teresa.c

Hi everyone!

Not to many names familiar to me at the moment, but I suppose I have been away for almost 4 months!!

Well, we arrived in Perth back in November and I have only just found the time to sit down and type a few lines!! What a mad head spinning few months!

Have just noticed that we missed a meet in Freo last night, what a bugga!! Would love a good night out, whens the next one?!! Anyone want to meet for a drink and a chat?

We flew with Singapore Airlines, really great if you have kids. We shipped our stuff with Crown Relocations and they were excellent. Not one thing broken, so Im impressed.

I wont put my life story of emigrating blurb on here to bore everyone but if anyone wants to ask anything, feel free!

I just wanna say that we are loving it!

Vegemite Kids

Wanna know !!!

not boring !!! please tell !!!

Mairi


PS sent u a PM

Dreamaway 10

Yes lets hear some more it would be interesting to hear how you are getting on etc.

Avery Family

Hi Teresa.C

Glad to here you have settled in and are enjoying yourselves.....details don't bore... so post them
we hope to be over in Perth soon after Easter.

regards

Simon

teresa.c

What does everyone want to know??

Im happy to tell all, but about what? Our whole story may go on for a while and will be a pain to type it all!! Anything specific? Please ask questions!!

Simon, my hubby Colin grew up in Aylesbury, thats where we met!! Small world!

Vegemite Kids

Everything............... we are moving over to Perth in April and I'm panicking about what I need to do when we first arrive, so to start with :

- Important things to do in first few weeks (other than house hunting ) and how easy it was to do them

- how helpful are the real estate agents when househunting

- do you have any cats / dogs and if Yes how did they cope with quarantine

- anything you've learnt from the move that you wish someone had told you about before you left.

there's loads more questions I can think of but dont want to frighten you so that will do for now

sj oldfield

[QUOTE]Originally posted by teresa.c
What does everyone want to know??



Where abouts in Perth have you settled?
Have you kids?
Are you renting or buying?
Have you found work yet?

You name it , we want to know it!!!


Love

Sandra

neal

Hi Teresa-we want to know EVERYTHING(well almost... ).
Our main panic is trying to choose a suburb that isn't dodgy without actually seeing it first-any thoughts-where are you??
Many of us here absolutely DESPERATE for info so waffle away!!!
Mrs.Neal

tiredwithtwins

hi teresa,
glad to hear you landed safely!!!!
How are the kids settling in?
have you started work yet?
We need a blow by blow account of the whole move please!!!!!!!

lovely to hear from you...

sue

juri

Hi,
Just a few points from our first 4 weeks here in Perth that might help.
We rented a holiday apartment for the first 19 days (dowlerapartments.com I think) and a car from city car rentals for a week.
I think both time spans were about right as it took that long to find a car and a house to rent. We were happy with both the apartment ( still waiting on the bond getting returned though £100) and the car rental company.
Glad I wasn't working as we were out practically every day looking, at first for a car, then round suburbs etc.
The apartment we stayed in was in South Perth which is a lovely suburb so we looked at many houses for rent in that area and surrounding suburbs. (Kensington, Victoria Park, Como). South Perth was the most consistant with regard to nice areas to live as the others though decent suburbs had some run down places.
We found after days of looking that we couldn't get a decent house on it's own for the $250 a week we were prepared to pay. The places we looked at we either duplexes or a unit. (It seems house owners have split up their land and built houses in as a result two or three houses share the same driveway etc.
We then looked up North - Woodvale, Greenwood, Padbury, Kingsley and Duncraig.
Bearing in mind we just drove through these places and like I said there seems to be the odd street that is run down, we would have lived in all of these suburbs apart from Duncraig which seemed the roughest, graffiti, couches and car wrecks in gardens etc.
Looked at a couple of houses there-- nothing. (wife liked Woodvale the best.)
Then back down SOR to Leeming, Bull Creek, Hamilton Hill, Bibra Lake, Spearwood and Canning Vale.
My opinion on first look Bull Creek nice but pricey, Hamilton Hill very nice but we were subsequently told by the car salesman that it was a rough area. Bibra lake I liked wife didn't. Searwood wife liked I didn't (Just too remote). Leeming I liked wife didn't odd rough street.
Going on too much here went to the hills Kalamunda etc also.
We were weighing up amenities, child care (we have a 3 year old)etc and as you've probably noticed my wife and I liked different places for different reasons.
Finally decided on Canning Vale. Mostly new estates clean and safe looking, decent shops and a couple of child care places.
Something I forgot to get was a reference from our previous landlord and that caused a bit of hassle, in the end I had to pay 6 months up front in order to secure a place. We previously lost out on a house in Caning Vale and were panicking by this time as our stuff from UK was due, in the end Crown held on to it for 3 days free of charge. Another point we never thought of that would be handy is if you sell a house get the seller/ Estate Agent to give you a reference on the state of the house etc as one of the letting companies here suggested that to us.
Timings for shipping--- Sent it 16th December (Sparse surroundings for Xmas), arrived Perth 22 Jan (we arrived 21), cleared customs and quarantine 3rd Feb, moved into house 6th so we timed it about right .
Flew with Singapore Airlines, faultless. Flew early evening so wee boy slept most of flight. Spent 3 nights in Singapore, recommended.
Also went with Crown removals, again faultless.
After all that it was time to look for a job.
Been here 23 days and feet haven't touched the ground.
Just had a thought that we haven't spoke to anyone apart from shopkeepers and salesmen since we got here but we are not too worried as we have been too busy to get lonely. The neighbours have waved a few times, all that stuff will come.
Start a job on Monday ( tomorrow) it's all go.
Hope this has been helpful to some.
The Uri's

teresa.c

Well done Juri, a better person than me to write a thread that long, I just dont have the patience or the time!!

We flew with singapore airlines and used crown for shipping aswell. I agree that both are great!

When it comes to rentals, give yourselves a good 4-5 weeks to look around. Renting here is a different system than in UK. When you see a property you like, you will probably be given an appointment to look around and find when you arrive another 10 people there aswell!! Its not a first come first serve!! Out of everyone who looks around, those who are interested will fill in the required paperwork and hand over an 'option fee'(probably the weekly rent amount). These then go to the landlord who will decide (in his own time!!) who he wants in his house! This gives us poms a distinct disadvantage because at this point most of us dont have jobs, or australian references! If you get the house, great, if not you get the option fee back. The estate agents dont hold your details and contact you when something comes up that might suit you, you have to scan the papers and visi t the agents most days to see if something new has come in! The main paper that lists property is 'the west' on a saturday, but as most agents are shut on weekends its really hard going to get a place. We finally went with a private rental, no agent, and phoned him at 7.30 one saturday morning and insisted we went to see it 8.30!! We offered 6 months rent up front and gave the name of our temp accomodation as reference.

We are in coogee, 15mins south of freo. Great area, great house, but a tad expensive! Local primary is a walk away, great for our 6 yr old, and the beach is 5 mins walk which is ideal for us.

I advise get a mobile up and running as soon as you can if you are looking for houses, cars etc. We found our invaluable, most phones in rentals have restricted calls. We took ours with us, got it unlocked in UK for £2 and shoved in an optus sim when we got here.

Petrol prices change by the day, but all still relatively cheap compared to UK! Varies from 87-97 cents litre.

And be prepared to pay for EVERYTHING!! All amenities in the house have a 'connection' charge, even if they are not disconnected!! I called Telstra to change the phone into our name. I was calling from the house phone and and they told me it needed to be connected. I was stunned, I was talking from it, it wasnt disconnected!! But still I had to pay connection fee. The same with gas and electric, connection fees were charged basically to change account into different user.

TV isnt good, so we got FOXTEL, that isnt good either!! But hey, we dont watch TV much now anyway!

I got my job via email/phone before we arrived.(im a nurse) Started 4 weeks after we arrived. If you can manage it wait a little longer. I found I wasnt ready to start work so soon, still exhausted from house hunting etc.

Lecture over!
:lecture:


Hope this helps, another installment on its way soon!!

tiredwithtwins

helps heaps!!!!
you must tell me how you are finding your job as a nurse out there!!?? Same crap as the uk or what??
glad to hear school is close by...that would make my life so much easier to have a 5 minute walk to school!!
keep the info coming!!!

sue

teresa.c

Hi Sue

I actually love my job! But I think I would love it in UK too if i could have ever landed one like it!!
Im off the wards and into a mon-fri job, no nights, no weekends, no on-call, its fab!! Terms and conditons are pretty good. I work full time, 80hrs fortnight, but only get paid 78hrs, but this means I accrue an extra day off in lieu every 4 weeks. Adds up to extra 13 days a year to add to A/L. Getting paid fortnightly is good too. Also A/L is paid at enhanced rates so you dont go back down to basic rate if you take time off, I like that too!!

The hospital is pretty laid back aswell. Im in a different setting to what I had back in Uk so I cant really compare if things are better or worse. There is problems with staff shortages as usual, but Ive not done ward stuff so I dont know how short!!! They dont employ HCA's but the EN's are still going strong here.

Ive also got a PV and my own work email which I was quite excited about!! (sad but true!!)

teresa.c

OOOPPPSSSS!!!! I meant PC!! Lets hope only nurses will find that funny!!!!
:scared:

EEL

Hi Juri

Thanks all your info was helpful. We are hopefully going to be heading to Perth later on in the year. Our son has just turned two and I am just dreading the flight over with him. Any tips for toddlers and long plane journeys would be greatly appreciated.

I am actually from Perth, but it has all changed quite a bit since I lived there - though I do remember that Hamilton Hill used to be a rough area with lots of break-ins etc - perhaps some things don't change!

Let us know how you get on with the child care. I think both my husband and I are going to have to work - so we will be looking at child care as well. Hopefully it is a bit better then where we are in London where all the local nurseries have a 18 month waiting list.

Hope your first day at work goes well - though it sounds like you need a holiday.

Lisa