Elliott-Family

i didnt have to but having learnt how to make decent coffee i wanted a decent machine lol, no didnt get a job out of it, im now doing working a home care assistant in the community and currently doing a personal care assistant course so a little different claire

Hiya I did the course at Chisholm in Rosebud, think it was around $90 but well worth it, oh except i then HAD to go and buy a new coffee machine lol Great course and learnt loads Claire x

Whooopeeee - i just checked mine online and get in on Tuesday :laugh: Claire x

great for shopping :wink:

Our son was part of the parade at Mornington, very proud day for us and a beautiful moving service Claire x

:grumpy1 i feel your pain, i was gutted when i left our two with golden arrow, however they were fantastic and both my dogs arrived in melbourne safe and well, we visited twice a week for four weeks, hour and half there, hour and half visit and hour and half home, hard work but worth it. Bringing them home was the best day ever. Yours will be fine Good luck with it all Claire x

hiya We crated both of ours as puppies and they really loved it, just use it as a safe place where they can relax, we used to put them in to start with for a few mins at a time, it had bedding and some toys and we always used to leave a little treat in it, we also used it to get them used to being left alone, once they happy in it start popping out of the room, first for a few mins and them longer. We also had a very strict rule that puppies crates were their santuary and if in it they were not to be fussed or stroked it was their place for time out. I also believe you should never ever put them in it for punishment, if our were ever naughty they used to get time out in another room but never in the crate. Our first dog always slept in it until a year old even with the door open and we used to store old towels etc on the top, when we got our next puppy she waltzed into the house and into the bed in the crate, our first one too umbrage to this and started sleeping on the top so in effect they had bunk beds lol Claire x

As above, admit you did wrong and apologise and you should be fine (or not LOL) me and DH both got let off our first one Claire x

I would say go for it, We both worked full time in UK and had very little left over at the end of the month and rarely went out. I now only work a day a week and we spend sooo much more time with out 13 year old, Life for him is fab and he has flourished here. We have recently bought a boat and love spending days on the water as a family and with his mates having a laugh. My husband is on a nurses wage and we are much better off, we are only renting at present, we lost all our equity in our house before we moved so only came with a tiny budget but dont regret moving for a second Good Luck Claire x

We've been here just over a year now and we live in Vic, what else can I say other than we absolutely love it!!!! :biggrin: Best thing we've done. When I change the cost of things back in pounds some things are expensive but why do that?? I earn in dollars and buy in dollars so now we dont bother exchanging back. I have put updates on this site of 6months and a year so if you can have a flick thro. It's normal to wobble but if you don't come you'll never know if it's for you. My 13yr old son loves it too which is a bonus. We all miss friends and family but not the UK as such. I think there's more opportunity here and certainly we have a better standard of living. I'm a psychiatric nurse and we have much better financially here than in UK on just my wage. In UK both me and my wife were working f/t and we still struggled. If you need any more info just ask good luck Ian

sorry to hear you're finding it tough going. A few wks ago I was working in ED and although I've been here 1 yr now one of the nurses who didn't know my name called after me and yelled out "English". I did pass comment that that could be racist but it didn't really bother me and actually I am now usually referred to "English" as a nickname. It doesnt particularly bother me being called Pom either as its usually in a joking context. I try not to take things too seriously now and will happily take the p*%$ out of my colleagues being aussie and their heritage!!

You can buy the bombs from Bunnings and they only cost about $20 i think. Not too sure how much it cost to get house professionally sprayed. I bought some stuff also from Bunnings that protects for 6months so have sprayed that and it cost about $30 i think maybe less so not bothered with a professional spray regards

thats OK, I've just very quickly come on line. About to take my rellies to city to go on the tramcar restaurant. They're here for 1more week :cry: then they fly back to UK. The 5wks will have gone by so quick. I hope you're enjoyin your time?

Hi, Frankston is ok........I guess its the same as any city or larger town in the UK in that there are pockets of higher unemployment and social problems. Frankston has a slightly larger pocket of social housing compared to other places on the mornington peninsula and so this brings with it social problems, alcohol probs, drug use etc but no more than similar areas in my hometown in UK. The council (shire) are working to address this and there is a plan to build a big marina which will have knock on positive benefits. Saying this, there is the other side of frankston which is exclusive and rather desirable. Working in mental health i tend to see the 1 side of franga, so its not doom and gloom. As with any city you just need to do your research and choose the area you move too. Frankston has good rail/ transport links to the city, a nice beach and lots going on. regards

you could also check on realestate.com. You don't tend to get too many short term rentals in Mornington for that duration. We're in Mount Martha so just along from Mornington. As a nurse where are you planning to work?

The psych nurses dont wear uniforms in Peninsula although there is a dress code but the usual type of stuff, smart casual, no jeans etc Ian

I can only compare peninsula with the NHS as i've not worked anywhere else in OZ. To be honest its ok, it isn't the NHS by any means and I find it behind psychiatry in the UK. It's a very medical model which at times i struggle with :wacko:. All the nurses in oz that trained here are general nurses who have eventually moved into psychiatry with minimal extra training. I trained in the late 80's where there was a complete move away from the medical model so i do not have the knowledge of a general nurse or ability to interpret blood results etc but there's always ways round that. There seems to be plenty of opportunity to move around roles in Peninsula but they do really push meeting targets etc which is all political and money orientated but I'm just not interested in the politics :no: The big thing that drives me mad is that they all use trade names for drugs and a lot of abbreviations which i think is quite risky. If you do come here dont expect to come to a NHS organisation, take it for what it is. Give yourself plenty of time to settle in and re-adjust to a different way of working and you'll be fine :yes: I do find i get paid better here than UK and i was a grade 6 in UK :jiggy: We live in mount martha and love it :biggrin: Franston is well......"unique" to say the least but improving i think. If you do head towards peninsula give me a shout and i'll be happy to help where i can or give you some advice.....not that i'm the expert but I am happy to help if i can!! Ian

we could of waited until 2014 to recover some money on our uk house instead of coming out here with peanuts but instead WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIFE IN OZ :jiggy:

Hi, yes we got our PR175 visa before we came out :biggrin:. From the off we didnt want to come on a sponsored visa as I didnt want to feel trapped especially if we didnt like where we ended up. At the min I work in a CLIPS team, so based in ED primarily assessing those that have self harmed or presented with mental health concerns. Saying that I have a interview tomorrow- 10th for a CATT job :jiggy: which is more family friendly hours as a pm shift finishes at 9pm. I absolutely hate nights :mad: and where I am I would have to work nights, there's also a lot of internal politics with working in ED and as a RMN working here compared to UK i feel rather second class which drives me mad :mad:!! You're right that is does take time to adjust to working here and i agree to the culture shock especially as pts are shackled in ED and sectioned unless they agree to having an assessment which i feel is rather close to abuse of the act :arghh:. But for me work provided a means to an end and nothing more. Torquay is stunning, we were very close to moving to Ocean grove as I didnt think we could afford to live in torquay and i was offered a job in Geelong with barwon health. But after coming over to the Peninsula within a couple of days we decided this is where we wanted to be and so far its working out really well :biggrin: I hope you feel more settled in torquay I'm sure you will. :biggrin:

my folks are currently here in Oz visiting us. We are in Vic, as i type my rellies are in sydney and about to do a guided blue mountain tour so I'll let you know what they say when i hear from them. Ian

I think that you are right.............. it is all about your attitude. When we arrived we knew things would be very different to the UK, we were under no illusion of coming to the UK 'with sun' and that's part of the reason we came. We have made friends with other ex pats but not exclusively! We've made so really good ozzie friends :biggrin: and found them to be very warm, friendly and easy to get on with. Like with anyone else you have to put a little effort in when making friends. It's easy with ex pats cos you already have a common bond but we've come to oz. And yes we've done far more different things to our old UK life and really tried to make the most of being here. I dont think any of us have come here half hearted, we've all tried to make a real effort and our 13yr son is probably more ozzie than Paul Hogan, he seems to be thriving here and that makes the difficult times worth while. :jiggy: Ian

Hi, I'm surprised :shocked: that you couldn't find work here cos Peninsula Health are always advertising for nurses in Frankston and still are! In fact the team I work with are waiting on another nurse to arrive from the UK as we speak. I was lucky enough to be offered a job before we arrived in Oz but Peninsula Health gave me a deadline as to when they would hold the job open until. As it turned out that did fit in with our timeframe, just. I was doing the usual trawling of internet sites mainly on seek.com looking for any job on the Peninsula as we had identified this as the place we wanted to live. I had a phone interview whilst I was in the UK and offered a job shortly after. So, are you in Oz now, if so where did you end up?? Do you have work, if so doing what?? regards Ian

we had to rehome ours as we were told we could not bring it into Australia as it was untreated wood :-( claire

To be honest we've not had too many. A couple of huntsmen and whitetails but nothing else. I'm really not good with the huntsmen because they are so big but i'm ok at relocating the smaller spiders and I really dont like spiders!!!!! :nah: We did bomb the house just after we moved in and will probably do it again before my folks arrive, but fingers crossed we've not been too bad

Hi Pam, you sound a little like my mum in that she is really worried that they'll get on our nerves after a few days which just isnt true :no:. We've not seen them for a yr so gonna make up that time and enjoy our days together whether we plan anything or not. I think my folks are heading off to sydney for a few days and they were thinking about goin on the Ghan rail trip but I think that's maybe too expensive and I've heard some bad reports. Other than that we've not got too much booked. We've planned trips into the city, the 12 apostles. They'll get a few days tour of the Peninsula where we live with various afternoon/ evening bbq's/ picnics. Some days out on the boat, that sort of thing. We're gonna lend them our car so they can go explore too. I still have to work but have taken some time off but I'm sure your daughter will be similar to us in that they just want to see you and spend time with you like we do with our rellies. So dont worry and enjoy what australia has to offer :biggrin: