Visa dramas

Just received another email from the Embassy regarding our visas. They don't like the travel insurance that comes automatically when you use your credit card to buy your air fares. Can't think why! It's a fully comprehensive and detailed cover. Anyway now we're up for another couple of grand which we thought we weren't going to have to pay. We originally changed to the platinum Mastercard because of all the extra perks they offer for travel. Thank goodness for a sister who is in the industry (travel industry that is). She's able to get stuff organised at the drop of a hat which suits me fine because I'm a very instant person.

Contract Crash

Well the first sale of our house fell through. The buyers couldn't get finance which left us with 2 weeks to go till we leave town. But you wouldn't believe the flurry of interest we've had since Thursday when we were finally told the first contract didn't go through. Unbelievable! Compared to the first time we were selling this felt totally different. Definitely more of a buzz about and a lot of people looking in a short time. So we've actually accepted another offer and should be signing up today. It'll be a bit tight timing-wise but we're still leaving regardless. If this contract falls through, we'll take it off the market and just rent it out. There's always plenty of people chasing rental properties in Mount Isa. I probably sound really fed up but time is running out and there's still lots to do.

Getting organised

The next 2 weeks before we leave Mount Isa are going to be busy. Is that the understatement of the year? We have to finish packing up the rest of our house. We have already put half of what was in our house into the container while we were trying to sell the house. We wanted our house to have the "minimalist" look which is hilarious because I'm the biggest hoarder ever in the universe. "You never know when you might need it" is my motto.

Car sale

This week has been spent getting our car ready to sell. We've been driving a Toyota Landcruiser Wagon for 4 years and it's going to be a big comedown (literally) to get into any other car after that. It's a beautiful car to drive and I love the (royal) highness of it but I must admit I have always had dramas parking in the teeny weeny car spaces and reversing is a bit of a nightmare cause visibility is restricted out the back end.

We had to have a safety inspection (roadworthy) and also needed to have our windscreen replaced. The windscreen was damaged on our holidays 2 years ago and the only reason I haven't had it fixed is because I thought we would have to cough up $400 for it but as it turns out we're entitled to a windscreen a year on our car insurance so it ended up costing us nothing.

Carlipa here we come

We've chosen the village of Carlipa in the south of France to begin our travels. The closest reasonable sized town is 25 km away at Carcassonne. We've found a place to rent on the internet for 4 months starting 1st September. The owners of the house live nearby so I can see that as being a big plus. They have already been a huge help with enrolling the kids in the village school (which was another requirement of the visa). The school term starts on the 2nd September so that will make for some interesting times seeing as none of us speak french. I have been learning french from some tapes I borrowed from the town library and I'm quite proficient replying to the people who speak on the tape but as for remembering anything else vaguely useful, well all I can say is I can only improve.

More visa fun

The French Embassy has faxed a curt letter requesting three additional things for our visa applications. The Marriage Certificate was easy (although I could not find anywhere in the whole realm of paperwork where it asked for our marriage certificate or I would have included it, wouldn't I?), the travel insurance certificate was easy and the third thing was the proof of accommodation which I have already mentioned before. Well, of course it was panic stations for me because time was rapidly becoming of the essence as they say. Luckily my trusty sister who lives in Sydney was able to zoom up to the Embassy and deliver our documents to the Embassy personally to speed things up. The uncharming fellow she dealt with wouldn't believe the credit card travel insurance was for the full 12 months and lovely fellow made Irene stand there while he rang Zurich to confirm it. This was after she was directed to the wrong queue to start with.

Visa fun

Finally got the visa applications away. That took way longer than I thought getting all the bits and pieces together. Most of it was straightforward. One of the things we had to provide for a long stay visa was proof of accommodation for the WHOLE time we are away. I mean for crying out loud! How impossible is that! Considering we plan to be travelling for a big part of the time, how are we supposed to know where we will be living exactly for the whole 12 months. Grumble, grumble.

Getting ready to go

Packing is progressing slowly. This is a really big move for us. I've lived in Mount Isa most of my life and since I've had the kids, I've become even more sentimental/emotional about everything. It makes life very hard when you have to decide what to throw and what to keep. I tend to want to keep everything, especially all the kids artwork and stuff. I guess I'm struggling with the idea of them growing up so fast too and me getting older as well.
Andrew doesn't want to take much stuff with us. He says we'll end up like The Klampetts travelling around Europe with our ancient station wagon loaded up with all our bits and pieces hanging from the roof rack. We are selling our house and car in Mount Isa (house prices are very high so it's a good time to be selling). At the moment Andrew is madly painting and doing all those things that you need to do to make your house sell that you never got around to doing to make it nice for yourself when you lived there.

Countdown to take off

We've sold the house....much sadness. This is the first house Andrew and I ever bought and we have lived here for 18 years on 30 June just gone. It's the first and only house our kids have known. But anyway, it's time for a change. Something new and totally different. We're only choosing to leave town and move to the other side of the world. It will be great!