koalakim

Jan 24 2008, 07:45 PM

Hi All

Well, we landed almost to the minute a year ago today!  Can't believe where it has gone!

Quick run down:  we tried for years to get out here but didn't have the right jobs etc - anyway cut a long story short OH got into IT, we found a good agent, OH did the qualifications - whilst doing so the *******s put the points up and ended up with an STNI visa for Victoria.

Have to say (and don't pelt me with stones) but Melbourne wouldn't have been our first choice but.... we came and did a recci having met some Melburnians in the UK and it kinda grew on us even though the weather wasn't great.  We loved St Kilda and transferred ideas of Sydney northern beaches to there.

We did another recci the year before coming out and this time the sun was out and transformed the place!  We had left it 3 years after getting the visa because we had our old cat, by this stage we had moved to Brighton and was loving it and had started doing the wedding photography but the time came we had to do a now or never!

Anyway, we landed and went off to stay with a friend of our friends and were dumped on him and left to it!  We knew we were only going to be there a month before doing a big road trip around WA.  That was great although my moving stress kicked in and I started having sleepless nights which did spoil the trip, not easy doing long drives on a few hours sleep!

We got back and threw ourselves into rental hunting and were thoroughly depressed after 4 days!  Our dream of living between the beach and the Acland St cake shops soon disappeared and looked all the way down the coast to Patterson Lakes.  We liked P lakes and found a great place but wasn't sure where we needed to be for business then found this apartment in Brighton.  They kept us hanging on for ages and when we did get the green light we couldn't move in for 4 weeks.  So the last few weeks staying at this guys place was getting to us, we really needed our own space to also start the business up.

So, then it was a case of starting up we did a huge wedding expo in the city and finally got our first booking!  I also picked up some freelance work from some people I knew back in the UK to keep us going.

We moved in end of May and it was soo cold - it really hit me and I was pretty miserable (I don't do cold!) and really wanted to go home! Anyway, we did have a trip scheduled to go back to the UK to shoot some weddings and it was weird as it seemed like we were just going back after a long holiday.  We had a great time there catching up with everyone and it did make me feel quite lonely when we got back as although we haven't tons of friends we had enough to be going out every weekend (when not doing weddings).
We were very grateful for the Britvics meets those first few months!  Unfortunately not having kids and working from home we haven't had as much opportunity to mingle.  Our photographic association has lots of meets so we also threw ourselves into going to those and that has really helped not only with the business but they are really nice and willing to chat and share experiences!

So, in someways I take our time here from when we got back in Sept as then we really got into life here!  Previously it was all a bit weird in fact it still seems pretty strange what we've done!  Given up two really good jobs, a place we loved living in and sometimes I do wonder if it's been the right thing to do but if we hadn't then we'd never know!  I think for our photography it has been good as already we have learnt a lot and will continue to do so.

I still don't feel that settled which I think is due to not having our own place, we thought renting would be fun but it's a pain - so scared to touch anything in case I break it, but also because we don't have a kitty at the moment and I do feel a bit lost without one which will seem strange to non-animal people but there we go! 

It hasn't quite all fallen into place yet which is disappointing for me as before we came out I was convinced it would - life is strange.  Steve is more settled than me but then I do still feel a bit guilty about how this has upset my Mum & Dad and I just know they are waiting for the day we say we are going back.

At the moment I think I could go back and live in Brighton again but not anywhere else, I don't miss the country as a whole and certainly not the stupid things the government keeps coming out with.  It is nice and relaxed here, I used to have to go up to London and was always on edge after all the bombings over the years and I don't worry quite so much about being mugged or anything like that here.

Like everything it's swings and roundabouts - somethings we like better here but also things that really bug us which has only occured since living here and not holidaying!

Still not sure what long term we will do, so just playing it by ear at the moment. We are hoping to go down the Peninsular so we can be near some real waves!

I would say that it just takes time to get sorted and get settled.  Making friends takes time to find the people you hit it off with which can seem like an eternity until you find them but it does really help when you do!  I would say throw yourself into the meets, accept invitations and just go for it!

We haven't done it the easy way but we just felt we had to give the photography a 100% otherwise we just wouldn't get anywhere still doing it part-time.  Hopefully it will pay off soon - bookings are starting to come in and we've even had a recommendation from someone before we've done their wedding!  Yikes!

So, there we go - bit of an up and down year for me definately on a big roller coaster!  Wonder what I'll be writing next year!

Kim