As Doug's Grandma Winnie was 100 years old on 7th May we were certainly not going to miss out on the party and seeing her on this special occassion so we planned and schemed along with my dad, Doug's mum Ann and Dad John (poor Ann nearly had a breakdown trying to keep our visit a secret!) for the past 6 months that we were going to go home and join in and surprise everyone at the same time!!! We arranged for my dad's friend Paula to come out to Oz along with her husband Andy and little girl Lulu for [View Full Entry]

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We have now been out here for nearly 6 months and time has flown. At last Dougie has bought himself a motorbike after months of buying auto traders and going through reviews of bikes etc (I am sick of hearing about bikes!!!) Even though it is a lovely one!! He has always had bikes since he was young and has always wanted to ride one in Australia so in a way is fulfilling his dreams! The roads out here are really bad and the traffic is a nightmare especially on the way to work as most mornings for a large portion [View Full Entry]

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Not too sure what happened to this blog as it seem to have disappeared along with the pictures .. so apologies if you have hundreds of email notifying you it has been updated .. here is the final version along with the missing pictures :0) ******************************************* So much has happened since the last blog. After weeks of application forms and interviews I finally accepted a job offer. I am so glad I waited now (even though at times it felt like I would never find a job that I wanted - I am so grateful to Doug for being the best [View Full Entry]

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... Wait Awhile ... well it also stands for Western Australia but these days I have taken to think that Wait Awhile is also very fitting as everything that you do out here seems to take 2-3 times as long as in the UK. I think it is because everyone is just so laid back and chilled whereas in the UK everyone is running around trying to get as much done as possible and cramming everything in. I also think that the heat out here has something to do with as it is so hot that whatever little you do it [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year to everyone from Perth!!! Well, we have finally made it through our first christmas in Australia. What a rollercoaster of emotions 2007 was. Thinking back to this time last year we were unsure when or if we would move out to Australia and now we are here! Bisc went into the vets for an operation the Friday before Christmas to have 5 lumps removed. He has had them for about 6 months but the UK vets wouldn't do anything with them as we were so close to coming out to Oz so this was the first opportunity for [View Full Entry]

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We have now been in Perth for 5 weeks .. this is the longest time we have spent in Australia and I still have moments when I look at Doug and say "We're in Australia" which makes him laugh!! Last Friday we picked up the dogs from quarantine .. at last!!! We were told that we could pick them up at 9.30 after they had been checked by the vet for the final time. I woke up at 5.30 am as I was so excited it honestly felt like christmas morning when you are a child - I had butterflies! We [View Full Entry]

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We are now into our 3rd week in Oz and finally seem to be getting somwhere!!! We have taken a holiday rental in Golden Bay in the South which is lovely .. we have an 'upside down' house overlooking the Indian Ocean until the end of December so we sleep downstairs and live upstairs!!! It is a lovely house and is closer to the dogs in Byford so we can make the trip now in about 30 minutues compared to the 50 minutes is took us from the city. Doug has been for 2 jobs and has been offerd both so [View Full Entry]

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We woke up to our first full day in Perth to the news that today was going to be the hottest day so far in Perth this year ... 39 degrees ... great all my t shirts and underwear were in the suitcase that had gone missing at Heathrow! When we left the UK the temperature was a rainy and windy 8 degrees so 39 was a bit of a shock to the old system! In spite of getting loads of sleep on the plane we were still up at 6 am but at least it meant that we hit the [View Full Entry]

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On the morning of Saturday 10th November we woke up at 4 am raring to go. We stayed overnight at the Radisson SAS hotel at Manchester Airport as it is connected to each terminal there via a skywalk so thought as we had so much luggage it would save us time. We walked over to Terminal 3 to check in the luggage for our shuttle flight down to Heathrow and thought that as we had 2 hours we would have plenty of time. Unfortunately, the queues were massive as everyone seemed to have the same idea! We joined the queues and [View Full Entry]

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Well my last few weeks have been a complete and utter blur. We had the 6 weeks planned and ideally wanted to have lunch / tea with as many of our friends as we could ... but literally have run out of time .. we thought that the time would be really relaxing but has turned out to be quite stressful. Up to now we have had 3 holiday homes fall through and have ended up staying in a hotel in Perth for our first few days as we didn't want to end up on the streets! The dogs went for [View Full Entry]

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