The last bits and pieces

The last bits and pieces.....

We have spend the last few days sorting out financial issues and banking stuff. We thought we would leave it until last ................ WRONG DECISION.............. my advice to anybody thinking to leave financial things to the last minute... don't. The banks have so much paper work to do just to have someone acting on our behalf that we have spend 2 full days in the bank.

Today I got my international driving license sorted as well as getting PIN numbers for my credit cards. I bought Heinz new trainers and offcourse they are Spiderman's. He loves them and wanted to sleep with them this afternoon. Anja is getting new ones tomorrow and she said she wants Barbie ones because Ouma Joan does not like Bratz! She is only 3 but already full of it!

They are doing the last bit of painting at our house but we still do not have tenants. I am not to worried because things have worked out this far better than we thought so I just trust in Him that things will work out to the best in the future.

I also went to Home Affairs AGAIN today for our unabridge marriage certificate and still there is nothing. Aparently they have a problem with it and now I need to get the dominee that married us to fax a form through and then it will take another 3 weeks. We applied for this on 28 May 2008!!!!!!!!!! Then they ask why we want to leave the country??????

On a more positive note... we are having dinner everynight with friends to say goodbye. We decided not to have a going away party with friends so we going around to everybody everynight. I think this makes it a little easier. I have not cried once! and proud of it. I did cry saying goodbye to Anja's teacher because me and her has come a long way and we were very close.

We are going to Kleinmond with Cornel's parents this weekend and then on Sunday night we are having our family going away party and I think that is going to be a little harder. I dread saying goodbye and I know this is going to be horrible.

Container stories

And so the packing by Pickfords starts.....

I felt complete out of my place while Pickfords pitched on Monday morning to start packing. They were very professional and very thorough and we knew that our household belongings was in good hands.

Everything nicely wrapped and packed.

They packed and wrapped most of the stuff on Monday and Tuesday morning the container arrived and they started loading everything. Half way through the guy that was loading everything came inside the house and said to me and Cornel we have to decide what is going to stay because he does not think that everything is going to fit. Luckily for us we decided before hand if all else fails there was a few stuff we would not mind leaving behind that we could replace in Oz.

Almost everything fitted.

In the end the only thing that could not fit was Heinz's kaskar. There was one guy pushing everything in the container and the other guy closing the doors. I took the whole packing thing better than I thought I would. They fitted the seal and we signed the last papers and off they went. Me and Cornel stood in the road as they drove off and my heart just felt numb. I could not cry and I was not excited at the very moment. We walked back into the empty house and it hit me like a tonne of bricks..... THIS IS IT! Luckily my husband are the great optimist and so just a few kind inspiring words from him and I felt much better.

The seal being fitted.

I think the worse part is to have this feeling of not belonging anywhere. We go our house to see how the painters are doing but it is not realy a home anymore. Weird feeling!

The planning and preparations - visas and flights

So we start to plan the packing and flights and believe me it is not as easy as I thought it was going to be. Cornel was working flat out at his work and I was stuck doing everything during the day.

The visas: Because Cornel already had a job offer and Kempe (the company who Cornel is going to work for) had sponsored South Africans in the past they were already approved by DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizen ship) as a sponsor company we could go the easier route by applying for a 457 visa. Luckily Kempe appointed a migration agent in Melbourne that could lodge visa application on our behalf and make things A LOT easier on us and things could go a little bit quicker. So we went for x-rays and Anja and Heinz went for medical examinations and all paper work was scanned and emailed to Absolute Immigration and the application was lodge on 24 May 2008 and we were advise that this could take a while because they had a backlog. So the waiting game began……but not for long…. we were lucky that all our paperwork was in order and we did not have to wait for any certificates. On 10 June 2008 I logged on the DIAC website with our passport numbers and it said that our application has been approved. I was shaking as I was emailing the immigration agent to ask if this was for real. She replied saying yes and we would receive our approval letters the next morning via email. That night me and Cornel drank 2 bottles of champagne and with mixed feelings we celebrated that things was now coming to a point and all our prayers was answered. Things was now for real and we started to realize that there was so much things we need to sort out before we could get on a plane.

So that was the visas now sorted.

The flights: Although Kempe was going to pay for the flights I still felt bad to accept the first quote we got and just stick with it. So I phoned a lot of travel agencies and all of them gave me a quote of around R42,000 one way for all of us with 20 kg baggage allowance per person. WOW! I said to the one lady I only want 4 seats on the plane not a whole section booked just for my family….. that obviously did not go down very well with her…. Hahaha

I joined a forum on the net in March for all South Africans thinking and wanting to go to Australia/New Zealand/Tasmania. This forum is great and I have met so many helpful people that could give my advice on anything from removal companies to stuff you can not take with to Oz

So on this forum I heard about IOM (International Organization for Migration) and I contact them and they gave me a quote for flights on Qantas for R32,200 one way for all 4 of us with 40kg baggage allowance per person. WOW how much cheaper was that!!!! So I booked the flights and send the quote through to the HR department of Kempe. I was very impressed that I could save a couple of rand for them.

So the flights were now sorted.