MARYROSE02

I get my two UK pensions (state and employer - Post Office) paid monthly into my Australian bank account, along with my Australian employer pension which is paid fortnightly. I'm just about to start drawing a fortnightly pension from my Australian Super fund, 6 percent I think. I've not touched it yet. I've got some money in England which, like others, I use Wise to transfer it as is much cheaper than the banks. I applied for a Centrelink pension but got rejected as my assets are too high. I would not have minded but it took 4 months and endless questions. I think Marissa may have told me I'd get rejected. It was a while ago. Next step is to apply for the pensioner health card, which I may get. What are the dimensions of Greater London? I always had the idea that if you plonked Sydney down (and Melbourne is the same size) it would just about cover it. I must Google it now! My flat in Surry Hills is 60 km from my brother's home in Spring Farm near Camden. Then there's another 7 km east to the beaches from Surry Hills. Then how far is it from, say, Hornsby in the north to, say. Engadine or Heathcote, in the south, or perhaps I should measure it from Palm Beach. What's similar in London? Richmond to Enfield? I don't know London. Do Londoners come to Sydney and marvel at how easy and stress free it is to commute in Oz?

Good on you for flying business class. I'm glad I did it and I wish my late parents had spent some of my inheritance doing the same. It takes so much of the stress away. Room to stretch out and sleep, doesn't matter if you have aisle or window. You don't need a specialist business class agent. I was trying to think of an internet agent without leaving this post - Webjet? Flight Centre?

Think of it as two right decisions, rather than one right and one wrong. I've lived in Surfers Paradise since the beginning of 2022, after 30 years in 2 stints in Sydney. I like Surfers because I like being in the centre of things. Almost everything I want is easy walking distance from my rented unit. The beach is 100 metres, supermarket 200, doctor and dentist, under 10 minute walk. If I can't walk, I get the tram, which I did today to Nerang St for a specialist, 7 stops, so about 20 mins. Gold Coast public and private hospitals are 3 or 4 stops further. During the day the trams run every 7 mins, or so my friend told me and from today, for 6 months, all public transport in SE Qld is 50 cents a trip. If I can't get the tram I get an Uber. The sea temperature even in winter is about 21 degrees(?) so you can swim all year round which you may not be able to do in winter in Perth. But I like Perth too. I might have gone there but Qld opened its borders before WA. It's a city of 2 million, so hardly a backwater, with beaches, north and south, plus the Swan River, which is more like a lake between the CBD and South Perth. I like South Perth and there might be possibilities for a water sports business there unless it's an ocean based business. South Perth has everything I want, walking distance, ferry to the CBD, Expressway nearby. Good luck with your decision. I'm a stick-in-the-mud who rarely goes more than a kilometre from where I live. I joined the library in Southport today, six stops on the tram, but you can borrow books on line! I never knew that.

I had the idea that, in earlier times when people travelled by ship, they'd spent all their money by the time they arrived at Freemantle (Fremantle? There's a burb in Southampton), so they got off the boat there. I flew to Singapore and got a ship to Freo 45 years ago. I loved Perth but I couldn't get a job and ended up where I never planned on going - Sydney. Now, after a 16 month "holiday" in Surfers I've decided I want to stay here. I had a great time when I went back to England for a 12 year "holiday" and I could still be there now but I had family in OZ.

Drugs ie "illegal" drugs are a fact of life wherever you live. When I worked for Royal Mail in England the guys who tipped the mail bags were issued gloves and warned about the dangers of "sharps" ie syringes dumped in mail boxes. I imagine Australia Post is much the same Here, many public toilets and in pubs have boxes for disposal of needles. You can get marijuana on prescription from a doctor here in QLD. The Rugby League World Cup is being held in England whilst the T20 Cricket World Cup is on here in Oz. England v Pakistan, the former colonial master versus one of its former colonies. That's the real face of British colonialism no matter what the activists say. Being here in Surfers, sitting in the shade in on the seafront I can't access my diary for 1978. God, I was naive and inexperienced, living in hostels, scrabbling for jobs I would never try to do now. I had a great little job in England too, operating a weighbridge, keeping records and a pleasant life at home with my parents and brothers in a village. What on Earth made me tear it all up?!

44 years ago this week I was in Perth after arriving on 3rd November, 1978, in Fremantle. I liked Perth but I couldn't get a job and I ended up in Sydney which I had never envisaged. My two brothers followed in 1979. I used to go back to England regularly, eventually going back for 12 years. Now, I've been here for 14 years on my second stint and I've not been back. This year I've been in Surfers Paradise which I think I prefer to Sydney with its milder winters. As the editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin said, "You either live on the Gold Coast or you want to live there! (?)"

That's why I moved from Narrabeen to Surry Hills and if others assume it's because I'm an aging ex yuppie hipster, so much the better. As I was saying elsewhere about Newtown, Surry Hills has its drawbacks but you can live without a car because it has excellent public transport and you can walk to most places. If I'd had a job in Narrabeen I'd probably have stayed there.

Does your wife feel the same way about Newtown - i.e. "dirty and noisy?" What attracted her to buy a flat in Newtown may still attract her? Dirty and noisy is the "price" you pay for the convenience of being able to walk almost everywhere and with an excellent public transport system. I live in Surry Hills which is much the same. If you work for the government then I assume you can apply for similar jobs with other government departments or the same government if you work for the Commonwealth. So, for example, if you liked Perth, look for jobs with the WA government. I like Perth too but did your wife like it too?

Travelling from many parts of Sydney will take 70 minutes and more, especially when you add on time to get to the station or a bus. The Blue Mts limited stops train does Penrith to Central in 48 minutes I think but unless you work walking distance from Central that means another train, bus or tram. If you are not walking distance from Penrith that means car or bus.

I automatically assumed that the B Line double decker buses had replaced the existing buses (bendy?) on the 190 (?) route all the way to Palm Beach. I remember sitting at Wynyard during one of the COVID lockdown and I saw a B line bus (which I've never ridden) and wondering if I could risk breaking the 5km from home rule and go to Narrabeen. I lived there in the 80s and I'm often nostalgic (but not for commuting to Sydney!) Why did they block the B Line buses? The thought of the plebs looking over their fences from the upper deck? I liked doing that on buses in Hants.

I suppose you learn to make compromises. When I went to Perth 5 years ago for two 6 week holidays, the first thing I noticed was that I could drive for pleasure, unlike in Sydney with its 7 day all day jams. How important is it to go away for weekends to other cities? For some it is important. For others you spend your weekends where you live. When I went back to England to live my passion was cycling and walking in The New Forest. Here in Surfers I spend my weekends with either walking distance or tram distance of places I want to go. I don't like what I see as the hassle of travelling, stuck in traffic jams, taking hours to get anywhere. Surry Hills to my brother's home in Spring Farm near Camden is 60 km without ever leaving Sydney. So, I could live in South Perth just off the north/south freeway and over the Swan from the CBD with all the facilities I need. If I wanted a week of culture in Sydney or Melbourne I'd take a week or two holiday there.

My brother just sent me a link to a one bedroom unit for sale in Redcliffe or is it Redcliff? ($450k plus) He's stayed in the complex and says I would like it. It looks nice in the photos, possibly like one of the suburbs on Sydney's Northern Beaches? I told him I'm not sure I want to start again. I've been in Surfers Paradise for nine months now, continually deferring returning to Sydney. I've got doctor, dentist, podiatrist that I like, made a few friends. Each time I move it's like emigrating again. You can commute to Brisbane from the Gold Coast but I wouldn't like to do it. I wondered what it would be like to live in a regional city like Toowoomba, Wollongong, Geelong. I talked to a guy from Ballarat or Bendigo (I always confuse them) and asked if commuting to Melbourne was do-able? He said yes. Cities like that are big enough to have all the services you want. The Gold Coast has all those services too.

The irony, if that's the right word, is that I planned to live in Perth and had no intention of going to Sydney. I've got my diary for 1978 and I wrote in it for the day I arrived on 3 Nov, "I like it and and I want to stay." But I couldn't get a job and i decided to travel east, Adelaide first for a week then Sydney around 8 December and I finally got a job at the end of January. Looking back I think, "Why didn't you just stay in Perth? A job would have come up sooner or later." But also looking back I think, "If only you'd come to Surfers Paradise." But I would have hated commuting to Brisbane. You could do it in an hour but if the traffic is stuffed then double that time. Like commuting from my brother's home at Spring Farm near Camden to Sydney CBD. Some people say they don't mind commuting but if you don't like it then Perth and Adelaide are ideal, Canberra too, and I imagine Hobart. I was amazed when I was in Perth 5 years ago that I could drive for pleasure, which is almost impossible in Sydney. I suppose if you have an unlimited budget you can buy a house or unit at Bondi, Bronte, Clovelly or Coogee and if you work in the CBD, have a relatively painless commute for the 7 or 8 kilometres to work. The Northern Beaches or Cronulla are nice too but the commuting time increases. I thought Perth was like a smaller version of Sydney - great ocean beaches, and nice inner city suburbs easy to commute to Perth CBD, wineries 40 minutes away instead of 2 or 3 hours to the Hunter Valley. Maybe some of the suburbs are bland but they are wherever you go. It's a city of 2 million not 20,000 the way some of its detractors go on about it. What do you put on the wish list for migrating to Oz? Living the Dream? Live on a beach with nice weather, relatively cheap homes and relatively easy commute to work. Which place ticks all the boxes? It's now Surfers for me. Excellent public transport, walk to the beach and just about every other facility I need. Live a car-free life. And if you hanker for the big city then Brisbane is an hour away as you say but I don't hanker for it.

I thought Perth was nice when I first came to OZ in 1978 but I couldn't get a job. (I wish I'd just stayed there now) But I ended up in Sydney where I have spent most of my life in Oz bar the last few months living in Surfers Paradise. Now I wish I'd come come to Surfers and stuff both Perth and Sydney and everywhere else. Pick a place to live where, if possible you can buy a home with as short a possible commute to work as possible. I've heard it's a nightmare commuting to Brisbane - 50 miles(?) I don't know. I never go there. I have no reason to go there. It could be 5000 miles and the same for Sydney and Melbourne. Spending hours every day, morning and arvo, commuting to work is horrible (in my opinion). Geographical isolation is only a problem if you NEED to be able to get somewhere else - health, work, education, whatever. If you have all those facilities and services close by then life should be pleasant. I love Surfers. Everything I want is walking distance or a tram ride. I don't own a car and I don't need a car. I liked Perth. I liked it when I went back 5 years ago. If my family were all there I would move there now but they are in Sydney. Surfers is close(r) to Sydney than Perth so I'll stay here for now. Perth's isolation is only relevant in so far as my family are in Sydney. Otherwise it would be irrelevant.

If you make the move perhaps don't sell your house in Nelson until you are sure you are happy in Australia. You may even be homesick for Nelson/NZ. You wouldn't be the first, or last, to regret burning your bridges, wherever you are planning to go, UK to Oz, Oz to UK.