ozziepom

I've noticed more & more jobs advertised with no salary. When applying the above is almost always one of the first questions asked. Am I right in thinking that they're looking for the lowest "bid" from potential applicants? A few times I've asked "what is the salary range" but often they want your figure first. This is different to what I remember in the UK where jobs were either advertised at a salary range, or one was forthcoming when asked for.

I'm not sure either, I looked at Google Maps and it said 54 mins from Cabarita to near my place. Traffic is lighter (and faster) down this end but there used to be delays around Nerang all the time, not sure if they've finished now, and the M1 goes to 2 lanes rather than three a bit further down than that. I really wouldn't entertain doing it daily.

I just saw the pound/dollar has risen again to 1.62. Its early days I know but the AUD has fallen pretty dramatically over the past few weeks, not just against the pound or the USD but most currencies. I'm no expert but it all seems related to both the mining slowdown and falls in stock markets around the world, funnily enough it didn't fall like this with any of the recent interest rate cuts. Although its the lowest its been for something like 2 years its still way above its historical average, maybe there's further to fall. If it does drop a lot its not all good news (even for poms bringing money over and exporters) as it probably means the economy and mining in particular is getting hit. Thoughts anyone?

We do North Gold Coast (Hope Island) to Brisbane CBD and it takes 60-75 mins by car, the traffic from Logan onwards is very heavy, quite a few mad drivers weaving in & out and we frequently get off the freeway and onto side roads. The train would add half an hour each way for us, and thats working near the station, you'd be changing tains (at Roma St?) to get to Milton. Give it a try and see how it goes but you're talking double the distance we do, I can't imagine doing that myself for any period of time. During the week we get up at 5AM, get home about 5PM and we're in bed around 8PM, I've done it for 2 years and its not something I'd recommend. Can't see your commute being any less than 2 hours each way and on a bad day it could be 2.5+

Me too, even after the GC bit they showed very little of Sydney. Some Lebanese ladies playing AFL (and how they'd been racially abused), how Koala's are being monitored and a quick glimpse of the Blue Mountains, not much of a flavor of Sydney really.

Saw this on another forum, hope the poster doesn't mind me nicking it. Re: my post a couple before this, on the map above, the white bit is the Gold Coast, the red bit is Surfers Paradise.

Any suggestions of a good place in Brisbane CBD to watch the game tomorrow, I was thinking maybe the Caxton but one of us is a Blue so that maybe out. Just looking for somewhere with good atmosphere but not OTT as we're a couple in our 40's, will be wanting a feed too, I'm currently thinking the Exchange but looking for other suggestions. Cheers!

I thought they focussed a lot on crime on the GC, a bit like doing a segment on Sydney and only going to Kings X. FWIW I've lived there for 8 years (2 stints) and haven't seen any crime and felt safer than many other places I've been and a lot more so than many UK cities. The old story is some people think Surfers Paradise (about 3 km/sq) is the whole Gold Coast (more like 100 km/sq) and its not. Another analogy would be spending a few hours in Brixton in the 80's and assuming it represented the whole of Greater London. But hey, I'm biased, I like the place, certainly more than Sydney where I lived before.

Its a tricky one. We've been here just over 3 years and its a fabulous country, and we're lucky to have seen quite a bit of it, but the pull of friends and family is still strong. It may have something to do with the age people are when they move, I have a theory that many people have a "friend making" phase of their lives, often before getting married or meeting their life partner, I made loads of really good friends (in the UK) in my 20's to early 30's, since arriving in Australia in my 40's I haven't really made any close friends, just a few acquaintances at work. This could also have to do with not having children here (for the parents social scheme). Australians are a sociable and welcoming bunch mostly but I also realise that most people I meet already have their circle of friends, they've been here all along. I'm not at the point of heading back to the UK, but the day may come, and I understand. I'd honestly say 8 months is a bit early and if you can try togive it a decent amount of time.

Yep, we moved from NSW to QLD - only real hassle was the cost of removals, which was not far off removals from UK to Aus.

Although it wasn't a huge hit at the time The Wire is regularly voted the best TV drama in history, its up there with Game of Thones and Breaking Bad in IMDB's to 5 TV shows ever (with 2 David Attemborough doc series). These are my 3 favorite TV drama's. Breaking Bad is set to conclude in a few months so great time to watch it, its a superb show as well. Sherlock is a brilliant Holmes re-make set in the present day with Benedict Cumberbunch in the lead and Martin Freeman as Watson - amazingly good, the Americans tried similar with Elementary which I found just OK. Broadly similar to GoT is "Pillars of the Earth", its only 8 eps and very good. I've had many good reports of The Shield, another cop show but haven't got round to watching it yet. Hell on Wheels was pretty good too.

We've been here 3 years, have had 2 rentals and bought last year, all had pools and we'd get a place with one again. However, they are a luxury, cost a bit to maintain and we don't use it all the time. This is in QLD and where we live its more common to have a pool than not, maybe in cooler climbs I would feel differently.

I agree with this one, sounds like the best option as you don't need to be married for a partner visa. Although I'm no expert!

I have visited Springfield Lakes but not N Lakes although it sounds similar. While I think they're good places to bring up kids as a couple without children like yourselves Springfield Lakes didn't appeal to us at all. Basically its a medium sized estate with a small central area of shops & maybe the odd bar & restaurant. I once lived in Rouse Hill in Sydney which was similar but bigger, everything is a drive away, our nearest shop or bar/restaurant was 5 miles away, so make sure you scope these places out before committing as it sounds like you want somewhere with a bit more action, which to my mind is not these new planned communities. Mike (also from near Newcastle).

Thanks, just found that on the QLD Office of Fair trading website. I'll also look into Sellmycastle.

Hi, We've been speaking with a RE agent about selling our house but the fee's are pretty high, its based on a percentage but we're looking at about 30 grand. The agent reckons that the fee is set by government and is fixed, but sites like sellmycastle seem to suggest fees are negotiable. Has anyone had success in agreeing an agencies fee below what was initially quoted? Cheers!

See my previous email, I wasn't talking about hardware reliability, by far the biggest issue with this is HDD's. I was talking about ability to upgrade to the latest software - try installing windows 8 on your 7 year old Dell & see how it runs. I can run the latest OS/X on my Mac with no noticeable performance hit. If you're happy with XP no need to upgrade, the lack of support will make no difference to you - when did you last log a call with Microsoft? P.S. In my job I've come across servers which haven't been rebooted ​in 7 years.

Mine doesn't but the new ones do http://www.apple.com/au/imac/ (look under tech spec's, its on the back). Quality is one thing, and its very high*, but the reason I still have mine is it still runs the latest software quickly enough for me. If I'd bought a mid-level PC 5 years ago it would be struggling spec wise to run the latest windows/office etc. Mac's also don't suffer as much from fragmentation/software overload (loads of applications running in background, extra drivers, registry bloat etc). When I had PC's I'd fully re-install them every 18 months or so just to clear them out - I've never had to do this with my Mac. *Even though the quality is good the downside of all-in-one systems is if they do fail they can't be easily taken apart and fixed e.g. if the hard drive fails, its much more specialist - so consider an extended warranty. Less of an issue with SSD's but still possible.

Another vote for Mac's for me. Got my first Mac (24" iMac) about 5 years ago and its still going strong as our main desktop, although it cost more at the time I'd have gone through 2 PC's in that time and be ready for another. For a job I manage high end servers and I'm well capable of building my own (also have a VMWare box running linux, windows etc etc at home), but for basic "I want a computer to do web, email, video, photo editing etc you can't beat a Mac.

We have had a Subaru for a few years, just looking at a replacement and having a hard time deciding. Being used to BMW's and (recent) Land Rovers when I was in the UK the scooby feels well built and reliable but cheap & plasticy (which it is). The price difference for most Euro cars is huge here compared to local + Jap ones, but I do hanker for the quality feel of the Euro ones. You also see a lot of old, high milage Fords & Holdens knocking about, so they must be reliable, or at least economic to fix.

Mainly, it isn't actually high, just lots of other currencies are low. Also because the Aus economy is doing better than most (as a whole, not manufacturing which is being badly hit).

When we bought our new house last year we got a stainless "french door" Samsung one which does ice & water, great - except now I'm reading about a new one which dispenses sparkling water, neither of us drink soft drinks but we buy & lug gallons of cheap but heavy sparkling water from the supermarket every week. First world problems eh? :biggrin:

Also try RACV http://www.racv.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/Internet/Primary/home And compare the market http://www.comparethemarket.com.au/

But speed camera's aren't the full answer they're being made out to be. I drive the M1 every day, people drive like maniacs all the time, swerving in & out of tiny gaps in traffic, causing other drivers to break, even at the limit this is dangerous but often see people doing it at 150km/h+ but of course they slow down for the cameras on the Logan Mwy exit, then back to whacky races again. I almost never see a cop on the motorway, if we had unmarked police cars pulling over the idiots I see every singe day we might start to see less accidents. I'm thinking of getting a dashcam.

It does seem different here, I fell foul of an "RTB" warranty which basically means they send the faulty item back to the manufacturer who decide if its really faulty and repair/replace if it is, interestingly if the manufacturer think its the customers fault or no problem found they can even charge postage before giving you back your broken item. My item was a hard drive which was completely dead, still took 4 weeks to get it replaced. I now buy most of my computer stuff from OfficeWorks who seem to have a better return policy, but I get them to pricematch the local "RTB" specialist suppliers. Don't remember ever having this issue in the UK but I may be wrong.