cresta57

There will be tomorrow I'm taking my tiler out for a fishing trip, if the fishing gods are good to us and the weather breaks. I've just put another brew on tonight and if I catch myself another mouse that'll be the treble .
To be serious for a moment, we took the outlaws on the "Rattler" we've lived here for 2 1/2 yrs and that's the first time I've done the trip. I enjoyed it though there were no gunfights that day
Gympie is hardly the place for a good night out, we've been known to travel as far as the Indian down at Birkdale and to the Valley on the odd occasion.

Hutch

I was going to say this in another thread, so I'm glad you've brought it up. You're spot on - one of the unifying themes for many people who are unhappy with Australia is loneliness. You get the distinct impression that if they had a good social network, 90% of the stuff that winds them up - wouldn't.

On so many of these threads I hear people saying things like "You just can't beat talking to a friend you've known since school." Many (not all!) but many of the people who fall into this grouping don't appear to have moved far from the area they were brought up in. Their network of friends and relatives appear to be the same ones they had at primary school! I've certainly moved around a lot - both within the UK and abroad - and whilst I have a couple of mates who I've known for ages, I certainly don't think I'll find myself sitting on the edge of the bed, head in hands, quietly sobbing, because I can't go to the pub with them and unload about the fact that there isn't a good Italian restaurant for 100Km. I made the mistake of going to a school reunion about five years ago, and I'd say that 90% of them hadn't moved more than 20Km from the town we grew up in (and there we all were in our '30s!). I imagine if any of them had emigrated, they'd suffer too.

We moved from Bath to the small south-Cotswolds town we now live in, five years ago - and it's no different here - whether you're English or Australian. My missus has a network of acquaintances, mainly built up through her running club and other mums at the school gates, but she finds the little cliques that exist around here near-bulletproof constructions. During the two months we spent out in Oz last Xmas, we made some excellent new friends, including a family down the road with similarly aged kids who we met on the kerb when Father Christmas came round on his fire engine (don't ask!). I'm still in contact with several Aussies I met during my longer stays before our son was born, we stayed with them on more recent visits and found them very hospitable.

BadgeIsBack

yet the same people will acuse Australians of being insular and ignorant. Having said that, yet again there are so many similarities between the countries, there are people like that everywhere - they should not consider migration. Many Australians do move interstate for opportunites or have rellies in a different capital.

DunRoaminTheUK

You sure about the upstream bandwidth equalling the downstream bandwidth with ADSL2?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITU_G.992.5

Hutch

Fair enough. The ADSL2 they offered us here was sold to us on the basis that it'd have the same up as down. But even if it isn't - 3.5MB/s upstream is pretty ****ing nifty!

DunRoaminTheUK

Too true. I could spit into a headwind from our house and still hit my ADSL exchange building and yet I can't get an upstream speed of beyond 1Mbit.

I wouldn't really rate the UK implementation of ADSL as anything to get excited about and it seems that only people in the big cities can get 8Mbit and beyond.

Freedom2Surf promised me the earth back in October 2005 and here I am still waiting for my 8MBit line and they've recently told me that their LLU exchange folded under the demand and that they have reverted back to the BT network for provisioning (which is the very same network I said "goodbye" too back in Oct '05 so that I could move up to 8Mbit).

I think that all the buzz about Video on Demand here is really a white-elephant in hiding as we simply can't provide the infrastructure for it yet.

possoms

You should av come oop north love, we've always got the kettle on and time for a chin wag

Wendy

Yep, I'll second that

DJMA

Great post. I am glad to see a little realism. No doubt the debate will be long and furious. As someone who has travelled here a number of times over the last 15 years and lived here for 4 months I agree with all of it.

My additions are:
1) 3rd rate newspapers - the quality of journalism here is terrible, even the local rags in the UK are better

2) Poor quality of "fresh " food in the supermarkets, considering pretty well everything can be and is grown here.

3) The way the price of petrol goes up whenever the garage owner feels he needs a few extra dollars for a meal out. No doubt when I have worked out the pattern, I will only buy on the 3rd Monday of the month.

4) The fact that in a country where the temperature regularly goes over 30c, everyone in the city insists on wearing suits.

5) The complete ignorance about the impact of everything people do on the environment. Environmental issues seem to be at the bottom of the list here.

6) The way speed limits are enforced on the roads. It takes me for ever to overtake anyone, because I am scared that if I go more than a couple of kms over the limit I will be fined. And yet the carnage on the roads continues here.

Having said all of this, it isn't a bad place, but it does on occasions drive me F***ing nuts. I hope I am not the only one. Also, I did come here knowing most of this already.

DJMA

kiwichild

[QUOTE=DJMA]


3) The way the price of petrol goes up whenever the garage owner feels he needs a few extra dollars for a meal out. No doubt when I have worked out the pattern, I will only buy on the 3rd Monday of the month.

This is usually decided by the refiners and chain companies; ie shell, caltex, mobil and not the actual retailer. Retailers make sweet FA from petrol sales. Their 'real' money is made from on tap oil sales, shop stock and repairs.

We recently had an independent fined for selling under the price he had listed as being what he would sell it at for the day (and this is meant to be to protect interests of consumers )

Independents would LOVE to sell it cheaper as it would attract more customers, more turnover, more sales on other items etc.

lostpom

Mate, it has been already ! We've all been in tears here !

How shocked was I when someone told me Australia refused to sign the Kyoto agreement ?? WTF is that about ?

This is so true ! The speed limits are so strictly enforced - particularly annoying when the highway limit is only 100/110 KPH (62/68 MPH). I got so used to driving at a very reasonable 80-90 MPH in the UK, I removed the temptation and bought a diesel ute when I got here ! Theres so much scaremongering that goes on about breaking driving laws here, though I have to say, compared to the number of drivers out there, there does seem to be a disspropotionately high number of fatalaties reported on the roads every few days, so maybe there is some sense in it. Still, for such a vast country, just think how much quicker you'd get to your destination with a better speed limit !

Still, I have to laugh at the current campaign "EVERY K OVER IS A KILLER !". How can you possibly say that travelling at 111 KPH on a highway makes you a killer. Your speedo's only accurate to about 3%. MY GOD ! We all could be killers without realising it !! Quick !! Hide !!

arkon

Well that explains why the nancies all drive at 106.7 on a 110 road then, just to be sure! There’s a camera at KEW in NSW that is in a 100 zone and everyone I have ever seen drive through it does less than 90! The one occasion I saw someone doing about 101 they got flashed. I looked down at my Speedo and saw it was about 99 and the guy getting caught was only very marginally faster than me. So now I also do 90 through it.

I've spent a lot of time watching how they drive on the pacific highway past my place and without doubt it is not the pathetic speed they do that kills them (Although it helps) it’s the stupidity of the way on the highway 2 lanes merge into one where the slower lane runs into the faster lane. I thought everyone knew that when merging its best to slow down the fast moving traffic making them merge into the slower lane, The idea of merging some old slow codger that can’t see more than 10 feet into the fast lane is beyond me, a recipe for an accident and plenty happen at these points along the highway.

They have a campaign here to fix our bloody roads because apparently it’s the roads that kill people not the people driving the 2 tonnes of metal on cruise control daydreaming about the fishing or surf conditions that kill people…..

kiwichild

LOL. And I thought it was old farts with alzheimers "That was a green light when I looked officer"

michellemac

[QUOTE=kiwichild]
Hi Kiwichild -

I do read your posts sometimes and wonder where in God's name you are going to uni and who you've had the mistfortune to meet :scared: . It is so entirely different to my experience of uni (UWA and Curtin) where I met a variety of people including an ex-London Cabbie, an ex prisioner, a girl who left home at 16 to go modelling in France, a guy with really loaded parents from Bruneii, a millionarie's daughter, the daughter of my WAFL hero and of course a number of people straight out of school from all over Australia.

i do sometimes agree with your posts that Perth can seem a bit insular (especially going by the letters page of the West Australian which makes the Daily Mail seem like the New Statesman) and quiet (why do you think I went to London when i finished my degree!) but what might be suitable for a student isn;t what a married couple with a family is after. My experience - particularly amongst the more educated Western Australians - has always been of a friendly lot who are willing to welcome newcomers in all the time. Most of them have travelled extensively overseas and *then* come to the conclusion that Perth is wonderful and moved back. I might not always agree that it's wonderful all the time but I respect that opinion if it comes from someone who is well-travelled.

Michelle

Vash the Stampede

No, of course not.

The cultural differences between British people is one of the things that makes this country so fascinating!

I've been to Wales many times (mainly Cardiff and Swansea) and I have a lot of friends down that way. I haven't been to Scotland, but will be taking the missus up there next year for 5 days, during which we will attend the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (yay!) I haven't been to Northern Ireland. (Though I have spent a week in the Irish Republic, which I enjoyed tremendously.)

I have been to many places within England itself, including Sheffield, Staffs, Worcs, Warks, Devon (quite a few times) and London. Devon is absolutely gorgeous; I really do love it there.

Not sure what you're getting at with this one; now that I come to think about it, the term "Pom" has traditionally been used in reference to English people (by Aussies and the English alike), so if that's the context of your enquiry, the answer is "Yes."