Cup Final 1973

Given the rather sluggish vaccine roll out in Australia, I don’t think the international borders will open anytime soon.  We didn’t wait - applied for permission to leave, had the negative Covid test, filled in the passenger locator form and booked the days 2 and 8 Covid tests for when we arrived in the UK.  We are now out of isolation at our daughter’s house and reacquainting ourselves with life in England.

But why would you use a bank to transfer funds? The rates are usually dismal.

And the money always arrived in my HSBC account the same day the dollar was sent to Sendfx.

I’ve just posted on another thread on this subject.  I’ve just arrived back in the UK after 15 years in Oz.  We sold our house and emptied the superannuation fund before leaving and I used Dylan at Sendfx to transfer the funds usually in batches of $100000.  There are no fees and his rates always beat XE and Torfx.  I did what rammygirl suggested, opening accounts with 3 companies then ringing each in turn for their best rate.

I was worried about such a large sum arriving in our UK bank account so informed HSBC of our circumstances but just got a rather snotty reply that any deposits would be subject to their usual checks!  

I’ve moved money the other way having sold our house and emptied the superannuation fund in Australia.  I used Sendfx based in Queensland and found them to be excellent.  There are no fees and the exchange rate was better than XE and Torfx. I typically sent $100,000 at a time.  You can use them from the UK to Australia.

I think the UK take up has been fantastic.

I was referring to Australia and the take up among over 70s.

I went to my GP last Wednesday for my flu jab before leaving for the UK.  He was despairing at the number of patients refusing to have the Covid jab.  He said the surgery was thinking of stopping administering the jab because they were losing money and wasting a great deal of administrative time.

...but what we will see in the UK are kangaroos!  We will be living a stone’s throw from the Yorkshire Wildlife Park.....polar bears too!

The pelicans have  just returned and only one pair so far!

Thank you Quoll, but there’s more than a touch of sadness too as we’ve been here nearly 15 years and made many friends.  It was a glorious day in Bendigo today as we wandered around Lake Weeroona and then visited the Mary Quant exhibition at the Art Gallery.  So many memories....

We fly out of Melbourne on Friday so fingers crossed our plane is as empty as yours!

We’ve booked our flights for April 30th and our furniture (23 cubic metres) was picked up mid March.  We chose a part load so it wouldn’t arrive too early in Yorkshire and so far it’s still in Melbourne.

We have 3 months to leave.  If we are still here on the date specified ( June 30 for my husband, July 2 for me) we have to reapply.

Success!  Re-applied immediately and Jason came up trumps this morning (!) at 7.09.  Interestingly, in the 24 hours between my 2 applications my reference number had gone up by over 1700.  Either there are a lot of people applying to leave the country or Lisa is working overtime rejecting people and they are all re-applying!

A quick update on applying for an exemption to leave Australia.  I applied yesterday for myself and my husband supplying the same documents for both, confirmation of the sale of our house and the removal list of contents.  My husband’s application was granted by Diane this morning, mine was rejected this afternoon by Lisa!!!  I’ve been asked to provide proof, for example a one way airline ticket, yet you are specifically told not to book flights until you have permission to leave.  Do you think it’s April Fool a day early?

After several phone calls I’ve managed to get our vaccinations on April 8th so we are looking at beginning of May to go.  All we need are flights from Melbourne.....(that don’t go via JFK!)

Hi Lee,

We are in the same position.  The house and car are sold, a lot of furniture sold, the rest on a container in Melbourne and we are staying with our daughter until we’ve had the vaccine!  I went on line to apply for permission to leave but it has to be done within 2 months of departure date, not before, so I’m hanging on for the moment.

Has Covid caused any problems with your travel plans?

I disagree entirely with Bunbury61.  We’ve been hesitating between trying to get rid of all our stuff or shipping it back to the UK. I’ve been really surprised to read prices quoted for taking things home which don’t seem that different from how much we paid to bring them out to Oz 14 years ago!  Do a quick add up of how much it will cost to buy a new TV, 3 or 4 decent beds, settee etc. not to mention towels, sheets and all your kitchen stuff.  It makes the removal cost pale into insignificance.  Added to which, you will always have to send some stuff back (photo albums?) so you will have some shipping costs.

Hi, does anyone know if there’ll be a problem renewing my expired UK licence as I’m over 70 and been in Oz 14 years?

I'm not sure whether your son will be going into year 11 in the English or Australian system.  I do know that an ATAR will not translate into the English system because it is a ranking of Australian students in any given year and only applicable for applying to an Australian university.

I taught French for over 40 years so have no problem with the language, lived in France as a student and have lots of French friends.  I appreciate what Tulip1 says but we aren't intending to smother our grandchildren.  We simply want to be near enough to pop over for a few days several times a year.  At the moment we go back twice a year which is becoming increasingly expensive and increasingly hard on the body!  We also have to go for at least 3 weeks to justify the cost and distance travelled and that brings its own problems.

Thanks for that.  It all sounds encouraging.  We have loved our time in Oz, making loads of friends and it's really the pull of grandchildren dictating our move.  The U.K. will be a stopover with France being the final destination.  I reckon it's easier to move from the UK to France than Australia to France.  I think I would struggle to fit back into life in England!