MARYROSE02

Part of me thinks that Australia will come crashing down and experience what the rest of the world is enduring. I suppose to be fair, it was like that in Sydney from the middle of March to the end of May, cafes, restaurants and pubs open for takeaway only. I was scared then too. I wonder if that is the whole purpose? To scare us all to keep us all under control? I never left home without a sanitizer and was scared to press the switch on a water fountain in the park. On the other hand, since the beginning of June, firstly in Sydney, and now in Surfers, if I did not read or watch or listen to the news life is as normal as it could be. A bloke did come into the cafe this morning wearing a mask but it was only covering his mouth, and of course when he started to eat, the mask went below his chin. Perhaps someone will explain the point of that to me. I get wearing a mask whenever you leave the house but I don't get only wearing it SOME of the time. Isn't it like putting a helmet on for a motor bike ride but taking it off for part of the journey? Why have both colds and "normal" flu all but disappeared? I've not had a cold for a calendar year for the first time I can remember.

I Googled your query and found a post here on PIO which may help? https://www.pomsinoz.com/topic/168015-any-other-hairdressers-out-there-applying-for-vetassess/

I Googled "UK banks closing accounts for overseas residents" and it said that SOME UK banks have closed accounts for expats living in Europe post BREXIT, so nothing to do with us in Australia. I''ve never had any communication from my two UK bank accounts telling me they are going to close my accounts anyway.

I don't remember it although I would have been aware of it as I bought the newspaper every day - the Daily Mail then. I Googled it; Found a nice photo. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-soccer-league-cup-third-round-tottenham-hotspur-v-wrexham-white-hart-107558898.html

Saints are my local side! I've been to the Dell far more times than White Hart Lane. 1976 yes. We Spurs fans are still raging about our pathetic performance at Brighton (They beat Liverpool at Anfield overnight too). I take my mind off Spurs by engaging in mild (by comparison) sniping on PIO.

if you want real negativity go on the Tottenham Hotspur forums and FB pages!

I always wanted to go to the Channel Islands, and living in Southampton it was close enough. I met a bloke from St Peter Port on my way to Australia in 1978, stayed friends with him for a while before losing touch. Id love to know what he's up to. I assume from what you say the house you own there would not cover the price of a new home on the Gold Coast? I suppose it depends upon which part of the Gold Coast you had in mind? I have been in Surfers Paradise for six months now (from Sydney), thinking of staying forever. I don't want to live in the "Hinterland" though. I've got a real estate guide next to my computer. 7A Haileah Crescent, Helensvale. No Body Corparate so I guess it is a villa/duplex/townhouse - 3 bedroom, $349,000. Oh, no Body Corporate but shared insurance. I've been to Helensvale a couple of times on the tram - good shopping centre but not sure what it's like to live there. I lived with my two brothers and parents for a year or so in a two bedroom townhouse in Narrabeen (Sydney) so I suppose it's "doable" to live in a smaller place. I've got a Ray White property guide for "The Event", a huge auction sale they had the other week, $38M I heard sold in total. There's an ad for house and land packages from $349,000 in Flinders View (The Plateau, 125 Boylands Way). I've no idea where that is. That's not the Gold Coast - nearer to Ipswich. Good price compared to Sydney 'burbs though. http://www.capgrowth.com.au/properties/the-plateau-estate-125-boyland-way-flinders-view-qld-4305/ I imagine you want to live near to the coast/beach to enjoy the Gold Coast lifestyle?

I have not really researched it - I Googled - but I assume it means that if you are a former student you cannot study and I doubt that would include in house training courses. https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2001B00319/Explanatory Statement/Text#:~:text=Condition 8207 precludes the visa,or to pursue merits review.

It was back in England before I came to OZ listening to the blokes I worked with, most of whom had not been to Australia anyway.

Six months on from first moving to Surfers Paradise, i still like it here, and prefer it to anywhere else, I do however have a soft spot for Main Beach, especially around the main shopping/restaurant area, Teddar Avenue. It has a feel of, say, Paddington, Mosman, Double Bay about it. I went for breakfast there yesterday to meet a friend at Le Jardin. I got the tram from Cavill Avenue, three stops and it's a five minute walk across the Godl Coast Highway. There are still tourists of course but not so much the partying kind. I like it a lot but I think I still prefer the sheer convenience of everything at Cavill Avenue.

I have not been following your posts so forgive me for asking, "Why did you move back?" I went back myself in 1996 for a "holiday" which lasted for twelve years. Nothing planned about it, no huge desire to return "home", just the way that things worked out. I lost my job after twelve years, my parents were still alive and living in the UK, so I went back to see them. I got a job, with Royal Mail, and stayed, settled back in after a few months. After my parents passed away I came back to Sydney because my two brothers were there.

Yes, I rather like Newcastle myself but it never occurred to me to move there. I don't know why? Come to think of it, when I was first planning to come to Australia I was thinking of going to Townsville, somewhere I've still never been to. Perhaps people are just drawn to the biggest and well-known cities, unless there is a particular industry which a place specialises in? It never occurred to me to live in Surfers Paradise and I'm only here because my brother moved here.

I guess it is true in a way with Parramatta, 20-25 km west of Sydney CBD being the real geographical centre of Sydney, but then how to do you reply to people who dream of "living the dream" - ie a home in the sun on the beach? Choose Perth instead of Sydney where the homes are mostly cheaper and you can buy a home on the coast probably nearer to Perth CBD than from the Western Suburbs of Sydney to Sydney CBD? I suppose the guideline should be if money is not object migrate to Sydney and buy a home on the beach but if money IS an object, move to Perth or try to get a job in a country coastal region?!

5 km?! I could barely do 50 meters! I did achieve my 10,000 steps today mind. I always used to say that Scarborough was my fave beach in Perth, mainly because it was my first Aussie beach, and the one I could get thale bus to from near Newcastle Street. But now Cottesloe has grown on me. Surfers Paradise looked wonderful in the moonlight tonight. It's hard to compare Sydney to Perth but what I liked about Surry Hills was the feeling that I was at the hub of a wheel with spokes leading out to Bondi, Bronte, Clovelly, Coogee, Maroubra plus the harbour beaches rather than living at the end of one spoke. Is, say, Northbridge or South Perth like being at the hub? I'm not a wine person but if I was I would appreciate the Swan Valley vineyards being, what 30-45 mins away instead of 3 hours to the Hunter Valley?

"Without care?" I'm sure that is what Sans Souci means. I shall have to Google it now. I'm glad I did because it mentioned Lady Robertson's Beach which I one I liked going to occasionally. Talking of beaches, having waxed lyrical about them, I got "stung" the other day, probably a blue bottle, did not hurt luckily but I've got a cluster of red blotches plus a tail of them on my leg.

I've' always lived close to the beach/coast but never actually lived ON the beach till I came to Surfers. Each time I look up from my keyboard I can see the surf. Tell a lie! I have just remembered that I lived in Narrabeen on Sydney's Northern Beaches in the 1980's. It was a wonderful location between the beach and the lake.I did not like the commute to Sydney though. In England, on the edge of the New Forest we had the best of both worlds too, with both the "Forest" and the two beaches - Lepe and Calshot 2 or 3 miles away, easy cycling distance. You can see the Isle of Wight too. I said to my brother the other day it's a pity there are not islands out there. Can you see Rottnest from your beach, Paul? I've got a feeling that I could see it from Cottesloe. That reminds me. There was something in the Daily Mail on line the other day about a special house at Trigg, with a pool hidden by the wall in front of the house. I guess if you live out in the burbs where it's a long way to the beach you have to make do with other activities, or have a pool. My brother had one and I'd rather use that every day than drive for a hour to the beach. I always admired the young guys I'd sometimes see with boogie boards trekking in from places like Campbelltown or Penrith to the beach. Even Cronulla with its station is still a long trip. Who would get bored with the beach? Even if you don't swim nothing beats just walking or sitting. looking at it.

List those ten common mistakes here and I'm sure you will provoke a lively debate, and get your test readers. The link did not work for me by the way. My only mistake was naively thinking that Aussies hated Pommies.

Well, when people talk about "living the dream" I assume they usually mean living in a sunny and warm climate with a house on or near the beach, so I guess you achieved that? I may have said that I never thought that I was "living the dream" until I got to Surfers Paradise, 42 years after I first came to OZ. I can't remember why I came now, or why I chose Queensland. I know Perth came into the frame because of the travel deal I found, flying to Singapore then ship to Freemantle. I have a vague feeling the fare was something over 300 quid and cheaper than a direct flight. t re "

I'm sentimental/nostalgic about Perth because it's where I first landed in Australia, on 3rd November, 1978. I loved it from the moment I arrived - wrote in my diary "I love it and I want to stay". I stayed for a month, mostly in a hostel in Newcastle Street (still there I think), then got the bus to Adelaide which I did not like. Nothing against Adelaide but I missed the guys I'd got to know in Perth. I nearly went back but changed my mind again and got another bus to Sydney, where I stayed for 18 years and my two brothers joined me in 1979. I went over to Perth in December, 2017 for seven weeks, loved it again, so went back in May 2018 for six weeks, but this time I wasn't so sure about a permanent move. There was nothing wrong with the place, just that all my family, friends and job were in Sydney. Now, I'm six months into life in Surfers Paradise and no desire to go back to Sydney or anywhere else but with a few "loose ends" to tie up - home in Sydney and in Southampton. I still have an offer from a friend to stay with here in South Perth but the border has been closed for most of the last year - opening again I see soon, as is QLD. BUT you have to be able to move at a moment's notice because both Anna and Mark LOVE closing their borders at a moment's notice!?

I was just Googling "Goondiwindi" and looking at a photo of the Victoria hotel. Population over 6,000? That's not a bad size. I looked up my local village in England, Marchwood, Hants, population 6,100 plus. How did you end up in Goondiwindi? When I went back to England for six months in 1983 I got a job with Townsend-Thoresen Car Ferries in Southampton and of the guys there came from Goondiwindi. I think he had married a local girl. When I stayed in the Cobb and Co hotel in St George, there was a Pommie guy working there who had married a local girl. I remember I envied him a little for putting down roots and becoming a member of the local community. At the time I wasn't long back from 12 years in England and I wasn't settled into Sydney. I shall tell my brother what you said about Thailand. He has spent long periods travelling in China (he can speak Mandarin) and also spent six months living in Malaysia. He's champing at the bit to go travelling again.

Ah, well that holds true for people who do need to travel constantly between the state capitals and smaller cities but if that is not an important part of your live, Perth is as good as anywhere else. It is one thing to say that "Perth is boring", and another to say that "Perth is boring because it's the most isolated city in the world." Then there is a third group who may say that "Perth is boring", but they really mean that "Australia is boring." I don't want to second guess Paul in Perth but I sense from his posts that if he had chosen Sydney instead of Perth his life might have followed the same kind of trajectory; Lived near a beach (if he could have afforded it), joined the local surf life saving club and built his social life around that, played golf, and generally done the same in Sydney as if he had done in Perth.

Despite over thirty years living in Sydney in two separate stints (twelve years back in England in between), I don't really know the Central Coast. Four years ago, my brother and I had a seven day holiday staying one night in Newcastle, two in Nelson Bay, two in Tea Gardens and two in Terrigal. Nelson Bay is a longish drive from Newcastle and Tea Gardens the same from the north south expressway and I don't think there is much in the way of public transport. I liked Terrigal a lot but it's half an hour by bus to Gosford for the train to Sydney or Newcastle so my suggestion would be to live in Gosford, preferably within walking distance of the station and town centre. Of course, I do have my hatreds and prejudices, specifically of driving in and around Sydney and long commutes whether by car or public transport. Gosford will have all the facilities you need, or may need. You could look at Newcastle too, NSW's second city, which also has everything you need. I suppose if you are worried about moving permanently to OZ then wanting to go back you could leave your home either empty or rented out then rent out here till you see how you feel. I leased my flat in Sydney out whilst I was in England, and then I did the same to my home in England when I came back to Sydney. That house in England is still rented out giving me an income. An estate agent in England manages it for me, collects the rent, arranges repairs, etc. The only problem is that I packed the loft with personal effects which I have to do something about. I know you want to keep a cash reserve, hence not buying in Sydney but personally, I would prefer to be closer to my family, especially if something goes wrong, but also it's just nice to be nearby. My other brother and his daughter live in the same suburb which makes it much easier for visiting each other and seeing his grandchild. But again, remember my dislike of long commutes!

As I said before, the tyranny of distance means that if you live in the Eastern States you have a 24 hour flight with at least one stop if you want ot go to Europe as opposed to one, 17 hour direct flight to LHR. But people don't talk about that kind of tyranny of distance do they?! It's only a tyranny of distance if you NEED to go to those places. I remember wondering if the distance from Surfers to Cairns was like Surfers to Sydney and someone on here told me that it's double or more to get to Cairns. Fair enough but although I'd like to go to Cairns I don't NEED to go there, It's the same with Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane even, just up the road, or Perth, a long, long way past just up the road!

Possibly nicer. I rather like Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest but there is no public transport to speak of. On the Central Coast, which I admit I have sometimes dissed as "Blacktown with a beach", there are some nice places - Terrigal for eg, and there is a train service to Sydney and Newcastle.

I was thinking, "I missed a post" but I see you only just submitted it. I never thought of researching the way that you did. I know I went up to London a couple of times, probably to the embassy as well as, probably Queensland House/ Western Australian House?? I was going to QLD but then changed to Perth because of the deal I mentioned before - fly to Singapore, overnight there, then a seven day voyage to Freemantle. Most of my research was borrowing books on Australia from the library and subscribing to "Australian Outlook?" (I think that is RIP now?) Come to think of it, I did have some brochures about WA, though whether they were aimed at tourists or migrants I cannot remember. Looking back now, I would have just stayed at the hostel in Newcastle Street not worried about a job and waited till after Xmas to see what happened. (I arrived on 3 November, 1978). I would not have done 36 hours on a bus to Adelaide either, or 26 to Sydney. What can you do? What is that other phrase I've heard recently? "It is what it is." I went to Sydney to see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach, before going home, and I stayed "forever". Eighteen years in Sydney, twelve in England, another twelve in Sydney, and now six months in Surfers Paradise. My brother is talking about Noosa but I think I shall just stay here.