September is whizzing past faster than a speeding A1 car! While Mrs J is out enjoying herself, I thought I’d take the time to update my readership (that’s you) as to what’s been going on. It’s all terribly exciting!

I shall start off by mentioning the first exciting thing to happen, which was right back on the second of the month. Whilst waiting for my brother to arrive in The Duke of Cornwall pub with his friend ahead of the evening’s Iron Maiden gig I did a double-take as a man with long, blond hair walked in through the side door of the pub. I thought I was seeing things, but as the people in the bar moved, I realised that standing there at the bar was Iron Maiden’s drummer: Nicko McBrain. I couldn’t believe it! Anyway, having stood on something to boost my height and taken a photograph from afar, I walked up to the bar and asked Nicko if he’s mind me taking a photograph. He said nothing, he just posed with a trademark cheeky grin on his face. That made my night.

The ensuing concert was also most excellent, we were towards the back of the Carling Apollo but our view of the band and the sound were just right. We couldn’t have asked for a much better set-list than the tracks that they played from their first four albums and we all left the venue feeling like we’d really got value for money on our tickets. I was even quoted as saying it was the best Iron Maiden gig I’d ever been to. And I’ve been to a lot!

The next day we had a few friends and some family over to Johnsy Towers to enjoy some flame-grilled food and a couple of chilled refreshments. Both the food and the refreshments went down well in the scorching September sunshine. The brief lunchtime affair turned into a 12-hour boozathon (for many of us) and the recycle bins were fully-laden the next morning. I thank everyone who came along for being wonderful guests.

Within a week of the party, we were in the Ardennes with my father-in-law and mother-in-law. While K and her Mum enjoyed exploring the local region, myself and her Dad enjoyed watching some very fast cars indeed at the 2005 Belgian Grand Prix. I watch a fair amount of motorsport, but to go to a Formula 1 race is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. If you have a QuickTime player to hand, then you can watch my amateur video footage of the first fast lap of the race and see just how quickly the cars go past.

All of these things were great and good and very exciting, but none of these events were as exciting as the email that we received from the Australian Government’s Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs telling us that the application that we lodged at the beginning of March for permanent residents’ visas had been approved!

As such we’ve spent a lot of the past couple of weeks telling our friends and families the good news (taking some time out for my cousin Sharon’s wedding in Co. Laoise) and booking flights and hotels.

I’m sure we’ll be blogging a lot more about our emigration over the next three months, but I suspect we’ll be doing a lot more organising as we prepare the house for our departure on Tuesday, 20 December 2005. There is so much to arrange, what we’re going to sell, what we’re going to store in the UK, what we’re going to take with us at the beginning of our trip, what we’re going to have sent over when we find ourselves jobs and a home… We have lists of lists, I can tell you. Wish us luck, won’t you?