rabble_rouser

So I first landed in Australia exactly 1 year ago, touching down on 07/06/2014 in Sydney airport.

And so there I was with one large bag standing in the airport:
-I was 34 years old.
-My background was in IT.
-I sold everything I had in UK and had £4k.
-Lived and worked in London for a time.
-Moved out to rural Wilts/Dorset.
-Work was too hard to find, and the rain seldom stopped so I moved in the hopes of finding a better lifestyle.

The first 3 months were easy. I got a job within a month up in Brisbane. The excitement of moving made the hostels and hardships seem like a jolly. The period of 3 to 6 months was the most difficult. The initial euphoria of having pulled off my coop wore off. I questioned my choice many times and was on the verge of regretting it entirely. After 6 months I settled a bit more into work, acquired a flat, a car, and after 9 months finally bought some furniture for the flat (I moved here with a single sports bag).

My observations/highlights&lowlights:

-Cost of living has been like for like. I am perhaps even better off here. My rent is lower and my salary about the same. Appliances are more, food is the same, petrol is cheaper, no council tax in rentals.
-Bath salts are nigh impossible to find outside of LUSH here.
-Brisbane drivers are the worst I've ever competed against. Never give a Brisbane driver the benefit of the doubt - ALWAYS assume they will lurch out of a roundabout ignoring right of way at any moment.
-Cars are bloody expensive.
-Australians I find quite ...(IDK yet?), but to my utter surprise found myself longing for the company of the English (perhaps that's why I'm on here?). Even so, I tolerate most people at work, but loathe most. Although this is merely the luck of the draw. I find the younger generation especially to be loathsome hipster assholes. The older ones, true blues etc much more likeable.
-If you want to drink good beer more than once a week you will need to be as wealthy as an oil baron.
-Wine culture is just great here. There's no stigma attached to enjoying wine.
-Vegetables are approximately twice the cost of veg in the UK.
-Meat is about half the price and generally better quality.
-Real fresh fish from the sea is actually possible.
-Fast food and eating out can be quite good and cheap. Restaurants probably best avoided however. This of course is opposite to UK. Here even trucker cafes, etc will serve edible food here at a reasonable price. Food is not seen as a punishment as it is in UK and you are not despised for wanting fresh food.
-Curry here is disgusting.
-This "freshness" ideal comes at a price of course. Fresh-n-fit is a bit of a preoccupation here to the point of becoming tiresome.
-One does not just walk into a café and order "a mug of coffee with sugar".
-Brisbane is not brown the whole year round I love the weather here.
-There is a lot of country to see, and its best enjoyed at sunset with a glass of wine in your hand.

I could go on and on. But I would say so far my lifestyle has improved. I don't expect to settle in Brisbane and would like to travel around a bit more and maybe move to a smaller town or even just somewhere rural.

So yeah...wonder what's on for next year. Perhaps I will be loving it even more or will get cynical. We shall see.

AlliF

I'm thinking you meant 'coup'
Or maybe you are a serious chicken lover, who am I to judge...

Wol

A very pertinent observation all round, especially your comments about the social scene.

rabble_rouser

I am a chicken lover. But maybe I was actually referring to the supermarket chain co-op?

old.sparkles

Good update RR - notice the post about Adelaide, thinking of moving?

Beoz

Good post. Would be good to hear this again when you get a chance to get out of Brisbane.

astera

It's called the "honeymoon" stage and that can be expected pretty much everywhere. Good thing you pulled through and didn't do a u-turn at the time because things always pick up from there.

My general observation is that wine is very cheap yet beer is very expensive. It seems quite strange unless there is a tax element involved which I do not know about...

Yes it is. But fresh fish at the supermarket is an impossibility.

Restaurants here have the worst food of any country I have been in bar none. Maybe if you check out all the places in your vicinity you can find a few hidden pearls, but overall the quality is abysmal.

I've given up entirely and if I am forced to eat somewhere I will just grab the $10 steak offer at the nearest pub.

True. But it's Michelin-star quality compared to the Chinese muck being dished out here that doesn't even (try to) resemble food...

rabble_rouser

Interesting about restaurants. I have tried a few and they have been terrible as you say. However I find cafes/fish n chip shops of a good standard compared to UK.

Also why does everything here shut at 7-8 pm? I have difficulty getting served if I leave it much beyond seven-o-clock.

AlliF

You were euphoric about pulling off a supermarket chain?

Buzzy--Bee

In Melbourne the restaurants rival, if not exceed, the best I have ever eaten in. But I guess you wouldn't consider coming here for dinner because you don't like the weather so you'll have to put up with the offerings in QLD.

BTW, OP - really liked your post.

BB

BadgeIsBack

I simply don't get the type of poster who says that restaurants in one city or region are awful or the worst (etc). really? (Fashionable emphasis optional). Where did they go? Or indeed, any such sentiment especially if their entire life is expressed like that (it's OK Asteria I am making allowances). The worst immediately come over to me as timewasters and - I am sure there is a entire species of tiresome person - the sort of person who conducts their lives as if they are in a Consumer Magazine.