Ginny

Thanks for that info. Not sure I fancy a campervan after our LOVELY holiday!

How are things at your end. Getting much business going? What kind are you hoping to start up? Sorry for the questions, just me being nosey.

Hope this finds you well and keep me posted how you're doing.

Regards

Ginny

pommiesheila

Hi there,

Well, how long have you got? We originally planned to start up the same business we had in the UK (hubbie is a time-served, fully qualified panel beater and paint sprayer) - Automotive bodywork repairs, on a mobile basis - but unfortunately there are far too many cowboys out here doing a quick "cover up" job - which the aussies love because it is CHEAP...

Then, after several months of trying to persuade them to accept a quality job with excellent service (waste of time in Brisbane), we decided to give that up as a bad job and went into 2 pac kitchens - i.e. utilising hubbies skills, albeit in a different way.

However, again we have come across the same "give it to me cheap - I don't care whether its good or not" attitude - its hard to accept that really...

Perhaps we would be better off in a different state - I think Queensland is great for holidays, and if you're in the tourism trade, I think you could make a good living, but otherwise, there are too many people doing the same thing (every trade seems the same)..

Still, we'll stick it for a while, see what happens, and if the worst comes to the worst, we'll move on (god knows where!!!)

Ginny

Hi there,

I've always wanted to have a business, just ain't got any idea about it! If I won the lottery tommorow I'd open up my own restaraunt and also dance studio. Don't know if I'd be any good but it's the two things that I love, dancing and food. So I suppose I'll have to stick to being a wage slave for the now. We're seriously looking at Adelaide again. When we first talked about immigrating we fancied going there but then ended up talking about Brisbane. I think cause of the possibility to get into IT was greater on the east coast we forgot about it.

Have you ever been there yourself? You mentioned you had fancied Perth. Did you ever go there? We felt that Perth was too far from the east coast. We have very good friends in Sydney so we wanted to be reasonably close to them. Did you mention you've got kids? I've two under 5 but by the time we move they'll be a couple of years older. Sam will be old enough for School and Asha will be getting there. I get pangs of guilt every now and then about taking the kids away from their gran and granda but it's something we've wanted to do before they came along. It's just taken us this long to go about things.

Anyway I'm waffling on again, just thought I'd say hello and see if things are ok. It seems kind of ironic that I'm posting on a return to the UK site when I'm trying to get away from the UK!

Hope all's well

Take Care

Ginny

SteveHarris

Hi,

If you want in-between I can tell you I think I've found heaven where the weather's concerned (this is really British - talking about the weather). My wife and I, plus two kids moved to Victoria B.C. just over a year ago and the weather has been awsome - it rained a bit tonight - the first time since I don't know when - feels like it hasn't rained since April. Doesn't get to hot in the summer - below 30 degree's and lately it's been great. Walked home from work a few times last week with my jacket in my bag under a clear blue sky with the sun shining - brilliant.

Some down sides to living here - mainly the sorts of things I've read here. Family are the biggest thing we miss - not house prices, roads choked with traffic, horendous fuel prices etc....

Anyway - good luck to all in whatever you decide. Just remember what another poster said on a different thread that you may go back to the UK but you'll be a different person for your experiences abroad.

Cheers - Steve

Ceri

Hi,
I agree with this
I'm in Brisbane... hate it, and yes it is boring, boring , boring here. I moved this way because the company relocated.
Before Brisbane I lived down in Newcastle, and that was more suited to me, I much preferred it there to here. I found the people there very down to earth.
That's one of the troubles with Australia, it's a big place, and you may just pick one place which is totally wrong for you.

cheers

cinderella

Hi there, You want to try the South Island of NZ in August. Just freezing at night. One night there was no condensation at all on the windows of the Campervan in the morning. So it was as cold inside as out. And there were 2 adults and 3 children inside. Would never do that again. Maybe in the summer, but even then I think I would need a lot of convincing.

PommieSheila, hope you are feeling happier.

Regards,

Cinderella

jeannie

Hello Steve,

I just got back from Victoria (my Aunt lives in Cobble Hill).

I aggree with you Canada has it all after reading some of the problems on these Forum's some people have hard choses to make.

Australia seemed to far for me and I wanted the four seasons, here people love anything British, I was in Seattle last week people love anyone with a British accent there to.
I have been here for 30 years (came from Liverpool at 20 years old ).
I live in the Okanagen, we have "Fab" weather.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL

dugongs

i really think the climate is a non issue. when in uk you dream of hot dry days, in brisbane we want less heat and more rain, in canada it snows and gets bloody freezing in the winter, in us it rains in some places in others its too hot

we have lived in brisbane now for 4 years, we thought after uk then there really is no point moving any further south because apart from summer the climate aint that great in sydney and melbournes a joke quite frankly although great city (we wont mention tasmania here), perths climate lovely like brisbane although drier but its not called the most isolated capital city on the planet for nothing - brisbane has a good warm climate, but the point I was trying to make is we have now adjusted to that climate.

The first year in Brisbane we went out for a meal in Bulimba in August and we laughed as all the locals were wearing long coats and were wrapped up like we used to be in a UK winter. I was happily wearing jeans tshirt and a jumper. Four years later and we basically freeze in temps lower than 20c say 60 f. My wife has this weekend gone on a trip to Sydney with some friends and we had to study the weather CNN forecasts (local forecasts are useless) to make sure she packed enough warm clothes. Last Xmas we were in Adelaide and I was freezing at night. Like I said we have adjusted. Its now like living in the Uk again only we have moved up the temp scale - the winters are still freezing to us but worst the summers are too hot plus we get droughts every year and the houses are'nt built for the cold so we freeze worse than UK.

I reckon it takes 5 years to get day to day living in the UK out of your system (you dont appreciate the convenience of it until you leave it behind - would kill for a tescos right now !) and it wont happen unless you are happy here have local friends and are content with your life here ie job etc. Even after that you will still miss family obviously but also for me england soccer english rugby and all those day to day events that interest you. Its hard to become Australian overnight with a flick of a switch - its like moving to the other side in a war or betraying an old friend - old allegiances are hard to forget and distance or absence seems to make them more significant ( i suppose abensce makes the heart grow fonder is true). I was glad to leave Uk but now I cannot wait to get home - I think its probably something about being British we are adventurers and love to travel and explore - look at history thats why we did what we did and its in our blood. Ooops getting sentimental too much red wine as the wifes away !

I have to say that working in Oz is no fun and it makes settling very difficult especially when UK has been so good in the last few years for jobs, low interest rates etc 6 months ain't that long but if you had high expectations then Brisbane is certainly the place to burst it - you should have been here 4 years ago with no sunday trading, no restaurants in the city open after about 8 pm, economy so poor we used to have trouble getting shops to break a $50 dollar bill ! Its was a bit of a culture shop after moving from Putney !

SteveHarris

Small world, isn't it.

I sympathise with a lot of the postings - we're going back to the UK for a month next year and my wife has said that if she decides to when we're there she won't be coming back to Canada.

Love Kelowna, by the way, it's a fantastic place - one we'd both like to live someday (if my wife decides she will stay that is).

Cheers - Steve

jeannie

Steve,
What is Xmas like in Victoria? we are thinking of going and staying in the Empress Hotel, is it worth the trip ?? (It's no use asking my Aunt as anything over a $1.49 is to much) LOL.

SteveHarris

Hi,

This is only going to be our second christmas in Victoria - the first was a little bit of a blur as we'd only been here 3 or 4 months at the time. I think it's great though at Christmas - the downtown harbour is a real tourist destination so it allways looks pretty good any time of the year. The Christmas parade is usually quite good although I think that's in the next few weeks. Not sure that I'd swap Victoria for the Okenagan though.

Cheers - Steve

mullen

Sorry to hear your down pommiesheila stick it out or follow the advice from some of the posts.Me and the family are looking to move to Brisbane would do a house swap holiday if you need to see the green grass of home once more.Is Brisbane that bad can not be a bad as Newcastle upon Tyne?
I remember my parents had probs at 6month and 12 month stage when we left UK to live in Rhodesia in South Africa.Then mother won! went back to UK then dad took us to Saudi. Was mother wishing for Rhodesia when she got a taste of Saudi.
Good old hippie parents. Still moving......
Where is home mum?where your heart is she would say...

pommiesheila

Thanks for the offer of a house swap! We're sticking it out here for the time being, but boy is it hard to try and get things moving on the employment front! We've come to the conclusion we're in the wrong area of Brisbane (Bayside Suburbs) - very nice and all that, but not enough happening. Going to do some research into what's available on the Gold Coast over Christmas period, perhaps there'll be more going on down there...

It is lovely over here in many respects, but somehow I just can't see myself ever calling Australia "home". (Mind you, don't really fancy going back to the UK for the weather, traffic, crime, overcrowding etc. etc.)... Early days yet I suppose. Which part of Brisbane are you heading for???

mullen

Not sure what part at mo just surfing the site trying to get know the place.Wife is a registered nurse and I work in media so need to be near a city.Wife main applicant on 47sk ,awaiting skills ass forms back from ANC any good research/tips or pointers from you would be great.We have two boys 10&12 mad on sport,would they have plenty to do?do you have kids?

pommiesheila

I think your boys would be OK here - as you probably know, the Aussies are sports mad, and certainly in the schools over here they are all encouraged to get very involved in as many sports as possible - its all very competitive! My two children aged 10 and 8 are not particularly sporty, so they don't really get too involved, but they do love swimming, and there is plenty of opportunity to do that here...

Things to do - sports wise, yes, otherwise, Brisbane is very, very dull (not just my opinion I'm afraid). Having said that, it's a clean city, and the South Bank Parklands often put on entertainment (e.g. open air cinema screenings in the evenings (free), fireworks (again free) and so on. Where we live (around 25 kms from Brisbane CBD) there is very little crime, but also very little to do. It does get VERY BORING here in the evenings and if you are at home all day you would go MAD!!!

The one thing I would say about jobs is - be careful...don't believe all you read in the newspapers - it's usually a lot of bull...

Try to get a look at the Brisbane Courier Mail (I expect there's a website somewhere for it) and get the Careers Section which comes out on a Saturday. It's full of all sorts of jobs - but again, take a lot of the descriptions and suggested wage levels with a pinch of salt.

Look on as many Australian job sites as you can and make thorough enquiries before you decide on where to live over here - try jobsearch.gov.au, seek.com.au, and as many more as you can find. Jobs are scarce and the pay is, quite frankly, terrible! I think Sydney is much better in that respect, but then you have the downsides of very high housing costs, congested roads etc. Depends on what you want.

There's certainly plenty of lovely places to go at the weekends as a family around here - not just beaches either!!!