Saturday, September 8, 2018

120 days to go....

So now it's 120 days to go....

Still so massively excited about this Big Move - it's a whole new way of life, with undercurrents and memories from my childhood which was incredibly happy and settled. And I'm excited about creating new memories for me in this time of my life.

I'm working my way well through the lists - about four months ago, I started creating a page of things to do per month, leading up to the big day, which is 6 January. So each week I've been ticking things off each list and removing them as they're completed. I have them pasted up near my desk at home so I can see them, add to them, tick things off, etc. I've also now created a list of post-flight... so from 7 January onwards. That makes it so much more real too!

The cats have now had their provisional clearance from the Queensland quarantine team, so now we're just waiting for them to guarantee the dates. I can't believe how helpful the team at www.PetairUK.com have been, particularly Emma and Rachel, who have answered every query an anxious cat-owner could have! I'm so glad I went for the Gold standard on the export, which means that the team at PetairUK do all the organisation and get the clearances. Brilliant!

Now that my Queensland College of Teaching provisional registration has come through, I can apply for jobs in Queensland. The education terms are different, obviously - in QLD there are four terms of 10 weeks each in an academic year and it starts towards the end of January, around the 24th. So I'm actively looking for work. I've registered with agencies - I did this when I visited QLD in Jan and Feb 2017 as my preparation visit, so I'm registered with SmartLeaders and Hays, as well as with Seek and using LinkedIn and Adzuna, where I get daily alerts of potential posts.  I've updated my CV and been researching carefully for the geography of where each post is - QLD is a massive state and I'm aiming to be somewhere close to my three cousins who live on the Sunshine Coast.

I've organised the letting of my house too via Purple Bricks, with a full managed service, which means that for a while I'll have security in the UK, just in case anything happened and I decided not to remain in Australia. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it - probably up to two years I think, but it could be less. Trying to sell it now, alongside packing and moving, would be too stressful I think - also the sales market in the UK is quite stagnant, it seems.

All systems go then!

#Queensland #BigMove #cats #quarantine #SunshineCoast

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