Christmas Day Roundup

I am now reasonably orgnised with my plans to leave.  I have a flight from Gatwick to Melbourne (via Dubai) on the 17th January.  A hotel is booked for the first night at the airport (I don’t want to be trudging around Melbourne at 01:30 in the morning).  I then have a hostel room in St Kilda until February when I can reconsider my options.

Just tedious things like my phone contract, tax affairs and mortgage to sort out before I leave.

Christmas eve was my final day at work for SSE.  I was quite a strange experience after nearly 5 years of working their its hard to imagine not going anymore.

 

Visa Arrived

My visa was finally granted today.  I have to enter Australia by 06 August 2009.

 

Christmas Quandary

I spent this weekend contemplating the relative merits of migrating ASAP or waiting until after Christmas.  It is very nearly October so even if I handed in my notice immediately I would still not be able to leave until November.  I don’t know if the Australian job market works in a similar way to the UK but I imagine its going to be hard to find a job around the Christmas period.

The sensible choice seems to be to postpone my departure until after Christmas.  This gives me a definite leaving date for work and makes my planning easier.  The downside is it probably makes selling my car harder and extends the time I will be living with my parents (this causes problems with travel to / from work)

 

House Sale Falls Through

The people at the begining of the house buying chain halved their original offer causing my buyers to pull out.  Most of the annoyance comes from the 5 week delay before they pulled out – surely they knew there were problems before this?

I am now moving on to plan B, rent out the house.  This has benefits if I want to return to the UK but means I have to worry more about cash in Australia until I get a job.

A lady has applied to be a tenant and is currently being “vetted” by the estate agents.  They have said she would like to be in the house for 2-3 years so this will give me some stability.

 

More Waiting

Still no news on either the house sale or the visa.

The house sales is supposedly waiting for the person further down the chain to get a “Defective Title Indemnity Policy”.  This has been the problem for 3 weeks now and I don’t understand why it is taking so long.

All the medical and police check documents were registered as received by DIAC on the 29/08/2008 so I’m waiting for the case officer to spot this and re-examine my application.

I would be nervous about handing in my notice at work without my house being sold so I suppose the delay in getting the visa isn’t so important.

 

Long road to Melbourne

The emigration process is suddenly starting to speed up after a long period of inactivity.  It seems my visa  is very close to being granted and hopefully my house will sell soon.

Its a nervous time as it feels like many things could put a spanner in the works, even at this late stage.

I have begun clearing out my house.  Giving a lot of old clothes to charity shops, packing up my hifi equipment etc.  There is still plenty to do, especially when I get a house moving completion date.

The next big milestone is the visa being granted so I can hand in my notice at work.