A brief catch up.....as I've been away a while.....
We have been fostering for the last two years with Barnardos 2012 - 2014, looking after the young boy was an amazing period in our lives and we feel that we helped him and inspired him in many ways and we still miss him. the placement for various reasons came to an end last November 2014 and our lives were yet again thrown into uncertainty, life became very boring very quiet very quick and for fun Stephanie my OH applied for jobs abroad teaching Drama which is her speciality, expecting nothing to come of it at all, we dreamed of living in the sun and laughed at our folly....but then two schools showed interest and all of a sudden we realised it might actually come off....two interviews went by and then another, and then a period of waiting and then BOOOOMMMM...
Tenby International School in Ipoh Malaysia would like to offer you a two year contract as Head of Drama from September 2015....!!!!! WTF.....
Dont be silly we thought....not us no way...must be a cone a joke....then the salary and package arrived and the hard copy contract.....NOT a JOKE now...and the salary was very good indeed....
she actually got two job offers, one in Tenerife and the Malaysian one, Tenerife does sound nice eh, but the head mistress there was a tough old Irish boot and not to Stephanies nature also Spain are bastards at ripping teachers off with contracts that dont pay in the summer breaks, what a cone....so T was a no.
A period of shock and stunned silence fell on the house as we realised the upheaval our lives are now to take and that in 5 months time we will be leaving derby and the house we love so much for ever...da da daaaa..
So presently March 2015, we are selling stuff on E bay to try and get as much savings as we can muster, the house need to be prepared for rent, we have already found a couple to rent and they are friends of peeps across the road so that should work out ok, no need to use an agency. we have a timeline plan set out in the lounge and slowly putting this epic plan into motion....there is so much more than we thought wed need to do. we sold the caravan last week, so that was relief....and the rst must go over the next few months, basically we are house stripping so it can be rented, the renters already have most things they simply wont need ours.
We have been gorging on research about the country and the area, and there is so much to see and do, the country and surrounding areas and countries have so much to offer, its crazy, the island are stunning, its warm all year.....phew really warm actually...i fact most of the year it is on average about 35c during the day and a constant 25c during the night....that could be a worry. But as we understand it all building and accommodation have aircon and so there's lots of escape routes should it get too hot.
Interestingly expats who usually live there for a period rent out apartments or land housing but always it seems in gated community and these gated communities have facilities which include wading pool, swimming pool, tennis courts, gymnasium and mini park area as well as a clubhouse to socialise...how cool is that to us it will feel like were basically on holiday? the cost for all of this well most good well sized apartments cost around MR1500, sometimes less sometimes more depending on what you want. presently at the time of writing £1 = 5.5 MR so MR 1500 is about £270 per month with all of extras...so not bad at all. i could be swimming all day in some like this...
But on a more serious side I need to crack on with my TEFL course i started and get it done within the year so i can start (hopefully) teaching English to ickle people out there when i am settled. At first i imagine i will support Stephanie in her role and seek out volunteering nearby if available.
So as said above we are preparing the house for rent, we have found suitable tenants and they are friends of people we know and it should be fine. we have lowered the mortgage costs to below the rental charge and so will cover our costs when out thee and so far by selling thing we have made £2000 already with more to go.
problem is do we sell our piano, i cant i just cant, we need to ship it out there, shipping if interested is very expensive i think, especially when you consider most things you ship can probably be bought out there for less when you arrive, the school has offered some money in regard to this costs of £350 and we pay the rest but it still comes in at £7/800 in total!!! and thats being shipped taking four weeks. so lots to think about.
Finding an Expat who lives there.
This is the best bit, I went on an expat forum site and searched for anybody that might be living in Ipoh Malaysia, and it took a while and most people seem to love living in Panang i the north or KL down south, but the we found a Scotsman and his Malaysian wife Mei, these two have been so helpful and open with us it is magical, they will never know how important and valued their in sights have been and they i am sure will continue to support us when we arrive, we owe them big style. if your reading this at some point you know who you are....Thanks a million.
They sent a video of what it looks like in Ipoh from a drone and here it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfSu6dFwJGk
As of March 2015, we are decorating, we have to do the bedroom and the bathroom to make sure all is well with the house and of course sell everything, so that's what were doing right now getting covered in poaint and glue.
