Welcome Nai!
Sorry It's so quiet in here. Most ladies are pregnant, TTC or have new babies, so they are more active in other forums. haha, i think I'm the only one that isnt any of the three, so i'll help keep this thread active!
I'm Katie and my son is Ben. I'm from Vic, but am currently living in Germany (my husband is German). We hope to move back to Oz in Dec, Jan or Feb. I really really (i cant stress that enough!) wish we were moving back now - i've had serious bouts of homesickness lately and am in a "black hole" ATM (but i wont go into that )
I've had a quick look at your webpage, it's really great!
Hello to you all! I hope you are doing great! Snowy, i hope you are enjoying Oz! Must be nice to be away from the cold! The weather here is warming up slightly - I'm sure it's the same where your parents are. But it's making me so sad. The smell of spring is making me miss home. So strange.
Not much news from my end. We are finally planning the move back to Oz. Need to start searching for companies for Dh to contact about work, organise Visa for Dh, citizenship (for Ben), scrape the money together and work up the courage to tell the in-laws. NOT looking forward to that at all. I know it will break their heart, but i just can't stay here anymore. I need my life back. I'm a pretty quiet person, and very shy - and i feel like it's having an impact on Ben. I want him to be happy and have a great childhood. Happy parents = happy children. And i'm just not happy ATM. Dh understands and is more than willing to go to Oz, he just needs to finish up Uni.
Snowy - Do you know the cheapest way we could start sending stuff home? We dont want to take any large things home, but we do want to start shipping things like Ben's favourite books etc... I know you can send up to 20kg for ?80 with DHL, it's the cheapest i've found.
Also, did you find out the gender???????????
OH! and i read about your floors! Did you get any answers?
Should go and so something productive.
take care,
Katie.
Where are you going to be returning to in Oz? If it's Melbourne then I may be able to help you (I work in HR and have worked in recruitment for 8+ years so have some good contacts around the place). The weather here has been diabolical - 2 weeks ago it was 41 degrees, then last week it was 10 degrees and yesterday we had 120km winds..... no wonder everyone is sneezing and spluttering and feeling under the weather (pun intended).
I will be more active in this thread too as I am like you - no 2nd baby, not pregnant and not TTC (yet).
Welcome Nai Your daughter is beautiful. Very cute!
A little about me, I am married to my lovely DH and we live in Sydney. Our daughter Kayla is one very mischievious (sp?) toddler but we adore her We are TTC#2 and have been for 11months now, so we are hoping it will happen soon.
Katie- Sorry that you haven't been feeling the best. It must be very hard for you to be away from family. That would be lovely if you could be in Oz for christmas or Ben's 3rd birthday
Nadine - Yes, it will be so wonderful to be back in Oz for Xmas and 3rd birthday! I have only been home for 1 Christmas in the past 7 years! Sad. I really can't wait to settle down I'm very excited for our future!
I've been teaching Ben his body parts lately. now he knows: nose, head, arm, hands, toes, legs, ears, mouth, eyes and belly. It's soooo gorgeous. He also LOVES Lazytown! (actually, i do too!). It's really fun watching him dance and sing to the lazytown cd soundtrack (he attempts the splits, lol), i must get it on film! He still isnt speaking as much as the other kids in his playgroup, but he is getting there. Speaking way more English than German, but he understands a lot of German.
Last edited by Kaydee; April 11th, 2008 at 10:24 PM.
Thanks Nadine, I think she is pretty cute too but I am slightly biased I have no doubt Kayla is keeping you on your toes, they really do start asserting that "mind of their own" thing around 2 years of age! I hope baby #2 isn't far away for you - TTC can be a tough journey.
Katie, I got your PM so have messaged you back. More than happy to help out It would be great to have a bilingual child. Unfortunately DP and I only speak English, however as Genevieve is obsessed with Dora the Explorer her Spanish is coming along nicely.....
Katie - I think it is probably cheapest to ship everything together. You get part of a container and then if you don't care how long it takes, you can wait for someone to have space in their container. Getting a container for yourself can be quite costly and I don't think you probably have that much furniture to justify getting a whole container? We had about half a container (containing 1 bed, 2 sofas, bikes, 40 boxes of various things, some small pieces of furniture, bookshelf, chest of drawers, the like). We used a company called Anglo Pacific which I used from the UK (as the name implies, as we were living in London at the time). I have had good experience within Europe with UTS - it's a network of local shippers. Some people will give you ridiculous quotes and propose things like putting things on palettes, which is outrageoulsy expensive. There is definitely not that much experience with shipping things to Australia from continental Europe vs. UK. So it might pay to check with some UK shippers. Maybe, if you have friends in London, get someone to get you the TNT magazine (free magazine for antipdoeans in London). They have lots of ads in there. It might pay to pack stuff yourself and drive them to Dover, rather than using a European shipper. Or they might take it from Rotterdam, which should only be 2 hours from you. Also, what you can do, if you have tickets to Oz, is send things as unaccompanied luggage. I have done that, when I've only had roughly 80kg to ship. The stuff can then be collected from the airport when you arrive. It also takes longer, as it gets put on a plane when there is space (I think I sent mine 2 weeks before my actual flight and was able to pick it up 3 weeks after my arrival).
Also: re. visa for DH, if you need any help, let me know. I have done it for myself and for 2 friends (spousal visa). Passport for Ben should be easy. It might even pay to make a day trip to Berlin and sort out both things at one time. THe visa application can take quite some time! (and don't think just because you are married, they hand it to you... it can be very frustrating... you need statements from Australian citizens, that your relationship is true and ongoing, yadiya, lots of proof. I had this whole folder, all organised, labelled, indexed, etc. and they still came back with questions!!! and i thought I had put EVERYTHING in there - I hope you have joined bank accounts - if not get one, and make sure your name is on bills as well as his, to proof that you are living together and not just have a "fake marriage" )
Again - if you need help, contact me through facebook, okay? I am happy to help. Oh and for Ben I think you need an Australian who is not family to testify, that the passport photo is indeed him. The website is really good but you will need a lot of stuff to support applications with the Australian government. Do you have an international birth certificate? Otherwise get a certified translation (expensive). Same goes for marriage certificate, DH's birth certificate, etc. But you will find all that on the website.
Anyway ... sorry I am hijacking the thread for "immigration assistance"
lol
you gotta be happy to be moving back!!
No, haven't found out gender yet, but am contemplating going to a doc while in Oz, seeing that I have a medicare card and would get the big scan basically for free if I go to a bulk bill place. Otherwise will find out when I'm back in Switzerland - but I have to say that I am sooooo curious, I wouldn't mind knowing NOW (and being able to buy some stuff from Pumpkin Patch or Cotton on Kids that no one in Europe will have)
Nai - hi and welcome to the group!! My daughter's middle name is actually a family name. Name of grandma, name of SIL, middle name for lots of granddaughters and great granddaughters (incl. Zara) and I thought it was a really pretty name (but since it's SIL's first name, wouldn't have picked it has a first name). Do you call your daughter Gen or Genevieve? (SIL is always just called Gen).
re. floorboards: well I moved to SIL's place for one night as it was so stinky, then returned on Friday night to our place. Just went downstairs and it hardly smells anymore (have kept the front door open for 2 nights downstairs, with just the screendoor open, I guess that helped).
)
Your daughter is beautiful. Very cute!
I have no doubt Kayla is keeping you on your toes, they really do start asserting that "mind of their own" thing around 2 years of age! I hope baby #2 isn't far away for you - TTC can be a tough journey.
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