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Job, Visa, House, Relocation. When talking about one little secret in the last monthly report that shall be lifted in October, this was an understatement. The truth is that we were engaged in a whole bunch of quite important and sometimes unsettling activities that are now slowly coming to an end. This monthly report therefore is less an agglomeration of little independent stories but rather one big finally-it-is-done!-exclamation of relief. But let us start with the beginning.

For quite a while we had made the decision that we want to stay in Australia for even longer. That is possible on a permanent residency visa. As opposed to our temporary residency, life is dearer on permanent residency (due to different taxation, social security, health insurance etc.). Our decision was firm: We have to move out of Balmain. But not into another rental apartment, but into the long-since-dreamt-of — and originally intended to materialize after our return from Down Under — own house. The original plan was to look out for what's on the property market in late 2005/early 2006. Of course it all happened differently...

Claudia negotiating with the property agent (both stay dry)

House. Late in June, "our" house just happened upon us. We hadn't even started to seriously look out, only intended to get an impression of what's in a price for the different suburbs. After quite some headaches and with butterflies in the stomach we decide to go for it and make nails with heads rather than stick to our original time plan.

From now on it all happens simultaneously: Negotiations on the sale price are being taken up. However, we are still on temporary residency and therefore not legally entitled to purchase property in Australia. Hence, we need Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval or permanent residency. Claudia's employer had already hinted at that they are willing to sponsor the latter visa so we come back to their offer. Legislation, however, asks for at least three years of contract on the day of lodgement of the application, and here is the problem. Claudia needs another job first (the current one is a term contract until mid-2006). Claudia defines a new job position. The position is being approved and advertised. Claudia puts in her application. Of course, none of these things "just happen" — there is a lot of lobbying and pushing, arguing and checking involved. In parallel to this, we sign a conditional contract for the house and put down a deposit. Before, we had applied for FIRB approval. In the second half of August we can go ahead: Claudia is being offered another three-year contract (to be precise: three years and 3 weeks). On the same day, FIRB approves our application in the prospect that the permanent residency shall now go ahead. We intensify the next steps.

We apply for permanent residency (on the very day that Claudia's term contract goes precisely for another three years). From now on, finance becomes top priority and receives our fullest attention: consolidation of our savings, selling our shares, applying for a mortgage and transfer of foreign currencies. All this involves much research and even more negotiations. Only days before Claudia heads off to Europe in September, most of the issues have been solved. As of now, there will be less decisions, less headaches. As of now, things will "just happen". A famous quote: Once you have made a decision, the universe conspires around you to make it happen.

Where shall we start? Turramurra, 21 October, 3:10pm.

Removal. During Claudia's stay in Europe Peter starts packing removal boxes. It really goes ahead the day she is back home (or back at what's left from home). On Friday 21 at 8:00am two men and a truck arrive at our door step in Birchgrove. At 3:00pm they laeve us with a mountain of removal boxes in the new "four walls" in Sydney's suburb Turramurra. Only one day earlier, we had the settlement and collected the keys. We had celebrated these very first hours of being proud house (and mortgage) owners with our closest friends on the deck, serving a couple of bottles of champagne, crackers, dips, and nibblies. The deck — not overlooking Cockatoo Island in Sydney harbour any more, but overlooking Lane Cove National Park which meanders through Sydney like a green lung.

How many laps have we done today?

Puff our pet. To finish off this report we chose an eposide which is not related to the administration of life. As mentioned above, we swapped the waterviews in Birchgrove with the views onto the National Park; therefore parrots, lorikeets and cockatoos are regular visitors to our new home and at night time we get the occasional possum hanging its tail over the gutters of the roof. Despite the knowledge of the surrounding nature we are amazed to learn that we have a regular visitor: Holding a cup of good-morning-coffee in our hands we discover a (female) water dragon enjoying an early morning swim in our pool. When she disappears into the pump outlet we are worried that she might not be strong enough to escape the currents from the pump. However, when Claudia lifts the lid from the basket in the pump outlet, our guest jumps out with lightning speed and back into the pool again, diving its complete length before taking up a position at the edge at the other side. She remains there, observing us while we are having our breakfast outside. We name our little pet "Puff", according to Peter, Paul and Mary's song about Puff, the Magic Dragon.