The letter arrived in April 1985. This was the one that my wife and I had been waiting for. This was the letter that was going to change our lives. Our final OK had been received for us and our two kids to migrate to Australia. A big step you might say. After 20 years, it fades into the mist of memory but, at the time, after the initial happiness and excitement we had to get down to the question of removal - relocation to another part of the world. Almost as far away from where we were in the UK that was possible - with the exception of New Zealand.

Where do we start: first of all we had to decide what was the first thing to do, a fairly obvious decision really, put the house on the market. But then, what price do we ask, what work to we need to do to it to sell it quickly. You might say; what's the panic. Why do you need to stress out so early in the piece? Did I forget to tell you, we had to be in Australia by the end of August!

So we decided to sell the thing ourselves and not put it in the hand of real estate agents. The deed had been done, first thing sorted. We were quite lucky - sold it pretty quickly. We then had to organise how we were going to move our belongings, what to take, what to leave, how to dispose of what we didn't want. Sorting the kids' things out. Making sure we got rid of all the old toys. Imagine telling them, particularly the eight-year-old, that they couldn't take all their toys - you'd think that the end of the world had come when we broke the news.

We then had to decide on an agent to physically transport the goods from the UK to Australia. We did the usual business practice thing, chose three or four from the Yellow Pages, had them come in and give us quotes and made our choice of operator. That was quite easy really! At this time, we fitted in buying our

Things you have to face and don't realise is how do you get rid of your car. Do you take it or not? Well that's not really a decision. It's not really practical to take a five-year-old car made in Europe to a climate like Australia, so we decided to sell it. But when? We needed it right up to the day we left to "run around in". So we had to ask friends to sell it for us when we left.

The big, emotional moving day arrived. We left the house we had lived in for nine years I guess with a few tears. We stayed at relatives overnight and flew out of England the following day. All went beautifully. Relatives we had in Australia put us up for a while. We bought a house, moved in - November 1985. No furniture!! Not due to arrive from UK till January.

OK, no real problem. The family managed to put a few sticks together for us, a bed, table, few chairs, etc. Everything going fine. Furniture arrives in January, to complete the relocation. Picture this: standing by the front door watching some of your furniture and goods coming in the door broken. VCR runs backwards legs hanging off dressing table, etc.

It has to be said though, all in all, most things didn't go too badly. A few claims in insurance, removers denied responsibility but still paid up. Amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it. Wish I could remember more about it, though. Still we look back now with some amusement.