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Tales of a Twin Mum

Chasing the Aussie dream

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Our Oz Adventure

A dream home in Australia

Searching for dream homes in Australia

25/11/2017

If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you’ll know that my family and I relocated to Brisbane from Hampshire in the UK back in 2014. A few months after we arrived, we bought our first home in Australia.

Travel with kids

How NOT to travel with kids and a giant mountain of travel luggage

12/08/2016

Seeing as I’ve just launched my new migration website, Smart Steps to Australia, I’m reminiscing about the experience of moving to Australia from the UK. Can you believe we’ve lived here for almost two years already?! At the time it all felt like a huge challenge. Taking three kids away from their grandparents. Saying goodbye […]

Picture of Karen Bleakley, Founder of Smart Steps to Australia

Smart Steps to Australia has launched (with a sneaky peek backstage at the set up + costs)

27/07/2016

I’ve been a little bit quiet on here and social media for the last few weeks. I can finally show you the reason why: Smart Steps to Australia has now launched!

Moving to Australia - picture of some people on a beach

Moving to Australia: There’s no place like home

01/07/2016

Moving to Australia was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. It’s also something that I look back on with a huge sense of achievement – we felt the fear and did it anyway – and now we’re living a life we love.

Couple in front of Uluru - Smart Steps to Australia

New family migration business: Smart Steps to Australia launching soon

13/04/2016

Now the launch of Don’t Panic! A Practical Guide to Twins, Triplets and More is well underway (I’m getting some awesome feedback on it by the way!), it’s time for me to concentrate on my new business. Smart Steps to Australia came to life at the end of last year when I was awarded a Queensland home-based […]

A family on a beach - moving abroad

Have you ever thought about moving abroad? #Myexpatfamily

12/09/2015

As this month we’re celebrating our first whole year in Australia, I’m turning my attention to some freelance writing projects about the subject of emigration. I thought I’d use this post to ask you a question: have you ever thought about moving abroad? Whether to move as a family, work abroad as a couple, travel […]

Three kids on scooters after a year in Australia

Our first year in Australia!

07/09/2015

Can you believe at the end of this month we’ve completed our first year in Australia? It feels like we’ve been here for way longer, yet it also feels like yesterday we said tearful goodbyes to our family and friends back in the UK. It has been the busiest 52 weeks EVER. The first three […]

Three children sitting on their Trunki suitcases

Travel with kids: How to survive long haul travel with three under five (including twins!)

30/12/2014

  The last time I travelled long haul, I found it really boring. I watched more movies than I thought possible and attempted to doze a few times. I read a book, drank wine, chatted to Husband and picked at the awful airline food. I obviously didn’t have children at the time. Fast forward five […]

Collage of children petting kangaroos

Emigration to do list: Part two #Myexpatfamily

15/11/2014

Following on from part one of my emigration to do list (which covered everything we did before we left to UK for our new life in Australia), here is part two, which is an emigration checklist of all the things you need to do when you arrive in Australia. We were clearly deluded into thinking the hard […]

Stack of passports

Emigration to do list: Part one

09/11/2014

Sorry for another long silence. I can’t believe how busy we’ve been since arriving in Australia six weeks ago. I’m really hoping that things calm down in the next couple of weeks as I’m totally exhausted. I’ve got a few more family emigration blog posts to get out of my system before I get back […]

A family looking out to sea

Can children adapt to change? #MyExpatFamily linky

10/10/2014

When we first started talking about moving to Australia, our boys were excited. They wanted to feed kangaroos, cuddle koalas and go whale watching. The adventure of a new home sounded fabulous to them… when it was just talk. The month before we left the UK, T2’s attitude changed. Someone at one of our leaving parties mentioned […]

Pickfords moving van

Shipping your belongings abroad: Emigration tips & tricks

05/10/2014

The last three months have been the busiest of my life. One of the most challenging parts of moving to Brisbane was shipping our belongings abroad. Everyone seemed to think that because we had shippers coming to pack our things, it was going to be easy for us. How wrong they were! If you’re thinking of […]

Margate Beach in Brisbane

We moved to Brisbane!

29/09/2014

I can’t quiet believe we did it! After over a year of talking about it, we finally moved to Brisbane.   We arrived into Brisbane International Airport late on Thursday night, after being up for about 30 hours. We flew as direct as possible, with just a two-hour changeover in Singapore. The boys were absolute angels […]

Container ship

It’s really happening! Family emigration update

01/08/2014

So, this is it! Finally, our house sale is going to complete on 22nd August and we’re about to book our flights to Australia for mid September. We debated about trying to go before E turns two in early September, but decided it would be worth the cost to get her a seat. 24hrs is a long […]

A toy plane

Should kids be allowed on planes?

28/07/2014

I keep hearing discussions that there should be child-free flights for people who don’t want to be bothered by kids kicking the back of their seat. There’s a much better idea though… I read this article recently about Richard Branson’s idea to create a separate cabin for kids on Virgin Atlantic flights, where children would travel separate […]

A beach in Western Australia

Emigration update – when do we go?

08/07/2014

People keep asking me for an emigration update, so I though I’d write a post to tell you where we’re at. We accepted an offer on our house back in May and the sale is slowly moving ahead. I’m hoping to have an exchange date in the next week as I think (hope) everything else is in place *touches […]

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Top five reasons to emigrate: Why we’re moving to Australia

26/06/2014

I’ve written a special top five list, in honour of my new monthly column in Australia and New Zealand magazine. My top five reasons to emigrate to Australia There are lots of reasons we decided to make the move, but these are our main ones: 1) Weather I HATE the cold. I know some people love […]

Toy plane

How will I survive long haul travel with pre-school twins and a toddler?!

12/06/2014

As regular readers will know, later this year we’re going to be making the move from the UK to Australia. This means long haul travel with twins who will be four and a baby just coming up to two. I’m pretty terrified, mostly because my boys can be terrors when they want to be. When they […]

Sydney Harbour

Thinking of emigrating? Read my new column in Australia and New Zealand magazine!

09/06/2014

I’m so excited to announce that I’m writing a regular column for the fabulous Australia and New Zealand magazine! I’ve been an avid reader of the mag for many years, and have been lucky enough to write for them about our grown up gap year travels in Australia. My new monthly column will be about family […]

Inexpensive tips and tricks to sell your home

03/06/2014

We did it! After months of hard work renovating our house ready to get it on the market, it was launched with a local estate agent a couple of weeks ago. The third people to view the property (just four days after it hit the market) put in an offer for the full asking price. They […]

Sydney Harbour

Our skilled independent visa for Australia has been granted!

25/03/2014

We’ve just had some fabulous news… Our skilled independent visa has been approved, which means we can move to Australia as soon as we like!

Emigration update: We have a case officer!

26/02/2014

This is how we’ll be spending our evening…

Why we’re emigrating: A letter to my children

14/02/2014

Dear kids, I thought I should write to explain why we’re taking you to the other side of the world. I know you’re looking forward to escaping this rain and seeing the dazzling-white beaches we’ve shown you in the pictures, but I know you don’t really understand what it all means yet. To be honest, many […]

We’ve received an invitation to apply for our Australian visa!

27/01/2014

We’ve received an invitation to apply for our Australian visa, at last!

Migrating to Australia: One step closer!

26/11/2013

Just a quick update… As some of you will have seen from my Facebook and Twitter, yesterday we received the fantastic news that the skills authority have accepted our application for Husband to be classed as an electrical technician!

Our emigration journey: Skills assessments and visa applications

13/11/2013

Quite a few people have asked me how our plans to emigrate are coming along. Well, it’s a very, very slow process and there isn’t a huge amount to tell you. We’re moving forward but there’s a lot of waiting between each stage. As each phase of paperwork gets submitted we’re preparing the paperwork for the next […]

What to do with your pet when you move to Australia

04/11/2013

I’m pleased to see the back of last week. It was a long slog but we made it. As you saw in my last post, the kids all came down with chicken pox last Monday. By Wednesday they were all smothered in painful blisters. Nobody was sleeping at night (that includes me) and there were […]

Decision made…Australia here we come!

07/08/2013

Regular readers and Twitter followers will know that my family and I had arrived at a crossroads a couple of months ago. We were debating whether to relocate in the UK or follow a dream that had been with us for the past four years and emigrate from the UK to Australia. It was a really difficult […]

Should we stay or should we go? To relocate in the UK or move to Australia

03/06/2013

I’m in a huge dilemma at the moment about where to live. We seem to have narrowed it down to three options, but none of them are easy: move to … the Isle of Wight… Cornwall … or Australia!

More Posts about our Oz Adventure

BY KAREN BLEAKLEY
Karen
Hi! I’m Karen - a beach and travel obsessed mum of three and founder of Smart Steps to Australia - a migration website created to help support UK families on their move to Australia. Sharing my life as a writer, mum and entrepreneur while raising three kids including twins and chasing the Aussie dream. Visit my About Me page

Buy My Book: Don’t Panic! A Practical Guide to Twins, Triplets & More







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