The estate agents in the UK could learn a thing or two from these guys! I've never been presented with champagne when I went to pick the keys up before.
Completed on the house today! We have bought this house just to let out and are completing on another in mid-January which will eventually be our home. The plan is to let both initially and set off on 'The Big Lap' for a year or so.
Today's one needs a bit of work but we are moving the caravan in to the front garden tomorrow and will live there while we work on the house. 
The Lemon Tree Passage Club is right opposite so we popped across the road for a celebratory cool one, and this chap was trotting around the tables. No pigeons in our pub garden, just the odd ibis! Clubs are big in Australia and almost every reasonably sized town has an RSL (Returned Servicemens League). These are equivalent to the British Legion in the UK but far better organised. They have restaurants with reasonably priced food, bar, sports facilities and clubs and the inevitable slot machines. The bigger ones are music venues too. I am still a bit shocked to see sort of betting shops in these clubs, often with an ATM in (to encourage more betting I suppose) and then racks full of leaflets with titles like 'Do you have a gambling problem?' I feel like filling one in saying 'I didn't until I joined your club!'
We are going to try what I suspect will be the impossible this morning (Christmas Eve) and get our internet installed by Telstra in time to Skype my Mum and sister Gill tomorrow. Let's see what they can do otherwise we may have an internet communications blackout for a few days.
Collected our prawns for Christmas lunch today, it will be a strange one this year, camping in the garden of a house we will never actually live in, sweltering in the heat, no turkey, no Paxo, no Pagham pram race and no post Christmas post mortem with the Spooners! Let's hope the sunshine makes up for it.
Merry Christmas everyone xxx

Went and checked out the Lemon Jam on Saturday, monthly afternoon music on the waterfront in our new home village, Lemon Tree passage.

It started with carols this time which were a bit average, then another very sweaty Santa turned up and gave out gifts to the children but after that it was really rather good. A couple of  pretty decent bands played and it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon. The adverts said there were markets too but we would have called the market a very small boot sale.

Then on Sunday we trotted in to Nelson Bay to a proper market, it was rather good but I still can't get used to everyone saying 'Happy Christmas' when I feel like I am on my summer holiday.
We then went to put in our prawn order for Christmas day and discovered we are too late so will have to get there at 6am Christmas Eve before they run out.
Back to waiting again today. I should get a email this morning telling me to go and get the bank cheque to complete on the house. Settlement is scheduled for 2pm Tuesday but I'm not                                                           holding my breath.

It's been a bit of a slow week because we have been waiting to complete on a house we are buying so have been unable to go far because we need the campsite wifi to get emails. Mind you I have found free wifi in a number of unexpected places, the bank, Bunnings (like Wickes) and various shopping centres and cafes.
Property purchasing works very differently here. Unlike in the UK where all the investigations are carried out before exchange of contracts then, at exchange, a firm completion date is set, here exchange happens very early on in the piece then the searches begin and completion (or settlement as it is called) is not fixed. What seems bizarre to us is that the solicitor or conveyancer has to go to the bank where the vendors have their mortgage armed with cheques to reach final settlement, and our conveyancer has been struggling to get a date for this out of the bank. They have now agreed 23rd December. Why on earth they can't use electronic transfers like the rest of us I can't imagine!
This would all be extremely tricky if we were selling one house and buying another - how do people dovetail it all together? And how do they organise their removals?
Luckily our campsite have squeezed us in for a bit longer, this could have been a problem because all the sites are fully booked for Christmas staring tonight but ours is not completely packed until boxing day and even then they said they will find a bit of grass for us and run a power cable out there if we are still stuck.
Everyone keeps saying how busy this area will get overnight when the Christmas holidays start but I'm finding it hard to imagine. This site is on the Tomaree Peninsula in Anna Bay which has a 32km beach and leads into Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay and all three are resorts with other little beachside towns in between so I suppose it will get busy. The house we are buying is on the Tillygerry Peninsula in Lemon Tree Passage, which is only just up the road but quite a bit quieter. We are off there this afternoon for the Lemon Jam, music and markets on the front. Apparently it is on every month, I hope so!

This is not a job you would want to be doing in 30 degrees!
I'm finding it very difficult to get my head around the Christmas build up here. You would think, as an old retailer, I would be used to getting in to the Christmas spirit from about September, but mid summer is just really strange. I scurried sweltering into a shopping centre last week, looking forward to the air con when I heard 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow' singing out all around the mall!
Mind you, it was even odder to see all the Santas and reindeer in the shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur.
However, we are doing our best to feel Christmassy. Ian was missing putting out his lights on the house (yes we have one of those houses usually) so he has now decorated the caravan.
We went to collect Monty from the quarantine station in Melbourne this weekend. His release day was Sunday but we set of Friday lunchtime and stopped for the night in Albury on the NSW/Victoria border, which is where we saw the santa.

Albury is a smart, reasonably sized town and we checked into a motel attached to a pub which was pretty busy as many young farmers from outlying areas come into the town for the weekend. There were girls dressed up to the nines drinking bright green drinks and hoping to attract the attention of these chaps but they only seemed interested in sticking together and gambling. I was astonished to discover that Australian pubs, clubs and RSLs have rows and rows of slot machines and usually a betting shop area. Austalians would bet on how long it was going to take a fly to drown in their soup!

Anyway, we set off next morning for Melbourne and finally found the quarantine station in a grotty little place called Spotwood. Monty was due out at 9.30am the next day so we found a campsite in a place called Werribee. It was very much like Norfolk, very flat with fields of cabbages. It also had a touch of the Yiewsleys about it, my Chantry colleagues will know what I mean - lots of very fat women with home drawn tattoos.
It was quite a nice spot to watch boats coming in from fishing trips though and there was a beautiful sunset.
We finally collected Monty who seemed none the worse for
his adventure.

Visited Tomaree National Park this morning and climbed up to the summit of Tomaree Head to take in all around views of Port Stephens.
It was swelteringly hot but well worth the effort.
On the way back we stopped off at Stockton Beach which is a 60km long beach running from Anna Bay to Newcastle. It has massive sand dunes like mountains and you can 4WD or camel ride along the beach or quad bike up and down the dunes.

Signed contracts on a house in Lemon Tree Passage today. It needs a little bit of attention but once we have fixed it up a bit, we will be letting it out to fund our big trip around Australia. We are hoping to complete by 17th December so we can move out of Bays Holiday Park and into our own garden. Bays has been a great place to stay but it will be good to stop paying for accommodation.
We have been doing a bit more exploring and have tried out the local buses, which only run every hour or so during the day but take such complicated routes to serve some of the tinier communities around here, it is worth the wait because they take you to place you would not have noticed. 
By doing this we discovered Oyster Bay, Little and Big Swan Bays and best of all, Mallabula beach front where a boardwalk through the Tilligerry Habitat starts. After yet another fruitless search for koalas I saw a bandicoot!

After scanning the trees constantly for a week we finally saw these little guys, we are supposed to be in an area bristling with koalas but they appear to be quite good at hiding.
Now that we are living more comfortably in our caravan we are concentrating on searching for a house and have been to see several in Lemon Tree Passage and have put an offer on one, hoping to exchange contracts on Monday. It needs a bit of work then we will be letting it while we go on our Big Lap.
Received the good news yesterday that Monty has arrived safe and sound in Melbourne. Apparently he travelled well and we can pick him up on 14th December.

We struck it lucky with the caravan. Having looked online for months before we came, we were resigned to the fact that an offroad caravan was not going to be an easy thing to find and we might have to travel some distance to get what we wanted.
Then we checked the other night and found exactly what we wanted only 15km from where we are staying.
It was so nice to be able to unpack all our cases at last and to sleep in a proper bed. We are really glad we have it tonight as, after a blisteringly hot day we are in the middle of a big storm, not a night to be in a tent.
We have decided this is the area we want to stay in and have been looking at houses in Lemon Tree passage, which is a little township in Port Stephens. It is quieter than the other towns, which are more holiday resorts but within easy striking distance of all they have to offer.
Below are pictures of Nelson Bay which is the biggest town on the peninsula, we were just strolling along there last Sunday when two dolphins swam past.

 We finally arrived in Sydney last Sunday and spent 3 nights at The Mercure in Kings Cross, it wasn't a great hotel but served the purpose of being right by a station and pretty handy for everything.
I wanted to have a bit of a tourist time in Sydney but this proved to be quite difficult as we had so much to sort out. By the time we had opened bank accounts, got phones and bought a car, there wasn't much time left but we managed to get to Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and saw the Opera House dozens of time as we travelled to various appointments on the train over the Harbour Bridge.

 We bought the car from Pickles Auctions, this is to be recommended if you are after a heavy duty vehicle as they are mostly ex works cars.
Next stop was the camping shop to buy a tent to reduce our hotel costs. We bought basic camping essentials in our luggage, including an inflatable mattress so we are reasonably comfy for a short period of time.

Drove up to Port Stephens on Thursday, which is where we are hoping to settle, and found a campsite with wifi (hooray) so we are able to contact family easily and add to the blog of course.
The area we like best is called Lemon Tree Passage, the pictures of the pelicans and Ian at the front are here.
We have already been to see a few houses in Lemon Tree so watch this space for updates! The next target is 

                                         to find a 4WD caravan.

Had Chinese in Bukit Bintang, an area full of noisy, reasonably priced restaurants and pubs, on Friday evening, very lively and good fun. A rat ran over Shaun's foot but just added to the entertainment!
We started Saturday with breakfast in Toast Box, which was an odd experience - boiled eggs with everything. The French toast was delicious accompanied by very runny eggs and sugary coffee which was poured from a watering can :-o we have not got the hang of asking for drinks without sugar, it is just added automatically. Zoe even had apple juice with sugar in it last night, I hope this enforced sugar intake will not make us too attractive to mosquitoes.
After breakfast we set off to Batu Caves, Hindu temples set in cliffs just outside Kuala Lumpur. We got the train there, we have really got the hang of the excellent train system and our hotel is directly opposite KL Sentral station. It was great, plenty to see and monkeys to do battle with, a very good place to visit.

 After all this sightseeing and culture
we decided to do something completely different so Zoe and Shaun suggested we visit Breakout, a mystery activity centre they had been to a branch of in Penang.
So off we set, not really knowing what to expect and found ourselves playing the parts of scientists who had to stop a murderous attack on civilisation. We were handcuffed and locked in a room and had to 
             solve various clues to free ourselves and save the world.
                                                      We succeeded and left with badges and a satisfied feeling
                                                      that the world is a safer place thanks to us!

 Met up with Zoe and Shaun in Kuala 
Lumpur as planned and had a great day today visiting the Petronas Towers and KL Tower. Ian and Shaun bravely went up to the open deck of the KL Tower and pix will follow.
We went to a very amusing diner at 
lunchtime called Johnny Rockets and
every half hour (or whenever Shaun touched the juke box, we couldn't decide which) all the staff would break into a choreographed dance! Some of them were very into it but others looked really uncomfortable, it was hilarious.

Moved out on Friday and went, with everything we own in four suitcases in the back of the car, to say a tearful goodbye to Ian's sister Ann.
After staying the night at my sister Gill's we went with Gill to Pagham for the weekend to see Mum. We had a really nice time, curry Saturday night, walks with Monty on the beach and a great Sunday lunch in the Walnut Tree.
Back to Gill's now for the remaining two days and we are off Wednesday morning.

The vans got bigger as the packing went on and everything went quite smoothly as it was all taken away leaving us to camp in our own house for the last night.
It was very strange to see our home so empty and echoing. 
We attempted to go and eat in one of the local pubs but had a bit of a bizarre evening. We went to the Halfway House first, only to find the chef had left and his replacement would not be starting until next weekend.
So we trooped down to the Whip and Collar where we asked if they were serving food. The staff looked at each other in amazement and said they would go and check, leaving us waiting in the bar with a man drinking a pint with a Harris Hawk standing on his wrist! We weren't feeling very confident by now so sloped of to M&S and bought a ready meal.
On the way home we popped into The Tree, which is always odd at the best of times. Ian asked for a pint of bitter only to be told the beer had only arrived yesterday so was not on yet.
This was all quite fitting as we have had a few strange nights out in Rickmansworth             since living here. We ended up back in the empty house eating the ready meal and drinking wine out of mugs, I think we may be doing this sort of thing a lot over the next few months.

Well the time has finally arrived. I got a call yesterday to say they wanted to come and do some pre-packing today instead of trying to get the whole lot done tomorrow.
This has thrown me into a bit of a panic, I wasn't mentally prepared!
However, they are here and packing stuff up with alarming speed. It's very strange to think we won't see any of this stuff again for about 4 months.

I have not posted anything over the last few days as packing is boring enough and I'm sure reading about it would be even worse. So, between packing and travelling down to Pagham to help Mum with a few things, nothing to report. 
Until today when Monty was granted his import licence! This is a bit of a relief, we now know he will be on his way about two weeks after us.

 Took time out from packing to go and see the poppies at the Tower of London.
After all the reports of police turning people away because the crowds were so huge, decided to get up at 6am and go straight up there. It was well worth the effort, as you can see, there was hardly anyone around.
So breathtaking and moving.

 It's been a strange few days. I put my beautiful car up for sale on Autotrader at the weekend and a man phoned straight away, came round to see it and bought it on the spot! I didn't even have time to feel sad.
It's only gone to live in Greenford so some of you might see it around. 


Then I spoke to Airpets only to discover we had missed the deadline for one of Monty's blood tests. So now poor Monty
 will have to spend two weeks in the Airpets kennels before he  can fly out to join us. 

Booked our flights today. We leave on the 19th of November and spend 3 days with Zoe in Kuala Lumpur before carrying on to Sydney.
Can't wait to see my little girl, it's been 10 months!

Well yesterday was my last day at Chantry School, without question the best place I have ever worked.

What an emotional day it was!
After 8 years of working at the school I expected to skip off happily waving goodbye ready to start my new adventure down under. Instead I was blindsided by the outpouring of good wishes, cards and presents, especially those made by the kids.

So I blubbed on and off pretty much all day and was unable to say a massive thank you to my colleagues.

We've been through turbulent times together but you have always kept the school a happy and safe place for the pupils. We have laughed every day (some more than others and often at things we shouldn't) and I would not have been able to even contemplate filling the head teacher's role for the last year if I had not been sure of your support.

Thank you so much, I will miss you all. 

The house sale finally went through today so we will be moving out on the 14th November and hopefully leaving for Australia on the 19th. The final departure date rather depends on when Monty's shippers manage to get him booked on to his flight.
The plan is to spend a couple of days with Zoe and Shaun in Kuala Lumpur on the way.
It is getting quite scary now, we have been planning for so long but it is finally starting to feel like we are on our way.

A sad day as we wave goodbye to our caravan.
We have had many happy holidays in this little van, I hope the new owners enjoy it as much as we have.