Bobbsy

I am 64 years old and have lived in Australia on a PR visas for about ten years.

My sole income if from a company pension paid in the UK but transferred monthly to my Australian bank account.  The amounr varies with exchange rates but is currently around $50,000 per year.

I was told some time ago that over 60s on an private pension under $70,000 you do not have to pay tax.  However, lately, things I've read imply that this only apples to pensions paid in Australia and my UK pension might be taxable.  Anybody know the details of this?

FYI, transferring the pension fund to Australia is not an option--as I say, it's a company pension and the total sum is shared by all elliible employees on a "final salary" basis.

Bob

Absolutely. The best way is to simmer it in water until you hit the texture you want--you'll go through "tender but sliceable" to "falling apart like silverside" as time moves on.

I tend to get it to the "tender but sliceable" stage then take it out, trim the skin (if it has some) and glaze with mustard powder, honey and brown sugar and bake for half an hour or so, basting in the glaze every 10 minutes. Cutting a crosshatch into the ham and poking in cloves is optional. This tends to end up just short of falling apart.

Frankly I've never been able to tell the difference between gammon and ham.

The technical difference in definition is that gammon is the leg of pork cured as part of the whole side of pork then cut off while ham is the leg cut off then cured. Even in the UK I'd buy them interchangeably.

Try any of the hams available at all supermarkets or butchers--find one that appeals to you (smoked or not smoked etc.) and give it a try. I wouldn't spend huge amounts of money to get gammon when the differences are negligible.

When shopping for things like furniture and appliances, always haggle. It's expected and you'll usually save yourself between 10% and 30%.

I wish you could send your geckos here--we love watching them and never get enough!

I've never heard of it being tried on lizards but many animals won't cross a line of salt so that might be worth a try. Failing that, there are other animals repelled by a trail of ground pepper--if either of those work, I'd hope it would just keep them out without hurting the geckos (maybe somebody knows for sure?).

Or maybe just post lots of pictures of Michael Douglas in his Wall Street role saying "Greed is good". That might send them off to invest on the stock market!

I agree about Barra...but my new favourite fish is John Dory (often just called Dory). Our local fish shop sells us nice fresh fillets...3 of them cost between $5 and $7 depending on the size and weight...we treat ourselves to them quite often.

Flathead is another really nice one too.

Every supermarket sells barbeque brushes which are basically a handle with a wire brush on one side and a scraper on the other. Spray a bit of liquid on when hot and scrape away...clean in seconds.

I bought a brush about 4 years ago and it's still going...though I may treat myself to a new one this summer.

Fantastic furniture is at the very cheap end of the market and has a quality to match. If you need to fill a house fast and don't care if it lasts, it't the place.

We've found that moving one rung up the ladder to Super A Mart got us prices that weren't too bad--but at a quality that will last a good long time. Don't forget to haggle...we've never paid the full asking price.

Well....

I have rheumatoid arthritis and, for me, it's not just the temperature but the humidity too. The coast in Queensland is nice and warm but it's also humid so we chose to go inland a hundred kilometers or so. Where we are (a place called Toowoomba) is a couple of degrees cooler than the coast but much more dry and it seems to suit me. There are only a couple of months of "cool" weather each year and that coincides with the driest season anyway, so it works for me.

However, I guess everyone is different.

Bob

Well, you said "from anywhere" so....

We visited New York City last year and got lucky with the timing of our trip past the Statue of Liberty on the Staten Island Ferry:

Bob

My wife had a Commonwealth Government job for many years on her PR visa (even with a higher than normal security clearance).

This was back in the 80s and 90s so the rules may have changed, but don't give up hope just yet.

Bob

Accurate advice so far.

My wife arrived in Australia as a child in the mid 1960s, accompanying her mother. The mother never took out citizenship and, because of that, my wife still has PR (she's in the process of getting citizenship now)

One thing that might help: when a question arose about this, the immigration people were able to check the exact date of entry and status even though my wife could only provide the name of the ship and a rough year of arrival--even though her recollection was wrong by a year or two, they were able to trace her history almost instantly.

And, yes, because of the date of her arrival, my wife votes--indeed, she'd be fined if she didn't.

Bob