anthony

Like the subject says:

Can somebody bring good news (I mean more!!!) on how good living in Australia????

Negativity has made me very frustrated.

Herman

The sun shines and people speak English. What more do you need?

Snickers

Yeah and whats the point of all this bickering it ain't helping anyone whether you are coming or going, its getting in the way of the real reason for this NG.

Paul

stay or go ?

matter of opinion in some areas of melbourne.

good news about living in australia ? well......the Aussie Rules Season is over, thats good news (and i mean REALLY good news).....its getting warmer so diving is becoming more tolerable, the days are longer and the next Star Trek NG series is on soon (stops having to watch Big Kev wittering on about how excited he is about bleach).

apart from that - well, there aint much really. the bad news is that as the clocks change, the time difference between here and the uk makes listening to Radio One on the net a little more difficult.

watch Crocodile Dundee or something, that'll cheer you up, and prepare you well for living over here.......the LA bit that is.

oh yeah, forgot - they showed 24hrs of Men Behaving Badly, then 24hrs of Father Ted, then 24hrs of Blackadder one day after the other this weekend just gone. Christ it was good to see something other than american humour ! so, when u come down here, get Foxtel !!!!

regards

crappy day at work.

Grub

Dear Anthony

Please dont let the opinions of a select few put you off your dream. Whilst i admit that people like PB and Herman have made me a little more cautious than i was, i remain positive about the move. I have many friends/ friends of family/ famil who have moved (to Perth mainly) and have never returned. I also know people that have returned to UK, realised why they left in the first place, and been back within 6 months.
I am fortunate to have a house to sell which will enable us to buy outright in Perth, a 4 bed, 2 bath property with proximity to the beach. I will have a garden for my son and hopefully subsequent children to play in without too much fear of abduction (I dont let him go out the front in UK). I work hard and although realise i may not earn as much in Australia, my expereinec of Oz prices mean that i wont be spending a fortune on day to day living. Personally i love bbq's and i dont eat in the same restaurants as PB and Herman (I have eaten out in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane for less than £10 a head with BYO wine!- great idea).
I love culture and little english villages steeped in history but sadly i have to admit to only visiting said places on a bi-yearly basis (if that), and my nearest beach is Formby/ Southgport/ Blackpool/ North Wales coast (ie dirty, cold, brown and polluted)
I live in a house which is jammed up against a whole load of other houses and a 1 mile drive to work can take 20 minutes to complete.
I love Australia- it has some beautiful places with awesome scenery, and a fabulous, diverse coastline (I have travelled from the bottom of Victoria to Cape Tribulation). The people are warm and friendly and know how to enjoy themselves. Crime is less, weather better, routes out of the cities quick and easy- isolated beach within hours. No need to fly out of the country every time you want a short break.

Hope that's given you something less negative to think about.

JustArrived

Hi Anthony,

Having been in Perth for only a few weeks I still can't believe how good the lifestyle is compared to what the rest of my family have back home in the UK.

If I'm feeling unhappy then the bus ride home always cheers me up. Coming home from the train station the bus goes over the crest of a hill and suddenly you can see the green/blue Indian Ocean 1 or 2 miles away with usually clear skies and the setting sun. That alone was worth coming here for.

I remember the first time I went to Hawaii. Coming from a particularly grey and miserable part of the UK it was almost beyond my comprehension that a place could be so beautiful and have such great weather and beaches. We only live once and somebody has to live in beautiful sunny places so why not us?

I'm sure that most people have been on holiday away from the crap British weather and wished that they could live there. The difference is that, like yourselves, I got off my bum and actually did something about it.

I remember telling my wife soon after we met that it was my dream to live in a place with blue skies, warm clear sea, and palm trees on the beaches. She said "Well, stop making it your dream and start making it your goal."

I've achieved my goal.

anthony

Thank you.

Come on everybody, start giving good news. Or maybe they don't have time wasting in the newsgroup and busy enjoying their good life.

ywoods

I think that is more like it.. the latter that is

I dont get much time to be online anymore, but to be honest that is down to work and one puter between 3 of us (til we move which will be in the next 4 weeks)

Yvonne

springflower

Hi Everyone
I like most people on here cant wait to get to aussie and just hope I have not left it too late. I have family who have lived there since 1980 and love it so much and wouldnt dream of coming back to england. They have lived in western australia from as far up as Broome to the south in Busselton where i have my mum and sister living right now. My brother lives just outside of perth in Gosnells which we were told by the taxi driver from perth airport that it wasnt such a nice area, but compared to our not so nice areas it was pure heaven. I live in Scarborough and for the last 5 years have overlooked the sea so I do know what it is like to live near the sea. Recently sold up the business and now live around 4 miles out of scarborough in a lovely little country village. We visited in 2000 and wish we had been over there before, all of us, including my two sons age 7 and 12 cant wait to go back. Everywhere we visited was clean, breathtaking, friendly and the beaches... well just that they were beautiful and not crowded like you get here. Our day on the beach here in sunny scarborough is to take what you need in a small bag, then find a space to sit and hope the boys dont wont you to take a paddle in the oh so lovely sea (brrr cold grey and filthy). We enjoyed lots of weekends travelling from busselton to as far as augusta and enjoying all the scenery, the stress free driving (my family would have a fit if they had to drive around england now) and the space and clean beautiful beaches with facilities to enjoy yourself. Even looked into the housing costs, living costs and work over there and we know we would have a better lifestyle than we have here and the kids would be able to go out without one of us being with them 100%. Im just hoping by this time next year i will be over there with them all enjoying myself once again.
I would say just go for it and see what you are all missing.
Jan

Grub

I am really glad you started this post as it seems like it's not all bad. I must say that as much as i try to ignore the negative postings, that naughty pessimistic genie that sits on my right shoulder (particularly chatty when i go to bed at night) does seems to replay alot of what i read and it makes me worry.

I know once i am there i will know that i have done the right thing but the 2 year wait has really dragged us all down i think, and we are only human if we have our doubts.

Please comment- people like Perth Helena and the like as it really cheers us up and keeps us going.

BTW it's bloody freezing up north and i now have my heating on every day. The nights are starting to draw in and it will soon be dark before i leave work.

Roll on visa!!!

syropes

hi,

good thread this one, positive people. Got to admit, though I am new to the site, was getting fed up with the 'every silver lining has a cloud' brigade!!

I hope to be in perth by the end of november this year, if I can get my redundancy, if not will have to wait a bit longer

I will be coming out on my own, no house to sell in the UK, so I will have about £30,000 of hard earned savings to hopefully keep me going.

Over the last week I have got lots of info about 'what to do' when arrive. the best place I found for this was this site

http://users.chariot.net.au/~krmille....htm#indexlist

Really good stuff on it.

I agree with 'just arrived' you've only got one go at life, and with warts and all the average Ozzie life seems a better deal than the average uk life.

The negative brigade can't wait to say how bad things are in Oz, and they can't wait to get back to the UK. Well they left the UK for a reason to be in OZ, do they think that the reason they left the UK has gone?? How long before they starting moaning about the weather, the traffic and taxes when they are back??

For me, it's a chance to start afresh in a great place. at the end of the day it's what you make of it, with the ups and downs along the way. I would just rather do it all in the sun!!!


Cheers

Sy.

Don

Would that be GBP30K of redundancy?!!!

syropes

Unfortunatley not!!! Should get about 7-8 grand GBP. that's why I am waiting around...

if it wasn't for that I would be there already I reckon!!!

cheers

Sy

nixstuff

Well, I've got some good news, for us at least..

WE GOT OUR VISAS YESTERDAY!!! WWWWWAAYYYYY-HEEYYYYYYYY!!!

No explicit details necessary, suffice to say applied Nov 27th 2000 (YES, THAT'S 2000), Deeming Date nightmare in June/July (resolved), first date of entry June 2003. Off to Perth, wife's family all live there, all of them better in mind, spirit (and yes, pocket) for it.

This group WAS entertaining and a good source of news, lord knows what's happened lately. All I'll comment is this - DO YOUR OWN THING. It's nice to get opinions, those of disgruntled expats are as interesting as those who've succeeded. It would seem whatever you do in life, wherever you do it, your circumstances can be a reflection of your character - you get out what you put in. And how you view what you get out determines if you consider yourself 'successful'.

I've lived and worked in Canada, spent lots of time in the States, and then found Oz. All are different, intriguing, difficult, infuriating, entertaining, rewarding, fabulous. And not like home - vive la différence. So go native. Think Australian, drink Australian. Meet some Aussies, get yourselves outdoors, go places you only see on Lonely Planet. Fill your mind with vivid colour and memories, don't just fill your bank account. There's been way too much imperialism, consumerism, and capitalism dominating proceedings on this board...and not nearly enough human spirit. Life's an experience, not just an exchange rate, a commute, a bigger house or the next promotion.

We'll give it a go, if it doesn't work out SO WHAT we come home. We just want the adventure. And all those coming back are more than welcome to come live in Stoke. Now THERE'S an experience for you all.

See you on the other side.

Nixstuff, S-O-T.

Tony Bryer

In article , JustArrived wrote:
    > Having been in Perth for only a few weeks I still can't believe how
    > good the lifestyle is compared to what the rest of my family have
    > back home in the UK.

I'm not suggesting that you won't be anything but happy in your new
home - obviously I hope you will be - but IMO the real tests are
surviving a miserable British winter or seriously hot Australian
summer. Most places are great on good spring and summer days: this week
in London it's been almost perfect weather - going out in sunshine just
makes you feel great. Mind you in Perth if you're near the ocean I
guess the breeze makes the heat much more tolerable.

When I get to retire to Melbourne, my consolation, weather-wise, will
be that the saying about if you don't like the weather just wait a few
hours is all but true. Mind you at the start of June I enjoyed nine
consecutive beautiful autumn days when I was expecting something much
less enjoyable.

--
Tony Bryer, London