Some of our plans..

So, in terms of vacations, and Europe trips, rather than the day-to-day generality of living life in a foreign city, we don't have a lot planned.

First up, we're going on a cruise down the Greek Isles in May. Then we're doing a week self-drive tour in Northern Italy.

Apart from that, it's up in there air. What you see here is our whiteboard of ideas, and stuff.

...Packing

One of the many un-joys of preparing to go overseas for a long period is the need to put large amounts of belongings in storage. Or sell them, but that's a different story.

anyway, that's what we've done today. Pack. And I hate packing. Both of us hate packing. However, we've got a good 2 cubic metres of boxes so far. And we've done clsoe to as much as we can, the things we haven't packed yet, we need over the next 4 weeks.

(And, I should note, this time, 4 weeks from now, we'll be sitting at the airport.)

Got Moneys!

We were in the City the other day, and figured since we have the chance, we bought some Malaysian Ringgit, and some British Pounds.

We've got about 400myr, which we figure should be enough for a day and only cost us about $100aud.


We also bought 100 pounds, which would have cost around 200 or so AUD, but it just means we wouldn't have to be gouged at Heathrow.

oohh jobs !

I've started sending my CV out to relevant jobs (mainly on Reed.co.uk) in an effort to hopefully get my name starting to come up when they search databases.

Surprisingly, I've had an email back from an agency today, providing a position description for a service desk role. I don't have a CRB (criminal record check) though, and you can't just apply for it yourself like you can here. So I had to say thanks but not thanks. (I also kinda want a level 2/3 job rather than a 1 or 1/2)
The payrate wasn't too bad.

I also had my first SkypeIn call last night, and from my end it worked out ok.. not sure how well mum could hear me though...

forex rates

so i've just been bludging around again, and realised that the AUD vs the GBP right now is pretty good - in fact it's in almost the best shape it's ever been, for us to be buying GBP.

Hopefully for the 12-18 months we're away, it will decrease again. I doubt it'll get back to the 2.5:1 it was, but still.

currently, 1 AUD will buy 0.578 GBP.
and 1GBP will buy 1.729 AUD

This link shows the historical data over the past 180 days:
http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/GBP/AUD/G/180

and this one shows for the past 10 years:
http://www.exfin.com/historical-forex-aud

only 6 weeks to go !

So it's only another 6 weeks until we get on a plane.. and it's starting to dawn on me just how much we have to do.

For those who have just started reading (ie, everyone), here's the cliff notes:

My partner and I are heading off to London for 12 months or so. I'm all decked out with a Right of Abode, and R has a Youth Mobility Visa (Tier 5) so we've got up to 2 years all up.
Why are we going ? Well, because we can. We're planning on living the high life in London, working through contracting companies, and going on trips to Europe, whenever the hell we feel like it. Initially we have a cruise planned from Venice, down along the Greek Isles, and back to Venice. It just so happens to co-incide nicely with our 3 year anniversary... we also haven't had our honey moon yet..

So that's where we're up to.....