It’s been pretty quiet here at lukehayler.com over the last couple of months. And I blame the latest project that I have been working on. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the work and the people I worked with, but the hours that we put in made even trying to do anything else near impossible. That’s all done now, so the blogosphere and twitter have my attention once again. Hello world.

This post is about new beginnings, so for starters; I am moving my family to Australia. This has been a long time in the making – about 2.5 years. There’s been a lot of paperwork and even more waiting. But on June 26th this year we were granted our Permanent resident visas. What does that mean? It means that we (my family and I) can live and work in Australia indefinitely – and hopefully gain citizenship after a period of years. And that all begins on August 21st when we land in Oz.

Why Australia?

Let me give you some numbers. Lynette & I have lived in 9 towns/cities, across 6 countries and have had 14 address changes over the last 10 years (And no, we are not on the run). It’s enough to make anyone want to put down some roots. So that is what we are planning to do. We have lived here in the UK for 3.5 years, but having grown up in Southern Africa we want to be able to give our kids a similar upbringing. And by that I mean an outdoor lifestyle. South Africa and Zimbabwe (where I grew up) are currently not a option for us, so we have set our sights on Australia and hope to find what we are looking for down under.

Have we visited Australia and scoped out possible locations to settle? Nope. Are we completely insane? Not really – or at least, it depends on who you ask. We have done a fair bit of research and talked to many people about the different cities in Australia and have been given a lot of ‘advice’ about where we should/should not go. All of which we have taken into account along with loads of information from books/websites/forums/etc. At the end of the day we are starting in a city that we believe best suits us and what we are striving for – Melbourne. It may not be where we end up, but it is where we shall begin. Again. We also have the confidence and faith in ourselves to make this work.

And what about work?

I have yet to find anything resembling a job, but as soon as we touch down I’ll be searching for something worthwhile. Well, that’s not entirely true. I have been having a bit of a dig into finding work, but nothing is written in stone yet. That will be decided once I have had time to visit a few places and talk to some people. Speaking of which, if you are in Melbourne and would like to meet up, send me an email and we’ll arrange something. I’d like to meet as many SQL folks as possible so other than individual meet-ups I’ll be looking out for local user group events. So keep an eye/ear out for that South African sounding, British guy who grew up in Zimbabwe. He has quite a story to tell.

I can honestly say that I am thoroughly excited about this next chapter and where it will lead. We have had so many things on hold in our lives that will finally get a chance to be realised, enjoyed and relished. New people, new cultures, new lifestyle – I can’t wait.