Sorry Astrophe, I know I promised you an update ages ago but I got so bored talking about it!!! We are hoping to have our visa within 4 weeks or so - the immigration dept. have finally pulled their finger out as they have a quota to meet by end of June, so looks like we'll benefit. The people buying our house are now putting pressure on and I've kind of committed to moving on 18th May, but I'm having second thoughts as I could do with a couple of extra weeks. Ideally we would move out on the 31st May, then head for Oz within a few days. There's lots going on job wise for DH, including a possibile opportunity to set up a company in Sydney. We're going to spend three weeks or so in Singapore and Thailand giving the kids an "experience", then we have to land in Oz before 1st July before the citizenship rules change. We're going to get a serviced apartment like we did for our holiday for a few weeks while we look for somewhere to rent. I'm going to home educate DS1 and DD for a while when we arrive to ease them in gently - I know a woman who runs a home ed group in the Upper North Shore area so should be able to tap into that. DS1 did like St. Ives High when we were over, but I'm not sure about St. Ives' rents!!! Looks like we could get the same kind of house, a bit closer to the railway for a bit less if we move towards Turramurra, Wahroonga etc. I also want to look at some other schools (Turramurra High, Kuring gai Creative Arts High etc.) to have something to compare. I would love to sent DS1 private, but could only afford the Church schools and DS1 is not very happy with that. I really need to pick Bloss' brains yet again about the whole school thing. Anyway, that's as much as I can get my head around at the moment. We need to take trips to France and Ireland before we leave to say goodbye to family which is a bit of a nightmare logistically, and I am trying not to unsettle the kids (DH suggested moving out, going to Ireland, coming back to the UK, going to France, coming back to the UK then leaving for Oz!! He was also hoping to add a couple of weeks in Greece into the equation to see some old friends. Funnily enough I think this is a crap idea.) Did you ever manage to make your trip to Ireland? Hope you had fun if you did.