scutterUK

sometimes i think i'm the only one in our office who doesn't go away for long weekends. (we've got too much work to do on the house to get away much... at the moment anyway). It's like they all leave me to watch over the rest of the city, just to make sure it'll be there when they all get back.. hehe.

it should be a bit warmer in jan! Did you see the balloon fiesta this long weekend? Me and the misses got up at the crack of dawn on friday morning to get and see them all take off. the problem was it didn't start until saturday!! still it was lovely walking along the lake watching the sun rise over the mountains.

CasG

I did ! Some landed in the park by the Italo-Australian Club where the tournament was.

killamarsh

What is the balloon fiesta?

sasbear

Know what you mean there.

All our office go off to the additional suburb of Bateman's Bay!

We still have an awful lot of work to do on our home - mainly the garden now - leaving the kitchen until next year.

I love it when everyone departs Canberra for the long weekends - there is plenty to do here without going elsehwere.

The folk Festival went really well - but didn't get to the ballooning.

Vicky88

I'll agree with other posters, Canberra is not for everyone, but for the right family it would be a good fit. I lived in Canberra in my early 20s when I was single and it didn't really offer me anything. However, now that I am older I find it more suited to my pace of life.

It does offer a good quality of life, proximity to Sydney if that is your thing, coast on the weekends.

We would move there when we return to Australia to live, except that my In-Laws live there and I don't want to be near them.

I must say we lived in Sydney for a year and I hated the place, too crowded, too noisy, too depressing seeing the homeless and drunks around the city.

scutterUK

try this

http://www.canberraballoonfiesta.com.au/

Ozzidoc

Great link. The piccies look fab - love the piper!

YoSemite

had the most bizarre experience of my life in canberra....

a scot, celebrating australia day, in the nations capital, by watching the edinburgh military tattoo australia tour, complete with full highland dress and bagpipesl, with the same guy who does the voice over for the tattoo on tv, sitting infront of the war memorial...

only in canberra!!!!!!!

killamarsh

[QUOTE=YoSemite]had the most bizarre experience of my life in canberra....

Oh just thinking of that has tickled me.

If everyone ups sticks on the weekends, where do they go?

Does Canberra make a big deal of Oz Day? Are there festivals etc?

Ialibu

Another thing for those who go there and end up driving around because they're lost, remember this! No two streets have the same name. So no matter where you end up, just check the nearest street name and look up the map, you will find out where you are very quickly. or buy a GPS

And another, for those who want an idea of what Canberra looks like and live in the West, have a look @ Perth's northern suburbs. After a lot of the Town Planners working for the NCDC (now who remembers them :-) ? were laid off in the mid to late 1970s they moved to Perth and laid out the northern suburbs in the same style as Canberra.

NickyC

We lived in Canberra for a few years in the mid-eighties. A LOT of the old-timers had weekenders on the coast - both north and south of Bateman's Bay. Quite a few people I knew had caravans and cabins on Lake Burrinjuck nearby. People would also get away to the mountains or go up to the Brindabellas.

I think when they bought these coastal places they were cheap as chips - it's a bit different nowadays as real estate on the south coast has sky-rocketed.

Bateman's Bay really was like a suburb of Canberra - and that was in the days when it was almost 3-hour drive to get there!

astonished

Having lived in Sydney Melbourne and Darwin long term and knowing all the other capitals well i always say there are two types of people in OZ wrt to Canberra ie those that are living there and never want to leave and those that have never lived there and never want to go.

killamarsh

Thought I would take the opportunity while we have all the Canbarians in room to ask this.

I keep getting told there are no performance listings for schools. I can accept this, however, how does the local authority in Canberra know whether a school is doing the right thing, and how would they know when a school is failing? There must be some form of measuring the performance of the schools, even if that be not measuring the children's performance but that of the school in implementing educational standards. Does anybody know if there is anything avaialble at all? I have given up looking for something as I am sure I have looked at all possible places reports would be on individual schools.

NickyC

There most definitely is measuring of the performance of all schools. The relevant government departments get all the info they need.

The only problem is that they don't publish it. In NSW the Teachers Union only agree to co-operate in administering the tests etc. on condition that the results are not published. You'd have to ask a teacher for the reasoning behind that decision - couldn't be because they don't want any of their own shortcomings to be made public, could it?

Anyway, it's no different here to the way it was in the UK a few years ago. When I was at school there were no league tables - but everyone knew which were the good/bad schools. You just have to ask around .