Diane

Ah of course, a true statesmanlike move. That will make Australia look such a civilised country when Abbott "aggressively shoulder bumps" Putin to the front of his body!! :biglaugh: You couldn't make it up sometimes.....

When we were looking for a small car for our daughter (well, for me really but I don't get a look in) we ended up with a Mazda 2: a lot of the small cars don't have the safety features you need on Australian roads - abs etc -and the Mazda 2 seemed to be the best option in terms of size, economy, safety, price of spare parts and quality of build. Also with the big road trains you get on the roads here you don't want to go too small (I used to have a Ka in the UK but imagine they would barely even be visible to the driver of a road train!)

Just back from seeing Bill Bailey live here in Adelaide - he was saying since he's been in Australia he hasn't found a single person who admits to voting for Abbott's lot! Described Tony Abbott as like a plastic bag stuck in a tree - no-one knows how it got there, but nobody can get it down :-(

It kept a lot of people working during a worldwide Global Financial Crisis.... something that is definitely not happening at the moment ...I've just read yet another friend's status of her husband being told there will be no work for him at the end of this month, joining my husband and many of our friends and acquaintances. This country is in serious distress, and Abbott and his out of touch cronies are just fiddling as Rome burns. Labor are not a lot better. The only people talking sense at the moment are the Greens - and that's a sentence I never would have imagined myself saying, ever!

When even Americans are amazed at the Security State that Australia has become you have to start scratching your head a little.... http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/07/how-australia-just-became-a-national-security-state/?tid=hp_mm&hpid=z4

I have not found Adelaide to be particularly racist - there seems to be a good multicultural mix - but some sectors of community seem to have a bit of a sheep-mentality and take their lead from the media, shockjocks on talk radio, and the reporting of what people in government say in public, so sometimes there are unpleasant side effects from that. The main stream media isn't as well -balanced here in Australia as it is in England (for instance) and tabloid newspapers aren't treated with the pinch of salt they should be sometimes.

Hiya - as a fellow parent of a teenager who looked into studying in the UK, I wasn't sure if you or your daughter are aware that she will have to live in the UK for three years prior to Uni entry if she doesn't want to have to pay International fees (usually about 3 to 4 times what a local would pay - i.e. around GBP30k a year) This is regardless of whether she is a UK citizen - it is purely down to having to live there for three years (for a reason other than education) prior to Uni entry - this also affects Uni Loans (I don't knoiw what they are called in the UK - but equivalent of HECS here). Wish you luck with it all - but just thought that might be something you weren't aware of :wubclub:

I often say to people that Adelaide is not a good destination for a holiday, but is a good place to live! Another thing to bear in mind if you are trying to decide between Perth and Adelaide is the proximity to the rest of Australia: it's a lot cheaper/easier to visit other cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast for short breaks and trips away from Adelaide than it is from Perth :wubclub: If I lived elsewhere though, I don't think I'd come on holiday here!

Heard a very astute comment by an Irishman being interviewed on Radio National the other day - he was saying that in most countries, such as the UK, the tabloid papers are treated as what they are - a bit of a joke, not to be taken particularly seriously - but in Australia the tabloids are actually treated as if the nonsense they often publish is actually true, which is where things start to go wrong. If you get the chance have a listen to the interview - the guy is my new hero: Dr David Caldicott http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/09/16/4088546.htm

Do some research and take sensible precautions - I listened to this podcast the other day http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/how-ebola-works/ and it seems like one of the reasons it's so hard to stop the spread is because of the customs in the countries affected in dealing with their dead. I'd make sure I had some of that hand sanitizer and cleanse my hands after touching any door handles, railings etc. Better to be conscious of it and wary than over confident and blase I think.

Hi - we were in almost the same situation as you ten years ago. We had the only grandchildren on both sides, I was (am) very close to my parents, saw them a couple of times a week at least, had great holidays in Europe, a lovely house....but I hankered after better weather and because I had an Aussie passport, Australia was an option. When it happened, it was all very fast: from deciding to do it, to selling our house and moving here lock stock and barrow took about eight weeks. My parents are now both over 80 - have visited every year and spent about a month with us here. I still feel bad about bringing the kids away from their grandparents, and still daren't think about how we'll cope when something happens to one or both of them. I can't tell you it will be fine. We've been here ten years though and we have spent a lot of quality time with my parents and inlaws when they visit - probably far more than we ever did whilst living in the same country. The perfect situation would be if they came out here for half a year, and spend the other half in Britain (where I have a brother and sister) - is that a possibility with your folks? Otherwise why not rent your place out in the UK and decide to give it five years or something. Show your kids there is a whole world out there. Have your parents to visit, or visit them as often as you can, and stay in close touch with phone, skype, letters and emails.

Thought QandA tonight was excellent. Educated and articulate women, and Scott Ludlum who I think one day will make an excellent PM - oh hell, why wait till 'one day' - put him in the job now and get the hopeless moron we have currently at the helm out as soon as possible!

I don't think citizenship of the country is what matters in the UK - it's residency. I don't know if European Unis have the same residency requirements though - worth checking. Don't know how the Scotland independence vote will affect things like Scottish Unis either - aren't they fee-free?

I think I have read that you can get European citizenship by living and working in a European country for something really minimal like three months... perhaps your daughter could take a gap year and work in Europe? Would also give her a chance to check out some of the European unis.

Pretty sure you have to have been living in the UK for three years prior to the University entrance or you get treated as International student.

Interesting quote that one of my friends drew attention to here: “Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” Herman Goering

My parents had a nightmare journey with them 18 months ago - late leaving LHR so missed their connection (there is a very short connection time allowed for such a large airport imho anyway), then re-routed via Melbourne and that was late too so they missed THAT connection too. What on paper looked a quick and efficient trip turned into anything but! They were flying Business Class as well so it wasn't cheap. I think maybe they have ironed out a few wrinkled now though (the airline, not my parents) so hopefully if they ever fly with then again, it won't be as bad. They didn't mention anything bad about service or cleanliness on board.

Just like to add that uf you don't have private medical insurance, you can still see a specialist privately (without the long wait) and Medicare then refunds something like 80% of the cost of this to you. I have done this - I do have medical issues which are a little complicated, so most things would have been excluded as pre-existing conditions on private cover anyway. I try to avoid the medical profession as much as I can, but every now and again I have seen specialists and claimed most of the cost back through Medicare. You can get specialist dental cover through a company such as Smile if you wish. Also, my son had a free eye check up every year covered by Medicare. Once my kids were teenagers, we were also sent a dental checkup voucher for them each year.

I think the overseas stuff is just what any Prime Minister of the country - of any party - would do, the difference comes in how they treat people domestically and while I'm sure Abbott is just a puppet whose strings are being pulled by his puppet-masters, so not entirely responsible, his actions have been despicable in so many ways - and barely a day goes by without another of his ministers opening their mouth and putting their foot in it: Hockey (totally out of touch with reality), Pyne (nasty little foul-mouthed man), the speaker (so blatantly biased it's a joke), Morrison (evil incarnate) and Abbott himself (milking the expenses system to within an inch of its life and demonstrating nepotism on an unprecedented scale)..not to mention the ten liberal heads that have rolled as the result of the ICAC corruption enquiry.... not a decent human being among the lot of them.

Well I quite liked Margaret Thatcher, didn't like Blair, have a serious soft spot for Boris Johnson, but cannot abide either Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, either of the awful Bishop women, or the lowest scum of the low, Christopher Pyne. So I'm not a leftie - I'm just someone who judges people by their actions and attitudes and that lot have sunk lower than I would believe it possible for a human to sink in their behaviour and treatment of people they are supposed to be "serving"! Even their voices seem to be getting whinier and whinier and this whole "we're doing it for your own good" line they keep spouting - Christopher Pyne today a case in point trying to say making further education a privilege only the rich can afford is actually a "good deal". If this lot don't get voted out and voted out soon, I fear for the future of Australia in so many ways. There are some interesting alternative ways to raise money here http://campaigns.greens.org.au/ea-action/action

Your whole argument (which sounds like it has been written by a Coalition speech writer) falls apart with this paragraph. This government has done their best to make those you speak of here the ones who will suffer most from their policies, whilst continuing to rort the system themselves, and support those who make their money from selling the resources of this country overseas, employing overseas low paid workers to do so in many cases. As has been said in many threads, there are an awful lot of ways to save money in this country, but Abbott and his party have looked at ways which will affect the poorest and most disadvantaged and gone for those rather than doing something that might offend their financial backers.

Well said, and while there are people like you in this country, I will remain...

So's Boris Johnson by all accounts - but I'd still vote for him!

No, actually that description fits someone else far better! Palmer is doing a great job of getting news about him on the top of the agenda, when Tony is trying to get stuff about him! Yesterday morning all the news channels were covering Tony's "War Against Terrorism" and "We are a Government that Supports Science" speech, by the evening it was all about Palmer and his apology - result! Tony must hate him and really, Clive comes across as not really caring about that one jot!

I voted for the 'ALP lost it' option because there was so much infighting in that party that I think a lot of people thought ANYTHING would have to be better. Or they were taken in by the multitude of promises made by the Coalition before the election. I think Labor are only just now beginning to sort of get their act together - there hasn't been any talk of internal fighting that I have heard - so perhaps they learnt their lesson. On the other hand, I think this whole 'keep your heads down, don't attract attention' thing hasn't done Labor any favors: Tony Abbott has been giving them so many opportunities, and they are just not holding him to task as they should. That's why Palmer and Hansen Young have had such prominence and influence. Some of the shadow ministers are starting to make inroads now - such as the shadow minister this morning talking about the latest NBN report which is so obviously anything but independently researched - but Shorten seems a little scared to do anything: perhaps he is rightly concerned that he will come over as an aggressive and negative opposition which is what Tony Abbott did when he was in that position, and put people off. He needs to be seen as the sane one when the lunatics have taken over the asylum.