k8bug79

A friendly word of warning before you do that: the predictions are for the dollar to weaken significantly before the end of the year, it took a hammering yesterday but more decline is forecast for later in the year. I would only move all your money if you plan on using it straightaway (i.e buying a house in the first 6 months). If you are able to wait a bit longer you will get a lot more for your money later n the year.

 

We moved over April last year (from Cornwall too), and moved our house equity/ savings in two installments between 1.56/ 1.58 with the intention we may need it to buy a house fairly soon. We are 50/50 about staying, love it here but many personal reasons to return home, but are going to stay here another year just to make sure. With this in mind coupled with the dollar slide/ economic data news, we were keen to move our savings back to UK as a backup (we can always buy dollars back later in the year at a cheaper rate), just as was going to arrange this there was a sharp dollar decline this last 48 hrs- we just lost £3000 in under two days (ouch!!), with possibly more to come.

 

Weighing up the options at the moment- If you are sure you are staying in Oz for good, then it won't affect you, if you may need your savings in the next couple of years to convert back to GBP then be hesitant. The AUD is a commodity based currency, and traders have known it to be overvalued recently due to the hyping of the resources boom etc. However this is beginning to slow down now, together with China's growth, and US and GBP currencies showing signs of strength, the AUD will return to it's more realistic value.

 

Good luck with your move, everybody needs a good chunk of cash here to start to help you set up home anyway, thats unavoidable, it's just that if you have any cash you don't plan on touching for at least 6 months then I would just keep watching the rates for a better deal.

Sadly I fear you are right but sadly for us we are one of those people emmigrating on a shoestring so all money is needed just to survive! No house buying for us just yet. I am taking solace from the fact taht we got what we wnated and no doubt by the end of the year we'll be saying "if only" but as Kirk says we are moving for a new life not for a few extra dollars (although they'd sure be nice) I hope whatever way you decid eto go you do what's best for you all. I love Cornwall although there is not much left for me here anymore. Still have family but all my firends have moved away and I have hit the glass ceiling of my career. So one way or another I would have to move away.

Where in Oz are you planning to go to?

We're going to Sydney, probably the Shire but not 100% set just yet

It's good that they can cater for both, who are you flying with? BA said they could only do one and we would have to chose either dairy or gluten free, which wasn't much use but I can understand it. A lot of restaurants can't cater for her so I wouldn't expect an airline to. I would get a note anyway and then at least your goodies can be extra on your hand luggage. Good luck!

I'm not trusting them lol. We're flying with Singapore airlines. My friend has the same issues with her son and she said they just take loads of food and eat what they can but it muct be so tough and scary being on a plane and not knowing. May see if Doc can dome a note but tbh I am no sure they have much on it

K8bug79, Our little girl has got lots of allergies so we had to take all her food on the plane with us as they couldn't cater for us. If you get a letter from your GP they you can take a cool bag on the plane which is extra to your allowance. We weren't allowed to take the freezer blocks through security at Heathrow but put them in anyway as it will keep things cold up till then. Then if you take some ziplock bags and staff and the various coffee shops will give you some ice and then the cabin staff will either replace the ice regularly for you or put it in their chiller.

 

Kay, I would suggest waking them after a while rather than leaving them to sleep for the whole leg to Singapore - otherwise they are likely to be awake for the whole 8 hours to Sydney and then when you arrive in the morning they will want to go straight to bed because of their UK body clock. If you wake them after a while they should then be ready for another good sleep on the final leg and that will hopefully keep them going once you arrive as well.

 

Keep us posted with how you are doing with everything else. Must be so hard to do on your own.

 

Good luck with the flight Northshorepom and hope you have a lovely holiday.

Thanks, thankfully my food allergy is more of an intolerance but a very severe one- Cows Milk and Wheat so easy enough for the to cater for. I can tolerate a small amount of wheat if it's inadvertantly in a sauce but Milk burns and upsets my tummy quickly (not good in an airplane!). It's the snacks I'm worried about I know the piddly portions they give for airplane meals lol. Plus as I am flying from Paris I am worried there may be a language barrier/ So going armed witha bag of goodies to munch on :-)

We have moved bits and pieces in dribs an drabs over the last 2 months as the rate as risen. Bit gutted to see it has gone as high s it has but equally prefer what we've done for safety as had it gone the other way it would have been worse. Got a bit more to go over as we sell cars etc so hoping it raises some more to comepnsate fopr what we did earlier at a lower rate. We budgetted on $1.5 to the £ and got near to that for most of it so a little bonus for the last installmen would be great

Oh dear! I contacted some schools previously & they told me they're full with 30 kids in a class. Thought I was just unlucky. There's no way we can afford private fees in the UK. :-((

At the risk of adding another negative sounding post. It's one of the many reasons we are moving. We want to leave this area for our career prospects but just can't seem to find an area we are happy with schoolinga nd can get the kids into. My work is very limited in areas i.e I can't move to any city and hope to pck it up! and therefore we are hopeful thta the Ozzie schools are a little easier to get into. From what we've heard they are. Lets hope. I hope that you fiond something thats right for you. NOt nice to feel you can't do what's best for the kids because of the infra structure

I had my ex's passport done at the post office and it was returned as not acceptable as it's not recognised by Australia House. Maybe just the document that they were certifying and they would accept others but not worth the risk IMO

We are moving back to Australia and wanting to ship things like snowboards, surfboards, books etc. not worrying about large furniture/cars this time, Does anyone know of any companies that provide cheap/good shipping for up to 50 cubic feet size containers?

The ones we have quotes from are around £500 and wondering if anyone has had any experience with cheaper ones?

 

thank you in advance for any tips.

:biggrin:

We are using Sevenseas move cbe. We are gettinga large but they do a small one too. So far all good. bee very helpful and I know others on here have used them. Not sure how they compare got a feeling the middle cube was about £500 but may be wrong

I don' t think u can stay on the plane. May be wrong. It'll be refuelling but also i know when i booked my seats i've got two differant plane types. But i'm flying from paris so may be differantfrom London. I've got 2 hrs 45 to kill not too bad. Time for something to eat and a stretch of legs!

Truro has excellent sxhools and is a fab place to live. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. However the good schools are full. Can't comment on the private schools. The onlu schools i could get my kids into wouldn't have been great. But you may get lucky

Guess I'll add it to my growing list of people to call ;-) Thanks

No for now they are paid through LA but I believe it's about to change back to DWp through the universal benefits.Also surely you need to tell LA about council taxalso. They're another wait til you've moved lot

Housing and coumcil tax benefit. Thanks. I was going to fill in the form to get the income tax rebate moving along.

Hi, I know this thread is a little odl but hoping someone will know the answer. When do you tell local authorities and ctc etc? I know when you move house within the country they want you to have actually moved before they'll update anything but do they really expect you to arrange all this once you arrive in Oz or do they allow you to set it up in advance?

Hi folks,

 

Well, my 2 children and I are on the final 4 week countdown until we join hubby/daddy in Sydney. Getting very excited for the future but it's also very nerve wracking!:shocked:

 

I've been on long haul flights with the kids before (they're now 5 and 3) but we've never flown to Australia. Any tips/advice on what to take/do on the flight to keep them entertained would be appreciated!

 

Thanks in advance! See you soon Sydney! :biggrin:

You sound in a similar situation to us, just slightly further ahead. my husband flies ahead of us in Aug and I follow 4 weeks later with our 3 kids. I too am dreading the flight. None have done long haul and only my eldest has flown at all. I am buying them each new games for their ds/ leapsters etc. I will also buy the eldest a new book and younger two colouring and stickers etc. Other than that I am at a loss. I want to surprise them with it so will mean that my hand luggage is full of stuff- but I have food allergies so I am also taking food for myself onboard just in case they forget (known to happen) so a bot limited on space. I am also taking a couple of card games to play with my eldest and probably some books to read to the younger two. God I hope they sleep as I hate flying.

great so most stuff can go in dishwasher, obv not shoes and welder lol. so guessing the 1 litre may be best, you dilute it down don't you?

ok here's a random question :err:

i'm wondering how much jeyes fluid to buy lol. t's blinking expensive so don't waht to buy 5 l when 300 ml will do. i have 5 peoples shoes to do plus some xtras for my youngest as she grows. some skates and cars that have been used outside. a box of tools and a welder and copressor. nothing like bikes and when we got quotes for shipping they said tools etc would be fine as long as there is no soil on them. Do you thisnk 300 ml or a litre would be enough?

We had no trouble finding out if there were spaces in the school we chose, it just took a phone call which the lovely admin lady at the village school made.

 

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i think either you were very lucky or we've been very unlucky.

tried to move closer to my work in Truro only schools available 2 x ofsted 4 couldn't get the 2 of school age into the same school.

Went for a job in Leicester looked at schools around Market Harborough wasy thrtough to Northampton, couldn't find a good school that had spaces.

went for a job in Stratford Upon Avon only offered level 4 schools agsin difficult to get kids into same school locally nearest option was 15 miles out which would have negated the point as i currently live that far from work.

so same in 3 differant areas of the country and also had a chouce to move to Essex near friends but again no good options available.

village schools tend to be eadier but imo they are too small and tend not to offer the senco proivision that larger schools do

I moved to the UK when my aussie kids were 9 and 11.Neither went to private schools in Oz or the UK.Both adjusted well to the move.We contacted the relevant schools before we moved so they were expecting us.They were also kind enough to send info to us which was reassuring,before we left Australia.Both adjusted really well actually without any hiccups.Both also went on to very good careers!x(They're now 23 and 26)

Sadly the system has changed now. Schools are no longer even allowed to say if they have a space it all has to go through council. All ludicrous. I found trying to move into another area very difficult. I had 2 jobs and trying to findschools to get kids in to for either was nigh impossible. I could get them into Ofsted 4 (lowest) and even then probably not the same schools.

Obviously every area is differant and i'm sure that if the above hurdle is overcome they will settle just fine. I moved around laods as a kid as we were a military family. Always made friends and never struggled with curriculumn

We live in Sutherland Shire. Hubby works in Hurstville, that drive takes him about 35 minutes, he doesn't mind that and he says the traffic is fine. He often has to go in to the CBD, so he catches the train from either Engadine, Sutherland or Jannali depending on the parking, and doesn't mind that either. He always gets a seat, but does prefer to go from Sutherland/Jannali because there are apparently more trains than go to Engadine. When we drive in to the city it takes about 50 minutes, although that does tend to be slightly after rush hour (and we are right in the south of Sutherland Shire, so it takes 10 minutes to get on to the main road), and once when we were coming back at rush hour it took two hours, but there had been an accident which I guess could happen wherever you commute to by car. Sutherland Shire is a lovely area, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I think I saw in the paper that it is the safest area in Sydney.

Thanks LKC i've seen you praise the shire a lot on here and it was your enthusiasm for it as a family similar to ours that made me look at that area. i am trying not to get the rose tinted specs on but all our research shows it to be a great area and within reasonable reach of the city. i live in Cornwall allow an hour fr my commute which ius 19 miles and often get stuck due to accident and it'll then take up to 3 hours to get in. So it's very comparable Would prefer train and i'm glad you're able to get seats :-). Thanks for your response

thanks, do you drive or train? is it crowded / un reliable? are roads bad? i think 45 mins is reasonable in fact for a city it's bloody good.

Hi, we fly over end of Aug/ Sept. we have done as much research as we feel we can before we arrive however as i'm sure is similar with many others, we are getting opinions left, right and centre about what we should be doing.

We have a couple of simple requests for an area- nice family spot, not far from water (river, lake or sea) but not necesarily on top of it, affordable for us to buy eventually. Within reasonable commute of the city.

we highlighted Sutherland, Woronora, Oatley and surrounding areas. The commute by train from Sutherland to Central is 30 mins on paper and then i would have to add onward journey to place of work and also to/from station at home end. yet 3 people have said it's a nightmare.

So honestly what is your commute like?

i want to redirect my mail to my family but does anyone know if by doing so i could effect their credit rating? Mine s ok but not spot on but we'llk hgave a few credit cards/ overdrafts which we'll be paying back from over there but concerned that if i miss a payment or it's late tat it'll effect them. tbh tho once we're in rentral i'll change it to there so hopefully just a few weeks then no problem

The large cube is 1500kgs

Thats what it says on tbe quote but i asked when i booked and they said there was no real limit

I got email quotes back following day. Btw i found sites like parcel2go that i use for ebay had cheaper quicker rates than 7seas