It all started when ......

..... I had an idea. A great idea. An idea that would change our lives ....... forever!

The time had come and I decided I wanted to get a little more out of life, I mean, you only get one crack at it so I thought I'd better act quick and do something about it.
When you get to my age and you've done the housebuilding - marriage - pregnancy - giving birth - etc - you get a little time to reflect on stuff.

We had talked about emigration Down Under almost ten years ago, even got as far as sending off for the forms but somehow, we 'never got round to filling them in.'

This time, I meant business. I put the call in to a consultancy group specialising in 'big moves' and there they were again ... the very same forms I had received a decade earlier.
Yes, they are enough to put off the faint-hearted .... but they're nothing in comparison to the wait we're having to endure from the Department of Australian Immigration while they crack open another tinny and pore over our application that was completed with pristine accuracy and a good dollop of telling them exactly what they want to hear.

We started this rollercoaster of a ride last October and took almost seven weeks obtaining the references required from my husband's previous schools/colleges/employers. Now, THAT was a struggle. He was last a student over 20 years ago and getting references from tutors that were crocs way back then was always going to be a virtual impossibility.

That said, we gathered what we could and it seemed to have cut the mustard as we heard a few weeks ago that the first major part of our application had been successful. Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) obviously like the cut of our jib so let's hope that our friends at immigration do too, as we wait to hear from them if they would like to welcome us with open arms in becoming permanent residents.

Getting a positive TRA outcome brought with it some mixed feelings - success in something you want is always a comfort but hell, the reality of it all has made me feel a little confused. Taking my young family 12,000 miles away is part of a plan I have in my mind that will see them having a 'better life' .... I just want to know how I came up with the idea that Australia is a better place, having not even stepped foot in the country. Every single person I've spoken to who has gone Down Under cannot say a bad word about the place ..... and I want to know why. So I'm just going to have to pack up, sell up and find out for myself.
Yes, there have been tears along the way (as anyone in work will confirm) but that was always going to happen. Words of comfort from friends and colleagues rattle around in my head ..."I know it's a big step Mand, but it's not like you're going off to the other side of the world...."

Oh my friends ............. "but I AM!"