owieb

You've only been here 8 months, wouldn't have thought you could get many 'strawberry seasons' in that time!

Jirrupin is a great poster and has offered a real view of life in Perth when things haven't gone entirely to plan. Long may they post!

HiddenPaw

If you don't mind me saying, you seem to have deliberately searched for a negative in this paragraph.

Guildford

I feel as a new member that I should not comment on posts. At the risk of being knocked back may I say that we know the positive reasons for migrating which is why we intend doing so. Therefore I appreciate honesty from others that have gone though the process and arrived in another country they have the experience and a post such as this allows asthma sufferers to be aware of a potential health risk. Armed with this knowledge are they not then able to check on medication available, how the place they intend to settle may or may not affect them.

Knowledge is a valuable tool - positive, negative neutral, dissect what’s of use to you and research your own answers. Disregard that which is of no use. Negatives are always positives if used to your own advantage.

Negatives such as that knocking anyone giving information only has one positive, and that is the person making the allegation has nothing useful to say. Sorry if I have spoken out of turn. Good luck to everyone moving, moved or indeed returning. Your experience and thoughts are invaluable to those of us that follow in your footsteps.

Regards

John

Jirrupin

The winter certainly not as cold as UK, but how bad you find your first winter here, is probably balanced on what your expectations were.

We missed the worse of te winter arriving in mid August but it is wet, cold and windy. I can't recall the figure but I think Perth has 132 days of rain a year and when it rains it is heavy rain. I recall when we were sat in the UK enjoying the unseasonally warm weather that PB posted a photo of Perth's flooded streets. I had never really thought of Perth being cold and wet, probably naive of me, until I saw that photo.

I am not complaining about the rain, I know we need rain etc. We did have some lovely days too in August, but similarly we do get winter sunshine in UK, even if it is glistening on the morning frost

Jirrupin

Well J4yne, it would seem you haven't read all of my posts. I believe I have posted on the positive things I have seen and experienced whilst in OZ. I have never considered myslef a negative person and I have certainly never blamed Oz for the way I am feeling. If I was having more positive experences then I would be talking about them.

If you think my posts are difficult to read, try walking a few steps in my shoes at the moment. It took me almost three years to get my visa and I am here now trying to build a life in WA. But getting a foothold into a working life has not being forthcoming and I know I am not the only woman who has had difficulties.

I have not checked out your profile so I do not know your experience of life in Oz and my experience can only refer to a small amount of time we have spent time travelling around and staying in most places between Shark Bay and Albany.

Everyone wants something different, but we haven't found what we are looking for yet.

I have posted about the time we saw dolphins swimming in Swan river, i think that post had one response!! I have said we fell in love with a small town called Denmark, there are drawbacks to living there maybe that isn't positive enough for you.

I have been on the waiting list for seasonal wrok for a few weeks and as yet I have heard nothing, Iam not hopeful that I will hear something because I think with the large student population in Perth I will not be top of the list. If I am successful I will also post this news on the site.

The issue of taking any sort of work is one of real interest, when I was in UK, I said I will do anything to get work I am not proud. But when you are here it is different. We are still living on our savings, we are on a modest budget but I don't need to go and clean toilets to put food on the table. So the incentive to get a cleaning job etc is not there. Between my husband and I we have applied for between 3-5 jobs each week, that is not including agencies that my husband has contacted. We have been here three months and not one job offer, we are applying for seasonal hospitality work, even weather watching, shop work, IT jobs, social work jobs, youth work!!!

The last thing I want to say is that although my posts may not be popular with yourself and others, my posts are a real reflection of my life here over the last three months, I receive PM from people asking for information about work, suburbs etc and I am happy to research information for anyone who asks, because a lot of the information is only available once you are here.

I feel better now!!

the Wombats

I did say i did not mean it disrespectful and I meant that. I did read your reply to hiddenpaws on moving back to the UK and I understood you a lot more. I was very moved by the way you felt, and no I am not taking the pee, I am seriuos. Felt that I could relate to your thoughts on OZ. Belive me when I first went to OZ I hated it to start and a lot was to do with relationships and family issues. But now I really do make a better effort and try not to be so negative, but at times it is hard. I took a job in Blockbuster in the evenings and it did help me a lot. But honest when you get into a hole and everything is negative it is hard to shake it.
I really hope you feel better about Oz as life is so short not to be happy. Sorry if you felt i was attacking you but just wanted to reply to your post. As with most things it is your opinion that counts for you as mine is for me.
Now I feel better.

Jirrupin

Despite what people may interpret by my posts I am HAPPY, that doesn't mean I don't have days when I am feeling stressed, or days when I am frustrrated or days when I think I may never find the place to live in WA. But living in WA or anywhere else is not the be all and end all of my life. Where I live doesn't effect my happiness, and that is a true statement.

My comments may aggrivate some, they may inform others, I post as I find, it is not in my nature to be sugar and spice, my husband married me because he said he wasn't meant to be happy forever

salonit

I would like to get my bit in!!!
I have read posts from Donna & Chris avidly and I have great respect for them as they take their time to write informative posts to help us all on the board...
Thank you very much and keep posting as you have people that appreciate you out there!!!!!!!!!!

mandandbri

Hi all

Totally agree everyone is entitled to their opinion but find it increasingly difficult to find positive posts on this forum that have not been shot down in flames!!

Australia is not for everyone but surely if we are all willing to wait 2 years plus for a visa a great deal of research has been done by all before coming!!

We love it here ( even in OUR strawberry season). I was under no illusions about jobs as rang lots of agencies before coming ( managed a recruitment agency in UK)and I think it is difficult for BOTH women and men. I know this forum is great for suburb info etc however there will be crime, it is difficult to get a job and it does rain ( did not get under 15 degrees this winter in the day) . But surely this can be said for the countries we emigrate from?

We came for the outdoor life ( have 2 year old) Biggest factor weather. Therefore for us WE have found what we are looking for. We are poorer than the UK but that was always going to happen as doing it on 1 and a half wages as I want to spend time with the monster.

That is why I love it here! Less stress, slower pace of life and the Weather.
It has not all been plane sailing but a positive attitude has got us through.
I hope anyone who emigrates finds what THEY are looking for.

Manda

Jirrupin

IMO when people have arrived in OZ/NZ and posted about what they are enjoying, these posts are adorned by many posters wishing them good luck and thanking them for their 'positive post'.

From your post it is difficult to determine what you found hard or easy, if you built the home you intended? how you found it living in Perth, good and bad.

If you wish to keep your comments reasonably private thats okay by me. Maybe you think I put too much detail of my personal experience on the site.

DianeOZ

Back to the smog....

We didn't realise it was smog! 'doh. It's the first time I've seen it since being here, is it worse at certain times of the year?

A don't know much about smog Di

dotty

I was under the impression from Australians, that the smog is because the heat keeps the pollution down low or somethng, like keeps it under the cloud cover, that seems to have truth in it because you often get hazy/smoggy days in summer, but rarely in winter. Dont know but it seems to make sense.

Jirrupin

simple version:

Basically smog is air pollution. Fumes from cars and factories rise into the air and react with sunlight to create ozone gas. In the hot weather, this ozone gas settles and forms a thick layer which we can see - smog.

scientific version:

Photochemical smog forms as a result of sunlight acting on various pollutants - mainly oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds. This smog is made up of a mixture of ozone and other organic compounds, and nitrogen dioxide.Photochemical smog is more likely to build up and hang like a blanket in the air on still days.

coooeeee

Temperature inversion, condition in which the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude in contrast to the normal decrease with altitude. When temperature inversion occurs, cold air underlies warmer air at higher altitudes. Temperature inversion may occur during the passage of a cold front or result from the invasion of sea air by a cooler onshore breeze. Overnight radiative cooling of surface air often results in a nocturnal temperature inversion that is dissipated after sunrise by the warming of air near the ground. A more long-lived temperature inversion accompanies the dynamics of the large high-pressure systems depicted on weather maps. Descending currents of air near the center of the high-pressure system produce a warming (by adiabatic compression), causing air at middle altitudes to become warmer than the surface air. Rising currents of cool air lose their buoyancy and are thereby inhibited from rising further when they reach the warmer, less dense air in the upper layers of a temperature inversion. During a temperature inversion, air pollution released into the atmosphere's lowest layer is trapped there and can be removed only by strong horizontal winds. Because high-pressure systems often combine temperature inversion conditions and low wind speeds, their long residency over an industrial area usually results in episodes of severe smog.

innit

HiddenPaw

There is something blissfully ironic about your post. You ask why people didn't know about the smog/flies/job market before they came out. I'd like to ask you where should one find out about such so-called 'negatives' if not on a forum like this? The answer is, you can't find out about these things unless there are people willing to share their thoughts and perceptions on such items. I think it's time to give people a break and stop jumping on their back each and every time something less than positive is mentioned about Australia.

It's wonderful that you are enjoying yourself in your new home - nobody is trying to undermine that. But please bear in mind that even if your life isn't impacted by smog, flies or the other 'negative' aspects of life, other people may benefit from such information.