bondipom

$650,000 will get an OK 1 bedroom flat in Bondi.

Badge

indeed - but Bondi is now a kind of "Central London" location. A one bedroom flat in the best area of London eg Belgravia Westminster - I dread to think.

Pete would have been referring to suburbs.

badge

WBB

that sort of money could easily buy you a 5 bed house with a pool in the burbs.

bondipom

Of Brisssie maybe but not Sydney.

bondipom

Anyway tomorrow morning I am off back to Britain for 10 days for a family wedding. Lots of drinking with friends, bloody M&S shopping and most importantly seeing close family and my gran.

Not looking forward to the cold but who gives a shit when you are pissed.

hutchy

can i just say getting back to the schooling, i think it also depends if the kids are willing to learn,my daughter bright as a button so no matter what school she goes to she is gonna do well, be it uk or oz, my son on the other hand doesnt like school too much and is not as willing to learn, he has to be encouraged...It is all down to the individual child.so dont knock either country as it is up to the kids as much as the teachers, and the parents, to help them..Son is never gonna be brainbox of anywhere but he will have experienced both side of the world, and come out with more knowledge than most british kids , however , daughter is an avid reader who wants to know everything about everything, thats just the way she is, been like that since before she started school.The school she went to in UK was a dump, needed money had drug problems but it never affected her as she wants to learn, was in with the right crowd of people. School son went to was a nice clean community school but he wasnt as interested..so it is catch 22...Jan Hutchinson

WBB

could easily buy land and build on it for aus650k in almost anywhere in australia.

you just got to be willing to do the legwork, and obviously a lot of hard yakka.

bondipom

I am talking about Sydney. People buying land now have a years waiting to get the builders in. Price of building is shooting way ahead of inflation. I am sure there are plenty places where I do not want to live that have houses available for 650k but then that is bloody useless for me.

WBB

i too am talking of sydney, you could easily buy land and build a nice house for that sotrt of doh.

i have a friend who is a property developer in aus and he tells me that he bought a rundown house in sydney 2 minutes from the beach (not sure which) spent 6 months working on it and his total investment including purchase price, stamp duty and the work was less than half a million dollars, he then sold the house for nine hundred thousand.

seang

I am talking about Sydney. People buying land now have a years waiting to get the builders in. Price of building is shooting way ahead of inflation. I am sure there are plenty places where I do not want to live that have houses available for 650k but then that is bloody useless for me[QUOTE]


whats coogee,bronte,clovelly like now ?the same or still $50k'ish less or are they on a par?

just looking at the new units advertised at the oval in coogee -$1/2 million but stunning views and brand new

HiddenPaw

That's exactly what it is - per capita. There are more murders per capita in Oz than in UK.

And 30% of the Oz population are annually affected by serious crime, compared to 26% in the UK.

Here we have hoons who tear around the streets in souped-up cars, generally late at night - waking up neighbourhoods. Not just tearing round the streets but also using them as drag racing strips. Of course we also have rape, assault, and I've lost count of the number of drive-by shootings that have been on the news in recent weeks.

I don't know, since when has taking your credit card to the docs been classed as free health care?

There is a thing here called 'bulk-billing' - some doctors offer bulk billing, some don't. If you go to a doc with bulk billing you don't pay a bean. The downside is that that these are the places where you'll most likely wait 4 days to get an appointment. On the other hand, you can go to a docs where you pay - the standard appointment cost is about $45 and you can claim about $25 back from Medicare. In my experience you will get a same day appt. It's up to you whether you choose a place with BB or not.

I had an operation in May and it was free (although I do have to pay a Medicare levy from my salary - that's just like NI though)

I'm not convinced that life is 'better' in either the UK or Oz. The vices of developed society have caught up with both. I certainly have not found life better or worse in Australia, just different. But it depends on your expectations and desires - I didn't come with any - I came predominantly to be closer to my sister.

noodle

Hidden Paw, have sent you a pm.

Sparkley

Good Lord, when I read posts like Hidden Paw's it makes me wonder why I want to go to Melbourne at all. There's so much negativity on these boards (not that I doubt the truth in what you say) - guess that's the nature of discussion forums though. People come to them with issues, not to share their joys. Does freak me out a bit though I must admit.

Sparkley

WBB

4 days!!!!!

if i phone my local clinic i can easily expect a 2 week wait to see a doctor sometimes more, you can of course just turn up without an appointment but you must present yourself at reception and be prepared to be seen after all the scheduled appointments meaning a wait of or 4 hours
:scared:

another thing is the attitude on the doctors receptionist's you would think you were asking for something totally absurd when you ask to see a doctor.

tennisoz

Well, where to begin. I don't want to 'disillusion' you (note the spelling, I was taught to spell in my primary school in Melbourne!!) but I am a schoolteacher with lengthy experience of the UK and Australian secondary systems.

So much of what you say is c**p if you don't mind me saying. However, I am just someone with first-hand experience of both education systems so what would I know. I will not even bother refuting your exaggerated generalisations and biased opinions dressed up as I don't know what.

I'll stop, you are trying to wind people up deliberately aren't you?

P.S. I haven't met many 'screw balls' in teaching in either system. But in the outside world, on this forum, that's another story.

TennisOz