The Big Decision

A new blog for a new chapter... As some of you will know we have been playing around with the idea of a move overseas for a little while now and have been exploring possibilities. Having said that we had not planned to decide our future until Christmas 2005 (Mainly because we were to busy with life). On the 15th of December 2005 during a week of discussions on what we were going to do next year an email arrived in my work inbox. The email was offering me a job in Sydney!

Until this point we had been considering a move to New Zealand. After much discussion on the differences between the two country’s and what we were looking for we decided to pursue the opportunity. I sent my CV off on the 1st January and had a phone interview a few weeks later. Since then things have moved at a frantic pace and we are struggling to take it all in! It seems like each day we are undertaking tasks to dismantle our lives in Manchester ready to reconstruct in Sydney. I have now formally accepted the offer, completed the visa and we are looking to leave for Sydney early April. In 6 weeks! Esther and I have just both resigned from our jobs, booked flights and are quickly selling our stuff.

Just reading what I have just written seems unreal to me! We are both very excited but nervous at the same time. Lots of unanswered questions... so much to do.... I will be working for a transport consultancy and Esther is not sure what she will be doing just yet. She needs a break from work to start with...

We are going to miss our families and friends who are a tremendous support, our church, the people we currently work with......

Alongside all of this the control centre project has now come to a successful end and was opened by the Secretary of State for Transport on Tuesday. The project has been a huge challenge to me and I have learnt a lot.... One of the biggest things I have learnt is that with the right people (and money!) a Plan / Concept / Vision can be made a reality very quickly. Prior to this project most of the work I had done had ended on paper....I prefer to see something physical and working for a purpose. It has been a very fulfilling project to work on, although very stressful at times. A link to few news articles from earlier this week:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4735074.stm

http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=128911


I guess a blog is going to be an important way to keep in touch with you all once we are the other side of the world! So we will make an extra special effort to keep this updated with news of what we are up to, our experiences and of course pictures.