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When Dawn found a job, it was down to me to find a place for us to live! As I quickly found out, in Melbourne this is easier said than done. The rental market is quite a bit different to the UK, in that there are more people looking for places to rent than there are places available!

I began looking close to where Dawn is working, and places not too far away on public transport - but every time I went to an “open for inspection”, there were at least 10 sets of other people looking at the same place The competition was very fierce, even more so for us as we had just arrived in the country and had no history of renting in Australia. So after a few weeks of this, we decided to look further afield - about 25 miles outside of the city centre.

The first place I looked at in this new location, Dawn also accompanied me. There were only 2 other sets of people looking at the house on that day, and we both felt that we could live there so we put in an application the next morning! We knew it was slightly over-priced for the area, but we needed a place and it felt like the right place to be - and we were successful in our application! I’ve got to say, the financial costs are lower in Australia when renting (no agency fees to pay, and also no council tax once you’re living in a place) but finding a place and being successful in getting it is much tougher.

We moved into this house 1 month ago - and have now managed to make this 3-bed house look not quite so empty with our belongings that were shipped from the UK, as well as some furniture from Brisbane. Now we also have a car! We looked around for a while, and were getting desperate for one as public transport isn’t so good. A week ago we took a likely car for a test drive, and bought it from the dealer - so now we also have a set of wheels!

The only thing left now is for me to find a job I did have one lined up through an agency, and attended a training day for this job. But it wasn’t due to start for a few days after the training day, and the day before I was going to start I received a call from the agency saying that the employer no longer needed us (it would have been a team of 8 people starting the following day for a 4-6 month contract). Dawn has been off work without pay the last 2 weeks because her boss was off, but returns to work this Monday.

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We were met at Melbourne’s Southern Cross station by our friends Lori and Josh (Lori being about 9½ months pregnant and looking fit to burst!). We were then whisked away for a very lavish dinner with the 2 families who were gathered and waiting expectantly for the arrival of the baby. We were to soon find out that the ‘lavish’ dinner with many desserts was actually quite normal! So we are now staying with Josh’s parents who have been so awesome in taking us in.

The job situation has been easier than I thought - after how difficult it was in the UK to find dental technician positions I was expecting a hard slog. However, after 2 weeks I had been offered two jobs! The first was in the laboratory of a dental prosthetist - I initially turned down the job to take a trial position elsewhere, as I just wasn’t sure how I would cope working with a prosthetist - unfamiliar territory and all. It became clear after a few days that the trial position wasn’t gonna be for me, so I called back the first guy and he said “come in on Monday”. Sorted! So the job has been great so far. Difficult of course, as is every new place - trying to remember how things are done and where stuff is kept etc. That all comes with time. My boss is totally mad - in a good way, so it’s quite fun, and there is never a dull moment!

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It’s been a long time since we’ve added anything to our website, so many things have happened in the last year! So, before we start blogging again I’d better give a brief update of the last year

• We went to our friends wedding in Norfolk and had a good, albeit long, day - it takes a long time to drive around Norfolk as there aren’t many main roads!
• A dental technician job in Berkshire became available, and Dawn interviewed for this - and got the job. So at the end of August we moved back to the Reading area!
• A few weeks after we moved back, I began an office job in Reading with unusual hours (6.30am-1.30pm). Very recently I found out that a colleague of mine there was also a guest at the wedding in Norfolk we went to - bizarre!
• We had Christmas together, and were at my parents for Boxing Day. Fortunately the winter was not that bad this year as we discovered that the electricity needed to run this flat is hideously expensive - especially as it has a water pump due to low water pressure, and electric storage heating
• After 5½ months of the very early starts (I’m not a morning person!) I decided to move on, and got a temp job for a while
• For our 2nd anniversary, we went to Brussels for the weekend! We travelled with Eurostar via the channel tunnel, and had a great long weekend.
• Dawn had her gallbladder removed recently (you may remember her mentioning it before)
• We’ve given notice on our flat, and need to move out by 25 June!
• We’re also currently working on Dawn’s visa applications - for permanent residency, followed by naturalisation (citizenship). She needs to do a “Life in the UK” test before applying for the permanent residency, and this is being taken in 2 weeks time.

We’re currently not sure of what the near future holds for us, but we both feel that it’s time to move again We have a few ideas spinning around, and will have to very soon make up our minds - possible mission opportunities, maybe just a move closer to Dawn’s work, maybe something else - we’re just not 100% sure right now. Some people don’t like plans changing all the time, but really it just makes things funner

Oh, and of course the final thing to say is - welcome to our new website!! Yes, I’ve finally got round to making some slight changes to the over-all design, and altering how we publish photos. Currently the website contains pretty much the same as before, but we may add new sections as we go along. Also, our news blog has an Atom 1.0 feed so people who want to keep up with our whereabouts etc can subscribe via their browser or feed program.

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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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