Our First Year In Oz (WA)

[emmaj]

Hi Everyone,

I thought i would pop by and give everyone a short update as to how we are getting on as its close to 12 months since we made the move to Perth.

The UK and our life in the UK seem a million miles away, such distant memories and whilst we have struggled to feel settled here i have no intension of leaving.

Both hubs and I have had a few problems at work......different expectations ..... different personalities but things are settling down and I move to a new job on Monday. Work wise, our hours are longer but we are both earning more then we would have been should we have still been in the UK which helps make up for it. Our commutte to work also makes the days long but i love been NOR and wouldnt change that.

We moved to a stunning rental in our preferred area and whilst it doesnt feel 100% like home as we are not used to renting, it feels as much like home as it possibly could with out us owning it.

One of the things that we have struggled with it meeting people and making new friends. It seems that everyone has children here and that seems to be the common link when people meet up. We are in our late 30's with no children and whilst we dont want to be clubbing every weekend we do enjoy going out for drinks and eating out. Its something that we are working on, thinking of joining a few clubs soon so fingers crossed.

So are we enjoying it? Hell yes! My facebook status updates may sound depressing at times but that is more to do with certain situations rather then how we feel in general. I am finding life hard work lol but then it is!

We love having so many beautiful beaches on our doorstep, wonderful parks to wonder around and well the shopping isnt THAT bad. There are all so many places within WA to visit, we went down to Eagle Bay for my birthday which was fantastic. We have a week booked in the summer at Rottnest, somewhere we love going as we really enjoy snorkelling there and so many other things planned.

At first everything seemed really expensive here but weve kind of got used to that. We were franticly saving for the first 8 months of our stay as we really wanted to buy a house as soon as we could without selling our UK home. Now we have realised that there is more to life then owning your own home. We are saving and will have our own place at some point but we are now enjoying the fruits of our hard work, having lots of weekends or nights away. Its a balance that we have had to make in order for us to make this move work.

How long we will be here? Who knows. I would like to think that this is it for us, but i suspect when my in-laws health becomes a problem we may return to the UK for a while however by then hopefully we with have everything in place so that it will be easy for us to come back.

Im sorry this is very disjointed. Just thought i would say Hi

Emma x

[Jules2409]

Want to meet up with George next week?

Can't sleep now, grrr football!

Jules

[emmaj]

Want to meet up with George next week?

Can't sleep now, grrr football!

Jules

Hi Jules,

I could do Wednesday if that suits you? A bit of a busy week as we go to Bali on Saturday and Jenk only gets back from Texas tomorrow. Or we could meet on a lunchtime?

Footie wasnt worth getting up for was it!

Emma x

[Jules2409]

Lunchtime would be good for me, maybe not with George - we are buying a house!

Will need to check work diary but think I can do Wed lunchtime, it'll be good to meet at last! I've got lots of friends with kids but really miss the girls nights out back home, got an email the other day from a friend saying if I was their they'd take me to the Citrus Club to dance to some 80s cheesy music and I could have cried I wanted it so badly. Lots of dinner parties but not enough behaving badly!

Jules

[pau1evs]

what a great post x
carole x

[Clairey b]

Hi Emma,

I'm so pleased things have settled down for you, and that you are enjoying life!

We are now not far from you-in Edgewater, so if you ever fancy that meeting up that we tried to plan last year give me a shout!

Take care,
Claire x