Fashionably Late

My kids and I are eligible to apply for citizenship on 30/06/15. But we have to move in mid August to Dubai for work and for the kids to start the new school year there. Could I apply for Australian citizenship from the Australian embassy in Abu Dhabi as soon as we arrive there as I would have just left Australia or would it be possible to apply for Australian citizenship on 30/06 from Brisbane and hopefully be invited for the interview and test before mid-August and then fly back for the ceremony? Obviously it would be less hassle and less expensive to be able to apply from the UAE.

The market is horrible. My husband, with over 20 years in this field, has had to take contract work back in the UK as there is nothing here. Other friends here in Brisbane in the same field have had to take much lower paid work in Perth or Melbourne as the jobs dried up here unfortunately.

A friend was recently told that they were told that unless they lived in cachement, their kids weren't getting in. The school was apparently over-subscribed.

I haven't heard of state schools charging such extortionate fees. Shocking. We have many friends who live in Jindalee and they choose to send their children to a Catholic school in Indooroopilly. We have had numerous French and Italian families coming in and the children speak no English and are completely fluent within a year and the fees are less than 1/2 of what you were quoted.

Both my husband and I went to boarding school and both had very good experiences. We seriously considered sending our daughters and if it didn't cost twice as much as being a day student, then we would definitely do it.

I have been taking 50mg thyroxine for about 6 months now. It has helped quite a bit and I started feeling a bit better within 2 weeks.

We pay $314 a month for a top notch policy and we are a family of 5. We are on quite a few meds and rarely spend over $100 a month on meds. The top price is around $36 for a PBS prescription and only one of ours actually costs that.

It is a registered disability in Queensland but I think that may be a recent change. The regulatory body wouldn't accept our dyslexia diagnosis from the UK so we had to undergo it again at a high expense. My children attend Catholic schools in the Western suburbs and they have been brilliant with all learning disabilities. My eldest, who is 15, has dyslexia as well as other learning disabilities and she is doing incredibly well here and receives excellent assistance.

We moved here on a Friday and booked temp rental for 6 weeks. Found the perfect house on the following Tuesday. Then ended up paying for both houses for the 6 weeks.

Each of my twins get two Epi-Pens each and we only pay $36 for each child.

We rehomed our dog with my parents. He was a lap dog and needed constant attention and quarantine would not have been good for him. He settled in with my parents quite quickly and loves his life with them. We miss him desperately but he doesn't give us a thought and that is how it should be.

Could I see a photo of the Karen Millen one?

The traffic would be pretty bad from Fig Tree Pocket to Morningside. You would be stuck in the car for ages to get the 22-23 km between places. My co-worker lives in the Belmont/Tingalpa area and his wife commutes to Morningside and he says it is lovely in that area.

Lots of the jobs aren't in the CBD so you could end up just about anywhere. There are lots of fantastic suburbs around Brisbane. I live in the western suburbs and there is lots to do around here but it is the same across Brisbane. I would focus on finding the job first and then finding a suburb around it.

We have the big Weber Q and we love it!

Private doctors claim from Medicare as well. At least all of my private doctors do. And they can set their own fees up to the limit as you said. But Medicare still gives me a massive kickback now that I have met my safety net. I saw a private endocrinologist in early January and the fee was $400. I got back around $200'ish from Medicare for a private doctor. All my doctors, even my plastic surgeon who is private, has medicare rebates with gap payments and I don't see public doctors.

My neighbour is a GP and he said all GP's in Australia (except those solely employed by public hospitals) are private. It is up to them whether they bulk bill or charge a gap. For example his practice bulk bills the elderly as well as children but has a gap for adults. All doctors have to be approved by the government but their fees are totally up to them to set.

I have not had to pay for an Xray in Australia (including those not done in a hospital). Some of my daughter's MRI's have had medicare rebates and others have not. I can't seem to figure out the rules with MRI's. Had to pay out of pocket for a CT scan at one place for $1,000 and only got $300'ish back from Medicare but at another place the CT scan was bulk billed. The system is very confusing but the level of medical care we have received here has been better than the places we lived in the US and UK. One of my twins was mis-diagnosed horribly by some of the top hospitals and doctors in the UK and uncovered here quite quickly. We met the Medicare safety net shortly after my eldest daughter's accident so I have loved being able to see doctors privately for very little out of pocket cost.

I order ours through http://www.gobuyeurope.biz/mm5/merchant.mvc Had brilliant success with them.

My daughter uses Amaysim (as did we when we first arrived) and it has been fantastic. They use the Optus network. My husband and I are both on Optus contracts now. Never had any issues with coverage.

My eldest is nearly 15 and she gets $10 an hour and people always leave snacks for her. When our eldest isn't available for us, then we have a brilliant babysitter who is 21 and charges $15 an hour and we always leave food and drink for her.

My husband came over for 2 months before we arrived. It worked out so well for us. He could do the ground work whilst I finished up closing up the house in the UK.

My daughter was born in January 1998. We moved over when she was 13 1/2 and had just finished Year 8 (July 2011) in the UK. She was put into Year 8 here for for terms 3 & 4 and started Year 9 in January. On a side note, my daughter has told me numerous times she was glad she had a chance to attend school here and make friends before the long summer holiday and cement a friendship group prior to Year 9.

We started off with Westpac and they were beyond hopeless for us. Then we went to Bankwest and the hours of the branches were great but screwed up on some pretty important matters for us. Now we are with Commonwealth and they have been a fantastic bank and extremely personable.

We are a family of 5 and we pay $285 a month with HCF and they have been brilliant.