I'm sorry, how much is that?!

When people said that our emigration would be quite expensive, we said: "Ofcourse, it can't be cheap moving to the other side of the world" and thought: "Meh, can't be that bad, right?" Wrong.

Now, in all honesty, if you are some sort of government super-special agent with a master's degree in bureaucracy and wicked skills in sign-of- approval-getting, you could probably save a few hunderd bucks. We are not that type of super agent (yet), so we hired an agency for the brainy stuff. Smart move, but for a price.

Getting a visa, will set you back about $4,500 all  costs included. Then there's the cost of the agency, another $3,500. You have cats, dogs, a mongoose or platypus? Okay, that's quarantine for you buddy. Oh, and 20 vet visits, another 50 stamps of approval, a month of quarantine, blood tests (for the cats, not us) 15 document checks and 10 checks on those checks, an import permit, airline freight cost and 5 government agencies getting involved. And before we forget, here's your bill (check please) to fork over another $3,000 bucks please, no worries, we take credit cards.

You want to take your stuff? Sure thing, here's the paperwork. No, that is not the Canberra phonebook you silly, that's much thinner! Don't want to figure it out for yourself? You already have a job, you say? Okay, then hire an agent! Okay, there goes 5m3 of our stuff for another $3,000.

Then there's your tickets (one-way is ofcourse not half-price, but only 80%) so that's another $2,000. Are we keeping up boys and girls? That's $16,000 over 2 years! Most of which we fortunately paid before the AUD started dropping in value. When we paid up, the AUD was at 80 cents to the Euro, it is now at 69 cents. Yes indeed, that means we paid about 15% more then, than we would now, but hey, who's keeping score huh, who needs money anyway?

One of Gil's nickname's is The piggy-bank and The piggy-bank says: "This is about as much as my slot can take, no more, please!!). Funny thing is, we still think it's worth it. Gil is trying hard not to think about what will happen to the piggy bank savings once we get there (ouch!)