NikiL

Hopefully this won't be too long winded, but .....

We flew mid September, landed after 48 hours of virtually no sleep (aided and abetted by me being a very crap flier), a taxi driver who couldn't find where we were staying and still trying to get hold of Sydney quarantine to check on my cats who flew the day before us.

Within 24 hours I remembered everything I fell in love with 17 years ago, and thankfully OH started falling in love with it as well. We're both wildlife lovers, so watching the lorikeets, cockatoos, lizards and the possums has been utterly wonderful. For anyone who thinks they'll miss the changing seasons, you cannot beat the Jacaranda's in full bloom - it is utterly stunning. I don't know whats flowering at the moment, but they're red and the parrots love them, and they're just as beautiful. I really must find out what they are........

The storms are stunning - bloody scary at times (we were in the middle of the big one Nov 16th) but that in itself gave us a massive insight into the Australian character. The clear up operation was so incredibly co-ordinated, Energex were amazing (I'm sorry - you want to see 1/4 million homes reconnected in 24 hours in Britain with powerlines down everywhere!), the councils and SES were incredible, working without a break, and doing it happily as they were pleased they could help in some way. Thats not bull, I stopped and spoke to several teams around our area to say thankyou and their attitude was without fail very community minded - and quite a few asked how long we'd been here and when I told them said "Oh Christ, welcome to Australia!". And that was the thing that really struck me as so different to the UK, the genuine community spirit. Everyone helped everyone after that, and having gone through the "hurricane" in 1987 in Kent, even back then it was totally different.

I started working on a contract 5 weeks after we arrived and start a permanent job in January - took longer than I thought it would originally, but that may be the credit crunch starting to kick in a little here. OH is finding it harder to find work too, but he still has no regrets moving - and after him leaving 3 of his kids behind I ask him pretty frequently!

DS has settled very quickly and quite frankly sounds very strange at the moment. He starts a sentence sounding English, then sounds Aussie, then English then ends the sentence sounding Aussie again, its like his voice is breaking all over the place

The people are no nonsense, what you see is what you get. I know a lot of people say the "how are you" greeting is false, but if you greet them in kind you'd be surprised at the positive response you get. You can talk to strangers on the train, in a queue etc - and it doesn't make you a nutter!

Ah, I think what I'm trying to say is that life here is what you make it, same as anywhere really. We love it, deep down, feel like we've come home, love it. England seems like so long ago its almost like another life ago, and in a way it is.


The last 12 months has been some of the most traumatic months of my life - there's been some additional stresses that only my family know about that we had a few days before we flew that to a degree are still ongoing - but I wouldn't change anything, and I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world.

LouiseR

What a fantastic update! Although you start didn't get off to the best with the storm, no sleep and a lost taxi driver (!) you still have found the positive in everything.

We fly to Brisbane on the 7th March and the past few days we've both been a bit "wobbly" but reading posts like your's really gets us back into it!

Best of luck and can't wait to read the next update.

Fly Away

Ahhh lovely update Niki!

So pleased you are having a ball and life is starting to take shape.

Sorry to hear about some more crap back in the UK. I think you have had quite enough of that to be honest. Do you want me to go round and sort them out.

DadAgain

All sounds good so far!

You're absolutely right about the community spirit after that storm - it was INCREDIBLE. (Where exactly are you by the way?) I'm hoping that some of that cooperative spirit rubs off and our little pocket of suburbia can maintain that vibe for a while.

Dont expect that kind of warm-social glow to last forever, you might find that once the dust settles and the storm is a long distant memory your nieghbours might fade back into private obscurity once again! We have some nighbours we get on very well with, but others, even after 8 years are saddly no more than nodding acqaintances - (outside of remarkable events like THAT storm!)

NikiL

Ferny Grove, not quite as in the middle as you were, but not far off it!