I got a job in Edinburgh so we moved here yesterday. Our reasoning was that we'd moved to Australia with a suitcase-worth of stuff, and that was fine. So really, bringing the car on the ferry was just so we could get the car over, not so we could bring 400kg of belongings.

So we filled the car to the point where if you opened a door you might actually die from the impact avalanche of clothes, electrical goods, fine china and toiletries. There's always room in the passenger's seat, as long as the passenger doesn't mind making eyeholes in a tower of duvets and towels.

I was sad that I couldn't cram in my IKEA faux oriental rug, but it is about 8x6ft and there's only so much contortion the passenger seat person can do.

We drove to Larne. My ferry experience is limited, and I found it rather nice. It's like getting a plane, but instead of getting on the plane they put the whole airport into the sea, so you can still walk around and go to Starbucks. If it wasn't 3 hours drive on either end, I'd get the ferry every time I went home and back.

The Cairnryan to Glasgow bit of the drive looks a lot like the West coast of Ireland. Stone walls, little white houses, rain, sleet, cows. There are some epic looking hills that make you imagine circles of celtic druids chanting to bagpipe and violin music. Luckily there was no bagpipe music. Not until we got to Edinburgh. I'm hoping you learn to tune that out.

Not a lot of garages on the way. Unless they're secret hidden garages. We eventually found one about 20 minutes past Glasgow and it was an Marks and Spencer service station. An M&S service station! The fanciest garage sandwiches you'll ever buy.

We spent our Sunday finding out that we're going to do a lot of paperwork. 'Let's get Scottish phone contracts', we naively thought. I need to get all sorts of UK numbers for things, and documents, and scans of my passport, and my vehicle registration document. Hopefully they won't all require individual trips to the post office, as is the Australian way. If the Australians can work a trip to the post office into your day you can bet they'll do it.

Our flat is nice. There's a Tesco Express right around the corner, but we don't have a dishwasher. Life is never perfect.