givemecoffee

Yep - been here for 3 months and our furniture has finally arrived - whoop whoop! Sleeping on the floor just not fun anymore and not good our not so young bones anymore. Reasons given for delayed shipping were a broken ship and some silly beggar packing an old artillery shell in their crate requiring the army being called in to dispose of subsequently shutting down Allied Pickfords for days! So we have our worldly goods now and feeling much more like home - funny though how much "stuff" you don't miss and how you make do with what you have.
Daughter settling in to school great and has already developed an Aussie twang. We love to see her enjoying the after school activities, sports and outdoors - have spent so much time at the beach/park. Vitamin D in excess ( with sunscreen of course ). Have met loads of people through her school and even a family in the launderette who it turned out went to the same school as my husband ( small world ). You come to the other side of the world and meet an old school mate whilst washing your smalls!
We are loving our suburb - Ashgrove. Great to get to city and forests/Mount Nebo etc. Also for accessing the Gympie Rd for Sunshine Coast. We are loving hanging out in Paddington for Sunday brunch and the West End markets.
I am working at the Mater Mothers as a midwife and am loving it - staff great and very friendly and the work is pretty similar to home - yes, babies born the same way and everything! Hubby found work as a Project Worker for a city charity and loves it. We all feel very lucky to be here and the bus journey to work every morning still takes my breath away when I go over the William Jolly and look at the city with the sun rising. Then a fab walk through the South Bank Parklands - much better than sitting on the M25.
We have had our low days of course when we miss our family and friends back home - especially getting letters and parcels - always brings a lump to my throat. Then there are days when you miss even the littlest things from home - silly little things and you end up with a romantic nostalgia of old blighty, but then you have to bring it back and remind yourself why you made the move in the first place.
So getting all wishy washy now but we are all doing OK and came here with no preconceptions and feel very priveledged to have this opportunity. Feel that having family here has been a lifesaver and their support and help has been invaluable to us. Good luck to all making the move soon and hi to everyone here - it's a roller coaster ride!

bradburns2

How lovely to hear that you have settled well and are enjoying your new life down under. Good luck.

the murrays

good to hear all is going well for you and family, we are going to sunshine coast end of June

DadAgain

Welcome! Glad to hear another happy settler story.

Ashgrove is nice isnt it? The only thing that really surprises me is that you ENJOY the bus trip!? I've been tearing my hair out for months with buses (recent job change forced me out of my car) and have just about had enough - I cant handle the randomness of the so called timetable!! - and theres absolutly no way I'd be able to persuade my wife to catch a bus to the Mater.

Anyway - which school is your Daughter at? I guess it doesnt really matter most of the schools in this part of the city are excellent and clearly she's settling in well.

(My wife looked at the last post of yours I replied to and was trying to work out who you are to see if she knows you!.. 'givemecoffee' doesnt offer too many clues as to your identity and the Mater has had so many recent Uk arrivals its tough to tell)

Anyway - If you have a 'low' day just cry out, theres plenty of people here who'd be happy to try and help make you feel better.

Sally Simpson

Lovely post & I wish you continued success!

jutang

Fab post, myself and OH cant wait to get there!! Your post nearly made me cry I hate being in the UK, JOb very stressful!! grrrrrr, I know I wil miss my family and friends when we go, but I know I wil be happier mentally and physically. Good luck and may your happiness last!!

bound4brissy

Well that made me smile!! We are off to Brissy at the end of June.

Can you tell me, how did you decide where to stay? We were thinking of Brighton / Sandgate but really dont have a clue, its difficult to choose if you haven't been in Brisbane before.. Will check out Ashgrove too - think I have emailed Ashgrove state school - it rings a bell..

Anyway, any advice on suburbs would be fantastic... :-)

Baltibabe

Glad it's going so well

tinpot

Hi,
Sounds like you have settled in really quickly, we moving to Brisbane in 3 months time, and I hope we feel like that. Is there any advice you could give us, or things to advoid? We were thinking of using a firm to move over our money, pensions, e.t.c, do you think thats a good move, or is it easy enough to do your self?
Also, (sorry for all the questions), did you manage to get your daughter in to her school befor you got there, or did you have to wait until you were settled?

Thanks

zoeNpaul

Hi I am new to this today, I am wondering if you can help me, we are moving to Victoria (only at the start of our visa) I am also a midwife and I am just wondering what its like well the pay really I know thats a very personal question and dont mind at all if you dont want to answer it. Its really nice to hear that you have settled in really well and that your daughter likes her school etc.. as thats a big worry for us

look forward to your reply

Zoe x

givemecoffee

Hi,

I know it is difficult to decide where to stay - it depends what you like doing really. We like Ashgrove as it is still really close to the city ( about 15 mins drive depending on traffic ) but it is also close to the Forest Park, Mount Nebo and the nearest beach would be about half hour drive at Redliffe or a bit further to Calloundra. Ashgrove has all the neccesary shops, half a dozen nice cafes, library, dr, dentist etc, take aways in abundance and a nice Italian restaurant. It just feels close to everything we like doing. Also my brother used to live there so we knew it a bit so had an area to aim for. My daughter doesn't go to Ashgrove State School as that is really in West Ashgrove and we are down the other end. She goes to Oakleigh State School and we can walk there from our house. It is a great little school and has a real community feel to it. She is doing very well there and has got stuck in to choir, piano lessons, cross country running, tennis and swimming - they have a great after school club too which runs from 7am - 6pm if you need to use it. We have used it a couple of times and it costs about $12 for 3 hours after school. We could have picked up our daughter at 4pm but she asked to stay till 6!
Anyway - am waffling on now! Just wanted to say that I haven't been to Sandgate - it is on the list of things to do! But I have heard it is nice - someone else may be able to give you more of an idea. I know it is a bit further from the city and probably about as North as you can be before you go over the bridge to Redcliffe.
Good luck with everything and let me know if I can be of anymore help.
Bye!

givemecoffee

Hi!
The pay works out OK - better than I thought it would. They take your NHS years of service into account and you have to send them a statement of service from your employer highlighting exeperience and they then place you in a pay bracket from there. I am Level 4 ( 4 yrs post grad ) and my basic is $53,000. With shift allowance, I take home about $2000 a fortnight after tax. Love this getting paid fortnightly thing - fab! They also pay for uniform allowance and laundry costs. Where I work you have to pay into Superannuation and that is 5%l they then contribute about 9% I think. Bit crap with pensions so can't remember! Anyway good luck and let me know if I can be of anymore help.
Bye!

givemecoffee

Hey!

Thanks for your post! I too have been trying to work out who your wife is as I have seen a couple of your other posts and know she works at the Mater. Is she in Birth Suites? I am on MM4. I know a few of the other midwives who live out our way but the are all aussies!
My daughter is at Oakeigh as that is more our end of Ashgrove - nice little school. Are you kids at Ashgrove State or The Gap?
I have found the bus OK - not had one late or cancelled yet - maybe I am just lucky and hev only been here a few months. Very confuddled about the new GO card and think I will just stick to the 10 trips until they get rid. Feel that I am doing my bit for the old environment too although my environment wasn't very good the other day after sitting next to a very smelly man!
Have you done an "update" - would love to read it.
Bye!

welshviking

Wow, we're staying in the caravan park in Ashgrove!, only arrived Friday night, but having a great time so far. Surprised how much it's rained?

having our first experience with the bus in a couple of hrs, going to hire a car to check out another car.

Glad you're enjoying and settling in well.

DadAgain

They will be at The Gap State School - oldest will start there next February (currently at The Gap C&K Kindy), our youngest goes to "The Woods" childcare centre in W.Ashgrove.

Wow - I have approximately a 40% failure rate on buses (where failure is more than 5 minutes away from timetable). The "GO" card is a great idea - but VERY poorly implemented. Unfortunately it doesnt handle transfers well yet due to a software problem and last week it double-billed me for my journey 6 times!!!! - Each time I end up calling up the help line and lodging a request for re-imbursement which takes 10 working days to process. This morning, I got double-billed AGAIN... So The Bus OWES me more than $20... I'm pretty much sick of it. I've decided to try and get a full bike licence and see if that eases my commute.... (probably be dead within a few months! )

Yep - Birthsuite... and yes she is Aussie - I'd give you more information, but public nature of forums being what it is I'll leave it to PMs!!! I was interested to hear yesterday that some Mater staff are feeling a little bit iriatated by the recruitment drive in the UK. They think that spending $15k per person recruiting staff from the UK is a bit of a waste and they should be putting a little effort to try and retain the staff they have abnd stop them walking away rather than get new people in! I wonder if that tension will increase as the number of UK migrants in the increases over the next few months? (Just wait for the "Migrants go home!" banners to be waved by angry lynch mobs)

No I havent - but I'm seriously considering writing a big one before August (my 10 year anniversary of being here!). Sometimes I think I could write a full-on novel based on some of my experiences, but it'd have a very limited audience and I'd probably lose interest after a couple of chapters! - Still there might well be a seriously big chunky post or 2 later in the year if I come over all nostalgic and feel like commiting thoughts to paper.. (ok not paper - but 'committing thoughts to hard disk' doesnt have the same ring to it does it?)

Wow - welcome... dont worry about the rain - now we're slipping into winter (cant you tell?) - It'll more than likely stop raining and be dry as a bone for the next 6 months. If you need a hand or desperately crave some local knowledge feel free to give us a yell.