive today, but asked whether they could come Wed pm to make a start, nowhere near ready for them, but they packaged and boxed all the stuff in the garage and the garden furniture that we have spent the last 2 weeks scrubbing, rubbing down and re-oiling, hoping that customs will allow them in. There has to be no sign of dirt, grass or sand on anything, or else they incinerate them and charge you for the pleasure!
The shipping co arrived at 08.30 this morning, and now everything is wrapped in brown padded paper, we only have a mattress on the floor and a duvet for tonight, they will be wrapped also in the morning. The shipping container arrives at 10.00 tomorrow, and the whole contents of the house will be transferred into it! We have warned the neighbours….
Ellie has just gone to her grandmas to iron a shirt as the iron and board has been packed, and its her last day at school tomorrow, think they have something planned for her! She is taking a marker pen and camera, should be fun.
Well, back to cleaning, the tenants due to move in Tue, don’t want to spend my last weekend in the UK cleaning, want to enjoy being with the family.

Went into work today for the last time, felt really strange as I have been working there for the past 12 years! Handed back all my nursing equipment, bag, badges etc and said goodbye to the few girls that were in the office, to everyone that I didn’t see – BYE!!
Cant believe I wont be working there again, will really miss everyone, it is a fantastic team of nurses, but lots of changes happening, think I chose the right tome to go, am sure all you lot will agree!! (even the bosses!)