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Gardens pretty much done now. still a bit of damage from the chafer grubs but nearly there.

local birdlife red kite, buzzard, Sparrowhawk, kestrel. (not my pics)

I guess of all these people crowding on the beaches some are thinking this virus stuff is going on and on and sooner or later they will get it so it might as well be sooner. They probably figure they are young so they will survive it anyway- they don't give two hoots about vulnerable people. Funny that some will no doubt have attended the Black Lives Matter march, too. Too thick to get it, always will be.

Stop the boats? Just a suggestion mate. Feel free to expand upon it.

Compensation for what? It is not the responsibility of the department to tell you o fill the form in, thats down t you, and your agent if you used one. What law changes are you referring to? If you mean the change in quarantine charges there is no way you would get any compensation because of that. And I think you will have to be patient a bit longer. Its not even July yet, and you say you have been waiting since early June. Many people have been waiting far longer than that.

And,,,,,,,your post sounded as if you thought a one-way ticket made you exempt. Apologies for trying to help.........

An extension on the date to validate your PR would be you'd think the kindest resolution, asking people to apply again for a visa is quite a rough blow, considering this is totally out of your control. Definitely speak to your agent, maybe under the circumstances there are other options. You work hard and spend a lot of money / time / stress to get the grant in the first place you don't want to have to go through all that again if you can help it. It's a really tricky situation. I have a situation myself in that I already have my PR, but the Travel Facility expires soon, so i will have to return and stay - which was my plan for this year anyways, its just now a lot more complication and rather stressful. I can tell you though Australia is a brilliant place to live, and absolutely worth all the effort and more, i'm sure you will already know this from your family who live there already! Good luck with it all

It's all relative of course, but yes there is real and extreme poverty in the UK and Australia. Edited to add that you do indeed see far too many people starving and kneeling in the street. Look to the rise of food banks as an indicator of this

Talking to UK friends in my age group 70+ we were nowhere near as restricted. I didn’t realise that they weren’t allowed out if over 70? Not sure if that was only with health problems, we were advised to be careful but could go shopping for groceries, chemist. The supermarkets had special times for only our age group to shop to protect us. We could go out for exercise as much as we wanted. There was so much help for us if we needed it, we were well looked after but not totally locked away, but obviously very sensible and careful. Single friends found it harder, but we all telephoned regularly to keep in touch.

I honestly considered Australia home, for maybe the first four or five years that we lived here - there are plenty of posts on here with me saying as much. I think the change happened for me when my marriage started going down the pan, which happened probably three or four years before we went back to the UK. My ex kind of withdrew himself from our marriage at about that time, and I started feeling intensely lonely. I had lots of people who I knew through school and so on, but no one that I could really confide in about what what happening - they were all busy with their own families, and I was always kept at arms length. It was only after we moved back to the UK and I had made some really good friends, that I felt strong enough to end our relationship, and things started to get better. I feel more at home in Scotland than I've ever felt anywhere else, even though I've not lived here before. I just seem to have landed in the right place at the right time, somehow.

Things are changing now with China throwing a hissy fit. We will no doubt be using more locally made produce but the big difference will be the cost of everything because wages are so high and we don't have slave labour. A return to post World War 2 levels of poverty? More repairing stuff and more homemade stuff . I used to make a lot of clothes for the kids but these days it is simply not worth it because of the cost of material- far more than buying things ready-made. Same applies even to wool though I get mine straight from the mills. What changes are we in for over the next 10 years? Maybe only 1 car per family? Less takeaway food? More recycled clothing?

2nd vac request today🥳🥳

It must be quite satisfying for them to do something which is different from their normal daily routine and also of immediate benefit to the community.

What pleasure do people get out of going to an overcrowded beach? Most of them have probably got a lovely garden to sit out in if they want. I really, really loathe crowds so that looks like a total nightmare to me. I would do practically anything to avoid going to a place like that. Of course the media are always at hand to make things look worse and I'm sure there are plenty of beaches elsewhere that didn't look in any way as bad as those that hit the headlines.

Saw the Bournemouth mayor interviewed this morning and it sounds like they parked anywhere they felt like it. She said cars abandoned in the middle of roundabouts, blocking roads, in other peoples back gardens. She also mentioned closing beaches if it happens again. Young lady in the press review thought that was a crime against human rights. Aus closed one of the most famous beaches in the world at Bondi and fined a lot of people that chose to ignore the ban. My son lives in Newcastle over East and they closed the beaches there. Here we were lucky, more beaches, less population so we were more spread out and they were never closed. That attitude is why Aus did so well and the UK has never got to grips with it.

They're hardly sending in the troops. The federal government offered a small contingent of military personnel to manage the hotel quarantines, since some of the hotels seem to be doing a bad job of it. They are also helping with the door-to-door testing in hot spots. It's not like there's going to be soldiers marching down the street. We also had the military involved in fighting the bushfires. I think it's a great idea - why have all that expertise sitting around doing nothing?

Well that was an expensive oil change. But then she shouldn't have put antifreeze in the oil filler.

I don't know how you stop them tho....the only way would be from the French side and try and disrupt their operations but if these people want to get here and are willing to pay then they will always find a way.

I'm not stereotyping people. I'm stereotyping a job. Security guards/patrols are poorly paid and have unsocial working conditions. The result is as stated.

Things have changed. "Confusion surrounds when Australian Defence Force personnel will arrive in Victoria following reports the state government has revised its request for troops to support a coronavirus response." I don't think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. As for Qantas, airlines worldwide are in serious strife.

I don't go along with the zero opportunity to escape. There's plenty of people that had a rough upbringing and did really well.

@Shaggylom and @Aussie20 congratulations I’m hoping this is the start of some grants

Yes- give it a go. Then you will know and if you have citizenship you could always return, albeit a bit poorer! All this is presupposing the disease abates sometime in the near future. If not, stay here- less cases!

Well whatever it is, it’s lovely and I like it a bit too much!

Hi I am new here and eligible for citizenship next month. can anyone suggest me the documents I need to submit for my citizenship please. i got my pr from 457. thanks in advance