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Our first day on the Indian Pacific dawned rainy and windy - not a good start to a scenic train ride! So we got on the train and found our 1st class sleeper cabin. The first thing that struck me was how old fashioned everything was - and I say that in the nicest possible way. They have totally preserved the 50’s style of the train so that your experience is exactly how it would have been back then, but with a few modern conveniences thrown in to make it more comfortable. Honestly, when I first entered the dining carriage I expected Hercule Poirot to wander in!

Anyway, after we acquainted ourselves with our cabin and the little gifts left for us by Indian Pacific staff, we explored the rest of the public areas. The lounge carriage was quite comfortable, with a bar and huge windows to watch the view from. By the way, we weren’t the youngest people there either, as there was a family with 2 teenagers, and a really obnoxious guy travelling with what looked like some elderly relatives - if you want to meet lots of young people, go in 2nd class is all I’m saying!!!

Fortunately the rain subsided as we moved away from Perth, and it opened up into some gorgeous mountain scenery. We arrived late in the evening at Kalgoorlie, where some people took a night tour of the town - we declined as we didn’t think there would be much to see at night, later confirmed by others who took the tour. The scenery soon changed to farmland, which soon changed to desert, and the familiar “red dust and saltbush” of the Nullarbor took over the view from our window. Animal sightings were of the wedge-tail eagle swooping gloriously in the distance, as well as kangaroos and some random stands of camels.

We had a couple of other stops, one being at a veritible ghost town called Cook which had about 4 permanent residents. Quite eerie

I have to say we ate well. Three course meals every time, and the food was delish. It got to the stage where I longed to have the feeling of being hungry. The worst part of the journey was the jolting - for something that boasts having the longest straight stretch of railway in the world, it certainly didn’t feel so straight or smooth!

As we neared Adelaide I had this strange sad sensation that our little “bubble-world” would soon end. Sometimes I feel like “this is what my whole life is” when going on particularly epic journeys and it feels like you are emerging from a cocoon when it ends. That’s what it was like.

ADELAIDE
I have never been to Adelaide before and we spent the time wandering around the city centre and just generally checking the place out. We also took a tram down to Glenelg which was quite fun, it’s a bustling little seaside town with lots of shops and cafes etc. and a pretty good waterfront that’s obviously had a recent and rather expensive facelift!

Well, that’s it for now - we will take the Overlander to Melbourne tomorrow, and begin the adventure of life in a new city for us both. So the holiday must end, and we must be all grown up and find jobs and a place to live

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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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