Thanks for those. I do most of my shopping online, so they had better get their act together!

Cadburys have just come back online, made my day when I got an email from them yesterday. Cuddly Bertie Bassetts all round .

www.cadburygiftsdirect.co.uk if anybody's interested.

Bought my laptop while on stopover in Singapore return journey. I had priced them in the UK prior to leaving - in Singapore en route and then Brisbane and Sydney while in Oz. The IT mall Singapore won hands down on price also the model I bought (February) has only been on the market in the UK for just over a month now. It is a Fujitsu and came with an international warranty. I had no customs problems at all bringing it into UK, also got tax refunded at Singapore airport when leaving.

We bought our computer in the UK from a magazine called Mesh, the computer was brilliant and only cost us about 700 pounds. We sold it to friends before we left and bought another one when we got here. It's no way near as good as the last one we had and it cost us $2000 from Harvey Norman. There certainly isn't the choice over here (in Perth anyway) that there is in the UK.

On much the same subject, is Gateway still operational in Oz?

They still have retail and online presence in the US, but closed down in Ireland / UK some time ago.

Last time I was in Sydney they had a store there, but now???

My laptop's Gateway and I've had good service from it but will need a desktop when / if we get to Oz and would like to stay with them.

Polly, you should have mentioned that before ...... go into your kitchen & pull out your jug cord (since you dont use it LOL) & plug it into your powerboard - much easier than an adapter .

Yep. One bolt of lightening and bang goes your PC and all its data.

Hi Scotvness,

That's exactly what I was thinking of doing when I come back from my validation trip in March.

What model did you get? They use Fujitsu laptops where I work if you need to be mobile, and they seem pretty easy to use (a pre-requisite for me as a techno-idiot!) I'd also want a pretty lightweight model too if possible.

Did you have to declare it on entry to the UK or did you just go through?

Thanks for any advice,

Elaine

You are supposed to declare it going through either customs but see no evil hear no evil.

The laptop I bought in Singapore is a Fujitsu (Lifebook) P2120 it's a fantastic wee buy. Oh and incedently they were on sale in Singapore airport but about £80 more expensive than in the IT mall.

Good luck on your search

PS: I just walked through - no problems. To think about it I cant even remember being given the opportunity to declare it.

The idea is you walk down the something to declare and say to the Customs Officer that you are bringing in goods over the value allowed and I would love to pay VAT on it.

In the UK you are highly unlikely to get caught. In Oz the checking is more thorough. I just declared my motherboard was over a year old.

So it seems a good idea to buy before landing in Oz....

I have my eyes on a Fujitsu Siemens (2.4Ghz, 256Mb, 40 Gig etc) priced in Comet for 699 including printer and bag. Anyone else bought this laptop? Seems like a good price and probably better than anything I can get out in Sydney. Might check what shops there are in LA airport as that's how we're flying as long as they don't cancel all those flights:scared:

Piers

Piers,

Have a look at this site for user reviews and info on laptops.

http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=2



Scottm

BTW I just bought a router from www.itech.com.au .

So far so good.

what router did you buy bp?

I have a Fujitsu Siemens with a slightly higher spec (3.06Ghz, 1Gb, 80Gb) & really like, it's very well built & very powerful. LA airport, like most US airports has useless & overpriced shopping, get it before you go.