Ok, I've just been all around the house taking out our environmentally-friendly-will-last-forever lightbulbs, and it only just occured to me that they might not work in Australia!!

Can anyone enLIGHTen me? (Did you see what I did there?! )

I did laugh at first then remembered by own lack of knowledge... yup they'll work fine - in fact the gov was giving away free ones of that type. Oh and all your electicals will work too - just change the plug once here.

That's ok - I'd rather you laughed because they will work than because they won't - I wrestled with several dusty light-shades to get them out, and then thought it might have all been completely pointless!!

Why wouldn't they?

Coz the electricity goes the other way round, doesn't it?

Well I don't know, do I, I've never bloody been there - the sockets might be different or something!

OK, new question: Any ideas about how much I should hold on to in terms of old bank statements, creditcard statements, utility bills, etc? Will they be any use to me at all once in Australia?

Why not just buy some out there?

If for nothing else you could use them to light the fireplace....

Well thank you for those constructive comments....

Sockets are the same; bayonet fitting is standard, though you occasionally find Edison fittings from time to time (as you do here in the UK).

For us none of that stuff was ever needed... Might be an idea to hang onto the last 3 months in case you need to sort something back in Blighty later on, but other than that...

I threw the whole lot out, it felt great

Just keep one of each in case you need the account numbers or something to ring them.

We kept ours as evidence...and British Gas did try to get more money from us so glad we did.

Never really needed them but the mortgage people did glance at old job wage slips and references.

If you take the Kitchen sink aswell it will still work, but the water will spin around the plug hole the other way round .

No it wont.