lesleys

I've found something cheaper

http://www.waitrose.com/shop/Product...istmas+pudding (£13.99)

I went in Coles today and bought one for $18. It felt very strange to be buying Waitrose stuff here.

steve`o

we first came out for a reccie in dec 2004 came back for another look in aug 2005 and finally made the move in oct 2006 in that time houses had started to shoot up but were still affordable

asher

boomerangs just bought some from the Queen Vic market 3 for $20 I think Paddys market in Sydney was cheaper though

cresta57

I agree, it's no longer a cheap place to live. It was 5/6/7 or so years ago. Since then house prices boomed out of all proportion, crazy increases that have made owning a home impossible for a lot of people. The Dollar strengthened to the point that it's made selling up here a very real prospect for many. 2002 we got an exchange rate of $3 bucks to the pound, what is it now about a buck fifty? Just on that you double your cash if you head back to the U.K.
Groceries have risen in both countries as have utilities, no idea whether its by the same amount, I don't care that much.
What gets up my nose is being told how bloody good we're all doing on the basis of a google search.
I did well, really well, under the previous govt. This one is the usual labour fiasco & as usual the building trade is in crisis. It's a struggle now with record numbers of construction companies going bust. Easy to blame Rudd for giving away the biggest budget surplus ever as a stimulus package. Maybe instead of giving it to everyone he could have used it to fund a massive public building programme. That way everyone could have prospered not just the companies importing flat screen T.V's from China.

Pollyana

Good friend of mine who spent a lot of time there reckons Lebanon is a beautiful country, just need to look past its troubled history. I'm almost tempted to try and visit it one day - does indeed show how personal reports carry so much more weight than Google and the like.

Pit Bull.

Yep, sure annoys folk on here saying good stuff about Australia, here's some more, the UKs almost bankrupt and heading towards a triple dip recession, wages have, I repeat HAVE zoomed up in Australia over the last several years and they have, I repeat HAVE stagnated here in the UK. I know it creases the whinging poms who live in Oz, but they don't I repeat DON'T live here in the UK so they have no idea what it is like. Fill yer boots in your next attack on me, don't attack the facts of my posts, well it would be a first if you did, NO' it's easier to dig at me, but yer know what folks, it's of no interest to me, I only said what I did to embarrass the pack attacking me, I actually got off knowing I had hit the bullseye with you lot, lol.

Pit Bull.

Don't call me God, I'm more like Jesus, bringing joy to the masses.

I'm back and ........ No it's not over.

Google has returned, thank you sweet Jesus.

bcworld

Lol. A revelation! Let's think about that one...keep digging!

Pit Bull.

I wish I could dig right down to Australia, you know it keeps getting voted the best country to live in, in the world, the UK, came in 25th which isn't bad, it came in just behind Somalia.

Pit Bull.

Just noticed, you live in Melbourne which keeps getting voted the best city in the world to live in as well, you lucky devil.

Australia and Melbourne keep getting voted the best, or near to best on almost every poll, the people must be heard, HALLELUJAH Jesus be praised, they have seen the light.

There's no light here in the UK, we are in the grip of another long miserable dark winter, please lord save us.

cresta57

For every immigrant like you that arrives in Australia from the U.K those figures begin to even out.
You really should work in advertising........























You'd be an excellent ambassador for Durex

bcworld

...it'll never happen.

moneypenny20

I hate to break it to you but no one is embarrassed by their behaviour, more that they are embarrassed by your inability to see the wood for the trees. As I've said before, no one has an issue with your beliefs if they're based on facts and personal experience. Anyone can Google, anyone can make stats look slanted in their favour. You believe that people are annoyed by others stating positives about Aus. You are so wrong it's not funny and you embarrass yourself by not seeing that. As for the rest of us being wounded by your 'facts', nice try but you're really not that important. Like the rest of us, you're simply a cyber random with no control over any other cyber random but if you get off by thinking you are that important, you just go right ahead, we all have to get our pleasures any way we can.

rasen78

FWIW, we are recent migrants, as some of you may be aware Some of you may also know I am not a negative poster, but nor am I a particularly positive poster All I, and ANY of is can post about are our OWN experiences.

No-one has said the UK is not struggling. However, our own PERSONAL experience, was that actually, we were doing ok in the UK. We had a good life, a relatively good income and I like the UK, the countryside etc. We weren't out every weekend, nor did we have foreign holidays (unless you count 10 days in Ireland with the in-laws) but we were doing fine.
Sure, bits of it are frustrating, but life would be extremely boring if we never encountered problems, and we would never learn.

But we are also well aware of the problems the UK has been and is facing as friends and family have been and are struggling. No rose tinted glasses here.

Move forward 3 months and we are now in Aus. Not everyone's cup of tea to live where we do, but it suits us. I wouldn't say life is fantastic, but then it wasn't in the UK, and we certainly had no expectations for it to become magically so. Our life is pretty much what it was in the UK. It is good, we are happy and it is what WE make of it. The only hope we had of our move to Aus, is that we would continue to have a good life, and so far that is what is happening.

My concern PitBull, is that you seem to place so much importance on what google etc say about how fantastic life in Aus is. Yes, for some people it is, but for some people, life in the UK is fantastic too. We all make what we can of what we've got. It is down to YOUR personal approach to life. If you move to Aus expecting your life to magically transformed into a wonderful experience, you are pretty much setting yourself up for a fall.

I remember someone posting something along the lines of...'if you sit at home watching the box in the UK, chances are that's what you will do in Aus, if you are up and about in the UK, chances are that is what you will do in Aus' This is so very true.

You may counter this with comments about how the weather is more conducive to being outdoors. Yes, that may be case for some of the time, but today, in the middle of Spring, it is going to get to 37oC with high winds and an Exteme Fire Risk warning. On days like this, it is foolhardy to go out and enjoy the beautiful local countryside.

As for wages etc, yes they may be higher, for some, than in the UK, but some are paid relatively the same, and some are lower. It is all swings and roundabouts, and to talk in absolutes, as you tend to do is naive.

The same goes for the cost of things. Yes, some things are more expensive, some are around the same and some are indeed cheaper. Again swings and roundabouts. No absolutes.

Vash the Stampede

Private schools.