Advertisement
Published: September 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
It's been nearly 3 months since my last blog but we have been so busy and so much has happened.
After getting back from the UK we both had the worse homesickness and we found it so hard to sink back into life out here in Oz away from all our family and friends. It didn't help that we were only home for such a short time and never got to do hardly any of the stuff we wanted to do.
When we left the UK the weather all week had been really nice and sunny day and immedately after getting back to Perth we had about 4 weeks of constant grey skies and rain. So we couldn't get down to the beach as much as normal so found ourselves really down in the dumps.
The winter here in Perth is nothing like back in the UK but I wasn't too sure we were ready for it. The days, if they were not raining, were ok with blue skies and sunshine with temps around 15 degrees but the nights were so cold and the temperature dropped to about 2 or 3 degrees - which doesn't sound that cold
compared to winters in the UK but over here the houses are not made for cold weather and we have no heating in this rental so going to bed we would wrap up like old people and put on socks, PJs, jumpers etc and extra duvets on the beds - even the dogs tried to sneak in the bed with us as they were cold as well!
In the past few weeks we have both had trouble with transport as the gearbox on Doug's motorbike blew up so we had to arrange for someone to fix it for him from Yamaha and parts were flown in from Japan as they couldn't get hold of them in Oz so he had to bag a lift to work with me which means that for the past 6 weeks we have been leaving the house at 5.45 each day to get him to work for 7 and the I would go on to my works. It also meant that after finishing work and picking up Doug we were not getting home until after 6 pm (sooo tired!!). My car also developed a problem with overheating so we had to send it in
to be fixed and hire a car to get back and to from work!! All this makes you think how you took for granted in the UK how we could just borrow a car from the family or from Doug's works and makes you realise what you have given up to live out here.
On a more postive note we have made so many new friends out here and in the past months have been to birthday parties, meals out, a wine and cheese exhibition, the cinema with the girls from work so much so that we have hardly been in. It does make it easier and thankfully eased the homesickness away.
Now it is Spring over here and the weather has really improved and it has started to warm up. Most days are in the early 20s and sunny and we now that we have nearly 6 months of good weather to look forward to so really cheers you up!
Out of the blue I was offered a new job at the RAC in Joondalup and as this means I will only have a travelling time of 20 minutes each way ... I left Crown Relocations
on Friday and even though I have only been there for such a short time will really miss it. I am really sorry to go as I have made some really good friends there but was really getting sick of the travelling. So I start my new job at the RAC on Monday. I am looking forward to it as it also involves organising events which I absolutely love and did so much at Applied Bio so really looking forward to being 'arty farty' again and not getting calls from angry customers asking where their furniture is!!!
We have been looking around for a permanent base here in Perth for some time and been looking at the new Northern Suberbs that are sprouting up everywhere. We had a great guide, Tony, who we met through my cousin and he had just qualified as an estate agent so we spent a whole Sunday lgoing to open houses (really weird concept .. if you are selling your house over here instead of having loads of people looking at your house at different times .. you literally open the house up to the public for a few hours on the weekend and
everyone goes in at the same time .. simple!!). We found a few that we liked - houses here are really different to the UK as everyone is completely different from the neighbours house as most are invidiually built by the owners who first buy the land and then build the house they want.
The following Sunday we went to revisit some of the houses and see a few new ones that Tony had sourced for us. The night before this we had been invited to a 40th birthday party from one of the managers at Doug's works. Doug likes a drink (or 4!!) but after drinking loads of beer, shots of zambuca and bourbon trying to keep up with the Aussies he was in a bad way!!! He fell over his esky (or in English a chilly bin - which is that big he can actually sit in it!!) on the way out and on the way home I had to stop the car a few times on the freeway as he was so poorly.. I have not seen Doug like this for years but it made me laugh so much (I am a bad wife!!!). Needless to
say the next day Doug was very quiet and a bit green .. but still managed to get out on the house inspections!!
We saw a house that we both immediately likes and it felt so nice that I knew that this was the one I wanted. It has 4 bedrooms and the most fantastic pool at the back with a waterfall that goes into it. As we have been here for nearly a year we know that the outside of the house is probably the most important part of the house as you spend so much time outside in the summer and this house had it all!!!
We immedately put an offer in and after a bit of negotiations it was accepted so .. the house was ours .. in about 1 hour! We have the settlement date of 31st October to fit around the owners but are so excited at the prospect of moving into our own house again that we both can't wait.
We are now looking forward to the summer which will be in our new house and also Christmas but this year as we have made friends it will hopefully be easier to cope with but hopefully not as hot as last year when it was 44 degrees!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.124s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0877s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Looks great Jo !! We still have not found anything we fancy !!! We will have to come and visit you !!! Sarah xx