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Very early on Tuesday morning we arrived back from Australia, with quite a bump when landing at Heathrow! I had to make this trip by the end of June in order to validate my Spouse Visa - so I am now officially a resident of Australia! Because of how Australian immigration currently works, I’m able to continue living in the UK for the next year or two, at which point a decision is made whether or not I get permanent residency - and during this time Dawn should also be able to get UK permanent residency in June 2007.

We had a good holiday, being tourists in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as making a trip to Brisbane. We rented a car in Melbourne, and I even managed a “hook turn” there - a bizarre manoeuvre required at road junctions in central Melbourne when going across tram tracks where you turn right from the left lane. It feels very odd doing it, but fortunately I had someone in front of me who I just followed.

In Sydney we got to Taronga Zoo, Watsons Bay (with the famous, and expensive, Doyles Fish & Chips!), and also spent some time in both the city/Darling Harbour and Glebe (an area I stayed in quite a lot during a working holiday in 1999/2000). During our time in Melbourne we celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to a Japanese restaurant in the Crown Casino complex - we had window seats overlooking the River Yarra and city! We also saw Captain Cook’s cottage, imported from Yorkshire, met up with a guy I first met in Glebe in 99 (he is also from the UK and was on a working holiday back then) who now lives in Melbourne, as well as visiting various suburbs in case we ever decide to live in Australia and in particular Melbourne.

Finally the jetlag is beginning to go away, and in just a couple of weeks Dawn’s sister Julie will be visiting us! She’s on holiday visiting a few other European countries. Then soon after that someone from our DTS is getting married in Norfolk which we’ll be going to - and another person from our DTS recently announced their engagement. They’re dropping like flies, with just the 3 Canadians from our DTS remaining single!

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Today is St Georges Day - the apparent national day for England that comes and goes pretty much like any other day! Being St Georges Day, it reminds me that it’s also our wedding anniversary - yep, 1 year ago we were in St John’s Church getting hitched, at Emmanuel Church Centre for a reception, and then 2 days later off to Australia for a 2nd reception.

This year, 2 days later we are off to Australia again! We fly out this week on Tuesday, arriving into Sydney on Thursday and spend about 1½ weeks over there. The main reason for going is to validate my visa - when I officially become a resident of Australia! Can’t say I’m looking forward to the flying bit though!

There’s not a huge amount more to report, except that Spring has finally arrived in Sheffield!

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It’s been a while since our last web update, and things have changed a bit since then!

In January with no Dental Technician work coming Dawn’s way in the Berkshire area we even started to entertain the idea of going to live in Australia a few years earlier than planned. We were both working temp jobs in Reading, not sure what to do - so I had Dawn call the lab in Sheffield where she worked during October. Firstly the position hadn’t been filled, and then they were more than happy to offer her the job again! So we’re now back in South Yorkshire, living in Sheffield!

We came up in early February and 2 weeks later moved into a flat. Dawn is happy with returning to Dental Technician work, and is finding working at this lab to be a learning curve - it’s proving to be good as she is learning new things, and a higher standard is expected than where she previously worked in Brisbane.

I’m currently not working - we’re actually making a quick trip to Australia soon so I can validate my spouse visa. Originally it was going to be just me going, but we found a deal so Dawn can also go with me, and be on the same flight. Although it will be a week late, we are intending on celebrating our 1st anniversary in Melbourne! We will also be visiting Sydney and Brisbane, so it’s quite a busy itinerary that’s coming together as I type!

Windows managed to break itself on this PC through doing a scandisk - and my Windows CD’s are still in Reading! So currently I’m stumbling my way through Linux until I can get XP back up and running. Once that happens I’ll look into playing around with this website again - maybe updating a few photos to begin with.

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Happy New Year to everyone! I have had a few moments to reflect over the last two weeks, being off sick helps with this, and I have been amazed that we have managed to fit so much into just one year!

We began 2005 with a huge bang - our DTS students who went to Albania will understand what that means! I have never seen so many fireworks in my life! Then we spent time in Albania and Romania with quick visits to Bulgaria and Greece squeezed in there. That was an amazing time as most of you would already have heard. 2006 did not come in with such a big bang, but courtesy of our fellow residents of Woodley I was still treated to a few backyard fireworks displays which I could see from our bedroom window. It was no Sydney Harbour, but New Year’s eve is not the same without at least a few fireworks!

When we returned from our overseas outreach 2005 continued with a whirlwind 4 weeks to get ready for our wedding. Shows what can be done when you put your mind to it. We were blessed with a lovely day for our wedding (well, it only rained before and after we had our outside photos taken!) and the second reception and time spent in Australia with our families and friends was wonderful as well. Then we finally returned to the UK in June for a few days, only to turn around and get back on a plane for our official honeymoon in Spain! Half the year gone already!

The next few months were punctuated with highs and lows - mine and Rob’s visas were granted in record time - a huge blessing, as well as months of searching for and finding promising jobs which never went anywhere for various reasons. The up side was we got to travel to Scotland and Sheffield and we never lost the opportunities to do some sightseeing and be total tourists. Turning down the job in Sheffield was one of the most difficult things of the year. I still don’t really fully understand why, but I do know that God had his hand in it, and that he has never stopped guiding us through it all.

Just after this we received news that my house in Australia had sold - this was a huge answer to prayer, as we are finally able to get ourselves out of the debt which has built up over so many months of unemployment. Soon after we returned to Reading from Sheffield Rob and I both got jobs - not exactly what we would call our ideal jobs, but a blessing nonetheless. Then after about a month working in the department store I was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with a rather large gall stone which is what has been causing me so much trouble for the past several months! Doesn’t sound like a blessing, but having a diagnosis and a plan to make it right is so much better than just being in pain all the time and not knowing why. So I consider myself to be very fortunate. It also forced me to not festively overindulge, and I actually lost 3 kg over the Christmas period! It was also wonderful that I was able to leave hospital on Christmas eve, and spend my first Christmas with my new husband.

So what is all this schmaltzy reminiscing for? Well, 2005 has been a difficult year in many ways, but I just wanted to share how truly thankful I am for all the awesome things that God has done for me despite this. Rob and I have learned so much about each other through this year and I am even more thankful than ever that God was thoughtful enough to bring him into my life! I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers during this important first year of marriage. It means so much to me.

I also wanted to wish you all a fantastic, prosperous and blessed 2006.

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