I’m a thirty-something (okay I'm nearer 40 than 30) owner of a tatty old beach cottage in a beautiful seaside town in Australia, mother of three, wife to one, seaside taxi driver...

But I haven't always lived here, for nearly my whole life I resided in the same, very pretty village in England. Life was quite comfortable, filled with country pubs, cricket on the village green, walks in the woods, lots of drizzle and warm beer. Our children went to a good school, we had a good income, nice holidays, two expensive cars and some cash floating around for a nice life.

Something was missing though, and I was beginning to wonder what life was all about.. and as we flew into London in 2005, after a Christmas holiday we embarked on a mission to find a new life by the sea. We ummed and ahhhed on where we would go, re-locate to the coast of Britain or warmer climes - Europe, France, Florida, Australia?

We knew absolutely nothing about Australia, apart from that it was a long, long way from home, it had sun & beaches that were part of everyday life and an old friend of ours had sent us pictures of his commute to work on a very nice ferry and his life on a very nice beach.

So we put the feelers out Down Under and we started hatching plans, long late phone calls in the middle of the freezing English winter nights, extended internet searches on Australian cities, reams of reading, heaps of books and strange conversations on ex-pat forums about life the Aussie way.

Six months later and things were moving on, we had built connections and networked with enough business contacts for him to start job negotiations.

So in August 2005 we came to Sydney for a holiday. We'd told not a single soul of our late night Down Under dealings, so the whole covert operation was shrouded in secrecy, a kinda clandestine excitement circled the whole devious thing. But the funny thing was that the moment we landed in Australia, I felt like I'd come home.

After two weeks of shaking our heads in wonder at the wonderful Aussie lifestyle (& this people was WINTER), we flew home to London, overflowing with the amazing lucky country that is Australia and absolutely desperate for a visa and a new life by the sea.

A few weeks later & we got an offer we liked the look of and shortly after started the visa application process, including attending medicals and filling in forms, forms and forms. Surprisingly, two months later and much quicker than we had anticipated the big fat envelope from the Australian Department of Immigration arrived, our visas granted.

Oh. My. Goodness. We could go.

We quickly decided we wanted to get out here before Christmas, so what followed was a total frenzied operation to get our English house rented out, our belongings shipped, our life sorted out and to say goodbye to our friends.

It was a manic time, but on the second December 2005 we arrived, 5 suitcases, a holiday apartment, brimming with anticipation and one job in hand.