Metoo

ha ha try this one then, last night we had the patio doors open and something ran across the carpet. it looked like a furry caterpillar but it ran quite fast on beetle legs, about an inch long and dark brown in colour. We scooped it up and put it outside, lol. Never seen anything like that before.

if you don't want advice then why ask for it. There is no need to be rude to the people who are trying to help. you know it all already it would seem.

Fosh, you have asked for advice and have been given some very good advice by well meaning people. You might not like to hear what people are saying but why so touchy. Of course they don't know all your circumstances but they are trying to help you. You sound like you know your own mind already so good luck to you. metoo

Yesterday we collected the keys to our house, it seems huge compared to our UK home. After measuring the fridge hole we found that the two door fridge freezer we had our eye on was too big for the space. Rather than spending lots of money on a fridge that we didn't really want we went to cash converters and managed to get a fridge freezer and a 50" telly for not s lot of $. This will tide us over until our container arrives in about 3 weeks time. We have ordered a new bed which won't arrive for about 8 weeks as it's made to order, so we have borrowed a bed and bedding from our B n B friend. We have bought a plastic table and chairs to as a temporary dining set and the cheapest toaster and kettle I could find from Target. Our two unacompanied suit cases are still "lost in action" we just keep getting told they are in transit. Really wish they would hurry up. Today I am going out with my friend (yes I have a friend already) we are going to visit the Sunday Christmas markets while the boys watch the motor racing on the telly. The the car we bought last week was supposed to be ready for collection on Friday but there has been a delay. They needed to fix a couple of things and are waiting on parts so they have lent us a car while we wait for ours. Only trouble is the air con only works for about 5 mins and then it cuts out, we were roasting hot yesterday on our drive to Castle Hill to see friends. There is a bird outside our window which sounds like a goat lol. Well that's about it for now, we will wait fior our container now and hope everything arrives safely. Good luck to everyone else who is settling in. Metoo xx

Persionharry thanks for that, I will try those numbers. yes they are part of UK Mail. Snifter, yes we expected to have received them days ago. Thanks Bungo, I hope so too.

I am just reading their Facebook page and there seems to be a lot of complaints about bad service. The web site is down or messing up on a regular basis. They will not speak to you by phone it is all automated emails. We visited their depot in the UK before we left and I know there are human beings sitting in front of computers in their office IVE SEEN THEM lol. They refuse to give out a phone number tho so you can't ring. So frustrating, Mr Metoo's business suits are in one of them and all our Aussi/UK plug adapters which we now need. I have just emailed them again to vent my frustrations, I wouldn't mind but they were supposed to deliver to our B n B address which we will vacate tomorrow. Good job we are now good friends with our host. Metoo

Can I ask if anybody has sent unaccompanied luggage using "Ipostparcels.com" We paid £85 each for two suit cases 25KG each. They were collected in the UK on 27th Septmber but they haven't arrived in Sydney as yet. The company quotes 3 to 5 days delivery so we are getting a bit twitchy. We email them daily but we just get automated response saying "in transit", wondering if we will ever see them again. Thanks Metoo

Am in no rush to visit Heathrow again ha ha

We are in Glenmore Park, Nr Penrith.

hi Mungbean, Ha ha we do have the bio metric passports, that bit was ok. It was the bit where you queue up at "nothing to declare" or "something to declare" Those queues were massive.

Thanks Freckles, It makes such a difference when people offer to help you and offer a little kindness especially when you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole moving experience. The guy who is looking after us at our air b n b has asked me to make a list of all the things we will need to tide us over till our stuff arrives. He said he will box it all up for us including his spare bed if we need it. Tonight he cooked us a big steak dinner with wine to celebrate getting our house. I think we will remain good friends as we will be living just a few streets away from him. I am looking forward to tomorrow, every day now seems an adventure. Oh and by the way, bananas are $1.49 kG in Penrith Plaza, bargain. Metoo x

We have been here a week now. So far we have sorted out our bank accounts and finally got our Visa cards working after a few problems. We have our new Aussie driving licences (no test required, hooray) We have bought a lovely car which we can collect on Friday and best of all, today we secured a rental and we can collect the keys on Saturday. Tomorrow we are off to centre link to get registered for Medicare and whatever else you have to do there lol. We have been staying in an air B n B since we arrived and I have to say it was the best decision we could have made. Our host has looked after us like family. Australians have shown us such kindness, we have had several offers from people to lend us stuff until our container arrives, including a couple of ladies from the real estate office. One of of our real estate ladies is coming round to our new place for coffee just as soon as I buy a new kettle lol. Good luck to everyone else who is finding their feet just now. Metoo xx

Hello everyone, We we arrived in Sydney yesterday. Had brilliant flights, second leg was on the A380 with Singapore Airlines. We had an exit seat on the upper deck. Sydney airport was in chaos. The queues to get out were massive and took over an hour to leave the airport. Picked up up our hire car and after a little tour of the city and a stop off in Manly to stretch our legs we made our way to our very nice air B n B. Our host (who is lovely) showed us our accommodation and made us some lovely food. Once showered we lay down for a quick nap and fell asleep for 10 hours lol. Going shopping today for for a new car. got a whole list of jobs for today. will update some more later. Metoo xx

Variable speed limits on the M1 that go on for miles and miles and miles, and last for years. get rid of the TV licence go back to weekly rubbish collections put an end to nuisance phone calls

I'm pretty sure you can't pack wine. We have a dozen bottles of very expensive wine. We are carrying them through at 3 bottles each in our suit cases. 6 bottles will remain in the UK with family until we next visit and then we will take the remainder. Our wine is worth about 200 dollars a bottle. If it was just like 20 dollars per bottle we would have just given it away or drank it lol. oops, just realised your moving back to UK (should learn to read the whole post) in which case ignore the above, not sure of UK rules. Good luck anyway Metoo

Yes I will update and post some more pics when it all arrives. Getting excited now, we just dropped the cat off too. Will see him in about 6 weeks time.

Hi Geoff and Gill, No, we did not empty our van. It contains loads of CARAVAN RELATED stuff. Including 2 large awnings, 2 TV's, wastemaster, aquaroll, cutlery, bedding, plates, cups, steps, awning carpet, hitch and wheel locks, plus much more. We could only do this because the van is containerised. If it went by RORO then it would have to be completely empty. i will keep a running total of what we have spent and let you know at the end. I think it might vary between states but can only tell you about NSW. We were told that the electric sockets don't need to be changed unless you intend to sell your van but I will confirm this later after we get ours through. We found that it was cheaper to use a container than RORO, plus we managed to get the car in there too which was a bonus. where in Oz are you headed?

The car is worth nothing in either country. It's not an investment, simply a labour of love. We could have brought a better car or not bothered at all but there was room in the container behind the caravan so it's shipped for free really. As its a hobby car we won't be selling it so no worries here. Will be be buying two nice Aussie cars when we arrive for everyday use.

Ahh they look so cute, I think we will be taking a rescue dog when we get settled though it must be ok with the cat, we will ask his permission first lol

Hello everyone, For anyone who is interested I thought i would post a few pics of our caravan and Landcover being prepared for shipping. They are going in a 40 ft container and are prepared thoroughly as you will see on the photos. We delivered them to Hull on Tuesday and the shippers sent us these pictures today. as you can see, this is a big twin axel caravan 26ft long and a Landrover Discovery. There was still some room to spare at the back. Caravan sits snuggly across the width of the container. We will be excited to get them back at the other end. If anyone is considering shipping their car or caravan, I would say that so far it has been easy. I hope its as easy at the other end lol. We did have to remove the air conditioning unit and the satellite dish from the roof and it looks like the shippers have removed the door handle in order to get it to fit in. Hope this is of help to anyone considering doing this. Metoo

Ha ha ha love this thread :biglaugh: Can I come to the wedding please :wink:

Hold your horses Stacey, does he have a beard???????

There are only 2 seats left on our flight and they are miles apart from each other so we haven't booked them. Hoping the check in staff will find us something a bit closer together otherwise we have the galley and toilets between us on the heathrow to Singapore leg. Oh well if either of us changes our mind about going, at least we won't be able to row about it :biglaugh:

I shouldn't worry, my neighbours only feed their cat on biscuits, she visits us most days so she can steal my cats meaty dinner. Even then we sometimes don't see her for a couple of days. She always shows up eventually. She will torment the living day lights out of the new owners when we move out next month. Ha ha, we had better warn them to get stocked up on Felix. this is my old boy

@MARYROSE02 that cat looks right at home with you. You won't want to let him go back to his owners lol :sad: