Paul1Perth

Coming from Derbyshire you could pick which village people were from by the accent. Going to Sheffield on weekends, only a 12 mile train trip, the accents were totally different. Dying out a lot now, Chesterfield and Sheffield almost jouined up.

I have asthma and it's much better here than in the cold and damp of Manchester. I notice it a bit more on cold winter mornings if I'm going out for a ski paddle or a winter swim.

My youngest with autism quite often nips out to the shops with no shoes on. We often say put your shoes on, he replies Australian Paul.

Quality of hotels for the price in Bali must be some of the best in the World. Only been twice but the best hotel We've ever stayed in was Intercontinental on Jimbaran Beach. Other time was The Conrad near Noosa Dua. Brilliant and very cheap flights to get there. Love the breakfasts, service, massive rooms, facilities. Ddon't know when we'll feel safe enough to go again though. Was going to meet my Sister there and then come back here for a few weeks. Can't see that happening for a while. Pity.

You can't rely on the weather and the quality of hotels for the price is much better. I've been to Weymouth and Bournemouth a couple of times in "summer" and had maybe one day where you could go to the beach. Rest of the time you'd be struggling to find things to kill the time, mostly sat in a pub.

It's different with no holidaymakers at this time of year. I like to see and have a chat with them. Also good for the economy here too. Seems not to have affected it too badly though as most people had holidays booked that had to be cancelled, got the money back and spent it here. My youngest works at Dome and says he's talked to a few interstate visitors lately, nowhere near as many as usual yet. Come Feb 5th we might have to get used to wearing masks again.

I don't find that at all TBH. As far as I see from the people we hang around with is everyone thinks the weathers great, more people off work on holiday, so more people down the beach to train with, pub at the beach is packed all the time, specially during happy hour, same with The Breakwater at Hillary's and the new pub at Iluka. Pubs in the suburbs might be quite, that's why we live near the beach. Be a long time before anyone heads to Bali I reckon. One of the main reasons we came was to live in a place where we weren't hankering to get away from. We love it.

Yep. Be down early, we have friends who live 5 mins walk onto the beach so we park there and go back to their place after for beers and a barbie. If you're not a beach person you won't realise that it feels quite comfortable as there's usually a bit of a cooling breeze off the ocean. If you get too hot just go in for a swim. Hardest bit is keeping the beer cool and the sand out of your croissant. Usually head off around lunchtime and spend the arvo at our friends. They've been having a sort of open house for years now so usually get a few round. Some we only see at Christmas. You realise what a difference the dunes make. You can feel fine and comfortable on the beach, walk through the dune path to the car park and it suddenly feels 10 degrees hotter. Top side of Marmion Ave another 5 hotter, top side of Wanneroo road another 5 hotter. If you live out at say Ellenbrook, that's when it can be uncomfortable.

I think it's still there, I worked there a few years ago and stayed in Sale. Typical small Aussie town, zero traffic problems, found it a bit boring but was away with a few workmates who like things a bit more lively. I would think there's some good bike trails around there if that's what you enjoy. Locals were friendly, like most country places. Lot easier to get into a conversation than in a City.

Mate the curries were great in Sparkhill where our crappy student digs were when at Uni in Birmingham. Wouldn't be a reason for wanting to live there though.

After Christmas and the New Year in the UK was the worse time. No one with any money, crap weather for months, pubs empty, everyone trying to save up for their summer holidays in Spain, Portugal, Greece. Adverts for summer holidays started day after New Years day I reckon. We just embraced Aussie Christmas, weather doesn't get any better, pubs are still packed, difference is you can sit outside, ride around and show the kids the Christmas lights, some people must spend thousands. Long days, loads of time at the beach, meet friends at the beach Christmas Day, along with hundreds of others, busiest day of the year for the beach, champagne, beer, croissants at the beach, walk back to a friends house 5 min walk from the beach, have a few beers and barbie at his, if we have too much walk home and get the car later. Get Christmas dinner over and done with Christmas eve. We don't have any relatives here so don't have to rush off visiting aunties, uncles, grandparents. Some of the friends we meet have to do that when they really want to stay at the beach and have a beer and let the kids play, but they have to "do the right thing". We know some who still do the big Christmas Day Turkey, Ham etc on the day. We scrapped that after the first year.

Hope you're not hinting Perth is anything like Bradford.

Watching the Ali documentary at the moment. Very detailed and long but there was an awful lot I didn't know about him. Good it is though. Used to love boxing back then, when boxers used to shake hands and have respect for each other at the weigh in. Maybe Ali was the start of all the bad mouthing?

To be fair we watch quite a few shows on ABC and SBS. They are mostly UK documentaries or drama, much better than American formulated rubbish. Their news is dire though. Seems to have got worse since Ita Buttrose has been in charge.

If they maintained neutrality it would be a good thing. They seem to have swayed so far to the left, woke, PC, anti men. SBS is about the same.

Not necessarily. Especially in the arts, dancing, theatre, ballet. There are some very small isolated spots all over the world that seem to attract artistic people. They seem to like each others company. Perth seems to attract more sporty types than arty I think. I have zero interest in dance, ballet, theatre. Love a live band, usually louder and heavier the better, don't seem to miss out on too much of that and for people who do like the arts, dancing, ballet, theatre, there's plenty of venues. When we lived in the UK most big bands only played in Sheffield when we lived in Chesterfield or Manchester when we lived near Stockport. Unless we drove and didn't have a drink, which was part of the fun, it was often difficult to get back home. Here in Perth if something big is on it's going to be easy to get to on public transport and home again. We've seen more international live bands here than we ever did in the UK and were able to get a few drinks and have a good time.

There's the difference, it was always an adventure for you, which is fine. Pity the rest of your family didn't get the message.

We were going to move somewhere, even if we'd ended up stuck in the UK. I had been eyeing up jobs on the South Coast. Would have been horrendously expensive moving from Manchester and the salaries aren't much better down there. It's surprising what a move in the UK could do, if you find a lifestyle you like. I've really enjoyed Michael Portillos recent series walking the South Coast path. Thought I could easily live in a few of those places. My wifes Sister and hubby live in Tolpuddle, which is OK. Still too far from the coast for us and too quite. They'd had 10 years in Bermuda, teaching before that. Their kids were out of there as soon as they could though. One lives in Nottingham and the other now in Jersey at the moment. They did a couple of years teaching in China to save some money. We feel extremely lucky to have found somewhere that suits us to a tee.

That was the other place we would have tried for had we not got in here. Both me and the wife love the beach, sun, warm weather though. Every holiday we had we were off to Portugal, Greece, Spain. We had a timeshare on the Algarve for a few years, used to love it there. We were always depressed flying back into Manchester airport after hols. My wife lived in Canada, Toronto, for most of her secondary school years. She had a Canadian accent when I met her. My son lived in Whistler for a couple of years, he loved it and the snownboarding. We visited and had a brilliant time. Too cold for us though. Son came back a couple of years ago, luckily just before covid. We have friends who's son and girlfriend are still stuck there. It's not a place you can save money but as a youngster party central. I've written in other threads about the drug problem in Vancouver. Has to be seen to be believed. Like the authorities have just given up on about a quarter of the City. We all still love the warm weather, beach lifestyle and being close to the ocean.

So, as well as not liking Aus you have a shit job that makes you more depressed.

Perth is not the problem mate. All the people we know who emigrated here, and it's lots, love it. Those people wanting to go back to the UK never wanted to leave in the first place. Wouldn't have mattered where they went, would never have been right for them.

When you get married everything after that is a compromise. Have kids and it's even moreso.

Try and get the book inhaling the Mahatma. Won a few awards when it came out. Written by an English Foreign Correspondent in India who fell in love with the place. Great book. Didn't change my view that I'd ever want to go but interesting.

Way too cold for me. Good program though.

My wife had a skin cancer removed from her lleg when we'd been here about a month and has had a couple more removed from her back. All non malignant. The one on her leg had been there years and just about the first visit to a doc here he said he didn't like the look of it. Only looked like a small mole but they took a chunk out. I think all the damage was done i our younger days in Spain, Portugal and Greece with no sunscreen and you hadn't got your moneys worth if you didn't get 8 hours in the sun.