Leaderboard

Arguably quite a lot of difference. Especially on a cruise holiday. Meeting up on the deck for six is a very different experience when those vowels come into play.

Only someone who hasn't been to both places could be dim enough to ask that question

I thought it was maybe down to those who work in finance avoiding the number 3 like the plague when writing any bullet points down. If you had someone pronounce three as 'free' (all too bloody disturbingly common in Ayrshire), this could *very* well lead to a stampede in a room full of bankers as they try to grab the point and sell it on for a profit.

Everyone is different. I love my life in Australia (I've lived here over 30 years), and I have never once missed the UK. The ONE thing I have always missed, is the ability to visit Europe. While in theory, I could have afforded an annual holiday to Europe, it didn't happen in practice. Factor in the 2 days at each end for the journey, plus jet lag, and it's really not worth going for less than 3-4 weeks, and as soon as you decide you're going to Europe, you realise you can't fly all that way without visiting family and friends...and before you know it, you've spent the whole holiday with the folks and not seen Europe at all. I used to go every 2 years, for 6 weeks, and always booked a European visit for the last week so I couldn't get sucked in by family hospitality. A dog complicates things, of course. If you want an annual or biennial trip to Europe for 4 to 6 weeks, does the dog go into kennels? I'd say what you need to do, is make that "soft landing" a month-long holiday, if you can. Don't use it to see the sights (after all, if you decide to move, you'll have the rest of your life to see all those places). Use it to see what it feels like to live here -- maybe a couple of weeks in Sydney and a couple in Melbourne, since those are the cities you fancy. Sydney and Melbourne feel quite European to me. They both had massive influxes of European migrants after World War II (which is why we all drink coffee, not tea). At one time, Melbourne was the second-largest Greek city in the world (after Athens). The food is much more European than British, too. However once you get out into the country, things feel much more old-fashioned and conservative. You mention family and friends. The biggest reason people go home is that they're missing family and friends. The reality is that you're going to see them less than once a year. They may say they'll visit but they probably won't, because of the cost and time involved. So it will be up to you and for the reasons mentioned above, you may not be able to visit that often.

You're right, I beg your pardon @cg9456

@cg9456, I'm confused why you're not going to Europe, which is where you really want to be? If your partner is Lithuanian, then there are no barriers to you settling in any EU country you like. Brexit makes no difference to you, because you're the partner of an EU citizen. I appreciate that it'll be difficult to get a job as a secondary school teacher in Europe, but you could offer tutoring in your subject and in English, and perhaps consider other jobs. Once you are residing in a city, you'll have the advantage when applying for international schools in that city so eventually you could land one of those jobs. I guess it comes down to what's more important to you. My advice would be, activate your Australian visa, then move somewhere in Europe and try it out for a few years. Once activated, you've got almost 5 years before you have to make a move to Australia. Of course you could do it the other way: give Australia a try for a few years, then if it doesn't work out, come back to Europe. However, that's going to be a much more expensive way of doing it -- even taking into account possible periods of unemployment or under-employment if you try Europe first.

Depends on your subject, as well. I've a couple of mates who are teachers up here in Bendigo. They're crying out for STEM teachers up here: and a teacher's wage will go a lot further in terms of a decent home here than even the outer suburbs of Melbourne. I always get the "Oh, my goodness! You're up in Bendigo, what a long way for you to come" when I nip into Melbourne for an arvo or a show. It's less than 2 hours on the train. The train's less than $10 return. And I'll be in and back faster at rush hour than a lot of folk who spend a fortune to live in the outer suburbs and commute in. Just wish the council would yield up some money to me for promoting the place so damned much, to be honest... Also, Omari at the Botanical Gardens up here does an absolutely cracking brekky beside the little pond they have.

I bought a manual here in WA... apparently they're much less likely to be stolen as so few people know how to drive them.

I think you should have a "shingles party" liked they used to in the old days with the kids and chicken pox. you could invite all the oldies in the neighbourhood , make it a BYO, put some old val Donegan records. Just make sure you emphasise that its a "shingles party " and not a "singles party"

To be fair to my lower rent colleagues, there were plenty of invites at 65 points in teaching professions at the last 189 invitation round in May.

I think Marisa has you muddled up with another poster who had a query very recently.

Is there much difference? Apart from a few vowels?

I've only been on the Spirit once and it was overnight in a cabin. Wasn't bothered at all about the trip. Most times I've gone to Melbourne and back it's been by plane.

Made me chuckle when I saw that, mate. I got told off in a big way a few years ago for discussing the price of cigarettes when I was sat in a pub in Little Collins St. Some nosey parker was eavesdropping on our conversation and took umbrage with me saying "Well, they should bring in tougher policies to get rid of fags once and for all, to be bloody honest." Thankfully, they saw the funny side of it when we explained we were talking about cancer sticks.

Thank you @rammygirl i actually hadn't considered his settled status lapsing. Very grateful to you for highlighting that. He is eligible for British citizenship, but cannot have dual citizenship with Lithuanian.

Talk about short-termism. What a shame. The article says it’s to preserve $1bn tax revenue. But the future generation will have to pay for the healthcare costs of smoking related illness. I don’t know what that is for NZ but for the U.K. it’s almost £2bn a year. I wouldn’t be surprised is this isnt actually from successful lobbying by the smoking industry.

Disappointed to hear that NZ are scrapping their progressive smoking policy which would have prevented young people ever taking up smoking. We should have seen whether it would have worked. The government is scrapping it to fund some tax cuts.

I think the mild amusement is coming from your mistake on the numbering. Escalated from mild to rather amusing now after such a sure footed response...

My daughter did hers in a manual a couple of years ago. A quick google search shows a lot of instructors with manuals.

How long before your husband can get British citizenship? His settled status will lapse after a while and spouse visas for the UK are harder to get nowadays. You never know. People do end up returning to the UK.

Unless the dog is very old I wouldn't worry about flight stress. I reckon they just go to sleep after the first half hour.

Oh we care about your degree class, unless you've got cast iron global experience going back 15+ years you aren't getting into the company I work with without a first, and we check. Think big 4, and you'll have a 25% chance of being correct (although they all have the same rules and they all employ background checkers to make sure)

My GP mentioned the test so that's what I'll have.

'early onset moobs' - great term, although isn't going to make for a very memorable acronym. I'm in my later 50s and my moobs are now well-developed to the point where my wife keeps asking me if she can get them transplanted to her! They're mostly fat, so it's more about diet than exercise. We don't need the same amount of calories as we get into middle age, although we tend to eat as much and often the wrong types of food. I'd look at your diet first and try and cut down on excess sugar and fats, and reduce your alcohol consumption (if applicable). I'd keep up with the exercises but do more repetitions at lower weights to maintain the muscle tone. I noticed you mentioned badminton in an different post, which is a great CV exercise, and I'd also consider running if you don't have any problems with your knees and hips. I run between 7-10km on a 3 day cycle (so 7 runs per fortnight), which is about the only thing stopping me bloating into a man-mountain.

Nissan bosses have declared that the impact of Brexit on its UK operations is now negligible and urged the country to be more optimistic about its prospects. The Japanese carmaking giant has previously been one of the most vocal critics of the decision to leave the EU, warning of the effect on its investments in its huge Sunderland plant. Chief executive Makoto Uchida told The Sunday Times that while Brexit had been a challenge, the UK would remain his company’s primary European outpost for “the foreseeable future” and still be the company’s most important market in Europe. Speaking as he announced a £2 billion upgrade of the Sunderland plant last week, he said: “If not, we would not be making this investment.” Alan Johnson, Nissan’s senior vice-president of manufacturing and supply chain, added that while leaving the EU had made its operations in Britain “more bureaucratic… we quite quickly adapted. So that is just normal now”. ADVERTISEMENT He downplayed the widespread belief that Brexit red tape would push up UK prices. “It’s negligible. Much more significant are things like energy prices.”