our new life!
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jun 2004
Location: caerphilly, south wales, avonsleigh, melbourne as of 30/03/05!!!!
Posts: 109
our new life!
we have been here 11 months now, and things seem to be looking up for us
we arrived in march 2005 with £5000 in our pocket (2 adults 3 kids!)
we moved in with carls cousin (which was a complete nightmare! :scared: )
carl went through the yellow pages in the 1st week and asked 30+ builders for a start before 1 would actually give him a start. he started with them on a monday, and finished on a thursday, in 4 days not 1 of the guys had spoken to him, and totally ignored all questions he had directed to them!
we went back to the yellow pages, and managed to get another start for him (bricklayer)it was a family of 3 italian brothers building homes near to where we live, which carl thoroughly enjoyed,it took him 2 weeks to get promoted to foreman, there was a good lot of boys working together.
that job lasted 6 months, they then started getting contracts 2/3 hours away from home, which was a complete nightmare, the travelling times were just getting too much for him!
after doing this for 5 weeks we decided that it was too much so carl decided to go off and start his own business with a fellow expat who moved here in september. they managed to secure a contract for a large home near to where we live, which went well, then carls partner decided to go back & work for the company that carl had just left, and basically dropped carl right in the shit! but he managed......it took him 8 weeks to single handedly finish the new house and i might add the owner builder was over the moon with his quality of work . that job finished just before christmas, and since then.... absolutely no work :scared: we are on the internet 2/3 a day looking for work, if a job comes up and he calls the employer there are aproximately 30+ other brickies that have applied, us personally really cant understand where the lack of tradesmen are in melbourne!
we have been advertising in many newspapers now for 5 weeks! we have hand delivered 800 leaflets and given out numerous numbers of business cards, we were seriously considerating moving to another part of australia in search of some work, we were going to give it another week and then sit down and explain it to the kids! but today, we have finally started having phone calls(HOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYYY) we have been and quoted 3 different jobs, and so far we have got at least 1 definate YES to start work on wednesday!
i just thought ide post this so all the people still in the uk realise that even though they say bricklayers are in demand in melbourne, a job certainly wont fall into your lap! you really need to look AND work hard!
i hope this post wont depress any people, cos things are looking up for us now, i realised it would take time......just didnt realise it would take this long!!
thanks for taking the time to read this, and goodluck to each and every one of you thinking of making this HUGE step.
louise xx
we arrived in march 2005 with £5000 in our pocket (2 adults 3 kids!)
we moved in with carls cousin (which was a complete nightmare! :scared: )
carl went through the yellow pages in the 1st week and asked 30+ builders for a start before 1 would actually give him a start. he started with them on a monday, and finished on a thursday, in 4 days not 1 of the guys had spoken to him, and totally ignored all questions he had directed to them!
we went back to the yellow pages, and managed to get another start for him (bricklayer)it was a family of 3 italian brothers building homes near to where we live, which carl thoroughly enjoyed,it took him 2 weeks to get promoted to foreman, there was a good lot of boys working together.
that job lasted 6 months, they then started getting contracts 2/3 hours away from home, which was a complete nightmare, the travelling times were just getting too much for him!
after doing this for 5 weeks we decided that it was too much so carl decided to go off and start his own business with a fellow expat who moved here in september. they managed to secure a contract for a large home near to where we live, which went well, then carls partner decided to go back & work for the company that carl had just left, and basically dropped carl right in the shit! but he managed......it took him 8 weeks to single handedly finish the new house and i might add the owner builder was over the moon with his quality of work . that job finished just before christmas, and since then.... absolutely no work :scared: we are on the internet 2/3 a day looking for work, if a job comes up and he calls the employer there are aproximately 30+ other brickies that have applied, us personally really cant understand where the lack of tradesmen are in melbourne!
we have been advertising in many newspapers now for 5 weeks! we have hand delivered 800 leaflets and given out numerous numbers of business cards, we were seriously considerating moving to another part of australia in search of some work, we were going to give it another week and then sit down and explain it to the kids! but today, we have finally started having phone calls(HOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYYY) we have been and quoted 3 different jobs, and so far we have got at least 1 definate YES to start work on wednesday!
i just thought ide post this so all the people still in the uk realise that even though they say bricklayers are in demand in melbourne, a job certainly wont fall into your lap! you really need to look AND work hard!
i hope this post wont depress any people, cos things are looking up for us now, i realised it would take time......just didnt realise it would take this long!!
thanks for taking the time to read this, and goodluck to each and every one of you thinking of making this HUGE step.
louise xx
#2
Re: our new life!
Hope it turns around for you and it's good to see your dedication resolve the situation, the one thing i would say about the Gold coast is because it is growing faster than anywhere else it gives people plenty of opportunity. Good luck
#3
#4
Re: our new life!
[QUOTE=carloubateman]we have been here 11 months now, and things seem to be looking up for us
we arrived in march 2005 with £5000 in our pocket (2 adults 3 kids!)
we moved in with carls cousin (which was a complete nightmare! :scared: )
carl went through the yellow pages in the 1st week and asked 30+ builders for a start before 1 would actually give him a start. he started with them on a monday, and finished on a thursday, in 4 days not 1 of the guys had spoken to him, and totally ignored all questions he had directed to them!
we went back to the yellow pages, and managed to get another start for him (bricklayer)it was a family of 3 italian brothers building homes near to where we live, which carl thoroughly enjoyed,it took him 2 weeks to get promoted to foreman, there was a good lot of boys working together.
that job lasted 6 months, they then started getting contracts 2/3 hours away from home, which was a complete nightmare, the travelling times were just getting too much for him!
after doing this for 5 weeks we decided that it was too much so carl decided to go off and start his own business with a fellow expat who moved here in september. they managed to secure a contract for a large home near to where we live, which went well, then carls partner decided to go back & work for the company that carl had just left, and basically dropped carl right in the shit! but he managed......it took him 8 weeks to single handedly finish the new house and i might add the owner builder was over the moon with his quality of work . that job finished just before christmas, and since then.... absolutely no work :scared: we are on the internet 2/3 a day looking for work, if a job comes up and he calls the employer there are aproximately 30+ other brickies that have applied, us personally really cant understand where the lack of tradesmen are in melbourne!
we have been advertising in many newspapers now for 5 weeks! we have hand delivered 800 leaflets and given out numerous numbers of business cards, we were seriously considerating moving to another part of australia in search of some work, we were going to give it another week and then sit down and explain it to the kids! but today, we have finally started having phone calls(HOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYYY) we have been and quoted 3 different jobs, and so far we have got at least 1 definate YES to start work on wednesday!
i just thought ide post this so all the people still in the uk realise that even though they say bricklayers are in demand in melbourne, a job certainly wont fall into your lap! you really need to look AND work hard!
i hope this post wont depress any people, cos things are looking up for us now, i realised it would take time......just didnt realise it would take this long!!
thanks for taking the time to read this, and goodluck to each and every one of you thinking of making this HUGE step.
louise xx[
Hiya louise...........this is another post that we cant relate too.
We've been here 8 months now and all though there is plenty of building work on site for john has a brickie - the work conditions and wages were lousey.....john could'nt stand workin on site and when he got his licence decided to go it alone..... For 3 months his advertisment as been goin in 2 papers - costing $480 a month - he's had quite a few calls but only got 3 jobs from it :scared: and thats in 3 months - unfortunatly for me john's had enough and is goin home.
Lesley
we arrived in march 2005 with £5000 in our pocket (2 adults 3 kids!)
we moved in with carls cousin (which was a complete nightmare! :scared: )
carl went through the yellow pages in the 1st week and asked 30+ builders for a start before 1 would actually give him a start. he started with them on a monday, and finished on a thursday, in 4 days not 1 of the guys had spoken to him, and totally ignored all questions he had directed to them!
we went back to the yellow pages, and managed to get another start for him (bricklayer)it was a family of 3 italian brothers building homes near to where we live, which carl thoroughly enjoyed,it took him 2 weeks to get promoted to foreman, there was a good lot of boys working together.
that job lasted 6 months, they then started getting contracts 2/3 hours away from home, which was a complete nightmare, the travelling times were just getting too much for him!
after doing this for 5 weeks we decided that it was too much so carl decided to go off and start his own business with a fellow expat who moved here in september. they managed to secure a contract for a large home near to where we live, which went well, then carls partner decided to go back & work for the company that carl had just left, and basically dropped carl right in the shit! but he managed......it took him 8 weeks to single handedly finish the new house and i might add the owner builder was over the moon with his quality of work . that job finished just before christmas, and since then.... absolutely no work :scared: we are on the internet 2/3 a day looking for work, if a job comes up and he calls the employer there are aproximately 30+ other brickies that have applied, us personally really cant understand where the lack of tradesmen are in melbourne!
we have been advertising in many newspapers now for 5 weeks! we have hand delivered 800 leaflets and given out numerous numbers of business cards, we were seriously considerating moving to another part of australia in search of some work, we were going to give it another week and then sit down and explain it to the kids! but today, we have finally started having phone calls(HOOORRRRAAAAAAYYYYY) we have been and quoted 3 different jobs, and so far we have got at least 1 definate YES to start work on wednesday!
i just thought ide post this so all the people still in the uk realise that even though they say bricklayers are in demand in melbourne, a job certainly wont fall into your lap! you really need to look AND work hard!
i hope this post wont depress any people, cos things are looking up for us now, i realised it would take time......just didnt realise it would take this long!!
thanks for taking the time to read this, and goodluck to each and every one of you thinking of making this HUGE step.
louise xx[
Hiya louise...........this is another post that we cant relate too.
We've been here 8 months now and all though there is plenty of building work on site for john has a brickie - the work conditions and wages were lousey.....john could'nt stand workin on site and when he got his licence decided to go it alone..... For 3 months his advertisment as been goin in 2 papers - costing $480 a month - he's had quite a few calls but only got 3 jobs from it :scared: and thats in 3 months - unfortunatly for me john's had enough and is goin home.
Lesley
#5
Australia's Doorman
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: The Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia
Posts: 11,056
Re: our new life!
Well done. You really have worked hard for it and it's great to see that things are finally starting to pay off for you.