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Less than 4 weeks til we go - eek!


paisleylass

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So much to do, so little time! The past few months have really flown by, and I anticipate the next 26 days will go even faster. I'm keeping an Excel spreadsheet with a 'to do' list, happily ticking things off every day. Still have tons of forms to fill in for shipping, letting, tax blah blah. Sorted landlord insurance and cancelled normal house insurance, cancelled o2 contract, cancelled Virgin Media. Phew!

 

Hubby left work yesterday so can take over getting rid of junk. I leave Thursday next week, and am already emotional having said goodbye to colleagues who've gone on leave. Gonna be in bits next week! Will be adding loads of facebook friends :o)

 

Next weekend going to Berlin, a trip that was organised before Australia was on the radar! Followed by 3 days of getting ready for the shippers.

 

Shipping out 14th October. Family (hubby's) leaving party 15th October, followed by meals out with folk who won't be there. Goodbye trip the following week to Liverpool (where I lived for 16 years) and see my wee brother in Yorkshire plus a diversion to Manchester to see Glen Campbell on his farewell tour! Then we have 5 days at our sparsely furnished home to finish cleaning, painting and packing.

 

Then... 5 days of pure relaxation in LA en route to Brisbane. Gonna need that! And after a direct 14 hour flight from LA to Bris we'll have finally made it. Arriving early morning, we'll be going straight to temp accommodation. Well worth paying an extra night not to hang around! And then I guess we start normal life - grocery shopping, househunting etc.

 

Just needed to get that off my chest - it actually helps to get it all written down :biggrin:

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Thanks M2M - I feel quite disorganised, but looking at it 'on paper' we're actually doing quite well!

 

Whenever I feel sad about leaving, I just look out the window at the rain and remember what a pathetic excuse of a summer we've had (not to mention the hideous winter, slipping on ice and generally freezing) and Brisso looks pretty good in comparison!

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Bit closer now! Finished work today and off to Berlin tomorrow. Feeling reasonably organised - have booked all accommodation for goodbye trip to England, carpet being fitted in spare room the day after we're back from Berlin, set in-laws up with Skype, sent NRL1 forms to HMRC for renting, and finally sent contact and AQIS forms to removal company. Phew - and breathe!

 

It seems a bit crazy going away to Berlin for 5 days in the midst of all this chaos, but it was organised pre-Australia shenanigans and gives us a break from the house stuff. Hopefully we'll come back re-charged and ready for another round! Got 2 and a half days before the packers come anyway. So close now....

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cartertucker, I'm sorry I only just saw your post. Am away from home now until Sunday and have defaulted to a paper list! It runs something like

Get old bank statements shredded

End TV licence, council tax, gas, leccy (already sorted insurance - changed to landlords - and virgin media)

Extra keys cut for letting

Forms for letting and marketing photos

Solicitors appointment to give MIL power of attorney in case we want to sell house

Final doctors appt for prescriptions & letter re. Meds

Last UK haircut!

Sell sofa if poss

Get all remaining unwanted furniture & bric a brac taken (a local charity does this for free)

Get rid of car - hubby's selling to his dad. Tax runs out just after we leave!

Get US & Aus currency for stopover & arrival

Transfer cash to Aus bank account with Moneycorp

 

Can't think of anything else now. All the shipping stuff is done & dusted.

 

Now in Manchester halfway through the crazy goodbye 'tour'! Less than a week til we leave and I keep randomly breaking down crying. It doesn't feel real and I wish we had a few more weeks - like being back where I was when I started this thread!

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Cartertucker, I'm sorry I only just saw your post. Am away from home now until Sunday and have defaulted to a paper list! It runs something like

Get old bank statements shredded

End TV licence, council tax, gas, leccy (already sorted insurance - changed to landlords - and virgin media)

Extra keys cut for letting

Forms for letting and marketing photos

Solicitors appointment to give MIL power of attorney in case we want to sell house

Final doctors appt for prescriptions & letter re. Meds

Last UK haircut!

Sell sofa if poss

Get all remaining unwanted furniture & bric a brac taken (a local charity does this for free)

Get rid of car - hubby's selling to his dad. Tax runs out just after we leave!

Get US & Aus currency for stopover & arrival

Transfer cash to Aus bank account with Moneycorp

 

Can't think of anything else now. All the shipping stuff is done & dusted.

 

Now in Manchester halfway through the crazy goodbye 'tour'! Less than a week til we leave and I keep randomly breaking down crying. It doesn't feel real and I wish we had a few more weeks - like being back where I was when I started this thread!

 

Thankyou :wubclub: Good luck

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The past few days have been hard at times. We went to Liverpool, my old home of 16 years, which was very emotional. Met a couple of old friends and visited lots of old haunts. I was amazed with how much the place has changed over the last 5 years - shame there's a big ugly building now blocking the view of the Liver building from the Albert Dock, boo! Also spend a lot of yesterday with my brother and his wife. I felt sad to leave them but not too bad - of all the people we've said goodbye to we're likely to see them again soonest! They intend to move to Aus anyway, but will at least visit :o)

 

I just bought excess baggage with BA - £68 for 46kg (2 bags) extra to LA. 2 bags is standard with Qantas LA-Brisso anyway so that's all sorted :o) Just need to get the APIS thingy done, and get up early Thursday to check in online and nab decent seats and we're set to fly.

 

What's going on the next few days then? Tomorrow we have a joiner in to do last minute repairs, and I have doctor's in the afternoon. Wee bit of paining to finish, then we're off delivering stuff to family.

 

Tuesday we have solicitor's appointment in the morning to give MIL power of attorney over our house, then in the afternoon the letting agent's coming round for photos and paperwork, while hubby goes to his dad's to get the car paperwork done to sell to him.

 

Wednesday and Thursday are relatively free, I will probably spend some time cleaning up pretty good, and we need to get our old bank statements to the shredding place. I also badly need a haircut and will go for one last appointment with the lovely lady who's been chopping my hair into shape the last few years!

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Solicitor stuff is done. He wanted to send me an invoice but the post here has been well dodgy lately and we don't have much time, so I'm popping in on the way to my hairdresser's on Thursday to collect the invoice and pay on the spot. Don't even know how much it'll be but it's got to be cheaper than flying back to the UK! Letting agency photos are done and the house should hit Rightmove on Thursday. I still need to fill in all the forms and hand over 3 sets of keys so will probably do that while in town Thursday.

 

Had murder arranging to get our remaining furniture collected by a charity. The one we donated to before isn't taking for a couple of weeks - too late! Others were funny about timing too. In the end the Salvation Army agreed to take the stuff on Thursday which suits us. Don't plan to sleep so the bed can go!

 

Not sold the sofa via Gumtree - it's a steal but folk are so tight they won't even pay a measly £120 for a decent 3 seater with chaise, which also includes spare covers. Someone seems to be trying to get it for free but I'd rather the Sally Army took it and made money from it, and they will probably charge more as well. I'll tell her she can buy it from them :o)

 

Tons to do tomorrow, including delivering my beloved home tiki bar to the happy buyer and seeing some of hubby's family. After tomorrow afternoon we won't have the car so must get all charity shop deliveries finished - still got 2 cupboards full of books, clothes etc!

 

I'm too scared to count the cost of what we've sold for cheap (ebay, music magpie, car boots), given away and junked in all. Probably would well eclipse both our one way fares to Aus! But the move is a kick up the bum, and we've needed it for a long, long time :o)

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I'm too scared to count the cost of what we've sold for cheap (ebay, music magpie, car boots), given away and junked in all. Probably would well eclipse both our one way fares to Aus! But the move is a kick up the bum, and we've needed it for a long, long time :o)

 

Im feeling just the same at the moment, just done my list of things that we are giving away, taking, or selling....

TBH, there are only a few things we are selling :swoon:

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