surely that's much like other countries, to name a few - Spain, Italy, France slightly and I could go on! and as others have said I find service is awful in the UK quite often!

My thoughts on this whole thread are that it can be hard! Whether its Oz, weather, service, flies etc its gonna be hard - that you can research and it all adds up and on some days you have had enough and you want to tell people not to bother!! Two days later it'll be middle of winter, sun shining gloriously and enjoying the beach and you'll be telling the world to come on over! That's how it is!!!

Keep going is my suggestion!!

Please don't go on.

It sounds like the OP is going through a bit of culture shock - learning the ways of a new country can be testing and you can either accept it or reject it. Life out here is different, it isn't the UK and I think its unfair to compare Australia to the UK, or to compare things here to what you are used to from before.

You have to start your life out here with a clean slate and expect things to be "Australian' - comparing things doesn't work. We've all had a lighthearted laugh on the 'foods' thread about foods to avoid etc, which means just that, if you don't like something, don't have it / do it.

Bad service can be found anywhere in the world. Having said that, I do think its ok to have a moan if you're unhappy but then you have to get realistic about things and say, "well I'll either get used to it or I'll go back". Its like it or lump it.

Australia is laid back in most aspects (which most of us love), but theres many people who find it hard to shrug off the 'go,go,go' of the UK. Then theres the people who want the laid back Aussie lifestyle but snappy service too... they want the best of both worlds...you can't always have your cake and eat it...

Good luck to the OP and give it more time and see if you can adapt.

Nicely put standleigh - i'd agree with all you've said.
DizzyKaren - i hope you're feelin a bit better soon

If you like living with rednecks then Deliveranceland (aka Queensland) is the place for you.

Perth is far more civilised.

So do i take it - QLD doesn't have a large Gay community then?

Only asking......it's not for me......it's for my .....friend

I think the OP needs some support.

we were very lucky, in that we had some friends to talk things through when we arrived, which was probably more helpful than i can imagine.

however, there's been alot of posts about the service in Australia, and its true, they like to say no more than yes, and further to this, they dont give you hints, e.g. "25 points id short, well why dont you get yourself to the bank down the road, open an account there, and then, and voila.. you've got yourself the extra 25 points id you need" as apposed to "sorry, you cant do this without more id".

We did loads of research before we left too, after all absolutely everything is written down somewhere, cos 'dems de rules', and the country is obsessed by rules.. this means that you can work out an order of things ie. need a bank acc. to get bank card, then bank card + passport gets you Medicare card, Medicare+bank card+passport gets you driving licence, the bank+Medicare+passport+licence gets you TFN, then... well you get the picture.

I still found it difficult, not because it wasn't all structured (because it is.. just needed to shift my paradigm), but because ive never done many of these things before.. never seen my stuff through customs and quarantine, never had to get oz licences and road tax etc. never had to rent a house (this was the most difficult bit so far), but then thats partly why we've come here... its an adventure!!! and these things needs to be balanced by the fact that ive never walked along the beach and seen whales frolicking in the bay, nor have i spent an afternoon knee deep in the surf fishing for salmon and drinking beer, nor have i held a joey in my arms, or watched the sunset over a glass wine.. outside, in winter!.

for me its all good.. still looking for a job though, maybe when ive got one reality will give a cheeky punch to the kidneys.

ps. that said, i do think its going the way of the UK, mega-hyper-supermarkets, late opening and weekend service, but its still a good number of years away, so best make the most of it now.

Sure, loads of gay rednecks.

Brokeback (or humpback) Mountain was popular over there.

Excellent - thanks for that

I'll tell my friend

the same standards apply to UK and Oz.
H and I went back to UK to try and sell his late father's house. I pre-ordered a phone line, 2 months in advance, so i could work from the house.
Arrive Sat- no line! No-one works on Sat, Sun and Mon was a bank holiday. Tues someone told me they could 'come out' the following week- thought it was only a switch to flick.

After 3 weeks of this, we gave up, borrowed a friend's phone and then BT charged me 55 quid for 'connecting a phone line'

Incompetence is not a monopoly for Oz, but perhaps as everything is happening in such a short space of time, it feels like it.
We had a reasonably smooth transition here (apart from bank accounts, where they charge like a wounded bull)

Good point actually - it wouldn't be so bad if there was more helpful advice from places like banks and post offices. I seem to remember finding out eventually how to do things, and then thinking - why didn't they just TELL me! The ANZ for example - I was opening an account there, so they wanted ID. She just asked for ID, suggesting a drivers licence. I said I don't have one. She said oh well, we can't help then. I had to suggest all the other things I had, one at a time, passport, birth cert, credit card, and at no point did she say - have you got XXX.
Post Office was the same - I need to send money to someone. "Can't send cash" I knew that, I wanted a suggestion on how I COULD send it - took ages with me trying to describe a uK postal order before they said "oh, yea, we can do a money order I suppose. " You sometimes wonder if they are being obstructive or if they genuinely don't know their own products!!

True, all the sarcastic replies fron people not even living here yet

maybe the OP just isnt enjoying oz as much as they had hoped, and that feeling is clouding all the other stuff that goes wrong. before i moved here i lived in an area of the uk i didnt like and i know that i blamed anything crap that happened as being down to the fact that i was in the valleys in south wales. the fact that the crap stuff could have happened anywhere and wasnt exclusive to where i was living did occur to me, but i pushed it away cos i really hated it and it was easy to blame all the rubbish stuff that can happen in life as being the fault of where i lived. i love it here and if something crap happens i dont think 'oh bloody australia/aussies/laid back attitude' etc etc i just think, 'what an arseh**e' and get on with my day.

it is easy to think negatively and once you are there it is hard to get out of. maybe things will improve with time. its also easy to remember all the negative stuff whilst neatly forgetting any good stuff. for instance me looking back at my time in wales i can easily think of my horrible neighbour, rude kids, anti-english feeling, poor housing, litter everywhere, swearing etc, but i have to actively try and remember my lovely neighbours, the great ladies working in the little supermarket down the road, the friendly people etc. like i said i like it here and i can easily remember good friendly service, tradespeople blah blah blah, and i struggle to remember any bad service or whatever. its all just your own attitude - this is not a criticism its just fact.

basically this was a very longwinded way of saying if you like somewhere you see the good parts and accept and forget any bad stuff. if you dont like a place you see the bad parts and subconsciously ignore any good. i think its just normal. you will either continue to think like this and never settle (like me in wales! and only remember the good parts of it when you have left it) and your attitude will cloud the reality, or you will start to settle in (and it does take longer than 4 months) and gradually you will lose the negative attitude. you will still see bad service (this can happen wordlwide) but your immediate thought wont be 'bloody australia, crap here, cant get anything done...' it will just be 'stupid bu**er, now pass the suncream' or something along those lines...

like i said none of this is a criticism of the OP - asides from the fact that you shouldnt go round telling folk not to come on over and try it for themselves.. but forgetting that, just remember that what you see in life is all filtered through your own attitude.

Good post, lots to think on there.
Not always black and white though - for example, I loved Australia when I used to visit it, and I reall y expected to love living here. Enjoyed it at first, then things went downhill. However hard I have tried to only look at the good points and be positive the bad stuff gradually dragged me down, and I'm sure there are others in the same position. When almost everything is going wrong its very hard to see the positive side of Aus.

People who immigrate to countries like Spain, France and Greece have exactly the same problems but much worse because of the different language
and you have to drive on the wrong side of the road.