Anybody want to buy .....

..... A HOUSE .... a car .... or a cute white Netherland Dwarf rabbit called Jimmy-Lad?
We've had the call we were waiting for. The one telling us we have been made permanent residents of Australia and that they await our arrival with open arms.

Shockwaves ran through me when I took the call yesterday because now, the ball has landed in our court. For the past 14-odd months, we've been doing the donkey work in putting over our case to make the Ozzie's see how much they could do with us over there in their neck of the woods. All that time and effort (and money) has now paid off and it looks like we're off to start a new life in the southern hemisphere.

Yes, I do have the heebie-jeebies about it. Yes, I am having second thoughts. But, it's something we've wanted to do for a while and now we have to knuckle down and get on with it.

I will be gutted to leave my family, friends and colleagues .... I have real belly-laughs with each and every one of them. But my very first "must-buy" when we get out there is the biggest diary I can get my hands on. This, I will use effectively to pencil in a regular and constant stream of visits from our UK band of kith and kin.

I will have to get a job that pays well enough to keep our guests in food and suntan lotion but initially, I will be a homemaker to my boys. The transition for them has to be a smooth one. I have been so wrapped up in my own feelings about the whole operation that I have barely spared a thought for the little chaps and what THEY will be like when it comes to leave behind their chums.

We have kept them informed all the way through the application process and they are really blase about the whole thing. It seems as long as we can have three trampolines so they can bounce from one to the other to the other and then into a pool ..... they'll be happy!

Isn't life great when you're a kid?