Rum & Dal

We did it, one whole year and what a fantastic year it has been.  Managed to get good jobs within weeks of landing made some good friends and our house is well under construction.

Yes that’s right; we have been here for one year today. The year has sailed past with no major glitches.  There have been high points and low point, but not so many of the low.  Many of you thought we would be back in six months and I bet you thought we were back for good when we turned up last Christmas, but that only encouraged us and made us stronger, we truly believe we made the right decision.  Though we miss everyone back in the UK the webcam is only a switch away.  Will we ever come back home, who knows; the adventure has only just begun.

We have been lucky enough to make some great friends, friends from Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Philippines, China, and many more; sharing their stories, culture and food.

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Its always difficult finding accomodation in a city that you’ve never been to before. From browsing the internet most of the places that we found were hotels but with Melbourne being a huge city these can be very expensive. We opted for an apartment with a kitchenette, as we knew we needed to save on eating out too.  Having searched and searched we found citylimits to have a reasonable price and a good location too.  We paid $48 to get from the airport to the hotel and it was a larger taxi as we had 4 suitcases. There is a cheap shuttle bus that will take you the city centre from the airport but after 24 hours of flying and with all those suitcases who needs the hassle hey?

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Finally our Visas have been accepted, so now what? Travel arrangements, short/medium and long term accommodation, finances and then finding a job… So much to think about and how time is flying by. How do we get our life saving across to Melbourne securely and safely with the best exchange rate? Well to be honest we had no idea. We had a few options but when you’re talking about thousands of pounds you start to second guess yourself wonder can you really trust a company that you have never heard or dealt with before? We came across a foreign exchange company called HiFX which was also recommended by a friend, now living in Canberra, Australia. After talking to HiFX we felt more confident about the whole procedure, they even recommended that we open an account in Australia with Westpac.

There are a few banks in Australia that allow you to open an account with them before you get to Australia e.g. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank. Unlike the UK there are many charges that Australian banks force upon their customers, make sure you read all the details and charges involved. Select the one that best suits your money management.

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August 2005 I decided to complete the forms for immigration as having looked at the fees that agents were asking just to gather info that you are giving them anyway, seemed like a huge waste of money!! Agents don’t come cheap! and I’d looked into the forms and it didn’t seem like such a big deal. All the info you could want and need is on the immigration website So the first step was applying for a skilled VISA was to become a member of the Australian Computer Society (ASC) as this is what my background is in. They didn’t really ask for much, general education certificates, formal degree certificate and qualification signed and stamped by the university I was at and that was about it. They wrote back within a couple of months and I was a member. (more…)