Diane

This isn't the place we're going to but looks great value if there are a group of you going https://luxuryescapes.com/sheraton-senggigi-beach-resort-0?utm_source=luxuryescapes&utm_group=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=60224&utm_content=175447&m_check=m_2475707_h_0ea62102d11f09fbe701a760d937df25

I've been to Fiji twice - depends on how long you can go for - if you only have a week for example then you would spend a day at each end travelling to get to one of the islands. We went mainland the first time - we had young kids and stayed at the Naviti which did an all inclusive package - drinks as well - and the kids stayed free, so excellent value. The beach by the hotel wasn't too flash, but we did trips out and walked round to another much better beach with great corals for snorkelling, and husband and daughter went diving (daughter for the first time - she was 12) - which was good, but the safety standards of the equipment weren't perfect. Second time we went to Plantation Island which was only a short hop from the mainland - probably around 3 stars but ideal for us as a family - very good diving there - and both my offspring got their PADI licences while we were there. Also been to Vanuatu - I think we were at Hideway Island. Again, great for snorkelling and diving, and some nice trips out and about to waterfalls etc. Borneo was good - we did a three centre trip there including Kota Kinabalu, Mabul Island off Semporna for diving, and Turtle Island and Sandakhan for Orang Utans. My kids were 17 and 19 by then so much more of an adult trip, stayed in some wonderful hidden gem hotels which we booked direct and got excellent value. Last year we went to Thailand and again did a mainland beach, island, and jungle stop in a three centre trip. Happy to give more details on that if you are considering Thailand. This year we're off to Indonesia - we are going to Lombok which is the island next to Bali, and apparently much quieter and more like Bali used to be before all the mass development. Obviously not been yet but been doing a lot of reading and it sounds promising. So cheap to get there as well with Jetstar fiights then internal flights with Wings and Lion Air. Have a good browse around Tripadvisor. The forums there are excellent. Our trip this time was chosen on the basis of Denpasar being one of the few places you can fly to direct from Adelaide and pretty cheaply. I loved Thailand and would definitely go back, but flying to KL, then on for another couple of hours is a bit of a drag when you only have a week.... Oh and the reason we didn't go elsewhere in Australia is because the flights may be cheap, but food and drink and accommodation prices in Australia are ridiculous - especially if you have a family! And I like to go somewhere that feels 'foreign'!

I have exactly the same with Poms in Adelaide - lets me into the front page but then stalls when I try and view any particular thread. I've just stopped going on there any more! Like you, cleared history, cookies, flushed dns etc, but still won't work.

Here in Adelaide we have what are called "Senior Colleges" such as Marsden Senior College, University Senior College and Eynsebury Senior College - they are like the old Sixth Form colleges - most I think are private, but fees are very reasonable and they offer a good alternative to going back to school for the last two years. Do they have anything similar in Perth?

Australia has a population of just under 50 people, according to last night’s census figures. It represents a fall from the 22 million measured in the 2011 census. The snapshot of the nation showed that almost one in five of all Australians now live in a share-house in Coppin Street, in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond. The flatmates, who moved into the property last week, are still waiting for their internet to get connected. The booming area is set to see further population growth in the future, with Thommo’s girlfriend expected to move in next week. The ABS says the census is vital for future planning, and will allow the Government to build new schools, hospitals and other health facilities in that part of Coppin Street. Other figures showed: 61% of Australians now work for the ABS 7% of Australians have the surname Turnbull 12% of Australians are current or former Australian Prime Ministers 0% of Australians have an internet connection. http://www.theshovel.com.au/2016/08/10/australias-population-now-48-abs-confirms/

Because the government already have access to all your online data, so they looked at who in your street spent least time online and gave them a paper form?

Well, that was as bit of a disaster! Who'd have seen that coming?!! Kind of glad I wasn't able to access the site now last night to complete my details as there are questions being asked whether the data that DID get entered has been compromised, and now there's talk of cancelling the whole thing and starting from scratch! On a different note, having seen the TV ads where a previous census date was 30th June, why did the ABS people choose 9th August this year for their 'snapshot' of the nation? Do you think they chose it deliberately to avoid having to build any more athletics venues or swimming pools, as all the top participants in those sports are not in the country on this date? Don't know if there are any questions about sport on the form (as I said, I didn't get that far!) but if there are, looks like AFL will be the only sport to get any infrastructure spending on it in the future!

Apart from the money aspect, is it really a good idea to force your wife to leave somewhere she is very happy to chase a dream? It can put things like relationships under a lot of pressure. As you are not under any sort of visa time constraints, then what have you got to lose by waiting a couple of years more, in the hope that she will come round to the idea more?

You could get to him to read up on this guy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Thomas but personally it sounds like he's a mature, intelligent individual who wants to follow his dreams, and not yours so if possible I'd let him do what he wants to do. The most important thing we can give our kids is confidence and independence, and it sounds like you may have done a fantastic job of doing this for him! Has he looked into scholarships in the UK?

...in the census next week? https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/privacy-and-the-2016-census,9279 Personally I've used historical census information (with names) for family tree research - but that's not available until 100 years after it's collected to protect people's privacy - and the type of info that has been made available more recently in my job (population statistics etc with no names) but I can't help thinking that these changes run the very real risk of people not answering honestly, and thus compromising the accuracy of any information that is collected.

How's your cooking? http://au.indeed.com/viewjob?from=appsharedroid&jk=116883a22bfd2299 Temporary Cook - Commonwealth Hill Station, NW Pastoral SA Jumbuck Pastoral - Adelaide SA Temporary [TABLE] [TR] [TD=class: snip]Jumbuck Pastoral are looking for a temporary Station Cook for 2 - 3 weeks on our Commonwealth Hill Sheep Station, roughly 7 hours drive north west of Adelaide. Your responsibility will be to ensure 3 meals a day for a crew of 15 and a fully outfitted kitchen and all cooking equipment is provided. This position is available for an immediate start with accommodation available and would suit someone who has worked on stations and looking for a short stint, or alternatively someone who is looking for an introduction to living and working in outback Australia on a large station! We have enjoyed an excellent season of rainfall in the area so it is also a wonderful opportunity to see the outback in bloom! Job Type: Temporary [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Have you checked what your retirement age is in the UK? We checked on the UK Government site the other day and it's something like 67 now... depends on your year of birth I think. Also I know they have been cutting down in the UK on who can get access to things like National Health, so worth checking that out too.

...when there aren't enough for the people who are already here! Mining Project Managers still being sought? Really?? I thought people in mining were leaving in droves because the jobs just aren't there anymore. I saw a link to this article and thought it must have been from a few years ago, but apparently it was only yesterday! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3715521/Employers-look-overseas-Australia-faces-skills-shortage.html

I've found UK double is the same as Aus double, UK Kingsize is the same as Aussie Queensize.

It may be that you have been claiming the Tax Free Threshold from all three jobs... you should only claim it from one.

Make sure she's registered for their Airmiles programme - we managed to transfer some of my folks' Emirates Airmiles to us last year which got us an upgrade on a trip back - so well worth it :-)

I found Emirates really helpful on the phone - my elderly father had been trying to deal with them from the UK and got totally confused, so I rang up and explained things and found they really did try and help. It wasn't anything about changing dates, but definitely worth a try.

I think Billy Crystal summed it up best in a radio interview. "You don't know who won yet? Australian Idol has the results of their vote almost straight away...."!!

You're missing the point completely - the faults lie in the execution, not the principle, so there's no need to be so patronising when you clearly didn't understand the issue in the first place. If anyone were inclined to place multiple bets deliberately, I am sure they wouldn't be so stupid as to give their own name each time.

You may think it's ludicrous to harvest votes from a nursing home, but I have heard it from several different sources now so am inclined to believe it happens. Also a friend who used to live in South Africa was telling me about a mark on their fingers after voting that was only visible under a certain light, so that's perfectly doable too. And your final point about "we don't cross our 7s here in Australia" - well you're obviously living in a remote part of the country that is not at all multicultural - it's quite common in a lot of countries and cultural groups - I spent many years studying foreign languages so can vouch for this.... I also work all day with numbers - I'm a book-keeper and financial administrator - and I can assure you that it is very easy to confuse a 1 with a 7 in some handwriting, so looks like after 40 years here, you've just learnt something!

Regardless of the complications of preferences and 'two party preferred' etc, I'm again amazed at how amateur the Australian voting system seems. To start with, when you show up to vote, they don't routinely ask you to show any sort of Identification - all we got asked was for our name and our address so they could find us in their big book and manually tick us off. So theoretically I could have said I was anyone - as long as I knew their address! Secondly, big books - I mean, really? And all they do is ask you if you've already voted. Then they take your word for it. So - again theoretically - I could have voted at several different polling stations (I think there were about 8 in our electorate alone and you can vote outside your electorate as well) and they'd have only found out after the event, with no way of cancelling out any of the extra votes I would have made. Even in Africa you get an indelible ink mark on your finger to show you've already voted - how hard can that be? (Side note, apparently the most common cause for double-voting is amongst old folks whose votes are harvested from their care homes, and whose family then turns up to take them to vote on the day - and they are either too polite to mention they've voted already, or they just forget they've done so!) And my third point is that on our lower house papers we had to number our choices from 1 to 7 with 1 being favourite, 7 least favourite. I work with numbers all day and which are the two hardest numbers to tell apart sometimes? You got it - 1 and 7! I wonder how many people's last choice has actually been mistaken for their first? How hard can it be to put up a few big posters around the polling station telling everyone to cross their 7s? Add to that the number of voting papers that have 'gone missing' this time (particularly in WA apparently), the number of polling stations that checked people off as having voted even though they'd run out of voting papers, the sheer size of the Senate voting papers and susbequent high risk of having an invalid vote if you miss a number, and the fact that the return address on many postal voting forms sent out to nursing homes etc were actually Liberal Party office addresses, and the whole thing starts to look decidedly dodgy!

I reckon find a tax agent as opposed to an accountant to start with - should be cheaper!

oops double posted!

Why are you excluding the tax free threshold? This is usually if someone works for more than one employer - you can only claim the TFT from one. I use this one https://www.ato.gov.au/Calculators-and-tools/Tax-withheld-calculator/Individual-Non-business-Calculator.aspx

Interesting story here suggesting corruption in the Australian Immigration Department is widespread. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-27/corruption-and-widespread-rorting-undermining-immigration/7537270