That's too funny! I'm glad to hear there's some hope of losing the hoser accent, hard rollin' R's and all. The latest thing on the American networks is to lambaste Sarah Palin, McCain's second-in-command, with her strong, local-yokel northern accent. At one point, couldn't help but realize that I might sound more than a bit like her....yikes!!!

Yes, there are certainly no hard rolling 'R's here!

If there is an R at the end of a word it's like it's not even there. It's a bit hard to get used to.

super = supah
chedder = cheddah (by the way it's white here not orange like in Canada)

And the list goes on.....

I hate dropping the R but sometimes it just makes life easier when asking for things. So I've now taken to calling it cheddah cheese (at least at Subway!). Oh yah, and it's capsicums here not green peppers.

We're actually planning on moving to the Sunshine Coast, so I guess that's not exactly Brisbane area, but will depend on OH's job prospects too. Easy to forget actual distances as more time passes, we haven't been there since last fall. Glad to hear about the hockey....just yesterday I told my husband that I will definitely be packing my beloved Montreal Canadiens toque, regardless of how useless it will become! (Had to wear it yesterday morning for the first time this season!)

thank you very much for your supportive answer Dorothy. It may sound naive but I really worry about him being adjusted to new life especially in teens age. He loves swimming, hopefuly it'll attrack him. I was always wondering - how people managing swimming in the ocean with so many sharks and other dangerous creatures around? I heard they have nets in Australian beaches, but if your are surfing, you have to catch the waives and it might be beyond the net boundaries?
Not quite sure what city we will go. Want to visit Australia first to activate our visas and then decide and come back in a year time. We have read a lot about different cities, so far stopped on the Gold Coast (weather is very atractive after quite cold winters in Toronto). But we may change our mind...

The Sunshine Coast is about an hour from us, so I'd say that the closest rink to you would be the one in Boondall. It's about half way to the coast, so about 30 minutes drive for you depending on where you end up. Be warned that public skating is VERY expensive ($50 for a family of 4!). Also they wouldn't let my 2 year old on the ice because he wasn't old enough (had to be 3). So now we just don't mention his age, get tickets and go in. Problem solved! Rental skates are included whether you use them or not.

Hockey on Foxtel you have to pay for the sports package. The Game Centre thing that my husband has on the internet is like $150 for the year, plus you have to make sure that you have enough bandwidth for it (not unlimited here). But it is possible to get it on tv or the internet if you want it enough.

Nooooooooooo!
Sharks and other dangerous creatures are rarely seen. We swim in the ocean all the time and my kids go to the beach almost every weekend during the summer to surf or body board. I've never seen a shark, although I've see a fair few jellyfish at the marina. Shark attacks are really very rare here, as are other dangerous creatures. Although, the wife of a mate at work was bitten by a 6' Dugite last week. She's fine now, except for some swelling of her leg. And being spring here the snakes and creepies are coming out of their winter hibernation. We had a couple of pretty ugly spiders in our house last night, which were quicky dispatched with a paper towel and copious amounts of mortein.

Don't worry about the wildlife. The vast majority of it is more afraid of you than you are of it. It's like the people who are afraid of bears or cougars in Canada. You rarely see them and even when you do they don't just randomly attack people.

That is great relief to hear about sharks. I know life looks differently from the distance, we probably watched too much the discovery channel ("Most deadliest animals") and were under the impression that they are everywhere in Australia. We are very outdoor people and that's another reason why we choose Australia to live. How is the situation with the tennis courts there? I heard that they are not free and not near almost every school like here in GTA?

There are free tennis courts near us. There are also free basketball courts, a skate park, activities for teens and lots of stuff in our area. For the tennis, we have to drive to the next suburb, about 5 km, but that's ok because we're building a house in that suburb so it will be close to us when we move. We just go into the community centre office and tell them we would like to book a court and presto free tennis court.
Don't stress about things too much. You'll be just fine.

Hi folks, I just found this site and really appreciate all the great info in this thread!

I'm hoping someone can help with a quick question. I'm an international student heading to Australia next month with the hubby, and I'm having a hell of a time finding a reasonable way to ship a few smaller boxes. I've found plenty of places that offer bulk shipping (containers etc), but all we're looking to transport are two desktop PCs and maybe 40lbs of books, paper & memorabilia. I've taken a look at fedex/UPS/DHL, and they're asking pretty ridiculous prices... like $750 a box. I saw references to a few UK companies that ship excess baggage for reasonable rates, but I can't seem to find anything comparable in Canada. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any advice would be appreciated, I'm hoping I'm just looking in the wrong places at the moment.

Thanks!

A courier would be really expensive. Better to use Canada Post, even though it would take a little while. You could also try some sort of Excess Cargo type place. I've had no experience with them so not sure how expensive they are. Had a quick look and here's the first link I've found.
http://www.cargo-excess.com/

I... can't believe I didn't think to check Canada Post! Thanks comet, that's exactly what I was looking for. It looks like a 20lb box would take 4-6 weeks to arrive, but only cost a bit over $100 to ship. Cheers to that .

If you're lucky it could arrive faster than that. It's still expensive, but at least not as bad as the couriers.

My family regularly sends me cards for the kdis and dvd's in the mail and they usually take about 2 weeks to get here. Mind you that's just small letters but I don't even think a box has taken as long as 6 weeks, except maybe over Christmas.

There's always the option of upgrading your computers to laptops that you could carry on the plane. I assume you've checked the voltage to make sure it'll work here. Most computers and portable electronics should be fine though. As long as it says 100-240V and 50-60Hz you're fine and you'd only need a cheap plastic adapter to plug it in.

By the way, where are you headed?

We're headed off down to Wollongong, just south of Sydney .

We do actually have a laptop we're bringing as well, but our desktop PCs are quite new so if possible I'd rather use them than swap them out. We checked the towers and both have a nice little switch on the back for power conversion, which is a pretty nifty feature for this type of thing.

Right now we're in the process of selling all of our stuff and organizing frantically... panic time!

Ours had a switch too. Just make sure that you actually switch it over before you use it. I suggest flicking the switch before you actually pack it in the box. That way if you forget to check it in Oz it's already on the correct setting. As a double precaution I would even tape a piece of paper to the monitor reminding yourself to double check it. You definitely don't want to ship it only to fry it by accident on the other end

Any suggestions for a portable (and toddler-proof) DVD player that is reasonably priced and has dual-compatibility i.e. plays both Aus and Canadian DVD formats? Or is there such a thing on the market? Just thinking ahead to another 24-hr-plus plane ride Thanks!