A visit to the OE office to make a payment to the Australian immigration department, and the next payment to OE. We are invited to a seminar in Edinburgh about support services for people who are emigrating – it’s a help as it makes us feel we are doing something towards our goal. The waiting is hard; you have to get on with your daily routine but inside your stomach is doing somersaults every time you think about it. We haven’t told anyone yet so we have to keep all this emotion to ourselves.

I’m suffering from homesickness and we haven’t even left yet! I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night and going to sit in the bathroom of our house (my favourite room) and thinking: “Will I ever have a bathroom like this again?” Crazy, I know. We have the added upset of leaving the house we built - we are still finishing the garden. I’m so proud of John’s wall-building efforts I almost don’t want to leave! It’s the small things that get you as well as the big things like family. I find the thought of leaving the rose tree my best friend bought me as a wedding gift so upsetting. I seem to be crying most nights. I’m worried that I will regret leaving if something happens to my family with me so far away.

A night to remember – told my parents about our plans. If I were doing this all over again, I’d have dropped hints before actually telling them. It comes as a total bombshell for them and they get a bit angry and upset. They thought I was going to tell them I was pregnant, and instead I announce we’re going off to the other side of the world. My dad doesn’t speak to me for the next three weeks, which is dreadful, but I realise it’s because every time he sees me he gets so upset at the thought that I want to leave. We are a close family and I’m the only girl – no wonder he’s taken it badly. But they are slowly starting to get used to the idea. My mum says to me: “Ali, you can’t live your life worrying about the what-ifs. You’ve just got to do what you need and want to do.” My grandmother has been fabulous, as has John’s grandfather. They think it’s a fantastic idea – I’m in shock at how cool they are about it!

We are sent for our medicals – turns out you shouldn’t have this until your OE rep tells you to, because they’re only valid for a year. If you have it too soon, you end up having to pay for another one. We fill in forms about our past history and have X-rays to check for things like TB scarring, and blood tests for Hepatitis C and HIV. As we wait for the results we can’t help thinking – what if something shows up? Great relief when we are given the all-clear, although John has to have his X-ray again as they thought they saw a shadow – luckily, it’s just the way he was standing. Still, it gives us a few heart-stopping moments! It would be terrible to find out you had a health problem when you were so close to the finishing line. I suppose if you have real doubts you should get yourself checked out first before going to all the expense – emotional and financial – of applying to emigrate.

I feel it’s vital to take some stuff that will make us feel at home – clothes, photos, special ornaments, musical instruments, teddies (although John makes me cull half of them.) We spend many a night talking about what we’ll take. I’m a hoarder and John ends up saying: “Ali, they do have plates in, you know!” I hate to admit it, but he’s right. Still I manage to squeeze in two old Pyrex measuring jugs without him noticing.

Our visas have come. A mixture of feelings – euphoria and ohhhhhh what are we doing! We have sold our house and moved in with mum and dad. I’m going to miss our house terribly. Crown Relocations come to pick up all our stuff. I have spent many, many weekends battling the crowds at car boot sales, getting rid of the stuff we aren’t taking. We are leaving in December.

Big change of plan – John has got word that the Queensland police interviews are being held in October, so we have to be in Melbourne by October 16^th. It’s all go. Lots of farewell parties – very hard. My employers aren’t too impressed that I’m leaving sooner than expected, but in a way it’s great because we don’t have months to think about it. We pack four suitcases, which is all we’ll have with us for the next six months until our stuff arrives. As we’re off to sunny Australia there’s no need for jumpers and jackets – I pack bikinis, shorts and summer tops. Wonder how long it will take me to acclimatise to the Australian weather?

Our families come with us to the airport to see us off. Lots of tears. My twin brother, who is seven minutes older than me, is very upset. We have been through school and university together and it breaks my heart to leave him, not to mention my mum and dad and my new nephew and my grandma … but I keep thinking about what my mum said about not worrying about ‘what ifs’. I walk through the airports in floods of tears and stand in the queue crying – very British. I cry for about half of the flight, in between sleeping and eating. Finally, we arrive – and it’s colder in Melbourne than it was in Edinburgh! I’m freezing. What good are my bikinis now?

We’ve been here for a few weeks now and it’s been up and down. We are staying with relatives of John’s whom we had never met before. They have been kind but we hadn’t realised how difficult living with another family was going to be. We feel we have no space which makes life difficult, particularly as we are feeling vulnerable. In retrospect, we should have gone it alone from the word ‘go’, even though that’s difficult financially. You really do need to have enough money to live on for six months – you can work straight away once you get here, but part-time work isn’t always easy to find. I have a job in a clothes shop; the girls are nice but I’m bored. At least I’m out there meeting people. John is finding there isn’t much casual work for a 30-year-old.

We are spending a lot of time sorting out our documents – enrolling with Medicare, resitting our driving test (only the theory part, thank goodness, although if we were living in Brisbane you have to do the driving part as well and the roads are HUGE!) We are getting banks sorted out, and tax file numbers. All very time-consuming. We carry our documents with us at all time and never let them out of our sight!

Australians on the whole are very friendly. When they hear the accent they are full of questions and interest in us - a quick trip to the post office can turn into an hour and a half of chat with complete strangers offering  you advice. They all seem to say: “Oh, you’re from Scotland, my mum’s half-sister is from Glasgow.....do you know her?” People seem so supportive but I’ve learned not to trust the ones who tell you that you’d better watch yourself because you might get fleeced – they’re the very ones who try to pull a fast one on you!

We’re on our way to Brisbane, where we’re going to settle – John has heard he has got into QLD police and is due to start in February. We decide to go via Sydney and spend Christmas there. We meet up with two friends from back home who are on their honeymoon. It’s so fantastic to see someone who knows us and to whom we don’t have to explain everything about our past life. Getting to know new people isn’t hard, but it’s actually quite exhausting as everyone you meet has no point of reference from past experiences with you, so you end up explaining an awful lot about yourself. Sydney is lovely - the Harbour is almost deserted on Christmas Day so it is as if we have it all to ourselves. We climb the bridge on Boxing Day with our friends.

Now it’s December 27 and we’re on the way to our final destination – Brisbane! It’s an 18-hour drive and we arrive at 1am. It looks beautiful at night, all lit up. John and I take it in – we’re blown away to actually be here. We drive around looking for a motel and stop at the first one we find. Two days later we find out we’re in the heart of the gay night club area – we end up meeting some lovely people here!

We’re living in a semi-detached rented house, trying to put down some roots. The red tape is mighty frustrating but you have to stick with it and keep pushing for what you need. It’s taking a while for me to get registered as a teacher. We can’t wait for our stuff to arrive from Scotland; our house is empty apart from two camp chairs. We’ve been sleeping on the floor and using an esky (or ice box) as a table. Not comfortable. Our stuff is due to arrive on January 19th. Counting the days.

Complete disaster – our removals company says there’s been a delay and the shipment is still in Glasgow. To make matters worse, our route has changed so instead of taking 30 days it’s going to take 60. I go ballistic, but it’s sorted with help from our OE consultant and we reach a solution.

We are out exploring – get lost as usual – and I get talking to a real estate agent. Next thing I know we are putting on offer in on a house. John hasn’t even started his training and I’m unemployed but we regard these as minor drawbacks! Don’t feel so calm after going to the bank and setting up a mortgage, but in for a penny in for a pound….

Our things have been delivered. It’s like Christmas. I start on the first box at 9am and the tears start at 9.01. I cry my way through the first 25 boxes, then realise I have another 50 to go so I pull myself together. It’s funny – the things that seemed so important six months ago don’t seem so now. My favourite towels from Next, for instance, look old and faded, not at all how I remembered them. Still, having my stuff makes me feel at home. I even cherish the smell of home on all our old stuff. Now our house can be a mixture of old and new, a kind of map of our adventures from around the world. I’m really starting to feel as if I belong here.

It’s almost two years since we first arrived in, and time to look back on the experience. Although we’re doing the same jobs as back home, they are very different. I’ve found the change of education systems very frustrating – for instance, you don’t go for interviews for specific schools, you’re in a pool of teachers who get placed where the need arises, and after three years you can be moved anywhere in Queensland, which isn’t great. Change is always difficult but as we get more used to the Australian system I think it will get easier. John has also had some adapting to do in his job.

Of course, there are things I miss about home. I miss the snow (but only the kind that comes down overnight and blocks you

Dunbars go whale watching in Australia

Our lifestyle is everything I had hoped for and I can honestly say I’ve never been tempted to chuck it all in and go back to Scotland. Our goal was to own a four-bedroom home with a pool and we have done it. The lovely weather is a definite advantage and I’ll never get bored of exploring this beautiful country. On a personal note, the experience of emigrating has had a profound effect on me as a person. I’m much more confident and happy. I stand up for myself and fight back if I feel intimidated by anyone, which is something I wouldn’t have done back home. Moving here has brought John and me even closer - they say that emigrating will make you or break you and I think we’re now cemented at the hip for life!

I’m blown away when I think how much we have achieved in such a short time and, as for the future, I think things can only get even better from here.