I am so excited!!! I am moving on again. Every two years I make my pilgrimage back to my homeland to visit my family in the UK. It is that time again!

The last time I went back, I went via five days in Singapore and a week in Tokyo. I stayed in the UK for 6 weeks and when I returned I moved from Melbourne to Perth.

This time I am not so rich, so it is just straight to the UK and back. I am however staying two and a half months and will go and visit friends all over the country. When I return I will be making the short move from Rockingham to Spearwood (both still in Perth).

There is lots to do to prepare for a long trip AND a house move. I am slowly getting through this list (though not necessarily in this order).

What I will do before arriving in the UK

Book plane tickets – I booked through STA travel because I couldn’t afford tickets one year ahead and they did lay-by.

.Book train tickets – UK train travel is SO expensive if you buy tickets on the day. I have booked what tickets I can in advance and they are so much cheaper.

Travel – I have been checking travel details for the airport, to friends and maybe a birthday trip to Paris. ALL THE TRAVEL PLANS!

Passport – I am now a proud citizen of Australia, so I applied and have now received my Australian passport.

Drivers licence – I update my Australian drivers licence and my rego as they were both about to expire.

Getting rid of stuff – I am able to store my car, full of belongings at a friends house, but it would be awkward to store more than that. I therefore have to get rid of loads of stuff. I am such a hoarder and never learn! The large heavy stuff (eg fridge, bookcase, sofa etc) I acquired for free from facebook. I have therefore given most of it away to friends and people on facebook. Any last bits will be picked up the day before I leave by HALO, a charity that helps the homeless get into homes. I will pack my clothes bag two weeks before and will trial pack the car one week before to check everything fits.

Car boot sale / ebay etc – I will do car boot sales and use Ebay to get rid of clothes that are too small, books and small bits and pieces.

Landlord – I gave my months notice, and paid all my final money. I have booked a carpet cleaner for the end of lease. All I need to do is empty and clean the place.

Work – I gave them more than the two weeks notice they require so that I could get the hours I want until I finish. I currently work at McDonalds, and have already enquired at the McDonalds near to my nans house where I am staying.

Addresses – I am going to be renting a friends granny flat when I get back and therefore already have an address and will start changing addresses the week before.

Emails – I am unsubscribing to as much stuff as possible to cut down on receiving too many in the UK because my data will be limited.

Phone – I have a $50 pm contract with vodaphone which provides a nice 13gb of data pm. If I want to use any of this abroad, I would need to pay $5 per day, which would total a whopping $150pm. Instead, I have opted to suspend my service for $11 per month and I will find a provider when I get to the UK.

Paperwork / accounts etc – I provide jewellery to a shop and I deliver jukeboxes as a second job. I seem to have receipts and paperwork everywhere. I will consolidate and update any accounts and sort and file all the paper so it can be used for my accounts in June.

Catch up with friends – Its only two and a half months, but its a good excuse for coffee!

What I will do when I get to the UK

Tell everyone I got there safe and remind friends I am there and have a limited time to catch up

Go to an interview with a local McDonalds – I cant just take a three month holiday AND go visiting my friends everywhere without money. I am therefore going to try and get a couple of shifts at the local McDonalds. The pay is A LOT less (and the cost of living is not relative). If nothing else, It will be an interesting exercise into how different franchises operate in different counties (they have different food safety laws for starters!). Also, how different foods are marketed to different parts of the world.

Mobile phone – I will get a sim card to use while in the UK

UK bank card / drivers licence / UK passport – These are all on the verge of expiring and I will need to update them all.

This is just a short list of some of the things I have been doing to prepare for my trip. I don’t generally use a calendar through the year, but I was given one for christmas. I have it open at april and have been scrawling everything down, like a to do list, with time scales. It works for me!