Wilf

In my opinion, this site is very dull now that PB has gone. I am sure he was a thorn in the side of many a wannabe immo, but I think he was a great spark and gave me cause to laugh my false teeth half out many times. I could never see what people meant when they said he was offensive and often observed him being insulted in far worse terms than I am aware he ever used. I am sure even his old sparring partners of Kiwipaul and Mega would welcome a return if they were honest.

I have not got his stamina (or his apparent spare time) to do much for this site and I think it lacks a heart now. That is from the point of view of an expat, of course, and no dobut the majority of the wannabe immos disagree. There are many "experts" on this site telling the expats what Oz and NZ are like even though they have yet to set foot on Oz/NZ soil and yet I think once they have made the fateful move and see just how ordinary the places are, they will understand why people like PB are a good laugh for us expats.

All the best, Wilf

Kath

I agree. Now PB has gone there is a big void, the site is not so entertaining. Where did he find the time to post so much?

In some ways it's been good, I've managed to get more jobs done because I've not been coming online that much, the site has become a bit dull!

Wilf

I think one of the problems is that not having someone on regularly who is "less than idealistc" about Oz means that it is harder for people to be honest if they are less than perfectly happy. There is only a small tolerance on the site for negative posts and the tone of the site is very "pro" (perhaps not surprising if it was a future immos site, but it is meant to be an expats site and so it suprises me that it is often expats that are "not wanted" unless they say what is hoped for). Oz has its good and bad but there are already too many people talking it up (often without knowing the reality). Amazingly, as dotty once observed, it is only recently that the subject of it being hard to get a good career in Oz came up at all. I would have thought that people could get their "Aus has sun, beaches, big ouses" (Aus Has BO) party political propaganda from the travel programmes and lots of other websites and would have thought they would appreciate a dose of reality. Do people, for example, realise just how far away Oz is from the UK - not being funny to the poms, just making an observation on something that I have heard from people here over the years "You don't realise how far it is really until you actually do the journey". When I was emigrating here, I would have loved to have something like this site but not if it was all just a load of people living in Essex saying the UK is shit and Oz is great, even though they haven't been here.

Wilf

Kath

Even though PB has gone, I hope there are still enough Expats in Aus / NZ to give their honest opinions / views to this forum.

I only found this site just before our move last year, PB was posting then and he confirmed the doubts I was having, but by then the house was sold and we gone too far down the track to back out. We told friends and family we were going for a few years and would be back, I'm glad we left it that way because no-one will be surprised when they see us again next year.

In fact, I can just hear the comments now, "has it been 2 years since you left ...?"

Wilf

This is something that has troubled me before. I do not enjoy making people feel bad about Oz once their decision is made, bridges been burnt, and it is too late to back out. I sometimes have it in mind that there must be some people who find the site earlier in the day and can still think about it before committing. I confess that is what motivates my posts a lot of the time - making people rethink the move because I am sure this site is the first time they will have heard negatives about Oz (I also writ about NZ because I have spent a fair amount of time there and there is no honest criticism of NZ here at all from what I can see, just idealising). Perhaps I am always talking to people who are too far along the road to have time to rethink and so wasting my time? Shame that people do not find this site earlier. I think one very important purpose for the site should be as a place for future immos to test their future plans, not just have them confirmed once it is too late to rethink. I suppose that is why "negative" stuff is so unpopular - who needs to hear "not that good" when it is too late to turn back?

Kath

I think there are many people (like us) who look into a move to Australia / NZ, they research, have a holiday, find out it's possible to go, points, skills etc. and make their application for a PR.

Even at the early application stage we wouldn't have changed our minds, we knew it was possible for us to go and we didn't want to look back wondering 'what if....'

I do think that if I'd found the site sooner I would have kept a house in the UK and rented in Australia, retaining a base in the UK would have been reassuring.

DianeOZ

I wonder if there are many people who have got their visas and then changed their mind for whatever reason. I can remember one on this forum "Mickey" from Scotland who got their visas and then decided that family and friends were more important and stayed.

I don't think negative comments are posted to put people off coming, just to make them aware of what they could encounter when they arrive. I really don't know why some people settle and some don't. Is it a case of what you are prepared to put up with/how easily you meet new friends/how homesick you (or rest of family) are/how you are financially/finding work? There is a list as long as your arm I suppose...

I know that if we hadn't found work so quickly it would have had a major effect on our settling in factor..

Diane

Megalania

He said all he was going to say 101 times over.

Ceri

True.. I can't find the post now, it was too long ago. But when I first joined up here, I think it was my very first post , I voiced my honest opinion on Brisbane. PB told me I would not be very popular if I speak the truth, people didn't want to hear that type of thing, they only want to hear what they want to hear ...He was right.

I'm drawn now between BO and voicing my honest opinions. BO is winning... like any good politician... I must learn to gloss over the truth.. lol

And I may be wrong but I have never seen a post that he has gone out of his way to personally attack someone and to use foul language... yes he called "them" dreamers etc. hardly insulting though is it.

Cheers

dotty

It is quite boring now, couple of days in a row all I read were the got it, house sale all of which are UK posts not about living in OZ.

One of the funny bits of this site is the way reality posts often end up on page 3 or 4 as if they have been ignored. Take megs population map its down to page 2 where some really minor posts are still getting replies. How can such a useful post as showing people how most of OZ's population is in a few tiny bits get shoved to the back? (If you missed it its called Aussies bush retreat or similar by Megalania), maps that say so much about OZ.

The site has fascinated me tho, it certainly shows humans only hear what they want to.

Another interesting bit is how many new arrivals have now said PB was not really wrong. Or if someone posts a few beautiful scenery posts it provokes a lot of 'Oh whats it like there then', happened recently with NZ.

Lets face it when Aussies are overseas they really 'sex up' good old OZ, bit like Tony Blair really, thing is OZ is so far away a lot of people believe it.

In the end nobody would expect to emigrate to North America and ask questions like is cold in winter, does chicago have crime, are there traffic jams in LA. Why because they have probably been there. Testimony to Oz's distance indeed.

Wilf

I agree very much with your point about Ozzies talking the place up. I think, in a funny kind of way, they are excellent ambassadors for their country and it is a shame that poms are not the same. No names no pack drill, but I have seen people on this site describe parts of London, Surrey, and Middlesex that I know well (and not just from the dim and distant but from very recently) as bad places to live and I know they are lovely places to live where most of the crime is in people's imaginations. You would think would you not, from what is said, that everyone in London would be plagued by crime? I know many people who have lived in inner London for decades - Battersea, Clapham, Putney, Roehampton, Finsbury Park, Lewisham, Sydenham, most of them in council or ex-council having bought under the Thatcher scheme, and when I worked it out recently, there was less crime suffered on a per person basis by them than by my friends here in Oz. There are some stories of daily hassles, but nothing that has not been experienced here, and that is without even seeing what is great about London life and yet London and Machester, Newcastle are far "worse" to live in than where most people onthis site seem to live. There is a terrible tendency in poms to take it all for granted and to focus on what is bad about the UK and what is good about ANYWHERE else.

Megalania

The Very Model of a Modern Major-General

Ceri

Maybe, I can't speak for everyone.. but because I have travelled and been living as an expat for just over 11 years.. I'm just not impressed by supposedly Beautiful Brisbane. I could post up some beautiful photo's Britain, Asia, S.Korea (was there for a month... business) , Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia ... and even busy Singapore (the undeveloped islands... and not Sentosa). Used to travel a lot around Asia when I was living in Sing.. nature of our Business.

Brisbane is the worst place I have ever lived. Ahh I'm going to get attacked for speaking my mind, but who cares. I really should scan some of my old photo's one day.. I'm just not impressed by Brisbane at all , I find most of it very ugly.


cheers

Wilf

BANNED

Ceri

You can't ban BO, what am I banned for three years??

Ahh must get someone to write a song.

Have you seen that.. it was on the news last night .. Alan Hanson has just released a record called "innocence" lol

I'm straying off the subject now.. have a habit of doing that. I'm a practicing poliie.. getting good at this