Goodbye UK

We have always had it in the back of our minds that we would eventually retire to Australia. Ian moved there in 1981 and is a citizen, only returning to the UK in 2006.
Rickmansworth has been a great place to live and we fully expected to stay there for several more years.
This all started to change when Zoe met an Australian (Shaun) while travelling in Thailand and moved to Melbourne to be

with him when she graduated from university. We missed her terribly and started to think of ways we could move sooner.

When we began looking into the housing market in Australia we realised the houses were cheaper and mortgage free living was a real possibility.
Both Ian and I were also working very hard at this time, he was away from home at least three nights every week and doing a ridiculous amount of driving and I had taken on the acting headteacher's role at the school. Weekends were a frantic scramble to try and get the housework and the garden done and we no longer had any time to go away or enjoy each other's company.
At the same time the housing market in London and the surrounding areas started to really take off. We had the house valued and discovered it would sell for far more than we expected so the decision to move became a reality.

September came and things were moving along quickly. 

We had to put on brave faces as we watched our little caravan going to it's new home and I was dreading parting with my car. Once we exchanged contracts on the house, all we would own was going be in a couple of suitcases - scary!

Finally exchanged contracts on the house on the 21st October, bit of a relief as I was going be unemployed at the end of the week. Our moving date was set as 14th November so we had to speak nicely to Gill and see if she would put us up for a few days.

It was a very emotional day saying goodbye to my fantastic colleagues and the wonderful pupils at Chantry School.

We had now booked our flights and would be leaving the UK on 19th November, spending a few days with Zoe in Kuala Lumpur before arriving in Sydney on 23rd.

                                      

By far the most difficult (and expensive) thing to organise has been the dog transport. Airpets sort out most of it but the owners have to remember a complicated schedule of injections and blood tests, all of which must be carried out within specific timings. This is going on while worrying about shipping, selling house, leaving work and, consequently, I forgot a blood test so Monty has to stay at Airpets kennels for two weeks before he leaves.
The other tricky part is organising the quarantine. The owners have to do this while Airpets book the flights to there is a period of going back and forth as the middle man while Airpets say 'we have booked him on x flight' the quarantine people say 'we can't take him on that date', and so it goes on. In the end Monty's flight had to be changed to Melbourne as there is no space at the Sydney quarantine station, he will arrive on 4th December.

Removal day came and we had chosen to take four weeks free
storage with the removal firm before our worldly goods were shipped
giving us time to find a house before all the furniture turns up.
DON'T DO THIS! If we had chosen a 'live pack' it would all have
gone straight into the container and off to the port. As it was, it went onto lorries and we were told a couple of days later we had too 
much for the container and would have to pay for space in a second one.

We are now going to be living out of four suitcases and several bags for four months, started this process by camping in our own empty house for our last night in Rickmansworth, drinking wine out of mugs.

After a weekend in Pagham saying goodbye to Mum, we spent a couple of days at Gill's, dropped Monty off at Airpets, checked all our luggage fitted into Gill's car and were all set to depart on 19th.