Jamesy

Great to hear such positive news, gives us all waiting in the UK some hope and makes us remember why we are putting ourselves through all this grief!!

cinderella

Nice to read a positive post. Keep them comming.

DavidT

Bloomin excited hearing posts like this. We are going to Brisbane early next year, i got my visa in case you didn't notice. Two dry days running now & the world still seems a happier place.
It was not the booze it was the visa all along.

St George Six

Hi,
Good luck and its so good to see some positive news on here as its been a bit down of late.

Cheers Kev. One week to go.

dibrucewillis

Hi Rach

Nice to hear that you are settling in to your new life.
Just wondered if you were badly affected by jet lag.
We returned form America last week and I have been suffering slightly but my 9yr old son has been terrible.11.30 last night and he was still tossing and turning telling me he couldn't sleep then come this morning I can't get him out of bed.
Any tips on how to deal with jet lag would be appreciated.

Diane

karenmck_98

Hi Rachels
Welcome to Brisbane from a fellow Geordie! I have been reading your posts with interest for the past few months and have been looking for your arrival. I've been here for about 18 months now and still love it just as much (although we have been out of the uk for 9 years now). We are a bit further out than you, in Samford (about 30 mins north west). Good luck!
Karen

rachels

Hi

Great to hear from others heading to or already arrived in Brisbane, there seems to be a few Geordies, maybe we just can't resist the lure of the North East?!

As for jet lag, we did suffer a bit but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. We landed at 5am in Brisbane and after dropping our stuff off we went for a short walk and picked up some milk and tea etc. We then collapsed into bed at 10.30am and slept for 12 hours straight! We got up for a few hours and then went back to bed (to try and force the "its night time and therefore time to sleep" issue).

We thought we had it cracked but after two or three days it really hit us. Not that we couldn't sleep at night, just that we were absolutely shattered during the day. We made ourseves get up at a reasonabe time and that meant we were dog tired by bedtime so we did sleep. Sorry that's not much help really, I suppose my advice is just hit the hay when you feel like it on the first day but then try to get into a normal routine pretty quickly after that. I do think its normal to still feel a bit "weird" after a week though.

We're off to check out the markets at Eagle Street Pier and the South Bank today and then lunch alfresco if the weather holds (the wettest Sept/Oct for 5 years I've been told!) its a good life.

Good luck to all those headed down under soon, I'm sure you won't regret it!

dmf

Karen, hi, where abouts are you in Samford? We live in Highvale on Mt Glorious Road - have been in our house for just over one month. We have twins in grade 2 at Samford School. We have been here since beginning August, originally from Gloucester. Look forward to hearing from you.

Dawn

THYE.A.

Rachels,

good to know that that have settled down well and like the new place.

Myself have submitted under Skill Inde. and still waiting for the outcome.If things go on well, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be my choice of places.

I have been to the first two but not Brisbane.Could you please advise which are the suburds that have good primary schools ?

I hope you do not mind me asking what is your total expenditure/expenses for the whole household, including rental, food, transport etc, all in , for a week.

Thanks

karenmck_98

Hi Dawn,
We live in Wights Mountain, I have a son in grade 5 at Samford School and a daughter in preschool at Ferny Grove because Samford Preschool was full, she will go to Samford for grade 1 though.
How are you settling in? We love here it so much. We must get together, my phone number is in all of the IBPs in the run up to the school fair, I was the Stall Convenor. Give me a ring and we can sort something out.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Karen

dmf

Karen, have sent you PM.

Dawn

rachels

Hi TYHE.A

We also had the choice of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and for us the hard choice was between Melbourne or Brissy (nothing against Sydney, just after years in BIG cities we wanted a change). In the end Brisbane won out because of the surrounding area (QLD is an amazing state), the climate and a the fact that it came top of the "Cheapest cities to live in Australia" and was also high up on the "most liveable" list.

I can't really help with a list of good primary schools as we don't have any kids and so don't pick up on things like that. However, if you go to www.ourbrisbane.com and then click education, then schools, you get a comprehensive list of what's available. I will keep my eyes open and see if I can find a "top 10" list or something for you.

In terms of expenditure, I don't mind you asking at all but its a hard one to answer. We have only been here just over 3 weeks so have only had one bill so far! That was for electricity and it was $30 for two weeks. Our rent is $245 a week for a fully furnished one bedroom apartment in an inner city suburb (quite swish so I'm told) and Andy spends $25 a week on travel. We spend around $100 a week on food.

Its complicated for us because I'm a postgrad student and therefore get half price travel and reductions at cinemas and events etc and we are trying to live more frugally than we would at home because I am not working.

We are moving just before Christmas, probably to West End or Paddington and have seen nice two bed apartments for around $220 a week and also I will take on some part time work in the new year so things will change a little. Hope this helps a bit, it might be a good idea to ask me a month or so down the line when I've seen the phone bill and have had the air con on for a while! The ourbrisbane site also has a suburb overview section and it gives you an idea of house prices (rental and to buy) in each suburb.

Sorry I couldn't be more useful!
Cheers

THYE.A.

Hi Rachels,

I am indeed thankful for your comprehensive reply.Your reply have certainly gave a better picture of the cost of living in Brisbane.

Well, now I guess the `average ' household expenditure in Brisbane is A400 per week .I suppose there is not too much difference between Brisbane and Sydney,the only difference lies in the price of the property.

I am sort of worry about the job opportunity in Brisbane esp I am not a native English speaker ( may be you can sense from the way I write and the grammer mistakes I made , but I will strive to improve my English). Sydney being bigger will have more jobs, but then I may have to repay my mortgage until age 60 , compares to if I choose to stay in Brisbane where I may be able to be mortgage -free at age of 50.

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards.

rachels

[QUOTE]Originally posted by THYE.A.

Well, now I guess the `average ' household expenditure in Brisbane is A400 per week .I suppose there is not too much difference between Brisbane and Sydney,the only difference lies in the price of the property.

Hi

I don't think the "average" expenditure in Brisbane is $400 a week. As I mentioned, we haven't had many bills yet, also we haven't bought a car yet and are being very frugal until we get settled. So I imagine that the average outgoings are more than that.

Also, I think the cost of living in Sydney is higher than Brisbane and not just in terms of house prices. When Brisbane came top of the "cheapest cities in Aus" list they were taking into account food prices, travel costs, eating out, cinemas - all of those things that go into making up daily life in a city, not just the house prices.

Having said that, the job opportunities seem to be FAR greater in Sydney than in Brisbane. I don't think you should worry about not being a native English speaker, certainly the big 3 Australian cities are very multicultural (and probably the smaller cities too but I'm not sure).

What sort of work would you be looking for? There are probably other people on this forum who are looking or have found similar work who could tell you how hard it is in each city.

Cheers