I got to Canberra on the morning of Friday the 27th August. Unlike when I first emigrated to Australia 25 years ago, when I sat in the second last row of a Singapore Airlines Jumbo Jet, chain smoking my way through 26 hours of economy seat hell and nervous anticipation of what my new life will bring, this time I reclined in a first class seat of the new Qantas A380 and enjoyed the Neil Perry designed culinary delights, followed by a delightful snooze on the thick lambs wool mattress that the flight attendants rolled out on my behalf, so that I could spend the time to slip into the soft pyjamas and dab some moisturiser on my face to preserve the healthy glow of my skin that was brought about by the voluptuous Cabernet Merlot that was served with dinner.
My frame of mind was not so much one of nervous anticipation, but of systematic planning the early steps of my new life. There are some mundane essentials that one needs to have in order to be a fully functioning Australian citizen, namely have a bank account, a credit card, an address, a phone number, health insurance and a car. The order in which to get these is quite important: You need a bank account and an address to get a phone contract. The phone contract can then be used as the all-important "utility bill" that is required as proof of address to get anything else.
I already set up a bank account while still in the UK. Westpac's London branch are most helpful and I would highly recommend them to anyone who is making the move to Australia. I also already organised an address in form of an apartment that I booked for three weeks in Canberra, hoping that this suffices to get all things in place. So the first thing that I did after my arrival was to pick up my rental car and drive to a phone shop to get myself a phone contract. My bank card and my passport was enough for them to perform my identity check and issue me with a contract and more importantly a bill to my temporary apartment address. So I was well on the way to getting back into an Australian persona.
The rest of the morning I spent visiting car yards in search of the ideal four wheel drive vehicle to take me around Australia. I checked out 5 different vehicles before two o'clock when I could check into my hotel and sleep on my decisions for 16 hours.
My frame of mind was not so much one of nervous anticipation, but of systematic planning the early steps of my new life. There are some mundane essentials that one needs to have in order to be a fully functioning Australian citizen, namely have a bank account, a credit card, an address, a phone number, health insurance and a car. The order in which to get these is quite important: You need a bank account and an address to get a phone contract. The phone contract can then be used as the all-important "utility bill" that is required as proof of address to get anything else.
I already set up a bank account while still in the UK. Westpac's London branch are most helpful and I would highly recommend them to anyone who is making the move to Australia. I also already organised an address in form of an apartment that I booked for three weeks in Canberra, hoping that this suffices to get all things in place. So the first thing that I did after my arrival was to pick up my rental car and drive to a phone shop to get myself a phone contract. My bank card and my passport was enough for them to perform my identity check and issue me with a contract and more importantly a bill to my temporary apartment address. So I was well on the way to getting back into an Australian persona.
The rest of the morning I spent visiting car yards in search of the ideal four wheel drive vehicle to take me around Australia. I checked out 5 different vehicles before two o'clock when I could check into my hotel and sleep on my decisions for 16 hours.
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