Winter is here, but not for much longer!

Winter, well not really the winter that we knew from the UK. I am told that it hasn't snowed in Perth for 300 years or so. In fact the temperature here, during the day time, always stays above 14 degrees C. In the evening it occasionally drops to single figures, but never the minus numbers.







Anyway, 3 months from our lst blog, so here is an update:







I did go back to the UK to watch Millwall play at Wembley. It was nice to see Mum, Dad and Matt, and to catch up with as many friends as is possible. I was in the UK for four days! In those four days, I managed to get to Bluewater twice, celebrate Macca's birthday, have a drink at 8am on Sunday morning, eat a decent curry (you don't get decent ones here) and still not have time for the jet lag to kick in.







June was a quiet month, mid winter and it was a time to do some home decorating. Luckily, this only meant that we needed to put some pictures on the wall, to make the place more homely.







July started off with a short break to Albany. Albany is a 4.5 hour drive away and famous for whale watching. Unfortunately, the weather got the better of us, and we couldn't go out on a boat to spot the whales, but we did go to the whale museum and the wildlife park.






Harry stroking a Wombat and we were giving the Kangaroo's their tea.




July also meant that Clare got a part time job at Harry's school She now teaches various year groups on Tuesday's and Thursday's. Along with this, she also does supply work at the school. At the end of the month, we had our first visitor, Clare's friend Jeannette came to stay for a week. She survived our hospitality, so what's your excuse for not visiting!!!!!!!!!!

August is the last month of winter, Harry has just returned from cub camp. He has also been in the school cross country team and has entered a state wide Maths competition, in which we are expecting the results in the next few weeks. The best scores then go forward to a national competition.

Anyway, that's all really. Its been a quiet 3 months. My mum and dad arrive in 10 days time, so there will be plenty of photos and good times ahead!

Six Months!

Yes, it really is almost 6 months since we moved here. Some good news and sad news since the last blog. I'll start with the sad news, our eldest cat Millie had to be put to sleep just after easter. She really hasn't been well for over a year now and with a heavy heart, the decision was made to stop her suffering anymore.















But, we have good news as well!





Since the last post, we have moved out of the rental, and have bought a house! When I mean bought, I really do mean bought as we are mortgage free, so it really is our house! It is a 4 bedroom house, still in Halls Head. It is a brand new house, only just built in December.





Intead of putting loads of pictures of the inside of the house, I have created a video, giving you a guided tour!! ( I will apologise for the poor quality, I am no good at video's and also sorry for the bad weather, but the sun hasn't come out just yet!)

Apart from buying the house, Clare has started doing part time work at Harry's school. Luckily, she has not had the pleasure of teaching his class yet! She has also found a good horse riding school and rides a couple of times a week.

Harry has started playing football for his school team. Their first game resulted in a 3-1 defeat, but he played well and had a smile on his face. He has gone up a level in his swimming class, to level 4. When we arrived he was at level 1! Harry has also been away with the cubs and has another 2 cub camps to look forward to in the next few weeks.

I have been playing for Mandurah City masters football team. After weeks of training the season got under way and I scored the forst goal in a 5-2 victory. My reward for scoring???? I had to take the kits home to wash them! We won our second game 1-0, so a good early season start is under way!

At the time of writing this, Millwall have just beaten Leeds 1-0 in the 1st leg of the play offs. If they can avoid defeat in the second game, then Millwall are Wembley bound and I will be returning back to the UK for a weekend!! Keep your fingers crossed!

Thats all for now, more updates to follow in due course. If anyone wants our address and home telephone number, just send me an email and I'll send it to you!

3 Months in!

I write this on a Sunday afternoon, in the middle of February, with the sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, about 30 degrees C and with a cold drink next to me!

I was informed that the blog had not been updated in a while and although it seems the whole world is on face book, a fair few are not, so here is an update from the last blog to now.

Christmas came and went. Clare’s parents arrived on Christmas day and spent nearly 4 weeks here, looking around, and helping us move into our new house. Before they arrived, the 3 of us settled down to a traditional Christmas dinner. Clare and Harry then went off to the airport to pick them up.

We spent New Years Eve down on the foreshore at Mandurah. We watched the fireworks at 9pm, before we decided to enjoy the rest of the evening at home with a glass or two.

In the first week of the New Year, we were allowed to pick up the cats, which had been in quarantine for the previous 4 weeks. Despite a scare from Millie, the older cat, who was not very well and had to have surgery, they arrived at our home in Halls Head happy to see us all. Then, we received out furniture that we had packed from the UK, so the house we are in feels like home!

Clare, Harry and her parents then went away for a few days down south, leaving me to read up on my technical knowledge as I had an interview for a job. Luckily, I passed the interview and now work as a senior technician with a company called Kordia. Clare is still looking for work, as for the first time in years, there is not a teacher shortage in Perth. Additionally, there is so much paper work to be completed to become a teacher here, she is still sending forms off and waiting for a response from the government agency that looks after teaching.

We have also been trying out the various sporting activities that are here. These include:

Watching a 20/20 cricket match between the Western Warriors and Tasmania
http://www.waca.com.au/

Seeing the Western Force in the Rugby Union.
http://www.rugbywa.com.au/

Watching the Perth Glory in the A league Football (I will not call it soccer!)
http://www.perthglory.com.au/

We have seen the Perth Heat win the Claxton Shield in the Baseball
http://www.wa.baseball.com.au/

Watching the Perth Wild Cats qualify for the Basketball play off finals.
http://www.wildcats.com.au/

Snorkelling at the seaside at Rottnest Island.
http://www.rottnestisland.com/en/default.htm

We have yet to see an AFL game, but that’s next on the list!!
http://westcoasteagles.com.au/

Finally for now, my mum and dad have booked up their flights to come over in September, which we are looking forward to. Now starts the process of working out what to do with them while they are here! (That really won’t be difficult!).

I promise to update this soon, when we have some new photos of the area. In the mean time, hope you’re all well and maybe some of you will be out to visit before to long!

A month in....

We have been here a month now! It seems to have gone so quick!


So what’s new?

Harry has started school. He goes to South Halls Head primary school and he has settled in well. Today was the last day of school for the six week summer holiday and between now and the 2nd February, he has intensive swimming lessons and he is going to a gold academy, so he can become the new Tiger Woods and we won’t have to work! He has also joined the 1st Mandurah cub pack and loves every moment of that.

Clare has been riding once; it was very different to the UK. She is trying finding a different riding school, but at least she has found the two horse shops that are in Mandurah!

I’m off to the WACA tomorrow to watch the 3rd day’s play between Australia and South Africa. No sign of any rain, so it will be the complete opposite of sitting watching the rain fall at Canterbury!!

Harry and I went to watch the Perth Glory (managed by former Millwall player Dave Mitchell) beat Melbourne (captained by former Millwall player Kevin Muscat). Perth won 3-1 and we are looking forward to the next home game against Adelaide.

Along with new friends Fay and Gary, we went to watch the Perth Wildcats beat Adelaide in the National Basketball league. Another good night out, with the exception of the 4 mile hike from the train station to the stadium……We called a cab to get back to the station!!!!

We got the keys to the new house on Wednesday. There are a few pictures with this posting, so you can get a good idea what the house is like. We HAD to buy a BBQ as well as other furntiture!

Along with the house, we had 4 red back spiders in the garage... Take a look at the link to see what they are like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redback_spider

Looks like I have found a veterans football team to play for…I don’t think news has reached here yet of my super goal scoring record..(That one was just for you Neil!!)

Anyway, if I don’t manage to write anything before the 25th, We all hope that you have a lovely Christmas and hope that some of you will venture out one day to come and see us!

G’Day from down under!

Well, the first week is over, where do I begin?

We left Heathrow airport at 11am on Tuesday 18th November, and travelled to Perth, via Singapore, on the new airbus plane that Singapore airlines use, and even had the luxury of travelling business class! (Well it was a one way trip and we won’t do it again!). The seats were amazing, and both Clare and me managed to sit comfy on one seat! Anyway, 19 hours later and a change of plane we arrived in a sunny, warm, no hot Perth.

We were met at the airport by Kendra, Hayden and Oskar who welcomed us to Australia. Then John turned up, who gave us a lift from the airport to our new house which we are staying in for the next couple of months. It’s a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house and only a 10 minute drive to a white sandy beach.

Jet lag then kicked in and before we knew it, it was 9pm and we were all asleep for a nice long night…..

BUT THEN…

At 1am, we were all woken up, by what we later found out, to be one of Perth’s greatest electrical storms for a long time. It seemed to go on for ages and by the time it had stopped we were all wide awake. The house we are staying in has a table tennis table and Harry and I were playing at 4.30 am! We had a chill out day for that day, trying to stay awake for the next night.

Moving onwards, we have been house hunting. We have looked at three houses so far. One was to buy, but until one of us gets work, we won’t be able to get a mortgage. The other two were for long term rent. The first was in a nice area, but inside was just dark. The second house was really nice and we both thought this was it, but then we found out that it had no air conditioner unit and that’s something that will be needed when it gets really hot. The looking goes on tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day….

Talking of the weather, it has rained every day so far. Temperatures have been in the low to mid 20’s so its been quite nice. By Christmas, the temperature will reach the high 30’s to low 40’s…hence the reason why the air con is needed.

We have just put a deposit down on a new car. It is a Nissan Tiida. Hopefully we can have it by the weekend, providing the funds clear the bank. We also have new mobile numbers, so don’t bother with our UK mobile numbers any more. If you want our number, then just contact one of us.

No luck on the job front yet, although I have only started to look for work. It will be difficult to start with, as the temptation of the beach rather than sit in the office is there!
There is probably loads more to put down, but that will do for now. I’ll do another update soon

We’re leaving, on a jet plane……

Or for another song title..”What a difference a day makes..”

Who said a week is a long time in politics? Well a week is a short time when making the move to the other side of the world.

Ok, the last update was on Friday 24th October, since then, we have packed, put our stuff on a boat, sold the house, moved out the house, booked the flights, booked the first 9 weeks accommodation and arranged a leaving drink for close friends and family.

So we leave Heathrow airport on the 18th November, and arrive in Perth around tea time on the 19th. We are flying with Singapore Airlines on the new A380 double decker plane, so that will be a new experience!

More updates to follow

Long time no blog…..

I have been surprised about the amount of people who have asked me when I am going to update this blog again. Well the truth is that first off, there really wasn’t anything to update it with and secondly, I did not want to tempt fate.

Today, well this afternoon, at around 4.45pm, we got a call from the solicitors, with the news that all parties are ready to exchange contracts!

Talk about short notice…Its not like we are just moving to the next town is it!

Unfortunately, the buyers solicitors decided to go home early today, so we will have to wait until Monday to get it all confirmed, but our solicitors are still going to push for a moving date of Friday 31st October.

So, until now and then, I have to sort out the removal men to come and pack, and put our possessions on a boat and then we need to arrange for the cats transport to Australia and our own. So many things to do in such a short space of time!

More news to follow, after the weekend…..!