http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/jodirt/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from jodirt en-us Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:01:56 BST Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:01:56 BST 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 timeWe ar http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-276060.html 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 dreamsThe roads out http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Joondalup/blog-267515.html 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 0So much has happened since the last blog. After weeks of application forms and interviews I finally accepted a job of http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Joondalup/blog-244049.html ... 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 23 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 al http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Bunbury/blog-242920.html Happy New Year to everyone from PerthWell 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 hereBisc went into the vets for an operation the Friday before Christmas to have 5 lumps removed. He has had them for about 6 months http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Joondalup/blog-229197.html 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 e http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Joondalup/blog-226420.html We are now into our 3rd week in Oz and finally seem to be getting somwhereWe 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 upstairsIt 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Rockingham/blog-223409.html 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 w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Perth-City/blog-220339.html 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 hav http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-219887.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-217155.html Well .. we are now offically living at Doug's mum dads ... or as we have renamed it 'Martin Towers' We keep referring to Doug's mum and dad as Basil and Sybil which keeps us amused 0 We have been off work for 3 weeks now and feel a bit lost to be honest. When you work full time you always dream about taking time out to do nothing but in reality .. I am really bored. I think both myself http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-208755.html On the 26th Sep we waved goodbye to all our furniture as it was packed up and loaded onto a Pickfords truck bound for Australia by sea.The next time we will see it is on the other side of the world hopefully when it will all be unpacked and placed in our new house. The shipping time has been estimated at 10 12 weeksWe had the funniest 2 guys who packed up all our stuff who basically just s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-201785.html Finally we have heard back from Airpets and have been told that my dogs now have their import permits and a place in quarantine in Perth. We have to drop them off at the Airpets kennels just outside Heathrow on the 5th November and they fly out on the 6th November and will land in Perth the next day. So seeing as though the dogs are more organised than myself I have now started looking at flight http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cornwall/Newquay/blog-195877.html We have now applied for the Import Permit for the dogs so have to wait another 4 weeks for this to come through. I am really worried about the dogs travelling on the flight as it is so long. They get checked by a vet at Heathrow just before being loaded on the plane but then noone checks them until they hit Singapore approx 14 hours later where they are quickly looked at and their water refille http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-189954.html RECOVERED LOST BLOG ENTRY So ... on the 29th June the 'FOR SALE' sign went up on the house and we had our first showaround of the house to potential buyers as well how weird is that inviting complete strangers to come and look around your house to see if they like it you can tell we have never sold a house before I got very defensive especially as one couple went around the house saying http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-188367.html RECOVERD LOST BLOG ENTRY Well ... I think we have a date ... 8th October ... seems like ages away but will come around really fast as we have so much to do We can now put the house up for sale if we ever finish the bloody thing.This date also means that I will get to spend my last birthday in the UK with my family and friends and also one last summer over hereOn a bit of a downer afte http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/blog-147902.html Well I still feel like I am stuck in limbo land ... still not sure when we are going. We seem to spend every moment planning and trawling the internet for informationWe have decided that we are definately going to Perth and have tracked down an area called Secret Harbour. We have been to Perth twice before and absolutely love the place but never as far down the coast as Secret Harbour so being http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-138208.html I think the reality of what we have ahead of us is very slowly starting to sink in. We spent last weekend throwing away stuff from the house that we won't be taking with us we ended up with 15 black bin bags full I just can't picture me Doug and the dogs living in Australia yet it feels like a bit of a dream Doug's works have been great and will work around him when he wants to go. We http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-132360.html Well after all the years of 'shall we... maybe....i'm not sure...what if' we finally have our visa for Australia ... and now I am scaredWe have visited Oz 4 times in the past 6 years and fell in love with the place a little more each time. Over the years we have travelled all over but really felt at home in Australia. So in 2004 decided that we should migrate over to Perth and we finally got http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cheshire/blog-127032.html