Possible Brisbane Meet????
 

There seem to be a lot of you out there are already here, or in the process of moving to the Brisbane/Sunshine Coast/Gold Coast area, so Mrs Dagboy and I were wondering how many people would be interested in a meet?
If enough people are up for it, we were thinking of Sunday December 7th or December 14th, possibly in Wynnum, cos its reasonably easy to reach and theres loads of room for the kids to run around, and gorgeous views over the water.

I know some of you are arriving early next year, so don't worry you won't miss out cos we'll have one then too!

Anyone out there fancy the idea???? Or got any alternative suggestions??? :cool:

We're in for either date, others might have a preference :).

Hey come on guys! Does no-one else wanna meet up?!! Maybe I'm just impatient cos I've just got here and I wanna make friends (other than the guy in Aus Post who already thinks I'm nuts!!!!):cool:

Polly, pre christmas may be a bad time. Like we are away, but if we were here, you usually get invited to several work dos, christmas barbies etc plus all the school things happen in the first two weeks of Dec. Whenever we have been here in Dec, its been difficult to fit so much in in that lead up to Xmas bit. It just all seems to all happen at once.

End of January/ Feb is dead as, tho and everyones usually broke and bored, you would probably get heaps of people keen then. just dont make it in the school hols the traffic get truly awful from both coasts and that could put a lot of people off too.

Sorry, guess I was following the English theory that a few people might like a pre-Christmas meet. However, I'm quite willing to accept that I'm the new guy round here, so I'll leave it to the rest of you to come with a better time.
I need to get off my butt and find a job anyway, enough of this frivolous time-wasting!

:lecture:

Meet the Nimbus 2000
 

Poly the good Witch love too but dont think we will have the yellow stickers by early next year:( . I so wanted to make an offer for ya broom as you wont be needing it any more!!!
Still as the diehards are continuing to post then we may all meet up on the next one :D :cool:

Probably be a few new arrivals on here tonight who would be responding to this post Polly, people who might be arriving in the
next few weeks. I think there are a few new ones due before Xmas, theres supposed to be a few families already here who have not posted yet?

Give it a bit more time, posts only been up a few hours, could be dozens by tomorrow.

If you do have a do, New farm park is great, huge shady trees, bbqs, heaps of parking, massive park built into 100 year old fig trees. Kids would have plenty to do there.

Good luck with it.

Hi Bed of Roses! - You'll have to fight Arlene for the broom, she's already expressed an interest!!!!
Keep posting, and we'll see you at a future coven - errrr- gathering!

Dotty, we are planning to have another meet up in about Feb next year as well, but thought we would do one before Xmas as well. I know of at least 2 couples who are arriving between now & the dates given who wont be tied up with school, bbqs, work dos etc as they will have only just got here & Im sure they would love to get together with Polly. I know another 6 couples/families arriving Jan/Feb, so there will be plenty of new blood soon for another meet.

Polly, dont worry, even if its just us, Im sure we will have a good time :)

Sorry dotty, posted mine while you were posting yours.

Hmmm, would love to, but we will be in Mount Gambier SA for December, so the wife can have Christmas with her folks. I will also be far too busy in the first 4 weeks fishing and snorkling my socks off, hav'nt done either for 2 years and miss them like crazy!

Will definatly be up for a meet in the new year though....We were thinking of coming up to Bris about end of Jan, but we might come up a little earlier. We need to do a quick trip to Coober Pedy and Adelaide to see friends first, and we are giving about 2 weeks for that. So probably mid jan....

Getting pretty excited now....but im also turning into a nervous wreck !!!:eek:

myself the bird and the two little ones would love to come to a meet, only problem is we have no visa yet.

we will be there middle of next year :( keep us in mind for then.

:beer: :)

Will do Billy :).

Pete, yeah we know there are a heap coming in Jan/Feb, a few regulars including you & Tina & Carrianne + others who have been keeping in contact with me, so we will definitely be organising one in Feb, just so we know that everyone will be here.

I think Carrianne is one of the last to get here, but I have forgotten the date ... I think its early Feb? We'll make sure that its after that :)

I have thought about suggesting / attending a Brisbane meet. However, I find myself in two minds:

1) Meeting fellow immigrants could be fun - we obviously have a lot in common and would have a lot to share and talk about

2) Meeting fellow immigrants would be a negative step when you are attempting full integration into a new culture/society.

I have lent towards (2) so far. However, I do find myself scouring this newsgroup very often.......so........maybe I have some requirement that needs filling. Also, helping somebody else would me a good thing to do.

We move to Brissie at the end of May and we are really enjoying it. This may be a western 1st world country that speaks English....but it is very different than the UK. We are enjoying those differences. Speaking about things being better (some things are! - not that much though!) in the UK would not be constructive.

Does anybody else feel that meeting immigrants or becoming friends with other immigrants may be a bad idea?

Could it make your acceptance of/by the Aussies harder in the long run.

(by the way, I am aware that everybody here is an immigrant, except the abo's)

At the moment I'm not sure. However, my priority is to make new 'Aussie' friends rather than other immigrants.

My opinion...is that you are right in the sense that you do need to integrate into society, but you will find it easier if you have a network of friends as big as possible!!

Meeting people who are in a similar situation to you could be VERY beneficial. You can't talk with aussies (at least not many) about all the things you miss, the things that are different etc. Well you can, but you may not get the response you want! I do agree that it would be very "dangerous" to only try to go in circles with other brits, but a good mix of the two is healthy i would have thought.

Spent 4 years in Holland and 4 years in Oz and although I had a lot of friends from those countries enjoyed meeting other brits, never made me negative at all. Apart from the fact that the accent was different never set out to make brit friends. But obviuosly when I heard an English voice did start conversations.
I would love to meet others when I get back to Oz and hope someone will arrange something for after April when I get back
:) Since being back in the UK have spoken to lots of Ozzy and NZ travelers and when I hear their accent stop and make conversation.

jwatson, if you dont want to come, then dont. If you have doubts then only you know whats best for you. I dont think anyone is saying that you can only make friends with other expats, this meet is simply an opportunity for anyone out there who wishes to get together to do so. Its like saying that Aussies should only have british friends in the UK etc. I think networking is important & if you at least have a few friends with whom you have a common background, especially in a new country, that can be an enormous help. By the same token just coming along doesnt give you automatic friendships anyway. You may hate everyone who turns up :) . Its simply a way of meeting other people, expats or otherwise. Totally your decision, as it is everyone elses :).

BTW, Im not a british expat, neither is Pollys bloke, so it wont all be one sided anyway :).

One thing I would say is that its not that easy to avoid the expat immigrants - met my next-door neighbour today; she's a Pom - been here 44 years! So does that make her an immigrant to be avoided? Or an Aussie?:confused:

Nors my bird (she'd kill me if she ever saw me use the word bird lol :D)

Brisbane bound...
 

Hi,

Jan and I are flying out next week to Brisbane. At the moment we are not quite sure where we will be on either of those dates, but if we are in the general location the two of us would love to come along.

Glenn

my bird is also an aussie.(yes i would also be black and blue)

think this is becoming a bit of a theme

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MrsDagboy
jwatson, if you dont want to come, then dont. If you have doubts then only you know whats best for you.

of course I will not come if I don't want to!!!! I don't think asking the question is a negative thing....I just wanted to know how other people felt.

I feel it is a valid point. I'm currently undecided.

Ooooooh Im gonna tell on you :p :D

Glenn, keep an eye on the board or drop Polly or I an email or PM with email address & we will keep you up to date on the details when they are decided :)

:scared:

Better make sure we don't make it to Brisbane then !!!

I hear Goondiwindi is nice in summer :)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jwatsonoz
Whatever, I dont think I said anything about it being a negative thing, you asked for other peoples opinions, I gave mine. Sorry to see you're so uptight about it. And sorry that the response I gave wasnt the one that you wanted to hear :rolleyes:

LOL, depends on your definition of nice! ;)

Personaly I think that meeting other expats is a must, you need support when you first arrive. You have the opportunity to learn from the people who got there before you and pick up mistakes to avoid and pit falls you wouldn't know otherwise:eek:

Blending in with the locals will happen on a daily basis it's not like you will go to expats meets every week!!

Just my opinion:)

Earlswood

sorry if i appeared uptight, I did not mean to. I took "don't come if you don't want to" as an expression of your frustration - as the comment is a bit obvious.

No worries

Keep me in the loop, as I'd like the option to come.

#

My definition is nice....is that there is'nt a lady in Goondi whos going to get me in trouble on arrival :D

Arr, thinking about it....i don't really like cotton plants. I'll just have to risk it in Bris :D



And Earlswood.....well said. Meeting aussies will happen at work, at any clubs etc you might join etc.

No probs, no it wasnt meant like that, yes probably obvious, but wasnt meant in a negative way :).

Im sure it could be arranged ;).

For what it is worth, I expect I will be going to the Brisbane meet. :D

As for meeting other British immigrants being a negative step - I doubt it. Mind you - I have been here for 2 and a half years and have only met one fellow Brit socially (and that was pollyanna the other day). I have met some poms at client sites at work and have certainly enjoyed the sort of conversations that can only happen when you have a shared cultural background (references to kids TV mainly) but I have never set out to look for Poms to socialise with - but then I married an Aussie, so already had a set of friends and family ready made.

Part of my problem with the Pommie blokes I meet here is that they always want to talk about soccer and then look confused when I have no idea who they are talking about.

I think the only real issue would be if you set out to join clubs for poms, only went out drinking with poms etc. In other words tried to live as a true ex-pat rather than an immigrant. A friend of mine spent some time working in Cairo and several years working in Singapore. In both places he was there as an ex-pat - a British person working abroad (and teaching johnny foreigner a thing or two at the same time). That was not really his attitude, but the whole lifestyle stank of that type of thinking. There were "British Clubs" where you could go and eat your roast beef followed by stodgy pudding and custard every week. Sad sad sad places.

Australia is very different because not only is it a developed country, but also much of the cultural background is common.

Cheers,

DagBoy

Possible Brisbane Meet????
 

Hi Polly,

We'll be arriving in Brissie Jan/Feb and would be up for your Feb meet.

Rosie

Hiya,

Yep we are the last one's we only arive the 26th of Feb, In Brisbane for 7 nights though. Then up to the Sunshine coast.

Just keep me posted and hoefully all things beign well with the house sale we will be there x

Whereabouts are you headed on the Sunny coast? Susans uncle lives in Sunshine beach, just south of Noosa, and its a wonderful area.

Re: Possible Brisbane Meet????
 

Hi All Brisbanites,

K (36), C (44), S (8) and B (8) are coming out to validate PR visas in April - over the Easter holidays. Would love to meet up with some/all of you. We don't consider ourselves Poms as we have led such mixed up lives. I was born in Scotland, lived in Oz Age 2-17, moved back to UK, married, children etc and burning desire to move back Down-Under. Hubs born England, Education in USA & Canada and now doesn't feel he 'fits in' with mindset in the UK. Boys - energetic, sporty and very clever and totally understimulated in the UK.
Would love to hear your verdict on whether we would 'fit'.

K

ps. small no. of posts but have been reading forum for last 50 weeks (length of time to process our PR visas) so I feel I know a lot of you already...

hiya we are arriving nov 28th would love a pre christmas meet
another one jan/feb also sounds good

keep us posted where and when

juliet and family:cool:

Hi Mrs Dagboy et al

We arrive in Brisbane on 1 Dec 03 and would hope to be able to join you for any meet up - Wynnum would be ideal for us as that is where we hope to settle. As and when anything is confimed, we would be very appreciative of the details.

Joining others, imho, can only be good and would not be seen by us as a Pommie thing. Having lived in Germany, Cyprus and Holland previously we have looked for local freindhips, regardless of nationality. One of my reasons in choosing Australia was because of the diverse culture that exists - when I visited last year this was one of the positive things that struck me particularly about Brisbane.

Counting down the days........

Steve

Hi everyone

We're arriving in Brisbane on 3rd December and will definitely be up for a meet in the Wynnum area. (IF we exchange contracts first of course!)

Dawn, Steve & kids

Bloody solicitor off sick this week.....grr.............!!!

I will be definitely up for a meet up in Jan/Feb. I could do with some heat now to warm me up, I fell asleep on the sofa and am now freezing!!