2 weeks in
Jul 12th 2005, 12:22 pm
#1
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 389
2 weeks in
Just thought I would update anyone interested.
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
Jul 12th 2005, 12:56 pm
#2
Master of verbal pish©
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 22,198
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bhoywonder
Just thought I would update anyone interested.
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
good luck with the rest 
Jul 12th 2005, 1:03 pm
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2004
Location: Mona Vale, Northern Beaches, Sydney
Posts: 1,076
Re: 2 weeks in
Barrie
my heart goes out to you, what a fantastic post, you must be exhausted. Isn't it the middle of the night, do you still have jet lag??
Good luck and very well done so far
Tara
my heart goes out to you, what a fantastic post, you must be exhausted. Isn't it the middle of the night, do you still have jet lag??
Good luck and very well done so far
Tara
Jul 12th 2005, 1:08 pm
#4
The Godfather
Joined: Feb 2004
Location: South East Suburbs of Melbourne
Posts: 7,336
Re: 2 weeks in
Glad things are getting better Barrie, I thought you were about ready to get the next flight home at the Melbourne meet.
Jul 12th 2005, 1:11 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2005
Location: Sunshine Coast
Posts: 184
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bhoywonder
Just thought I would update anyone interested.
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
Nicola
Jul 12th 2005, 1:15 pm
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: London Now-> Melbourne Soon
Posts: 190
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bhoywonder
No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's.
I suppose the lesson for the rest of us is: plan to arrive well in advance of your validation expiry date.
Leaving it till the last minute leaves you exposed to all sorts of potential risks - lost passport, delayed flight, airport closure due to terrorism, air traffic controllers strike - and if you are unlucky enough to miss the deadline, that's it, you've blown your dream !!!
Phil
Jul 12th 2005, 1:21 pm
#7
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: North Staffordshire
Posts: 400
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bhoywonder
Just thought I would update anyone interested.
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
My blood pressure's rocketed aftee reading that!! All's well that ends well though
Glad everything is going smoothly. Enjoy your new life
Cheers
BD
Jul 12th 2005, 1:24 pm
#8
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 389
Re: 2 weeks in
Yeah, but us Scots like to live life on the edge. Wouldn't be the same otherwise.
Jul 12th 2005, 1:33 pm
#9
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2005
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 389
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bordy
Glad things are getting better Barrie, I thought you were about ready to get the next flight home at the Melbourne meet.
Had a look down the SE burbs again and saw a different picture, now renting a place in Edithvale. People get hung up about distance. Our thoughts before we came out where that everything was spread out all over the place however that is not the case. If you have a car you can access just about anything within 30 / 45 mintues.
I met my boss today and when I told him I was staying in Edithvale he nearly had a heart attack. It is only 40 mins on the train to CBD, That is a dream for me.
Jul 12th 2005, 1:48 pm
#10
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Buderim on the Sunshine Coast.
Posts: 812
Re: 2 weeks in
Originally Posted by Bhoywonder
Just thought I would update anyone interested.
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We arrived on the 30th June after a nightmare journey. The airline were great ( BA ) however the events surrounding the flights were not exactly how we had planned things. Flight from Glasgow to London, normally 1.5 hours ( 1/2 hour checking out the sights of Watford from 25,000 feet ) took us 2.5 hours due to a lightening storm. This delay pushed all the connections from then on in pretty tight. We jumped on the transfer bus from terminal 1 to 4 and in a mad rush to make our flight to Singapore ( departed in 10 mins ) I left my laptop bag on the bus. Now normally I would have claimed the insurance on this or reported it and waited to see if it had been found but this wasn't a normal circumstance. I had my passports with visa's obviously inserted in the bag as well. The next 30 mins were not the best I have spent in my life. As I was rushing to a BA desk to try and locate my bag, we were being offloaded from the flight to Singapore. I left my wife and daughter at the gate trying to sort out the flight as I was trying to get a hold of the bus company. I have watched Airport many times and had a laugh at the people ranting and raving at themselves as they had been so stupid. Yes that was me in this instance, the enormity of what I had just done was starting to hit me. No passports, no flight, no new life. We had to enter the country by 1st July to validate visa's. Things at this point couldn't have been any worse. Next thing that registers with me is the BA woman on the desk saying "we've got it". The smile on my face, if I could have jumped the counter I would have and given her a big kiss.
I got the bag and in the meantime the weather got worse. The flight to Singapore had been delayed. We were going to make it after all. We were put back on the flight and away we went.
We reached Singapore 2 hours behind schedule and fortunately our connecting flight had been delayed as well so we were able to spend some time in the lounge. Next leg of the flight went well and we arrived safely in Melbourne only to find that our daughters stroller, travel cot and my case hadn't made it with us. ( I suppose I expected something like this as we had been unloaded and reloaded ) I have travelled a bit in the past and sampled the same situation so I knew how to deal with it. We reported the missing items and to my amazement the ground staff told us they would hire a stroller and travel cot until ours arrived. Very impressed with this.
Next stage was to get through immigration. Very simple, queue up and present your landing card and passport, they stamp it and through you go. ( We found out the hard way by standing in the queue. If you have a child with you, you can take the lane next to the one the crew take. This just takes you right to the front. Wish we had known about that as we had a 14mth old on my arms as we had no stroller )
Anyway here we are and 2 weeks in. I've got to say I am very impressed with how integrated each of the institutes are. In 1 week we have been able to arrange our TFN, drivers licence, rental accommodation, bought a car, medicare, insurance for car, parking permit from town hall, dial-up internet ( you can pick up a disk from any telstra shop with pre-paid hours on it. very simple ) and attended a Melbourne meet, very helpful.
Everything has been very easy to organise and the people, well everything people say about Melbournites is 100% true. Very friendly, can't do enough for you.
So I start my job on Monday. We move into our rental accommodation on Thursday and looking forward to some reality. I will be glad when we have finally settled in a place as the serviced apartments are starting to grate on us now. ( Tip if anyone is planning to stay in the British Apartments. Make sure you don't get number 4 as this is just a room with your bed, kitchen, living area in one space. Make sure you ask the question. How many rooms is there. )
Anyway this is turning into war and peace and I am sure everyone has had enough by now if not earlier.
Hope people have found this informative and any questions then please ask.
I would like to say a special thanks to Flying Banana, Princess_atta & Flumper for making us welcome and helping us settle in.
Barrie
We are just trying to sell our house in the uk then it's off to Brissie, All the best Barrie i hope everything continues well in Mel 4 u.
Paula.
Jul 12th 2005, 2:00 pm
#11
Chocoholic
Joined: Apr 2005
Location: Betchworth, Surrey.
Posts: 2,899
Re: 2 weeks in
Glad to see you're settling in.
Keep us posted.
Keep us posted.
Jul 12th 2005, 2:04 pm
#12
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 322
Re: 2 weeks in
Great post - thanks for the info
Good luck for the next chapter of your adventure
Good luck for the next chapter of your adventure
Jul 12th 2005, 3:18 pm
#13
Happy Member
Joined: Feb 2005
Location: On a rollercoaster
Posts: 1,913
Re: 2 weeks in
Never get bored with peoples arrival stories thanks for taking the time to post!
Keep us informed
Cheers
Kris
Keep us informed
Cheers
Kris
Jul 12th 2005, 3:33 pm
#14
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2005
Location: Melbourne, since 19th Jan 2006
Posts: 596
Re: 2 weeks in
I just love these arrival stories, especially the ones to Melbourne which is where we will be going! I imagine myself lining myself up at my computer and typing the words 'We have finally arrived'.... A long way for us to go though - not even got assessment back yet 
Good luck with it all.
Sarah
Good luck with it all.
Sarah
Jul 12th 2005, 3:37 pm
#15
?????????
Joined: May 2003
Location: Gold Coast
Posts: 1,974
Re: 2 weeks in
Gotta agree, Great post & good luck with the new job too.
