Ex-Pats From Sedgefield
News from those who have left Sedgfield for 'pastures new'.
Our first expats reporting in are the Blakey family, now settled Australia.
Paul continues the story -
I lived in Sedgefield most of my life, as has my father Sonny, and my late grandparents Gladys and Bill. I trained at Winterton Hospital and worked as a nurse for the mental health trust since 1987. I was quite well known around the village and thought people might like to know how life has been since we left the village for a new life in Australia, in November of 2005.
There are many reasons why my wife and I with our two young children decided to move to the other side of the world. Although we felt we had a decent quality of life in Sedgefield, there were things about living in England that we found unpleasant, and decided to take the plunge in search of greater happiness. After months if not years of research, we left friends and family on 30th October 2005, with many tears and lots of sadness. Coupled with that was a sense of excitement of course, at the 'adventure' that lay ahead.
After a night at Heathrow, we flew to Brisbane via Singapore on our wedding anniversary, landing in a very hot Queensland on November 1st. We spent 3 days in Brisbane which we found to be a beautiful city, after which we headed down to New South Wales to our 'new home' in Grafton. We were a little naive to think that we could go and live the rest of our lives in a town we had never visited before, but we had good recommendation, some friends to stay with and a job lined up with the community mental health service.
It became clear to us once in Grafton that it was not the place for us. Why.... is a difficult question to answer, but it just didn't 'feel' right, too 'old fashioned', almost going back in time if that's not too harsh. We therefore decided to go back to Brisbane,
a) because we liked the city,
b) I had been there some years ago, and
c) I knew someone there who happened to work in mental health.
We stayed in motels for a couple of weeks until we got sorted with a rental house in Redland Bay, and talk about timing, our furniture arrived in Brisbane 2 days after we got the keys. I was fortunate to get a job also, and was made very welcome by the other staff. It was quite a stress sorting out schools, finances, utilities, health care etc etc, but it needed to be done. A lot different from the UK!!
To be fair we had a great few months in Brisbane, but it was always going to be a 'stop gap', while we decided where we wanted to be. We had some good times and I was fortunate that my good mate Johnny Waller (Mrs Waller's son) came over from New Zealand with his wife to spend a few days with us. After more research, we decided to check out Melbourne, somewhere I never even considered when doing my original research. We heard lots of good reports, and decided to pay a visit, and we were not disappointed. My wife Joanne, has owned and worked with horses all of her life and the Mornington Peninsula is a horse haven. We decided this was for us, and after securing a job, we drove the 1700 kms from Brisbane down to Melbourne in 3 days. What a trip, never seen so many kangaroos....dead and alive!!
That was March, and here we are nearing the end of July. We are settled in a rental house, I have good job with peninsula health, the kids are sorted in 'kindy' with Anna starting full time school in January. (They don't start until age 5 here). We have recently bought a block of land in nearby Mount Martha, and hope to start building soon, once we sort the decent builders from the cowboys! This has got to be one of the most beautiful parts of Australia, miles of beautiful beaches, clear blue seas, an abundance of golf course and wineries, and the city of Melbourne, with all its attractions, within an hours drive away. Have a look on the net for Mornington, Victoria; that's where we are.
Click for Photos
I've just really skimmed the surface of what has been a great adventure, stressful and worrying on occasion, but great fun also. I've kept a bit of a diary to show the kids when they are older.
We really miss our family, and also our friends, some of whom we were very close to. But we are happy (so far, touch wood!) with where we are at. But somehow I don't think the adventure is over!
Spare a thought for my parents, Rita and Sonny, who booked up to fly to Sydney to visit us in New South Wales. They had to change there itinery and get an additional flight to Brisbane. They then had to leave early as we were travelling to Melbourne, so they had to change plans again. Later this year they are coming out again, but this time we have promised not to move!
Love to hear from friends, who could keep us up to date with Sedgefield gossip until we come back for a holiday in 2008. Our email is:
the.blakeys@hotmail.com
Best wishes
Paul Blakey
Joanne Blakey
Anna Blakey
Joe
