I've been contacted by a guy from LBi who are running a marketing campaign for Marks and Spencer. He made me aware that M&S now offer international delivery and wondered if I would mind blogging or tweeting about it. For all you fellow British Expats, M&S are currently running a survey where … read more

Yesterday was the 1st anniversary of our arrival in Australia. I was going to do a big blog post to mark the occasion but I can't be arsed - too busy working on my website. Suffice to say it's been a fantastic first year - everything we hoped for and more. There are lots of positives and very few … read more

Our first set of visitors from the UK have been confirmed. Rachelle's sister is coming over with her daughter in November, and my Mum and Dad have booked their flights for next March. We're really looking forward to having the chance to show people around so they can see exactly why we've moved … read more

Our stuff finally cleared customs and arrived at our house yesterday, two weeks after arriving in Brisbane. Unfortunately we were one of the unlucky ones and we got levied for an inspection fee by Customs, which cost us $270. They didn't do a very good job though because on opening our boxes we … read more

After a couple of days of torrential rain and then an unusually cold day, we’re finally back to business as usual – clear blue skies and warm sunshine! You might have seen on the news that a cyclone has hit New South Wales, including Sydney, and killed a few people. I think we caught the edges of it … read more

I'm finally up and running on broadband again. It wasn't straightforward though. I went back to 3 on Monday with all the necessary I.D. They spoke to their accounts department and explained my situation. In the end the accounts department just needed some proof of recent income. So I had to go to … read more

All was going well with the new wireless broadband USB adaptor for my laptop up until Friday when I broke it! All I did was pull it out of the USB port and the thing came apart on me. I took it into the shop I purchased it from Saturday morning and they told me they couldn't replace it there, I'd … read more

It’s officially the first day of winter here today. You wouldn’t know it. It’s a bit weird actually. All the clothes shops are stocking jumpers and other winter clothes and yet it’s 25 degrees outside! We’ve spent the last couple of days getting into the ozzie lifestyle. We had Kangaroo steak for … read more

So much for the broadband order being processed and activated 10 days after Thursday. After speaking to a neighbour last night (who incidentally has recently moved her from Coventry), it seems that there's no more ports available on the local telephone exchange for ADSL broadband and they're not … read more

Well we're in the new house now. We've made the major purchases and everything we ordered has been delivered. Yesterday we bought a nice new telly and a few other things like a hoover, ironing board, kitchen stuff, etc. Our fridge, freezer and washing machine came today. We've also been given a form … read more

I got up at 4:30. I had already planned to do this because I wanted to be in Fortitude Valley to watch the Liverpool v AC Milan Champions League Final. Someone had told me on BritishExpats.com that I’d be able to find at 24/7 Sports Bar in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane which would be showing the … read more

We didn’t do much at all on our first day in Oz. I think we were in bed before 9pm that night (even though we did have a bit of a kip as soon as we got there). Jetlag had fully kicked in! read more

I haven't posted for a few days as it's been a bit hectic emigrating and all that. I'll try and catch up now starting with our stopover in LA. Also, I haven't had chance to upload the photo's yet so I'll update this post with our photo's in a few days... We started our first day in LA with an … read more

We've spent most of today shopping for our new house. We went down to IKEA first thing, arriving for opening time at 9am. The IKEA in Brisbane is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and is absolutely huge. What's more it was pretty quiet and quite an enjoyable experience, unlike the last time I … read more

Can you believe it. We arranged to see a couple of houses early that day. We loved the second place we saw, put in an immediate application, paid the bond and picked up the keys that afternoon! It's a 3 bedroom house on a gated community in Carina - a really nice part of Brisbane. We've got a garage … read more

I wish we had chosen a relaxing beach stopover in Hawaii! We're all absolutely exhausted after a long weekend in LA, much of which wasn't that great if I was honest.

Disneyland was pretty good yesterday, although we nearly never made it (more about this later), and we enjoyed Santa Monica pier, but the rest of the experience was generally overrated and disappointing. I haven't got time to go into now as the battery on my laptop is about to run out and Rach has packed away the travel adaptor in one of the cases, which are in storage until we head off to the airport later today, and I can't be bothered to go searching for it.

Next stop Brisbane!

I'm pleased to say we've safely made it to L.A. with all 7 cases. I admit it was a bit of a nightmare yesterday. Why oh why did we take the train and not get a hire care or taxi (my fault)? I'm just glad we made the decision to get the earlier train. We left Retford at 9:30. The train arrived into … read more

We've said the final goodbyes today and now we're all packed and ready to go. The taxi is booked for 9am tomorrow to take us to the station - us and our 7 cases. That's going to be fun and games tomorrow getting to Heathrow. I thought it would be fun (for Lauren) to get the train instead of getting … read more

I've said goodbye to my family and friends, with much heartache, and now it's time for the worst goodbye of all - I have to say goodbye to my Lexus! It's the first really nice car I've owned, albeit only on a 12 month lease. It's the new Lexus IS 220d - it has a Start button and everything! Given … read more

We've just said goodbye to my Mum and Dad as they set off on their hols to the Dominican Republic. It's bad timing on all of our parts but I guess we had to say goodbye sometime, it wouldn't have made any difference whether it was today or Thursday. I've been feeling sick all morning knowing what … read more