JackoFam Posted February 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2016 So I have had a bad few days - the same as anyone on this hectic emigration ride. The sense of guilt of who we are leaving behind just all of a sudden became overwhelming, I had managed it OK before. I think its because there is a lull in proceedings compounded by the fact that this move is much more of a reality now. We still definitely are still 100% convinced we are doing the right thing but its all hitting home now and both my husband and I are not sleeping well just thinking of everything and everyone we will be leaving. Sorry for the sad post I just though everyone on here would understand what we are going through and I am now getting my head right again (I am definitely a "suck it up and get on with it" girl) its just great to have a place to share. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SML Posted February 4, 2016 Report Share Posted February 4, 2016 It is totally normal to have feelings like that. We both(my husband & I) had those feelings and even though we knew it was the right thing to do, we couldn't stop them. Now after 7 months here, we are happy and have way more good days!! It is worth it! hang in there! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted February 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 So its been another hectic few days. My husband has had a semi serious health scare most probably brought about by stress - his job is incredibly stressful right now. The support and love I have had from our family has been wonderful. We live near my mom and it was so great to be able to phone her and ask her to collect our kids from school while we were at the hospital and we will have to go up to Pretoria for a few days for dh to have an op and she will be able to stay with the kids while we are away. It brought home how tough it is for everyone who has moved away from family without this support base. BUT it just made my husband more resolute that he is ready to go. I am just so grateful this was caught before it became even more serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theshi Posted February 11, 2016 Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 Praying for a speedy recovery.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted February 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 Thank you @Theshi we were very lucky he was walking near our doctors office when he felt ill. He is on the road to getting better now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyAnne Posted February 11, 2016 Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 @JackoFam, best wishes to your husband. Hope he gets well soon! it's going to suck big time for all of us leaving our family, friends and support systems, but it's for the best!! You'll create new circles and new support systems in Oz (hopefully ?). That's what I keep telling myself anyway.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chips Posted February 11, 2016 Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 May your husband get well soon Jackofam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted February 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2016 Thanks Chips and TraceyAnne. I agree about the new circles. My best friend moved to our town 15 years ago with her husband, her family lives far away (still in SA) though. We are their support structure. I hope to build that in Australia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 I did something impulsive (very out of character for me) on Friday. I booked and paid for tickets for our activation trip in July - even though we don't have our visas yet! The deal on the Qantas sales was just too good to pass up. I paid R31 500 for all four of us to fly to Sydney. If our visas don't come through in that time we will still do the trip but it would be a blow for us financially to have to do another activation trip, but there is a very good chance we will be ready to move before the activation date anyway so I thought it was an acceptable risk. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We went for a quick camping trip with some friends, was lovely and my husband really relaxed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted February 15, 2016 Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 If I added it up correctly that means you have about 6 months between lodging your application and the date on your tickets... That seems very reasonable. We applied as an engineer with spouse, lodged in Nov2014 and got our visas Jan2015. Unless something really peculiar happens, you should have your visas well before you need to fly! In the meantime, go ahead and enjoy planning the trip, so much to see!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted February 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2016 Thanks @RedPanda that is reassuring. We are only waiting for our PCCs (applied 6 weeks ago) at this stage so hopefully it will come through 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted March 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 (edited) I have been shamefully neglecting this journal but I am now back with excellent news. Our Visas were issued last Thursday while we were away for the Easter holidays. To say we feel relieved is an understatement, I feel as though one of the weights on my shoulder has been lifted. I know we are now in the eye of the storm and that the craziness of organising the move is ahead of us so I have been savouring the joy while I can. Because we were away with our greater families over Easter (trying to pack in as much family time as possible) we weren't really able to celebrate. Don't get me wrong our families are being very supportive but it felt wrong to celebrate something that would take us away from them with them. I am planning to cook a nice meal and my husband has purchased a god bottle of champagne so our little family will celebrate this weekend. Now that the visas have been granted my husband has kicked off the job search (in between hectic work schedule and trying to finish a PhD) and is going to try and setup as meeting meetings with contacts while we are in Australia on our validation trip. I cant really plan the validation trip too much until he has these dates pegged down. We have already purchased the air tickets and we will be in Australia for 3 weeks. The vague plan is to be in Brisbane for 1 week, Sydney for 1 week (will get to meet my new niece/nephew!) and then split the last week between Melbourne and Canberra. Because of the anxiety of the visa and the decisions surrounding it I haven't let myself get too excited/invested about the idea if Australia but now I am so excited to see the place for the first time. I also recently purchased Bill Brysons book on Australia and even though it was written in 2000 I am thoroughly enjoying it. Another possibility for my husband is that a European company he has dealt with for years is very keen to expand into Australia and would possibly want my husband to work for them over there. The risk is that it is a pretty small company and although they already have an office (very tiny) in Brisbane it could take years and years before they get a good foothold. I have read so many posts on how difficult it is for foreigners to do business in Australia so we will be treading very carefully. Their representative is coming to our house for dinner to discuss the possibilities on Friday evening, I will keep you posted on the outcome. We have known the lady in question for years so even if nothing comes of it it will be a nice dinner with an old friend. That's all for now - I am off to create my master list of all we need to do before our planned move in January 2017. Please keep all the advice and suggestions coming Edited March 31, 2016 by JackoFam 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrendanH Posted March 31, 2016 Report Share Posted March 31, 2016 Congrats, that is awesome news! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted April 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2016 Thanks @BrendanH. It is awesome! By the way I am enjoying following your settling in story. Thanks for all the posts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted April 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted April 8, 2016 I had yet another wake up call this week. On my way to drop kids at school on Tuesday we had an accident. Thank goodness no one involved was injured but it was still quite scary. Just again reminds me that life is short and we need to be getting on with the best life we can. We are just waiting to hear from insurance whether they will be writing the car off or repairing it. This is a bit of an inconvenience as we would be selling this car in 8 months anyway. Oh well this is how it goes sometimes. We also have been really struggling to sell our investment flat even though we have priced it quite low for the market. Think its time to get a new estate agent! Am dreading the selling of our house when the time comes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted May 4, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Well it has been over 4 weeks since my accident and my hire car is due back on Friday and the panel beaters have not started working on fixing my car yet.....I am so grateful no one was injured in this accident but I foresee quite a bit of inconvenience ahead before it all get sorted. The insurance company has been exceptionally slow in getting everything sorted. On a happier note my husband has managed to set about around 7 meetings for our validation trip in July so I hope something comes of one of them. Although most of the people he has spoken to are very pessimistic about the consulting engineering environment in Australia so that is such a worry. Still waiting for final dates for all the meetings and then we can book our internal flights - cant wait to start the holiday planning! This past long weekend we drove to a farm on the Orange River near Hopetown with some friends (a 10 hour drive for 4 nights - my European friends are horrified) and had such a blast. I said to my husband we are obviously trying to fit 10 years of holidays with friends and family into 1. Not good for the budget but good for the soul. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted May 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2016 We have finally booked our domestic flights. Because of my husbands meetings we have a slightly convoluted (not to mention expensive) travel itinerary. We will land in Sydney and fly that evening to Brisbane so our flights are as follows. Jhb-Syd Syd-Brisbane Brisbane-Canberra Canberra-Melbourne Melbourne-Sydney Syd-Jhb I was truly hoping to skip Canberra as the flights in and out seem quite a lot more than into the other cities but my husband has a valuable (hopefully) contact to meet with there - they have also offered for us to stay with them which is so kind. Will now have to start looking at where and when we will require hire cars. For now I think we will only need one in Canberra. We will be staying in my husbands aunts flat in Caloundra while we are in Brisbane (will spend a few nights with friends in Brisbane itself) and are able to use her car which will save us so much. The only place we will have to pay for accommodation is in Melbourne so I need to start booking that. Any recommendations will be welcome. Am so excited!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted May 25, 2016 Report Share Posted May 25, 2016 Depends what you want. We stayed at a BnB house on our LSD trip, and liked it so much that we went back there for our activation trip, clarelee.com.au for more info. And at the moment we are staying at a place booked through AirBnb, also very nice. The places we like are in the far...faaaar East of Melbourne, so if you want to do lots of stuff in the CBD or you want to look for suburbs that remind you of RSA, you would be happier with someplace closer to the CBD. I can say from personal experience that AirBnb is alright, and they make is super-easy to get a 'rental' from RSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted May 30, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2016 Thanks @RedPanda. There are a few airbnb places within walking distance to two of my husbands interviews in the CBD. The 3rd one appears to be out in the suburbs abut still accessible by bus - which helps a stack as we are hoping to do without a rental car in Melbourne. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPanda Posted May 30, 2016 Report Share Posted May 30, 2016 4 hours ago, JackoFam said: ... as we are hoping to do without a rental car in Melbourne. It is totally doable, provided you want to do most things in and around the CBD. The public transport network is quite good. If you want to do things out in the suburbs then you might end up having to take several busses or walking some distance. But you can use the PTV app for smartphones to plan your journey, it will give you an indication of how long it will take on public transport between points. This is often quite a bit longer than if you had a car and could just drive directly there. But like I said, if you're in and around the CBD, public transport is awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted May 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 Thanks @RedPanda will look into that app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted June 24, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 (edited) So we are only 4 "sleeps" until our validation trip and we are all getting so excited. Its been a bit of a rush trying to get organised to be away from work so I haven't done as much planning as I usually would do for a family trip. Also since so much of our time will be spent doing 'admin' the kids are worried it wont be much of a holiday but my husbands cousins are planning some fun things to do with us on the Sunshine coast the first few days which we are really looking forward to. Also my sister in Sydney had a baby a week ago so I am so looking forward to the new member of the family. A few days ago I put up a "sleeps" chart for the kids - I thought they would be too old to get excited to be counting down the days but not at all, they are loving it! Our travel journals are almost ready to go - this is something I have done since I was a teenager on overseas trips and my husband (we share one) and kids also now keep travel journals. We just love having a fun record of memorable holidays. I think in years to come we will savour our first impressions of our new home. I will also try and update my SAaustralia journal too. See you in Australia! Edited June 24, 2016 by JackoFam 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dora Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 Hope your trip goes well and everything runs smoothly. Love your idea of thr sleeps chart. I think I might do that as well (more for me than for the kids ?). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted June 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 Thanks @Dora Actually all four of us enjoy the sleeps chart 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackoFam Posted June 29, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2016 Well we have just spent our first night in Australia. So glad to finally be here. It took us just over 24 hours to get here - granted the journey from White River to Caloundra is a circuitous one. It is now just before 8 am and my kids and husband are still asleep (we are a 5am family) so I will go and wake them in a few minutes so they start adjusting to the time zone. The start of the journey was quite a stressful one as I did not have copies of the kids unabridged birth certificates. I was so sure I had read somewhere that the law had been rescinded so I did not need them, BUT I am super cross with myself that I did not double check. I usually a super organized anal person so this was unlike me - too much on my brain. But thank goodness for my anal personality I had scanned high res copies of their certificates backed up to my OneDrive (and flash disk and laptop and and....) and the check in supervisor was kind enough to print it out for me if I emailed it to him. Completely went against my ID theft paranoia to do so but I was desperate. After that no hassles passport control accepted the black and white print outs no problem. The flight itself was uneventful - I know I shouldn't be surprised but it was so different seeing so many Afrikaaners on one flight Also what appeared to be lots of grandparents going to visit their Aussie grandkids for the holidays. It was pretty poignant for both my husband and I realizing this would be us (flying back and forth to visit family) and our parents soon. We had a 3 hour layover in Sydney (which turned into 4 as our Johannesburg flight landed 1 hour early) and had our visas validated (yay yay yay!!!!), bought sim cards for both of us and had a meal. Flight to Brisbane was quick and painless and my husbands cousin was there to meet us. After a long drive and a quick stop for bread and milk we arrived at my Aunts house (She is one a 8 week trip to Europe so we have the use of her house for a few days). Well let me go and wake my family now - we are going into Brisbane to activate our bank accounts. Have a great day!! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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