Saturday 26 January 2008

That Famous English Test...

Well, as they say after all the songs have been sung in the Eurovision Song Contest, Hello London, can we have the results from the UK jury....

Well, here goes: (All scores are out of 9)

Listening - 9 points
Reading - 8 points
Writing - 8 points
Speaking - 9 points

Overal Score - 8.5 points!

So what does this mean?

I can now claim 15 points, which makes 125 points and we are now able to apply for our VISA!!!!!!!

Sunday 13 January 2008

Now I think I know what I am doing, here is the story so far.

I blame Grayson.....and then I blame Tom......

IF Grayson hadn't met Kendra and asked me to be best man at the wedding, I probably would never have set foot in Australia...

IF Tom got his career break when he asked, then he MAY have come back to England after his trip......

However, these things happened, and Grayson and Kendra are in Perth, and Tom and Connie are in Sydney and having now made 3 visits, its time to make the move for a new start and some decent weather.

Back in June 2007, I just joking said, let move to Australia. The response was a laugh, but then a few weeks later, Clare said that she had been looking at houses and jobs in Perth..that's were the story really begins.

A quick search of the internet to find plenty of discussion forums. The best one for generic moves to Australia is http://britishexpats.com/. What ever the question, no matter how trivial you think it is, there is always someone with the answer. From here, I found that there are several agents that will help you with the move. After a few phone calls, I decided to go with a company called Go Matilda http://www.gomatilda.com/. Speaking to the agent and giving all our details, we were told how the process works and the different stages of it. Al looked plain sailing, until we were told we were 10 points short of the magic number of 120...

However, all is not lost as I was told that I can do an English test, and providing I pass, then I get 15 points, making our total 125. More about the english test later...

So, after signing the agreement form with the agents, we then needed to get a skills assessment completed. This meant getting various references from all my full time employment since leaving school, copies of all my qualifications since leaving school, and any other information that would assist me in getting my skills accepted. Once all this information was completed (I must thank Trevor Hall, Branson Jackson, John Wohglemuth and Mike Bowling for their assistance) I sent of certified copies to the Australian Immigration office. I was told that the process would take around 8 weeks to complete, so imagine how surprised and happy I was when I got an email from the agents after only 3 weeks, that my skills had been assessed and they were needed in Austrlia! Eventually, Clare got her skills assessed and they to were needed, and before we know it, it is November 2007 and stage 1 was complete!

So what happens now? I asked that question on the website forum, and was told to have a few beers and celebrate. So after a nice bottle of wine, we were told a few days later that one of us needed to do the forementioned english test. Looking at where the test centers are and the avaliable dates, the first one that either one of us could do was on the 12th January 2008. Now who had to do the test? Well either one of us could do it, but as the test date was on Clare's birthday, I said that I would do it. Six weeks to prepare and get to see what type of exams there were to do....More to follow about the exam itself...

So in the meantime, discussons of where are we going to live once we get there were happening. We knew that we wanted to go to Western Australia and knew that we wanted to head out to the Perth region. So eventually, we narrowed the area to 2 places: Mullaloo or the strip between Rockingham and Mandurah. Once we saw the house prices we decided that the latter was going to be the one for us.

So whats Mandurah like, you maybe asking? Well take a look at this http://www.mandurah.wa.gov.au/. It should give you all the information that you need to see the lifestyle we are hoping to adopt. Mandurah is around 50 minutes drive south of Perth and linked to the city by a new train line. If you want to see the type of housing that we are looking at, then this site http://www.realestate.com.au/ will help you.

So finally, Christmas and the New Year came and went, and before long, it was time for the English test. Registration was at 8.30am, but the first test didn't start until 10am. For the first three hours the exams consisted of reading, writing and listening and then in the afternoon was a speaking part. I got home at 5.30pm, so it was a long long day.

So did I pass? Well I don't know. The results are sent out 13 days after the exam, so hopefully, on the 25th Jan, I should have some good news. If the results are good and I have reached the mark required, then our VISA application can be sent off..

Hello..can anyone hear me?

Well, I have signed up to the world of blogging..How late am I?

By the time I work out what to do, then blogging will be out of fashion and people will actually go back to seeing each other face to face!