Crocodile Hotson – Colin Hotson’s new life in Australia

It was just over four months ago that Colin Hotson and his wife Linda sold their Braintree house and flew out to Brisbane, Australia on one way tickets. It had taken them six and a half years from applying to receiving our Australian visas, then another year to sell their house.

At our ages it was a big move and one that only occurred due to the insistence of our daughters and their families who had moved out here to live ten years earlier.

As can be imagined, in the time we have been here, many ‘things’ have had to be done to establish ourselves as Australian Citizens. We have bought a bungalow – a house out here – and moved in immediately after Christmas and also bought an (automatic) car, manual cars are not sold here now. At least they drive on the same side of the road over here.
Life is good out here and although constant sunshine is good, the humidity is not good at all, but having had solar panels installed a couple of weeks ago these pay for the running of the air conditioning unit which reduces the indoor temperature to a far more acceptable level. Daily showers are necessary and I use only cold water. When it rains, it certainly throws it down and the humidity increases accordingly. Water is a commodity that is conserved as much as possible and the previous house owner had a 5000litre water tank and pump installed which helps in the dry periods to keep the garden plants in good condition without having to use mains water.
I have forgotten how many different mains plugs I have had purchase, and the few things that we have had to replace have not been too many. We are still sorting the house out to how we want it but getting there slowly. Although we have left friends and acquaintances behind who we miss very much, life is settling in to a routine and to be near our daughters and their families is well worth the move. Soon we will be looking to do volunteer work as we did at the Braintree Community Hospital, this will certainly make the time go quickly and will allow us a chance to put something back into the local community.

One thing to remember about Australia, and that is that there are not kangaroos living at the base of every tree and a koala bear up every tree. They do exist but only in certain areas and in the time we have been here, we have only seen a single wild kangaroo and that in one of our daughters extensive back garden.