[ashmalog]

hi paul and jo, well i have had a look at Pakenham and it is very nice. about 10-15 mins from Berwick. they seem to be building a lot of new houses which are very spacious and community minded, popped into the lakeside estate and was very impressed with the layout of the houses and estate, all placed around a largelake - hence the name. it appears pakenham is up and coming and it has everything in the town, doctors, supermarkets, real estate, little shops etc, everything you would want really. quite a few schools and nice play areas for children. some people say that it is on the lower end of the economic scale but i thought it was lovely, no rough looking houses, no grafitti, very clean. i suppose it is just small in comparison to somewhere like berwick and that is why they are building and investing. there was a few barber shops in the town. my OH just walked into shops and chatted to the owner but he did previously send them his cv and told them he would be visiting so in a way they were expecting him. he did take his kit with him but not had to do a cut so far - i suppose the conversation was the best thing really- for him anyway as he can talk to anyone about anything!!!
not been to geelong but apparantly beautiful. torquay very expensive as it is the surfers region so everyone gows there on their holidays, my friend has been and said that it is more expensive to live there but very nice. on a whole we have found australia very clean, very friendly and the only reason we want to go back to the uk is to pick up our boys and to come out again!!! don't want to go back. you see the life you could have out here and you wonder what britain is offering you.
we have been in melbourne 12 days and love it and not seen half of it. so much to see. loved the city and didn't feel threatened or claustraphobic like i do with london.
are you coming out to check the place out prior to emmigrating? we are so glad we did as some of the areas we had on our list we crossed off our list straight away as it wasn't for us - i couldn't move somewhere without looking around first particulary not with kids, we are upheaving them as it is - it would be worse if we were in an area we didn't like aswell.