jennlx

Well done and best of luck!! As you have been in UK one year longer than me (Aussie too), am interested to hear your thoughts on your return (if you have time!). All the best x

I have friends who did not return to work after maternity leave (in the UK) and had to pay back the enhanced maternity pay. I was in the same conundrum, OP, and decided to have baby here in UK. I did ask in writing from my company that I would not have to pay back ANY money if I decided not to return to work after maternity leave. In respect of UK being ahead of the game, my friend in the UK was working a 4 day week for a very successful and large insurance company - after second child (and sickly baby at that), asked to go down to 3 days and was refused outright. She ended up leaving. Public sector UK can be very flexible, but I also have a friend who is a nurse and asked for fixed rota so she could arrange childcare; this too was turned down and she ended up leaving. Guess it depends.

I can sympathise as we did the same thing: went over for a reccie for two weeks and the first week thought "ugh. too provincial.". The second week we were thinking "hmmm...actually this is nice...". We wrote it off as being too expensive, but now, a couple of months down the track, it's all come up again but that is more due to circumstances here: we're struggling to get a rental (estate agent last week: "yes, it has gone bananas - we're putting stupidly high prices on rentals and still getting enquiries!"), have no significant family in UK, childcare is 40% of our salary and live in a bit of a ropey area. I know this can all occur in Australia, but we'd gain family (babysitters!) and a better area to live in. Beach. Bush. And sun. I miss the sun. Especially this bloody year! But I do love this country (I'm from Oz). If we had it good or great, I think I would be happy to stay.

Oh, don't worry we have. FIL thought I was being a meddling, selfish cow and didn't speak to us for a year. Put our foot down and was removed from the Will altogether. Thanks for your advice.

Slightly again off topic but it is amazing what went on in Spain. My father-in-law isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and went out to Alicante on holiday. Decided he liked it so much he bought a villa. The man is over 60, has not assets (no house or car even! he lives in emergency accommodation! and not legitimately, he bribes the managers to stay there) and has about £15k in savings. Spanish bank gave him a 25 year mortgage!!! He keeps going on and on about it - how he was taken for a ride, and my husband sympathises while I secretly mutter "mug" in my head. Of course, this isn't always the case and I pity those who were truly stung by the whole planning permission and all, but sheesh! How many more were there like this out there? I shudder to imagine...then again, there's not too many men in the world like my father-in-law... Sorry, back on topic...

Is it? I lived in Melbourne for 21 years and never, ever looked in my clothes, shoes, table etc. and am alive today If I was lifting planks of wood in the backyard, I might see one and think "oh, red back, must avoid...". No biggie. I think Australia loves going on about having THE MOST DEADLY, DANGEROUS CRITTERS IN THE WORLD just to put another string in their bow...

Shippers told me that anything mass produced (such as toys) is fine - it's more wooden artifacts and one-offs where the wood would not be treated - rattan, wicker etc. So, if you've bought from a shop, all OK.

Ok, I'm a nosy parker....so why did you go/want to go to Australia? And if you are there already, do you you gained what you came for?

Say if you use $65k as 'Average Joe' wage (think it's more $70k though), 1.5x wage would provide monthly gross $8,125. Net about $6,420 (from http://www.paycalculator.com.au/). So, about 27% of salary on housing. Note: I am not in Australia at the moment! In London, we pay 29% of salary on housing, so not much difference for us.

Eddy, thanks for your reply, it is very much appreciated. Like a complete nong, I didn't realise that you don't convert your wage into AUD first. God, no wonder my Aussie family were looking at us like we were completely nuts when we were discussing how we couldn't possibly afford Australia...embarrassed! I'm bloody Australian and all! (cut me a tiny bit of slack, left when I was 21) Your comments about life in general really helpful - I really, really, REALLY love London. I wish I didn't. But I hear you about housing - we have 2 young kids and are looking at rentals at the moment...we're looking at about £1k for a 2 bed flat. And rubbish ones at that! The one we saw last week had electrics hanging out of the walls and plaster board falling off the roof! (estate agent: "oh, just a bit of plasterboard, it's not structural or anything..."). Then they wanted £400 'admin' fee (i.e. standing in front of the printer). Oh, I can feel a rant coming on, better sign off.... Thanks again for your post, really useful

Sorry, no advice but sympathy....partner visas are HARD. I got mine rejected and we ended up having to get married. I would have married him anyway, but it was severely frustrating to have to rush a quick wedding to satisfy immigration. Good luck!

Ha ha....no was only three times, don't worry!! I'm sure in times such as these, you will have no trouble selling tickets. I'd also leave an advert in your local supermarket - I'm on maternity leave at the moment, and am amazed at the crowd the local noticeboard attracts. Good luck!

Hmmm, yes. My husband had an Australian colleague and we played this game: Shock, horror! Two people from Melbourne! How quickly can we find a connection? It literally lasted about 30 seconds: I went to high school with his sister.

I'm such a saddo, when I went for a holiday in 2005, I brought back to the UK packets and packets of Thai flavoured cup-a-soup...I have to make do with Ainsley Harriott ones now. Oh god, we're having one of those conversations...

Yes, exactly!

Catholic schools do the sacraments - I know my family's local primary school allows state school attendees to join (as they are members of the parish, not the school) but not sure if this is an abnomaly. I have all sacraments and attended Catholic schools (in Australia) and my husband is Irish Catholic. Here in our local area in the UK, Catholicism is very domineering, old school, strict and 'sinners and hellfire'. We had my baby daughter baptised in a church in Australia while on a holiday in May and it was great! The priest was lovely, especially about my two year old son who went tearing around the the church during the ceremony and he admonished me for even trying to apologise ("just doing what children do..."). I was always uncomfortable about the whole "original sin" thing, but the priest sort of disputed that and talked about baptism in a very modern way. Sorry, crux of it is: I would send my children to a Catholic school in Australia, but not here in the UK.

The 'hit counter' seems to be just hits to the site itself, not sales of tickets (I just experimented with the reload button...unless they're selling like hotcakes at this very second). So how many tickets have been purchased? Agree, great idea!

As an Australian, when I first came over here (to the UK), all my friends (fellow WHVs) were all Australians. They all packed up and went home and now 11 years on, I have no Aussie friends in the UK (sob!). I wouldn't know what to talk about! 'Sooooo......been ripped off in the Australia Shop in Covent Garden, paying 6 x the price of things, with two days expiry dates on them?' 'Yup' 'Yeah....me too'

OK, devastatingly embarrassing - how do you work out the calculation then for the 2.2? Holy cow, have we been using (and were ultimately put off the entire country) based on my very poor mathematics skills? Oh, the shame.... Also, did you regret not just leaving London and trying somewhere else in the UK? Just curious!

I'm genuinely curious now about he drugs thing.... http://www.nationaldrugstrategy.gov.au/internet/drugstrategy/publishing.nsf/Content/FD973BE3A786C9B0CA257682000E70DC/$File/eval12.pdf World Drug Report indicates that Australia has the highest prevalence of use of ‘ecstasy’ of any nation, far higher than most other nations. Our rate is also high in the case of amphetamines: El Salvador (3.0%) is the only nation reporting a higher prevalence of use. While the Australian figure for cannabis exceeds that of many other nations, the prevalence of use is less than some other English-speaking western nations including NZ, the USA and Canada. The reported prevalence of cocaine use is far lower than that in the USA and also lower than that reported for Canada and England and Wales. Similarly, Australia’s reported prevalence rate for opioids is lower than that of the UK and the USA.

Hmmm....yes. Growing up in Melbourne, there was a LOT of drug use among young people - and I grew up in affluent Bayside, so it's not as if I was associating with a certain social background. I don't know - is it a boredom thing? I think about it quite a lot though, especially now as we have kids. When we went back to Melbourne for a holiday recently, there were three adults (early 40s?) on a train with a girl of about 8. They were quite clearly off their heads on something, giggling to themselves and slurring...the poor little girl was in rags and was dirty. Horrible - I wanted to kidnap her. Anyway, I would be more worried about drugs in Australia than the UK, personally.

Is the 2.2 to 2.5 multiplier accurate? I work in insurance in UK, on £35k. So, AUD53k. Apply 2.2 = AUD116k. I've been quoted insurance salaries of AUD65k+/ish by recruitment consultants for jobs in Oz. Not good.

Yes, I think it can be tricky. For example, a lot of people say the rental costs are high in Australia but we are paying £1,100 rent a month here in London/Surrey for a 2 bed flat. You'd be hard pressed to rent a 2 bed house in the area for under £1k at the moment. Yet rentals in Melbourne seems to get you a lot more - more space, more storage, outdoor space....guess it's all relative.

Looks lovely! Would buy it if I could get a job in the area! Good luck.

I haven't looked on these forums for a bit, but my lord, it has got a bit....nasty. Even the more innocent of threads have disagreements, over nothing - arguments for arguments sake. What does Australia do to people to turn them like this? I realise that there will be a few peeps who are embittered by their experience of emigrating to a country that didn't agree with them, but there is definitely an increase of posts that are a bit more...dark than usual. Please, people, lighten up a bit....