BackToLife

Apparently Lindt are opening an Australian factory, so I guess their chocolate will also be impregnated with that horrible anti-melt stuff so we might have to read our labels very carefully indeed. Even though I lived in the UK for nearly 35 years, I can't say there is anything in particular I miss. I just get on with buying aussie brands of whatever I want. Having lived in quite a few countries has probably meant I have needed to be more adaptable in taking what is on offer than I would have been otherwise. However, that is not to say I don't occasionally buy British stuff, e.g. Hobnobs or Chocolate digestives. Coles also sell Wispas, so sometimes they leap off the shelves into my trolley. :wink: However one thing I just can't stomach are beef sausages. Gross! I have however found some very decent pork sausages from local butchers, but also from Woolies - B.E. Campbell cumberland sausages - and Coles - Outback Spirit with kakadu plum.

I loathe that Kleenex Cottonelle rubbish. Shredded badly and was, quite frankly, rubbish. Quilton is good, as is the Coles own brand 3 ply ($9 for 24 rolls). In fact, that is my preferred option. If there is an Aldi nearby, their Confidence 3 ply loo paper is also very good. I think the moral of the toilet tissue saga is: go for 3ply and you can't really go far wrong.

You are a really, really lucky boy! And yes, I am very envious. The history! The architecture! The gardens! The churches! The outstanding rural scenery! And of course, the charming olde-worlde pubs! If ever I return to the UK - not in my plans, but one never knows - then that is the area I will be heading back to. I love it!

Moi aussi. They currently have an offer of USD $39 a year (approx AUD $54). Not that many servers, but enough to make TB a good VPN. Plus the bear theme running throughout is brilliant....:wink:

Do you want to live in Worcester itself (including the suburbs) or are you happy to live in an outlying area? Worcester and suburbs: The St Peters area of Worcester (reasonably new estate) is very nice, as is the St Johns area - older, mainly terraced houses, but very charming. As mentioned above, Warndon is very, very rough, but most of Warndon Village is fine. One thing to be wary of ...Worcester floods badly, so before buying anything, ring the council's engineering department and ask if the street you are buying in is above the flood line. Outlying Areas near Worcester: Kempsey has some nice houses, but it stands in the shadow of the motorway, so is not the best choice. Avoid Powick, as this area is quite rough. Further afield: If you are prepared to move further out from Worcester, some of the towns/villages are lovely. Evesham (approx 30 mins drive) is beautiful, as is Pershore (a lot of Georgian architecture), but again, both of these towns are subject to flooding. Wyre Piddle to the south of Worcester is also another lovely little village, but very, very quiet, particularly since the opening of the bypass. However, avoid Pinvin. The Lenches (east of Worcester near Evesham) are an absolute delight. BUT...very very expensive. Again, if you don't mind living further away from Worcester, the Malverns (to the South west) is a really lovely part of the world. Only real issue is the weekend traffic due to all the tourists. Note: I lived in Worcestershire for nearly 15 years. However I have been back in Australia for 3 years, and as everything changes so rapidly these days, these views might now be seriously outdated. All in all though, you are moving to an outstanding part of the UK, one which it is difficult not to fall in love with.

Update: I took Ken's advice and applied online on October 6th. I had to provide proof of income from all my UK pensions/annuities, as well as verifying my ID. Like a vulture, I kept going onto the Centrelink site almost every day - wishing and hoping and praying! I don't know if you can stalk a website but that is what I was doing. :biglaugh: Anyway, today I received a phone call from Centrelink. They still need a little bit more info which I hadn't previously been asked to provide - a bank statement to prove the balance. But the good news? I am entitled to a part pension and will be receiving the first arrears payment (Oct 6th - 17th) on Friday. I will also be receiving a Pensioner's Concession Card, so I hope the concessions in this part of NSW are the full monty, so to speak.:jiggy::jiggy::jiggy: I am over the moon. This will make such a difference, as the tanking pound has really hammered me.

Marisa, that is why I am querying it. I have looked very carefully at the form (CI006) which outlines all the requirements, and it states quite clearly: "For Australian social security purposes, income from any source in a country other than Australia is generally assessable under the income test. Pensions from a country with which Australia has a social security agreement may be treated differently..." As Australia/UK no longer have a SSA, I should - theoretically - fall into the category the first sentence outlines. Unless the fact that I have the UK State pension means different rules. Sometimes I think government departments operate a multiple choice system as to what they tell you .....I have certainly encountered this in my dealings with the UK Pensions department. :mad: I am not going to bother going through the rigmarole of a call again. Instead, I am going to take Ken's advice and fill in the relevant forms (SA002/SA369 are the ones I believe I need), send them in online, and see what happens.

The minute the girl (she sounded very young) heard my income was from the UK, that was when she told me I was effectively entitled to nothing. We didn't get to the stage of discussing the exact amount of my income. Regarding the residency requirements: if childhood is included, then I pass with ease. Otherwise if I count from 16, then I have 7 years + the last 3, so I just scrape in.

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but I wonder if anyone can help me here. I receive the UK state pension, as well as some other annuities from the UK, but nothing from Australia. Unfortunately, I am not very well off, so I contacted Centrelink to see if I was eligible for a part Australian pension. I have looked up the Centrelink website, and according to the level of my income, I should be eligible for a small top-up, as well as a pensioner's concession card. However the girl I spoke to advised me that as my income was from foreign sources, I would not be eligible for any help unless my fortnightly income fell below $870 fortnightly. However....I am Australian, I lived in Australia from birth until 1974, I worked for five years before I left to go abroad (no super paid that I am aware of) and I have now been back for 3 years. So I would have thought that I would be entitled to something. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

To be fair, BB61 was simply passing a comment on the weather, not the consequences.

Re Coffs.....Saturday night was brutal. No brolly would have been strong enough, and you could have drowned if you had wellies on as you would have become permanently waterlogged! And unfortunately the house took some storm damage to the roof so have just had that fixed. :sad: I went for a drive on Sunday and it was as if the storm had never been, except for considerable damage around the Marina/Jetty area. Yes, in other areas there were a few trees down, but no water on the road or anything. Weird. And today (Monday) was absolutely glorious. Warm and sunny with cloudless blue skies, and in the town centre, people were wandering around in t-shirts and shorts, enjoying the absolutely beautiful sunshine (1st week of winter no less). BUT...I shouldn't get too complacent, as we are due more storms on Sunday, so I won't be throwing away the brolly/wellies just yet.

Why did the car cross the road? To get to the other side without causing a crash. :laugh: Actually, that rule makes perfect sense. When you pull out, you join the traffic flow, instead of having to cross lanes to join it, which is why there are so many near misses in the UK, which doesn't have that particular rule.

I am horrified at the rates here in Coffs Harbour - my rates for a 3-bed house are nearly $700 per quarter. Due to a council which doesn't understand - or chooses not to understand - that Coffs has one of the lowest socio-economic ratings in the entire country, and the majority of ratepayers living here simply cannot afford to pay for the council's grandiose schemes for the city via the exorbitant rates we are being punished with. That said, the council tax for my little 2-bed end of terrace in Redditch was approx GBP1300 yearly, with a 25% discount for single occupancy (2013). So perhaps not much difference overall.

Hi Cherries, will you be working at the CH Base Hospital? Just be prepared for wild and woolly weather. Coffs can get very, very humid, very very hot, and very, very windy, particularly in the afternoons. And then there are the very heavy thunderstorms which often come out of the blue. However Coffs is sub-tropical, which goes hand in hand with weird weather. You are coming to a very beautiful part of Australia, so have made a wise choice and hopefully will garner some wonderful memories to take back to the UK (if/when that happens).

When I left the UK, I left the stray cat who had adopted me behind. Although I loved her to bits, she was a killer, and anything she could kill, she did. Even the two bells on her collar did not help, as she learned how to hold her head still while hunting. So as much as it hurt me, there was no way I could bring her to Australia. She is now living the high life on a farm in Wales, catching rats and mice in the barn during the day, and is a much loved housecat at night. Once back home, I desperately wanted a cat, but was very worried about the impact on the wildlife, particularly as the house I live in is not conducive to building an outside cat run, due to its construction. But having had cats for the best part of 40 years, I finally gave in, and the rescue cat I now have is an absolute delight. She has no interest in wildlife at all. She will sit quite happily on the lawn in peaceful harmony with the magpies, kookaburras, and lorikeets, and not even blink. She has NO interest in them at all. But those wretched mynahs have an interest in her, and will chase her relentlessly if I am not around. She spends most of her time inside, sleeping in the sun on the back verandah, and when she does goes outside during the day, I am usually with her. She is always inside at night, and to those who say I am delusional, as she is probably off hunting and gathering while I am not looking, I will re-iterate once more. She has NO interest in chasing after and catching wildlife at all. My brother has a banana plantation, and so many people simply dump their unwanted cats and dogs near their property. Strangely enough, the dogs seem to last much longer than the cats, possibly because the cats fall prey very quickly to the goannas and snakes, while the dogs eventually take longer to starve to death. It is truly dreadful that some people see this as a solution to getting rid of unwanted animals, as those that do survive end up adding to the enormous feral problem endemic in Australia. This is a problem that urgently needs to be addressed, otherwise the feral cat/dog population will continue to grow unabated. Finally, I just want to add my thoughts to the following comment: The question is, why do you keep a cat? For the selfish pleasure of having a sweet furry animal for company. Is your selfish pleasure worth the death of even one native animal? This is a spurious argument, as humans also play a very important part in the destruction of native animals. Increasingly we are encroaching on habitats that once were exclusively native habitats with our housing estates, roads, industrial waste runoff, etc. The human race is anything but blameless, and one of the major dangers to animals is the car. So ask yourself. Is your selfish pleasure worth the death of even one native animal?