Where to start?! Suppose the beginning is as good a place as any! Sunday 26th January 2014 - no I'm not going to give a day by day account, but that is where it started! The day we visited the Holiday Inn, Garforth for a seminar hosted by the Emigration Group. We had been thinking about travelling to Australia for a while, when my sister said we might be able to get visa's and work out there.

The seminar went well, Emigration Group were so helpful and informative, we filled in some paperwork and arranged a meeting in Chester to go through the finer details.

14th February 2014 - what better way to spend Valentines day than planning a change in your life, with the wife of course! We met with Ollie from the Emigration Group and went through the process to apply for a visa (independent skilled migrant subclass 189 for those interested) and that was that, we signed our life, in England, away and began to dream of moving to Australia.

Fast forward 15 months and here we are, the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, a short stop on the long journey, to what could be the rest of our lives!

So much has happened in 15 months. The money spent on applying for a visa, trust me it's not cheap, but hopefully worth it. The tests, don't ask Steph about IELTS, think she still has nightmares. Selling our first house, moving back in with my parents, and all the overtime (I must have some sort of record for number of stand bys at YW). Not to mention having to give up our little boy Freddie, adopted by my inlaws as we couldn't take him with us! Freddie's the cat, just in case anybody was worried.

The last few weeks have been the hardest of our lives, knowing that each time we saw people and places it may be the last time, for a while at least! And then came the final goodbyes. The leaving do was brilliant, we honestly didn't expect so many people to turn up, it was great to get chance to chat and say farewell to so many people that mean so much to us. We were only sorry it couldn't last longer, or that we couldn't chat a little bit more. Then the thought enters your mind, 'are we doing the right thing' we have said that so many times, but always come back to the same conclusion, 'give it a chance, what's the worst that could happen?!'

Sunday was exciting but gut wrenching in equal measures. Saying goodbye to family, knowing that they will miss us just as much as we'll miss them, not an experience I want to repeat in a hurry!

The flight to Singapore was not as bad as we anticipated, Singapore Airlines were fantastic, the service is second to none and 15 hours of our lives seemed to be over in a shot!

The hotel isn't bad either, from the infinity pool on the 57th floor to cocktails and canapés in the club lounge, a little bit of a treat to help ease us in.

So now you know where and when hopefully I will be able to keep you informed as to why! We fly to Sydney tomorrow and have 2 weeks in Dee Why with my sister before the real adventure begins.

Wish us luck

The Haddys xxx