deedee

Wif,you are not right!Well not with me and my Ms your not.I don't know about everyone else but i have gone through all your points and what you say as far as i'm concerned is utter crap.You are quite obviously bitter about something and if it really bothered you so much you'd be back in that fantastic place called Blighty now...why are you still in NZ?I'm baffled.For someone who has your opinions yet you did'nt just jump back on a plane and get out of this so called hell hole.Your views are your views,not mine and loads of other expats i know here in NZ.I hope your bitterness doesnt consume you too fast as your well on the way to a cardiac arrest.....i can sense it from here.Besides,i thought,for the THIRD time you promised to stop posting.You must really have no life at all.I say go get a life of any style,it will beat your current life.

DD...tired of listening to one particular bleating lamb.

teresa.c

Whats wrong with just wanting a change??

Generally,I like the UK. It has its probs as does Oz and NZ and everywhere else.

Im not running from anything, I just want to live in a different place for a while. In the last 10 yrs I have spent a year travelling the world, lived in 3 different areas of England and spent time in Wales. Now its time to go overseas.

Im under no illusions about getting anything any better in OZ, just different. The weather will be hotter, somedays I may like it , other days I may not. Some differences I may like more than others, but its the differences that I am going for. Its the change.

Lets face it, the daily slog is the same wherever you are in the world, its just nice to do it in a different environment sometimes.

Both lifestyle and money are important. Without either what have you got?

But you live to your means. The more you earn the more you spend. If you dont have the money, you dont spend it, and you live your life accordingly.

Here my hubby works 'compulsary' overtime, 3 week shift rotation and gets 2 full days off every 3 weeks. I work part-time. Its crap.
In Oz he is hoping to work less (normal hours, no shifts) and I will be going full time (no shifts either). But we could do that change here, and we would if we were staying. But we are going for the change in OZ.

I just want a change.
For me, its as simple as that.

Watt Dabney

Hi,

I will try and share with you my experience of my childrens education in NZ so far. My knowledge of my daughters (5) is a bit broader than my sons (7) as I help out with her more.
She covers reading (a new book every day), letter study (letter of the week), poetry, printing, story writing, maths and topic work. So far topics covered have been things like saftey (trip to local fire station), the solar system (star lab visited school), a healthy life style (breakfast at school) etc. Every other Friday they have an hour long session called Developmental. Here they get all the 1st years together and set out lots of different activites through 2 class rooms and the children can go a doo as many as they like. The activites range from various craft tasks to woodwork (with real saws and hammers!). There is normally a food related activity too like making waffles (kids get to mix batter) or making popcorn or even making a jam sandwich (you would be amazed at the amount of kids who have never buttered a piece of bread!). These are good motor skills exercises. At the moment she is also doing a programe called P.M.P. (Perpetual Motor Programe). This is where they refine their motor skills and it helps them identify any problems any of the kids may have. They do things like practice eye tracking, directional interpretation, balance, memory skills and coordination. They do this 4 days a week. In terms 3 and 4 they go swimming 4 days a week the 5th day they go to the library. As part of her gifted and talented programme she goes over to a yr 2 class for maths and story writing. Also she has weekly homework (as well as reading every night), but the home work is often a number game or even a cutting out exercise. This past week she has been on the class computer most days.
For my son he covers the usual maths, story writing, science P.E. and topic work. His topics have included bread (trip to bakery), spiders (trip to museum) and dinosaurs (we got loads of cow bones & buried them in the sandpit for kids to excavate). His P.E. is focusing on skipping at the moment and they are having a sponsered jump off soon. As his part of the gited programme he attends with a group of 4 other kids 2 mornings a week with a aide who is running a Research Group. They are each hoping to publish their own book on a subject matter of their choice using the comupter (office & word etc) and the internet for gathering info. he is also moved into a yr4 class for maths extension. They have lunchtime activity programes at the school and plays rugby or soccer most days. In terms 3 & 4 he also swims 4 days a week.

Hope this is the kind of info you wanted.

Paula

Wilf

Do I really need to point out that the recent post from "WiIf" was not from me, Wilf, but from WiIf. Can you not see the difference? There is a capital i instead of an l in the middle.It was someone pretending to be me. Are you really saying you did not notice that? Even when Don Pleasance pointed it out for you? Blimey, son, with your powers of observation, no wonder you think NZ has a good future. I know people who can see better into the future using tea leaves than you can see into your present.

Also, I do not live in NZ. I live in Oz.

Of course my views are my views. That is why they come next to the name "Wilf" is it not?

As a farmer in NZ, you are typical of kiwis? 10% of NZ's workforce is in agriculture.

Oh I am sorry son but I just cannot be bothered to go on with this. If you are happy in NZ and have faith in it enough then good luck and may all your dreams come true.

Wilf

Well you are wrong about the British culture. It is available to all. There are many free things and many discounts to be had. If someone wants it, the average person can have it. You have such a narrow view of the world that you are sure that everyone in the world except me would choose to live in Hamilton like you rather than in London? You seriously believe that? OK. Then you have all you need in life old son and I do not want to complicate your world view.

Good luck with it all, Wilf

Wilf

Nz has been selling the family silver and house prices have been shooting up because of outsiders buying up property, especially for investment. NZ is becoming a spot for foreigners to retreat to, especially in retirement, and for tourism. This is great news for kiwis in both cases and great news for the future of NZ. I thought you might have a genuine interest in NZ's health as a place for young people to live and learn and grow but you see the changes regards health, privatisation, etc, as positive ones because they create the right figures. They do not create the right life though. You can only sell the family silver once so what will keep things moving in the right direction in the future? NZ's healthy economy for jobs in fruit picking and food packing?

Well you have made your decision now and you will get to find out who is right, you or me. When the future arrives for NZ, it will not be argued away.

Megalania

culture:

"The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought."

Everyone is part of one.

culture

You are mistaking entertainment for culture.

ACE

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Wilf

You may be right that a lot of people on this forum have the same limited idea of lifestyle.


Why do you feel that this view is limited?
During my 12 years in show business I mostly worked in the west end theatres and as such had almost unlimited access to all sorts of theatrical performances and I fail to see why you feel that it is more noble to sit for 2 hrs and watch a play than to walk on the beach with your kids. You can go to all the theatres, museums etc that London or anywhere else has to offer but why spend your whole life watching other people acting or look at other peoples paintings when you could be watching your children play and enjoy life.
Yes, when I was in my twenties beautiful scenery and family life was not something I thought about, I did the theatre, museum, travel thing and enjoyed it. I am married with children now and nights out in town hold very little interest for me and loose hands down when compared to a walk with my family, What I'm trying to say is your priorities change throughout your life. Sure, I would be the first to admit that culture and the enjoyment thererof is a worthwhile persuit but why should this be considered more important than any other form of 'legal' human enjoyment.


It is the same limited outlook on life as kiwis and ozzies have in general. What other outlook is possible in such limited places? Who could develop a passion for anything other than walking, beaches, water sports when that is all there is? It is a narrow view of what life is for. There is a place for playing and sitting in the sun, but to make it your ambition in life is to reduce the human experience to that of a frolicking lamb.


To my mind it displays a very narrow view of life to spend your entire leisure time in the persuit of culture. There is a time and place for sitting in a theatre or walking round a museum but there really is more to life. In my experience most people go on about all the culture and history in the UK without ever having been to a gallery or castle. Then there are those that go to museums and plays just so that they can say 'look at me i'm soooo cultured'
You talk of the human condition being reduced to that of a frolicking lamb well if we all spent our time and energy in the persuit of 'culture' would we not then be reducing our condition to that of an automaton
If you look at the majority of people on this forum you will see that most have children and of course their priorities as to what constitutes lifestyle will be heavily influenced by enjoyment of life with their children and take it from me most children would much rather play on a beach than spend an afternoon 'inside' wondering around The Tate Modern.


but most of them are sensible enough to know where they are best off for a successful and interesting life.


Sure many Brits have interesting, sucessful lives but there are thousands of people living very dull lives here without the ambition or means to do anything about them just the same as anywhere else.


There is so much rubbish written about the UK here.

I agree, good and bad


Kiwis and Ozzies genuinely believe that they work less than people in the Uk and that people in the UK do not enjoy themselves. Kiwis get 3 weeks holiday a year whilst Brits get 5.


I would really like to know what UK jobs get 5 weeks annual holiday (apart from teachers) the standard for professional private sector city jobs, generally the best paid secotr, is around 21-22 days + public holidays


Kiwis often have more than one job, just to make ends meet.


This is also the case here and probably many other countries, this is not a metric by which to quantify lifestyle in general.


Oz & NZ may not have much white history but they do have history and what of nature and natural history are they not far more diverse and facinating than almost anywhere on earth.

Both the UK and Oz/NZ have their own merits and to try to belittle those with different priorities to yours is to show your own lmitations.

ACE

nosuchluck

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ACE
I certainly agree that your perspective changes as you get older, i can't wait to live my life in Australia, today i am on holiday from work, my 10 year old daughter and i took a walk on the beach, we didn't need to spend any money, had a lovely day just being together, that to me is more special than all the money in the world, all to soon i will be back at work with someone else picking her up from school! in australia i won't need to work to help pay the mortgage, i will be able to spend quality time with my daughter just like i did today, before its too late and she wants to spend time with her friends!
i agree that that are good and bad in both countries, but for us we've experienced years here and want to live out our lives in Oz, if we fail (which we don't intend to) then at least we can say we gave it our best shot
with regards
rach

Don

ACE - I think 5 weeks (ie 25 work days) plus public holidays is pretty much the norm in the UK these days for public sector workers and bigger industry players. Might not hold true for the SMEs.

Trend in the former 2 is already moving towards 6 weeks.

ACE

Now that sounds good to me Don, might have to stay here a few more years and work in public sector
Kind Regards
ACE

Don

Wilfo, Wilfo, Wilfo. Congratulations on your big 5 stars.

I see the hard decisions taken in NZ over the past 15 years in a different way to you. The Labour govt in particular has implemented policies that were probably disliked by many/ most of its grassroots supporters but necessary to turn NZ around. I am certainly not just being selfish and seeing it all through what's good for me right now. I care about whether our boys will choose to stay there and remain Kiwis and the opportunities there will be for them.

I think that NZ has (amongst many others) one wonderful advantage - its size and emptiness and ability to absorb the current level of net immigration into NZ for many years to come. This is very positive for growth and for the future, particularly as NZ can choose already-educated / skilled/ good work experience, youngish, healthy, immediately productive and often already-with-savings immigrants. It's no surprise that most immigrants entering on skilled stream earn substantially more that the NZ average salary.

I think the few rich American investors buying up the coastline and vineyards has been exaggerated like all good emotive stories that sell newspapers. The truth is that good old supply & demand is working as usual and there is something of a cross between catch-up and a bubble going on as regards property prices.

Unemployment is at a low in NZ right now - there are jobs for all prepared to retrain or do something at a 'level below' - admittedly, not everybody is prepared to trade down and this is one of our chief concerns if we don't come up with a good business plan or find the right jobs.

The Koalas

I am so struck by poor Wilfs dilema, he is in a country that is awful, his outlook is bleak and bless him he is unable to return to the green green grass of home. I would gladly shave my head for sponsor money to help him out of his hell. Please if any one wishes to sponsor me I will take 1p form everyone and hopefully by the time we have enough we can bring him home .

Don

I will gladly sponsor you 1p but how can I be sure you are not already shaven-headed?

deedee

i don't care what your name is,your still spouting the same bullshit.Dream on sucker.