ramot

Hope Australia Zoo is on your list for the Sunshine Coast. Cotton Tree has stand up paddling which our grandchildren enjoyed, Mooloolaba has a lovely beach and take advantage of the free bbq’s, Noosa is always popular, has a nice vibe and beach. Montville and Maleny in the hinterland provide a very difference feel to the Coast. I prefer Maleny. Have a wonderful time wherever you manage to visit xM

I was making the point that even if we were only using them to send ‘smaller regular amounts’ the company has never ever let us down since we started with Transferwise in 2016. That’s what has given us the confidence to actually send far larger amounts over the years with complete confidence.

We have used Wise for a very very long time, transfer every month, as all our income comes from UK. Have never had a complaint and the money is almost always in our account in 24 hours. can’t comment on how long to set up as it was too long ago. I’m not on commission either

Good luck with your move. We retired here 20 years ago, there was a retirement visa then, had no immediate family here, wanted a bit more of an adventure and thought we would stay for 2-3 years, just not ready to go back to UK after living in Brunei as expats for 10 years. We never left! Love our retired life here, and 2 of our children followed us here.

If you’ve lived in Africa, it is said ‘Africa will never leave your heart’, so some of my family always homesick, but the reality of life and a future there has to be given careful thought, All but one of my family has left, it was not an easy decision. Safety, quality of life, stable government(?!!!) all important considerations, in determining where to live.

I’ve lived and spent time in quite a few countries, on different continents, I have no intention of ever moving from Australia, definitely the best place I’ve lived in, had a slight wobble when we retired here 20 years ago, as at that stage it was to be an adventure for a few years and we had no close family here, but that didn’t last long at all, two of our children followed us here, reconnected with family that had left Africa, made good friends, and love our life here. Having said that, most our UK friends haven’t moved since we last lived in UK over 30 years ago, and are equally happy with a static existence.

Yes same have an annual skin check, clear so far, and my glasses have transition lenses.

I lived in Africa in the 1960’s, Brunei for 10 years, before living on the Sunshine Coast for the last 20 years and I have very very low vit D, I’m bad at wearing suntan cream, but also luckily don’t burn with only 10 minutes sun exposure. I remember using Johnson’s baby oil sunbathing in UK, in my youth. Despite this My skin is remarkably wrinkle free at my advanced age, So we’re all different,. Good luck with your decision.

Where are you coming from? Because that makes a big difference to how warm or cold you feel. I’m on the Sunshine Coast and the weather is fairly similar. It’s autumn here, but the temperature is between 28-30 and more humid than usual, but Easter is about 5 weeks away, so should be cooler, mid 20’s? and cooler evenings under 20’? You might be fine in shorts/skirts T-shirts, swim wear, light weight trousers jumper for evenings, a light weight rain jacket. You need suntan cream and perhaps a sun hat as the sun is strong here, but you can buy that here. You can google the long range forecast to get a better idea. As a local we can always tell who the visitors are, in autumn and winter as we feel cold and are wearing light weight trousers and a jumper, even a fleece and visitors are sunbathing on the beach soaking up the Sunshine. Enjoy your trip Remind me nearer your trip and I’ll give you a weather update

On June 2nd 1975 we took our son to Ely East Midlands to hospital to have his tonsils out, it was snowing! We bought him home on Friday that week in a heatwave!

That’s rubbish I’ve been out and about this week midday in 30’ heat and lived to tell the tale

Google British groups in Sydney, there seem to be quite a few to choose from. There are 2 good British pubs, Duke of Clarence is central, the Lord Dudley Woolahra, not quite so central. Hope everything works out for you. xM

Easy to replace UK size on line

Good luck with your move, keep in touch to let us know how you get on.

We’ve always been amazed by how much clutter we’ve managed to accumulate every time have moved house again,, and as I gave up counting after 17 house moves, I’m quite experienced about weaning out all the unnecessary clobber every time. When I posted about bringing everything with you, I didn’t mean unnecessary clutter, but why ditch perfectly good items, because unless you have plenty of money, it makes far more sense if they fit in your container, to replace them slowly, rather than the unnecessary expense of buying new, as soon as you arrive here. There is also a general consensus that everything is more expensive here, and a lack of choice.

Not quite the same and a long time ago, in the mid 1960’s i went from swinging London where trust me it was a really exciting place to be, to work as a stewardess for Zambian airlines. A few other personnel from my UK airline went as well, but I was the only stewardess and didn’t know anyone else. To be honest I treated it as an adventure, a chance to live somewhere right out of my comfort zone. Yes of course I was nervous, but I had nothing to loose, I was single, it wasn’t easy at times, but I never regretted finding the courage to go. I met my future husband on a blind date 3 weeks after I arrived!!! So you never know how life will turn out. I genuinely think you should at least give it a few months. I can relate to how you feel as I can still remember how I felt all those years ago, and wish you all the best with whatever you decide. x M

We bought everything with us, apart from winter clothes because we actually had almost none as we had lived in Brunei for 10 years prior to our move. If it isn’t broken and it will work in Australia, then it certainly keeps the initial costs down, and then you replace them slowly rather than all at once. One thing to remember if you move here to a warmer part of Australia, is that it doesn’t take very long before you acclimatise and start to feel cold in winter and understand why no one else is wearing thin summer clothes in winter, apart from visitors from the South, or overseas. You see us locals wearing trousers and a fleece, and visitors in swim wear.

I appreciate our circumstances aren’t quite the same, but apart from the three covid years, as we are retired we have mostly spent 3 months of every year back in UK for the last 15 years. This is because we have a son and our only grandchildren living there. We finally visited again last October, for 5 weeks. We decided 3 months was really too long now for us. Apparently it was a very mild autumn!? I was so cold! and when you added cold rain into the mix, I was plain miserable, there was no pleasure in being outdoors, and I did have the right clothing with me, but I have got out of the habit of wearing at least 3 layers of clothing, long trousers, socks and shoes wooly hat, gloves. I live on the Sunshine Coast, and yes it does get hot and humid in summer, but only for a about 3 months, the rest of the year is usually glorious, and even today which has been very hot, I still went for my daily walk in the late afternoon, Mooloolaba was full of people enjoying the weather. The other thing that I also realised on this last visit, like Melbpom, was that I was also more Australian now than I had realised. Neither my husband or I are in a hurry to return to UK, if at all. The journey is tedious at our age, and our son and family were very bound up in their own lives, best not to mention the hours our grandsons spent gaming, rather than communicating!!! and we don’t like the weather. So even if you have family in UK, like Marisa mentioned, be realistic about how much time you will actually spend time with them. Good luck with your decision

When it’s cold in UK, you put the central heating on, when it’s hot in Australia, you put the aircon on.

And when on the 2 weeks holiday in the Spanish sun, so desperate for sunshine, they sunbathe like sausages under a grill, turning redder and redder. This Brit has spent the last 30 years in the sun, hates the cold, and struggles with the gloom after several wet days. Similar to SAD syndrome. Tried to add smiley with sunglasses, can’t seem to add it

What a nonsense this thread has deteriorated into. We should all apologise to the OP

We were near neighbours, I lived in Keyworth

We have all our income paid into UK bank, and transfer here as and when needed, so although we do transfer regularly, there is no fixed or regular amount. As previously mentioned we have had our cards since we retired here 20 years ago, and have travel insurance up to age 80 on our bank cards, so the rules might have changed, but my husband had no problem at all getting the Qantas card last year, So who knows

I lived 11 minutes away from Wymeswold, so didn’t have to know UK geography to know where it was.

To add to the above Locally. Good hospital , University, good sports facilities, good schools, some with accelerated learning and sports classes, plus all the usual activities clubs eg scouts, girl guides, sports clubs, dance schools etc etc for children . Plus plenty for adults as well, most activities are well catered for here. You are only bored here if you want to be. The Coast is pretty amazing as well. Housing isn’t cheap, but unlikely a problem if moving from SE England,