ok so we're half way through the application, suitcases getting packed and now i have cold feet!!!! am worrying about everything and even have irrational fear that spiders are gonna be jumping out from every hole to kill me and the kids! We are looking to move to brisbane suburbs near coast , most prob redcliffe.... will i really have to check every bed and wardrobe for the killer ones, keep thinking girlies willbe playing in sandpit one minute and rushing to hospital the next! am i truely mad????

Sorry could not help myself. I think that if all the other people that move over to Aus can live them. You will be fine

stop worrying about the spiders, the snakes have eaten all the spiders

You rotten buggers....Yvonne am sure you'll be fine hun

Thank you you have made me giggle anyway!!!! I think i am just thinking up reasons for it not to work as i am very very nervous about such a huge change in life when really it is a golden opportunity.

yvonne, youre not alone in this, it seems to be normal, i know in cacking putting the house up for sale, cos it seems so real then.... and if i sell my home,which i love, and then we bottle out i'll be gutted that ive lost my house for nothing. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! Just gotta do it, like you say, its an opportunity some folk can only ever dream of, go for it and we'll see you there!

You'll be fine. you'll get used to them soon enough.

Hi - i too am terrified of spiders - am looking into a hypnotherapy session. It stopped me smoking so i'm hoping it will cure my fear of spiders too.

And some zoo's (London and Bristol definately do) do a days course where you go along and find out about them - there is some element of hypnotherapy too - and then apparently you are so over the fear that by the end of the day you are patting big fluffy bird eating spiders the size of your hand (but that bits optional!!!)

Spiders do NOT attack humans. They only reason you get bitten is if they are scared and try to defend themselves. They preffer to run away. If you have bites, they were most likely caused by mosquittos are fleas from pets. A spider or two is good to have in the house because it will catch flies and other creepy crawlies you do not want to run around.

Wheres your avatar hun?


Sorry for hyjacking thread!

Nice...

I liked the one of the huntsman sitting on the toilet roll...

Wish I could find it...!

I like Huntsman. My morning excercise is running through the house while being chased by one of these things that looks like it just crawled out of slimy egg and is trying to attach itself to John Hurts face!

When I first got here, I remember seeing a large huntsman in the house and made my poor ex move it outside because I couldn't handle it being there. Always checking things, making sure there was nothing on anything before I picked it up...
I also hated cockroaches and am still not so keen on them.

But a few months in, and I let the big huntsman hang around... they're quite useful for eating the bugs you get flying through your house... mozzies etc.
I now whack roaches with something handy or just spray them.

Seen two redbacks in two years... the first one after about 18 months.

Don't worry... your fear is irrational. You hardly see them, you just get used to taking precautions...
You wear gloves when gardening, though the other day I was rummaging through a box of kindling I'd cleaned up from the garden without a thought to spiders...
I also picked up a big log the other day, put it on the fire, walked away and then was aware there was a huntsman sitting on the front of my jeans...
Scared the crap out of me, but I just flicked him off and he's in the corner of the room now, just sitting there. They're really quite interesting and pretty... very timid. Can't even get one to crawl over my hand... they always run away.
I really don't like funnel web spiders, but they're black and sodding ugly and you just get an eye for seeing them. Again one in 2 years.... I've seen one crawling across the driveway at night and they're males, going hunting. The females don't leave the burrow... Is this helping?

There's so much hype about spiders in the UK, but I saw far more spiders in the house over there than I ever have done here.

When I first came out here backpacking years ago, people in the UK kept saying 'How will you cope with all the spiders and insects?' like they were everywhere all the time.
I really think British folk think we live in some mad insect infested type country crawling with the things.

Nearest any of my family in Aus have come to being killed or injured by a spider was when a huntsman crawled down the inside of the windscreen in my Aunts car, she nearly killed some blokes in her desire to escape the car
Funny thing is she never found it

They hide real good...

I had one run over my back one night. I told my OH and he said I must have been dreaming.
The next night, same spider paid him a visit too, but ran over his face and it hid inside the pillow case.

Ooh, we probably shouldn't say things like that, should we?