4 months in to Move

[KathleenandCraig]

Hi All

 

Ok thought it was about time we posted an update as we have been here since September 2012. When we were making the move we found all posts informative but we really took notice of those 3-6 month in posts – is it what they thought? Have they settled? What went wrong?

 

Well we were fortunate to have jobs sorted before we made the move, Craig went to work in Marketing at the University of South Australia and Kathleen a Nurse at the RAH. The Visas were through Craig so most of the work was done by the University and done very quickly (only decided to consider coming to Oz in March 2012). The house sold in the UK in a week which gave us the big go ahead to make the move. We sourced a 6 week rental through www.auseelife.com.au at Woodcroft which gave us a great base to explore the areas we thought we may want to find a long term rental. Our first mistake was that we only gave ourselves just over a week from arriving in Adelaide to starting work which with hindsight should have been 2-3 times longer. We had arranged a car rental for 2 weeks to help us get about, but a car was top of the to-do list along with the accommodation search. In our first week we did the usual Medicare and tax number registration which was fairly straight forward. We then started visiting real estate agents to register ourselves as looking for a rental. I know others have found it helpful but as we will come onto explain it didn’t really help us. We also started looking for cars and quickly decided we wanted to treat ourselves to a new car. The first week passed too quickly and before we knew it our days were being filled with work and little time to go looking for houses and cars. Weekends were the main days for doing this but with Kathleen being a nurse (nurse=shift work/weekends) that meant we had to do it often independently i.e. Kathleen did it during 2 days of the working week and Craig on a Sat/Sun.

 

The problem with this is we found quite a few houses had their open visits during the week and during a time when we were at work, and car dealerships closed at 5pm during the week and not open on a Sunday (big difference to the UK). This is why we would have liked to have given ourselves 2-3 weeks before starting work to really focus on finding long term rental/car. We tried going through real estate agents but started finding we were missing houses because by the time we heard from the agent that a good house was coming up it had gone. In the end we just spent a lot of time on realestate.com.au and searching ourselves.

 

It got close but just before our short term rental was up (Though Russel offered to extend if needed) we found a house at Craigburn Farm near Blackwood. We found that even though some of the suburbs way in the South were lovely that with us both working in the CBD we needed to be either close to the train lines (not much good at the moment!) or be closer. We found that being at Craigburn Farm meant we had a train station 10 minutes walk away and if we drove in then it takes us 20-30 minutes in Traffic. When we travelled from the south the times could easily be double that and the commuting was a big reason why we left the UK. Some will say we should be even closer but we want our Cake and to eat it too! We love visiting the city but being just that bit out gives us a feeling of being out of the city. We also finally agreed on a new Ford Territory (didn’t know what these were before arriving here) and got a deal we seemed happy with after 2 weeks of playing 3 ford dealerships off one another. The other major part of our move was bringing our dogs with us. It was the most stressful part of the move as you are constantly asking yourself if you have made the right decision in putting them through the stress – well we are glad to report we made the right choice. We left them in the UK for an extra month before sending them over and we were fortunate of having Craig’s sister in Melbourne to visit them during their 30 day quarantine stay. After a long 30 days we drove over to Melbourne and picked them up (17 hours driving in 36 hours hurt though!). They looked fine and soon settled into their new home (though are still getting used to the heat). We have great walks and open spaces around us and take them at least once a week to O’Sullivans beach and they love it. For anyone reading this with dogs please remember you need to get them registered but you get discounts for training, neutering and vaccinations which made it really cheap - we forgot!

 

We can’t believe the benefits that both of our jobs provide us with which has meant our budget has increased dramatically. Even though prices are higher we have been able to buy things for the house we would never be able to afford in the UK and we still have enough to save and spend on eating out etc. It took a good 3 months to feel like we were staying and not on an extended holiday but we are really starting to enjoy life in Adelaide. I think it is too early to say if its going to be long term but there are some good signs there. Christmas/New Year was OK as Craig’s sister came over from Melbourne but it would be lie to say we didn’t feel the distance between us and family back in the UK, a visit to the beach Xmas day soon helped us feel better though. The first 3 months were really busy with setting up our new lifes and finding our feet so our social lives were limited but now we are starting to make friends, go out more and visit a few wineries. Christmas helped with the various work parties etc. Our next objective is to get into sports a bit more (we have a "new life in Australia" list) so are starting to look at what we can do/get into, which will hopefully help us to make more friends. Craig bought his big BBQ at Christmas so he feels like his Australian Adventure is well under way now!.

 

We came out with the attitude that we had made this opportunity for ourselves and we are going to give it everything we can to make it work, better that then never trying it. So far it’s looking promising and we have no regrets but I guess only time will tell if we have found our long term home. We still miss family but we thought we would miss more like silly little things (Gravy, Sky TV, Digestive Biscuits) – Craig missing Man Utd was his biggest worry but Foxtel has fixed that!. In reality though there is little we miss about the UK so far, that is not because we have found Adelaide to be exactly like the UK – It is very much different including culture and language!! What we have found is things to replace those little things we thought we would miss! Who needs Digestives when you have TimTams???

 

Happy New Year to All

 

Craig (31) and Kathleen (28)

Edited January 9, 2013 by KathleenandCraig

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

Hi Craig and Kathleen, What a lovely post so glad everything has worked out for you. Tamara

[ian mc]

You can get mcvities Diegestive milk and dark choc as well in coles and hob nobs bottom shelf under the tim tams..

[Diane]

Made me laugh - one of my daughter's aussie friends saw my packets of digestive biscuits in the cupboard and thought they must be some sort of medical thing to help digestion! No, she said, they're just better than all the aussie biscuits!! They're often on special offer in Coles and Foodland too (as is the Ambrosia creamed rice and custard!!) Good luck your Territory - we got one too when we first came over......served us well for a couple of years before everything started to go wrong on it!!

[OKMorris]

HiyaGreat post guys - we also arrived in sep 2012 and we are of similar ages (32 and 25) we r living in plympton park as its easy for hubby on the tram and I work in Norwood so not too bad. I agree with def leaving as much time as possible before u start Work as 2 weeks was a push for us to get a house, car, basic furniture and Internet nd utilities sorted!! Been having a great time tho - few wine tours, octoberfest, Xmas and new year, cricket, jlo concert!! Loving adelaide!! Sorry to hijack your post but its good to hear a success story to know its all worth it!!!

[Guest The Bells]

Hi All

 

Ok thought it was about time we posted an update as we have been here since September 2012. When we were making the move we found all posts informative but we really took notice of those 3-6 month in posts – is it what they thought? Have they settled? What went wrong?

 

Well we were fortunate to have jobs sorted before we made the move, Craig went to work in Marketing at the University of South Australia and Kathleen a Nurse at the RAH. The Visas were through Craig so most of the work was done by the University and done very quickly (only decided to consider coming to Oz in March 2012). The house sold in the UK in a week which gave us the big go ahead to make the move. We sourced a 6 week rental through www.auseelife.com.au at Woodcroft which gave us a great base to explore the areas we thought we may want to find a long term rental. Our first mistake was that we only gave ourselves just over a week from arriving in Adelaide to starting work which with hindsight should have been 2-3 times longer. We had arranged a car rental for 2 weeks to help us get about, but a car was top of the to-do list along with the accommodation search. In our first week we did the usual Medicare and tax number registration which was fairly straight forward. We then started visiting real estate agents to register ourselves as looking for a rental. I know others have found it helpful but as we will come onto explain it didn’t really help us. We also started looking for cars and quickly decided we wanted to treat ourselves to a new car. The first week passed too quickly and before we knew it our days were being filled with work and little time to go looking for houses and cars. Weekends were the main days for doing this but with Kathleen being a nurse (nurse=shift work/weekends) that meant we had to do it often independently i.e. Kathleen did it during 2 days of the working week and Craig on a Sat/Sun.

 

The problem with this is we found quite a few houses had their open visits during the week and during a time when we were at work, and car dealerships closed at 5pm during the week and not open on a Sunday (big difference to the UK). This is why we would have liked to have given ourselves 2-3 weeks before starting work to really focus on finding long term rental/car. We tried going through real estate agents but started finding we were missing houses because by the time we heard from the agent that a good house was coming up it had gone. In the end we just spent a lot of time on realestate.com.au and searching ourselves.

 

It got close but just before our short term rental was up (Though Russel offered to extend if needed) we found a house at Craigburn Farm near Blackwood. We found that even though some of the suburbs way in the South were lovely that with us both working in the CBD we needed to be either close to the train lines (not much good at the moment!) or be closer. We found that being at Craigburn Farm meant we had a train station 10 minutes walk away and if we drove in then it takes us 20-30 minutes in Traffic. When we travelled from the south the times could easily be double that and the commuting was a big reason why we left the UK. Some will say we should be even closer but we want our Cake and to eat it too! We love visiting the city but being just that bit out gives us a feeling of being out of the city. We also finally agreed on a new Ford Territory (didn’t know what these were before arriving here) and got a deal we seemed happy with after 2 weeks of playing 3 ford dealerships off one another. The other major part of our move was bringing our dogs with us. It was the most stressful part of the move as you are constantly asking yourself if you have made the right decision in putting them through the stress – well we are glad to report we made the right choice. We left them in the UK for an extra month before sending them over and we were fortunate of having Craig’s sister in Melbourne to visit them during their 30 day quarantine stay. After a long 30 days we drove over to Melbourne and picked them up (17 hours driving in 36 hours hurt though!). They looked fine and soon settled into their new home (though are still getting used to the heat). We have great walks and open spaces around us and take them at least once a week to O’Sullivans beach and they love it. For anyone reading this with dogs please remember you need to get them registered but you get discounts for training, neutering and vaccinations which made it really cheap - we forgot!

 

We can’t believe the benefits that both of our jobs provide us with which has meant our budget has increased dramatically. Even though prices are higher we have been able to buy things for the house we would never be able to afford in the UK and we still have enough to save and spend on eating out etc. It took a good 3 months to feel like we were staying and not on an extended holiday but we are really starting to enjoy life in Adelaide. I think it is too early to say if its going to be long term but there are some good signs there. Christmas/New Year was OK as Craig’s sister came over from Melbourne but it would be lie to say we didn’t feel the distance between us and family back in the UK, a visit to the beach Xmas day soon helped us feel better though. The first 3 months were really busy with setting up our new lifes and finding our feet so our social lives were limited but now we are starting to make friends, go out more and visit a few wineries. Christmas helped with the various work parties etc. Our next objective is to get into sports a bit more (we have a "new life in Australia" list) so are starting to look at what we can do/get into, which will hopefully help us to make more friends. Craig bought his big BBQ at Christmas so he feels like his Australian Adventure is well under way now!.

 

We came out with the attitude that we had made this opportunity for ourselves and we are going to give it everything we can to make it work, better that then never trying it. So far it’s looking promising and we have no regrets but I guess only time will tell if we have found our long term home. We still miss family but we thought we would miss more like silly little things (Gravy, Sky TV, Digestive Biscuits) – Craig missing Man Utd was his biggest worry but Foxtel has fixed that!. In reality though there is little we miss about the UK so far, that is not because we have found Adelaide to be exactly like the UK – It is very much different including culture and language!! What we have found is things to replace those little things we thought we would miss! Who needs Digestives when you have TimTams???

 

Happy New Year to All

 

Craig (31) and Kathleen (28)

 

 

Well our adventure seems incredibly quick too, starting talking about this last October, my OH has secured a job so just going thru the visa process now !! Your info is so good for all us folk over here, as its a step into the unknown, well for us anyway. We have a standard Poodle who will be coming with us and we are dreading having to leave him for a few weeks then ofcourse the Quarantine, he really is very close to us and is properly treated like one of the family so we know how much he will miss us and wonder whats going on !!!! Who did you use to ship them out? we are looking at Golden Arrow in Shropshire. You mention having to get your dogs registered ? can you explain please........

 

Hope you dont mind my questions ,

Thanks Ema

[KathleenandCraig]

Hi Ema

 

We know how you feel, as we said the dogs were the worst bit but honestly when you get him back you see it wasn't that scary after all. We used a company called Petair in Windsor that were recommended by the sister forum pomsinoz. I don't think they were the cheapest but they helped us through the whole process. Like you we had a million questions and one of their vets Bob answered everything with a lot of reassurance (even before we booked them). They assisted us in all the vet work and being so close to Heathrow made the flying part less stressful for the dogs. Though parents had to bring them down from Manchester (by car) it meant a short drive to Heathrow from Windsor and straight on the plane, it was as quick as it can be. They fly them straight to Singapore for a quick stopover (they stay on the plane but checked for water etc) and then straight onto Melbourne. Spotswood (Melbourne Quarantine) were great too and as said Craig's sister visited them twice a week. they had small fields/runs where she could play with them and give them at least some exercise. When we came to Adelaide we did so via Melbourne so we picked them up some toys and some dog food of our choice and dropped it off then (this is optional, Spotswood supply some but we wanted a specific one for ours). While on the subject of dog food, just a heads up but we give ours dry food (Hills) and we were shocked by the prices compared to UK, everything else we buy can be up to 1.5-2 times more expensive but our dog food is like 3-4 times to what we paid in the UK - Kathleen is sure they are worth it.......hmmm!!! Others may be similar/cheaper but so far from what we have seen it seems to be more.

 

If I remember right booking the quarantine and rabies vaccinations were the major things we had to do in advance. The rest all happens in the 45-30 days before they go.

 

I believe registration is normal across Adelaide? (4 months in so still learning) but essentially every dog needs to be registered with your local council. The cost can be close to $100 per dog I think but you get discounts if you show proof they have been neutered, had their vaccinations and any dog training (we used kennel club training back in the UK as proof). These meant the cost was down to $20 a dog or thereabouts. Its good because when we first moved to our long term rental we picked up a dog roaming the streets but fortunately it had a local council tag on so we were able to get him back to his owner (After Kathleen dognapped him for the afternoon while we waited for the owner, we believe she offered to look after him all afternoon so she got her dog fix as ours were still in Quarantine at that time.)

Edited January 11, 2013 by KathleenandCraig

[KathleenandCraig]

Hopefully a picture of ours on Xmas morning enjoying the beach will show you why we brought ours and all the stress is worth it!

 

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Edited January 11, 2013 by KathleenandCraig

[Guest The Bells]

Thanks for your reply and valuable info !! Unfortunately we couldnt open your pic.....

I've read your response to finding accomodation etc. We know we have an issue too, as without Jerry we know we would have far more choice of rentals. As OH will be working in Torrensville, we are looking at areas to the west for the beach life, but within reach of the city (ideally with good transport links) as we like the option of going into the city for evenings out etc. We have a few boxes that will need ticking, a nice home,good area for shops/bars,schools but not touristy - and accept Jerry !!! I guess I just worry that after our initial 6-8wks of temp accomoadation the clock is ticking at the quarantine station and hate the idea that we will just have to accept second best for his sake !!!!!! God these sleepless nights we get just mulling all this over !

 

cheers guys

 

Ema x:arghh: