stuckinswansea

At the risk of starting anther flame war, I'm looking for some M.O.R. non-extremists to give me their PERSONAL experience of melbs vs UK in a couple of areas.

You can read all the papers, the crime sta the climate figures but that does nt tell me what it feels like a year down the line.

1)
Weather! That great briish talking point.
Warmer, just as wet. Rains more often etc... you tell me
(btw I'm from south wales so we get more rain than Borneo)


2)
Living costs.
Forget the detail, is money more or less of a worry hat it as each month at home.

3)
Crime.
Does it feel safer or more dangerous?

4)
Neighbours / Friends
Compared to moving to a new are in a new town in the UK have you found iteasier or harder to make new contacts.

5)
Social
Do you actualy get out/about more or less than in the UK or just stay at home watching cr@p telly?

tvm

kev

OzTennis

I'll give a few thoughts FWIW seeing no-one else has bothered. I come from Melbourne, live in Scotland so here's my impressions on what you ask and they are by definition my opinions.

Weather - depends what you are looking for. Obviously Melbourne is warmer on average, drier on average, not as cold in winter, much hotter in summer etc. When I was on the phone to my mother this morning she was telling me how hot it was in Melbourne and I was telling her how we had our first night sub-zero the other day - we each wanted to swap the weather! Forget the '4 seasons in one day' line and consign it to the 'it always rains in Manchester' bin. The weather can be changeable but often that's a good thing eg the cool change to relieve the heat that other parts of Australia mightn't get, the rain to water your parched garden etc.

Living Costs - very personal, depends on what job you leave and what job you go to and the comparative salaries and the exchange rates at the time. The exchange rate today for example gets you nearly 10% more $'s than it did say 6 months ago. This is another thing to factor in - a person migrating now will be better off than one migrating 6 months ago for this reason alone. Some things are dearer, some things are cheaper. However, with council rates lower than council tax; no TV licence; Japanese cars being cheaper; electricity and gas being cheaper, petrol just over half the price and so on, I personally reckon my money goes further in Melbourne. Eating out is also a fair bit cheaper.

Crime - a personal thing. Human nature comes in here. No offence but I would feel safer in Melbourne than I would in Swansea or London or Glasgow or Paris etc (they're not 'home' and are strange places so you naturally feel more uneasy). I don't know what the stats say but my impression is that if you use common sense and avoid certain areas that generally speaking it is a safer feeling walking around. I'll leave it to the Brits in Melbourne to say whether they feel safer or have been burgled or whatever. Most of the trouble I see is 'hoonery' which would be called boy racers in the UK.

Neighbours - again it might be human nature again but I find it much friendlier in Melbourne generally speaking. People will say hello (well g'day) to you more often and smile more than they do here. I quickly changed from Melbourne mode to UK mode to avoid the 'wotcha lookin' at' type thing. Making friends is again a personal thing - some people make friends easily, others don't/can't and it is not a location specific, more a person specific thing.

Social - the weather lends itself more to going out I guess.

Some thoughts! Anyone else feel free to disagree with anything I've said but at the end of the day they're impressions and I'm not right or wrong.

OzTennis

OzTennis

A riddle. Do you get a balanced view from a person 'with a chip on each shoulder'?

OzTennis

kporte

i think a truely balanced view may be difficult to find. i think alot of people won't bother with the forum all that much if they are settled in and happy. i guess this forum must allow a venting of frustration for those that haven't found it to be a good experience, and most of the people who are heading out are naturally optimistic and don't want folk to p**s on their parade. but i would say , as i have before , that the doom-filled posts are an important reminder that you will face stuff you don't like

Wendy

Maybe, but I'm happy and I still post. (really need to go to therapy for that! )

I don't think it's all sunshine and lollipops, but then it's not all doom and gloom either.

I'd answer his post, but I don't live in Melbourne so can't really comment

kporte

i like your posts wendy, you are a realist. i find you helpful and informative.

:-)

The Crow

We've been here for nearly a year - so I'll give you my impressions from our experiences.

1)
Weather!
Last autumn was beautiful - warm sunny days, mostly mid 20s
Winter - mild and sunny mostly, some rain, some cold days (12oC) with a chilly wind. Cold nights!!
Spring - mixed bag of everything (though little rain)
Summer - mostly pretty hot so far and mostly sunny - as OzTennis says, the good thing here is that usually a couple of very hot days are followed by a lovely refreshing cold front (still waiting for one at the moment!)/

2)
Living costs.
Less for us as we have a very small mortgage. Generally slightly cheaper - but we didn't have an extravagant life in the UK and don't have here!

3)
Crime.
We're in a nice country village - so feels safe to me. Certainly is crime around and about - but have noticed that people tend to leave bikes unlocked outside shops and car windows down etc. Obviously there are areas with more problems than others.

4)
Neighbours / Friends
We have great neighbours and a real mixture of friends. People have been really helpful and friendly without exception really.

5)
Social
We are out much more - with two youngsters, mostly daytime/early evening.

Just a brief overview but hope that helps a bit. I will be doing a one year update soon, which will have more detail (to bore everyone!!)

R

Wendy

Aw, thanks

And the rest of my posts are just talking rubbish

Pollyana

OK, heres my late night contribution - used to live in Brighton, fairly good area, but one of the things I got used to, lived with, and in the end never noticed, was car alarms. They would go off every hour of the day and night. All the parking was on the street, we had cats jumping on cars, seagulls jumping on cars, drunks jumping on cars and foxes jumping on cars.Alarms were part of life.
I'm now in Brisbane, been here over three years, its 12.15am, and I am listening to a car alarm ....for the first time I'm hearing one that has gone on more than 2 minutes. I've been trying to work out why I am noticing it, and its because you just don't hear them, certainly not in this area - although other bits of Aus are probably different.

And the next person who says I am always negative is going to be directed to this post!

OzTennis

Who would have thought that a call for a balanced view on life in Melbourne could elicit a focus on car alarms Melbourne vis a vis Brisbane and ....... umm, ah, that's it.

However, it's pretty good weather that the car alarms go off in, the car alarms are a little cheaper than the UK, Poll made lots of friends with car alarms, about as many car alarms get stolen and assaulted as in the UK and she got invited to lots of Tupperware and car alarm parties. I reckon it's just those friendly car alarms in Brighton saying g'day to each other on the street.

OzTennis