abz123

I knew things were bad earlier in the week but hadn't realised that the storms were still going. Hopefully blue skies are ahead and the mopping up can begin.

Taste is personal but that theatre room is horrendous and I'm not a big fan of pillars and arches either but at least it's neutral decor.

Good advice, thanks. The other one most people are guilty of (myself included) is failing to have made a binding death nomination on their Super fund. Even though you want your OH to receive the fund if anything happens to you, if you don't specify this upfront then you can have the same situation as Metoo's father in law where it gets frozen for months (or longer). If this is the money that would pay the mortgage you can imagine the distress it could cause if the roof over your family's head was to be at risk.

By the way, I'm not an IT person by trade so if any of our forum experts want to jump in and tell me I'm wrong, feel free. I'd rather HH got sound advice.

AVG and Avast! are two good free antivirus programmes then there are programmes like Spyware Blaster for other kinds of nasties. There's a free program for just about anything. Just ask on here and someone will give you some tips. Just watch where you download them from though as sometimes the "express" installation puts stuff on your computer than you didn't want (toolbars and the like) as well as what you did want. If your tablet prints okay then you should have no problems with a laptop.

Wireless printing will depend on whether your printer supports it or not. If it doesn't it should be able to be connected to your broadband router and works the same as just having the printer plugged in somewhere else in the house.

Something like this is probably the lower end of your range in terms of price & performance http://www.dicksmith.com.au/laptops-notebooks/acer-aspire-15-6-e1-570-i3-notebook-dsau-xc9244 This one is at the top end: http://www.dicksmith.com.au/laptops-notebooks/asus-s550cb-cj065h-15-6-w8-ultrabook-dsau-xc7869 $1,000 is a good budget to play with and may not be totally necessary to spend that much. Do you have any tech savvy friends that you can bribe into coming looking with you as that me be the best option so that you don't get "conned" into buying more than you need to have? In terms of software, if you are planning on doing your essays in Word, this does not normally come preinstalled on a lap top. They now sell the Office suite on a 12 month subscription basis but it would be worth trying to find a copy of Office 2010 if you can as it will be a one off cost and will meet (exceed) your requirements.

Let's try and help you HH if you can give some more information. How big do you want your screen to be. You can typically go 11", 13", 15" or 17". Smaller screen will be tiring on the eyes and bigger will be heavier. Middle two will be the most popular and most common. Are you going to carry it around with you and if so, how long do you think you will need to use it on battery power before recharging? Do you want to buy software or use what's called freeware programmes to do your work? How long do you paln on keeping it - these things go out of date quickly but for the sort of use you are describing this is not a major concern for you. Would you want to use anything like an external monitor, mouse or keyboard? What budget are you looking at i.e. what's the maximun you are willing to pay. Think we can all chip in with some suggestions if you can answer the above questions.

Thanks, Bottler. I was more hoping to take a copy of the UK one to a solicitor and have them "Australianise" it for me.

Our first one was Sony Vaio - good machine but expensive, second was a Dell and it runs "hot as" too so is always on a table or bean bag tray and we bought a Macbook Air last year which is very light. Was never an Apple fan boy but moving down that route now as it's easy to work between the iPhone, iPad and Macbook - Steve Jobs was one clever man - plus I didn't want to learn Windows 8 for some (lazy) reason...

OH is nagging me because we still haven't had a will written since we moved over almost 4 years ago. We still have a UK one but given that all our assets and our daughter are in Australia we (I !!) really need to get on top of this should anything unfortunate happen to either of us. Have you had one done, roughly how much did it cost and would you recommend any solicitors NOR in Perth to use? Just looking for the simple "either or survivor" type of thing with provisions written in for our daughter should we be in the unfortunate position that she is orphaned. Not really a nice thought but I'd like to have the bases covered rather than leave these things to chance for another four years.

Jeez, that's always such a difficult question. Depends on a lot of other things too like how often do you need to lug it about, how long does the battery last, are you going to have it plugged in most of the time etc. etc. The latest Macbook Airs have battery life of around 10 hours which is pretty good but then you pay the "privilege" for having Apple. Depending on what you are studying then there is an educational programme with Apple where you can get one cheaper. Try a Google search for best laptops and takew a look on the Whirlpool forum as there are always peoplew asking similar questions. In fact if you can drag yourself away from PIO it's quite a good one to join and ask the question yourself.

Oooh, is that comment not worthy of an infraction coming from a Mod?

Form 929 is the one to transfer between passports http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/929.pdf In my mind it would be easier to wait but it's a discussion you can have with your employer. Saw your other post so congratulations.

If it runs out in September I would replace it now and they will add the remaining months on to the new one. As it's outside school holiday time it should be relatively quick or you can make an appointment for same day processing if you are near one of the passport offices. Alternatively you can wait and have the visa transferred later but it will be cheaper to do it while you are still in the UK

Remember poor old Michael Fish: In a broadcast on October 15 1987, Mr Fish told viewers: "Earlier on today, a woman rang the BBC and said she'd heard that there was a hurricane on the way. Well if you're watching, don't worry - there isn't." The worst storm to hit south-east England since 1703 followed the forecast.

Well at least it's a bashing from the weather. Makes a change from getting it on here! Seriously though, hope everyone is safe but I did see earlier there had been one fatality.

One of my colleagues did the move in the other direction but is still planning to return to "God's own country" as he calls QLD. Lots of QLDers on here who I'm sure will keep you right with different areas to consider. All the best for the move.

Another lot of redundancies happening. http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/at-least-1300-forge-employees-sacked/story-e6frfkur-1226826020467 Forge have had their troubles recently but this will still come as a major shock with a lot of 457 visa holders caught up in hte middle of it based on the story.

Oh my. Deja vu! It's just going to be a repeat of yesterday's thread where this numpty (and their side kick Quinkla) decided to have a go at migration agents for some reason. Don't know why people have to be trolls and disrespect an OP's thread.

My thoughts are with her family and friends. A sad reminder to live for today as unfortunately none of us know how long we are here for.

Academic writing is all about presenting the "for" and "against" sides of an argument then making a conclusion. Mine was on whether to go straight to uni or take a gap year first. Just scribble down thoughts as they come to you then pull them together into an argument. The other bit was interpreting a report of the global production of bananas. It's easy to say it's common sense but just try and stay cool but be mindful of allocating your time.

Hi Scott and welcome to PIO. You will get some really useful advice on here but just be ready for the barrage of "it's not a dream" posts too! Filter what you want from the responses and accept that not everyone will be as excited as you are. Best of luck and one of the members who is more up on the current processes will be along shortly.

Some (overnight) rain would be nice though. That shower on Monday morning was a pleasant surprise.

Sorry, no, but reposting in the hope that someone on here can provide some assistance now the thread is back on track.