I was just thinking, its funny this forum. I often meet British people complaining about the rising immigrant population in the UK.

they dont settle in
they expect to bring their culture here and change our ways.
If they come over here they should live by our rules
they come over here and complain they dont like it, if its so bad why dont they go home.
the thing is they dont mix, you see, keep themselves to themselves


blah blah same old xenophobia that is found the world over.


funny isnt it.
Vivienne
if I cant spell its because I am typing with one hand and my left hand doesnt spell well.

Maybe the aussies feel the same way?

That complaint gets on my nerves, although I heard it a lot in the UK, specially as I lived in The Midlands for 9 years... why on earth do people think that? I love the diversity of different and new...!?! Suppose those people are just afraid of change..

*ponders*

Em x

What I hear a lot...............and it drives me mad.................is......'Oh Coles isnt like Tesco's is it'?!!!!

I agree although there is a difference between 'rules' as in laws and way of life. The former I agree with the latter I don't.

Indeed! I did mean way of life... laws broken should be punished just as much as the next person, and on this point, I do think deportation should be a consideration and if necessary, brought into play... set an example of what we will tolerate and what we won't..

As for not conforming to our way of life.. well, horses for courses I say.. you are who you are and everyone does things differently and that makes my life more interesting than the same old same old..

Em x

I think I am living in Australia try to enjoy Australian life and after 6 years for the first time this christmas I was looking forward to being warm and enjoying my christmas in the garden. Every other year I pined for cold.

I am so guilty of the Tescos M&S thing! I miss tescos like mad. if only I had tescos my life would be complete.

New Years resolution, never mention Tescos again. Thats it, its out of my life

I was glad to get rid of Tescos.. they just seemed to take over everything in the last few years.. all the little shops went out of business.. it was all either Tescos or Boots the chemist or nothing else (am being extreme here of course).. tho I spent a great deal of money in Tescos and Boots! haha!

I miss M&S tho... was thinking of writing a weekly letter to their CEO asking for them to start some branches in Australia (there is one in SIngapore!!!) a bit like Shawshank Redemption and their library! haha! You never know! I am also considering haranging Next to deliver abroad too..

Em x

That's true. I LOVE Tesco now, but that's because it's covenient even though I know it is having a negative effect on other shops in the area. I want to embrace that when I get to Sydney - doing my food shopping at the supermarket, and going elsewhere for clothes, shoes, bags, gifts etc. Though there may be an adjustment period where I stomp my feet and moan...

I havent as yet, it does take a little adjustment tho to get back in the habit of NOT relying on buying everything under one roof! It is strange going to a supermarket and not being able to buy your wine there for instance! lol! But they usually have a bottleshop (not called Office licence here!) next door or near by...

I buy my fruit and veg from our Farmer Market and the local fruit/veg shop.. and I always use the butcher to buy meat for the week... This way of life suits me much better... I do use Coles/Woolsworths most weeks too for the tinned stuff/household.. what me and OH do now is buy up a months worth of supermarket shopping so we don't have to keep going back in..

Em x

I must admit during long breaks to Australia, I found it refreshing the shelves are not packed with package food from Tesco's etc.

I love the fact the focus appears to be around fresh produce, bakeries etc. It reminded me of the good ole days, when butchers were a butchers and you would nip to the bakers for your bread etc.

I am sure once we move, I will be banging on about M&S etc but I welcome the change and can't wait to embrace it.. It will be nice to be able to cook from scratch again without relying on everything pre-ready. Although give me time..

Is it compulsory to eat packaged meals in the UK then

Are we talking about Australia?
I did find this to be very much the case when living in France,also on visits to Germany both have a very high standard of fresh produce with wonderful bread.
Has anyone noticed the indifferent quality of a lot of the bread here?

The supermarket bread is pretty dire in my opinion.. our local bakers bread is way too scrummy and is killing my waistline!

Em x

I do that too!

No it's not compulsory but there are a lot of them and it is easier for a working family to buy frozen rather than fresh stuff.

Another example is that I used to buy a lot of shopping from the internet, my main shop was done at Asda.co.uk and I would buy my veggies, tinned stuff, cleaning products etc from there - this I would do every month.

Every second month I would fill up my chest freezer in the garage with stuff from the freezer shop. I could buy the same stuff from the freezer shop that I could get from Asda for less than half price. Wasn't so much of an easiness thing, more of a price thing for us.

We didn't have any greengrocers, butchers or anything like that left where I come from - sadly the supermarkets wiped them out a few years before we moved here. Pretty crap really to say that William Morisson made all his money from a stall in the markets the very same ones he eventually helped to kill off




Tell me about it! Yummy - and so cheap too!