Marks Travels

Christmas Day Roundup

mgebbet — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:00:29 +0000

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

mgebbet — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:36:56 +0000

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

Christmas Quandary

mgebbet — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:36:16 +0000

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

mgebbet — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:29:18 +0000

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

mgebbet — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:23:57 +0000

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

mgebbet — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:44:04 +0000

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.