Masken

Although it was a few years ago now we travelled round in an estate car having removed the back seats and putting a mattress in the back. During our travels we were woken one morning to someone tapping on the window asking us if we would like some brekky, as the smell of a cooked breakfast was wafting through the mozzie nets we'd shut into the door allowing us to have the window open a little way each night we eagerly accepted. When we got out of the car we there was a coach parked up, it had obviously arrived whilst we had slept, and it was amazing. The couple who had invited us to breakfast had converted the whole coach allowing them to travel around Australia. The passengers seat was a swivel armchair which when turned around became part of the lounge. They had a TV build into the wall and a couple of armchairs. Then they had a kitchen with a small kitchen table to sit at, perfect size for two. There was then a double bedroom and a loo and shower, we couldn't believe it, I think even looking at it now it would still be amazing and this was about 18 years ago!!!

If your son's scooter was on the grass I assume she has to drive across the grass to use her car every time, in which case as grass is usually not driven over and children know this and automatically assume it would be the proper place to leave their toys safely as a responsible driver she should be checking it before reversing... as you said lucky it wasn't a child. As you don't plan to claim for the scooter then I would just say to her... tell you what we'll call it quits I'll replace my son's scooter that you have damaged and you can claim for your car repairs. Confrontation is something I'm not very good at and something that I really need to improve on so I know exactly how you feel about not saying what you wish you should have said. Good luck and just think if all the other neighbours have had problems then she is obviously the problem and not anyone else... I'm sure it will all work out.

As far as I'm aware you don't have to enter the country to start living there by this date you can just have to visit to validate the visa by this date. My husband knew someone who was granted their visa and was due to go away to Afghan for 6 months so on his pre-tour leave he jumped on a plane, arrived in Oz got his visa stamped and then jumped straight back on a plane to travel back to the UK ready to do his job. Not suggesting you do it this way I bet he was shattered but the visa is then valid for 5 years once it's been validated although I can't tell you whether that's 5 years from the validation trip, from the medicals or from when it was granted hopefully someone with more knowledge can let you know that one.

I certainly am never concerned about which education system is better to me it's about finding something that works for my children. I know someone said you can put a child in any school and if they want to learn they will but I don't agree with this. My eldest is only 7 and she is now in her third primary school due to our circumstances changing (long story). When she started at an 'Outstanding' british school in Germany she was constantly in trouble, her stubborn attitude etc didn't help at all. She had a fantastic teacher, who I became very good friends with through the many meetings we had regarding my daughter. She didn't want to write at all, didn't really want to read, was very good at maths but lacked any belief in her ability despite constant encouragement from both the teacher and when she was at home as well. After 18 months there was still a battle going on with her work and it was like starting all over again with another teacher (who was also very good). I can't fault the school at all but it wasn't right for my daughter. When my husband left the Army we could not afford the fees to keep her there so she had to go to a local German school. Allowing for the fact she couldn't speak the language she seemed to be doing very well and was thriving, she picked up the language quickly and I discovered more about the way she seems to learn, although actual writing was still a problem and her stubborn attitude still had an impact on her learning which the teacher found frustrating. We are now back in the UK and my daughter now attends a local Steiner School and this seems to be the solution for us. Their system of education so far seems to be exactly what she needs. She is writing constantly even when at home and is when she had to have a day off sick I actually had tears from her because she loves school so much she didn't want to miss a day. Now I appreciate Steiner isn't for everyone but it seems to be working for my daughter and anything that is boosting her self confidence and she actually wants to learn means I have one happy daughter (who is still stubborn lol) but she is learning so much more and thriving at school. My 5 year old couldn't get a place in the Steiner school at the moment so she is in a very good primary school and she is doing very very well so I won't fault the education system it is simply down to the individual child and what works for them to encourage... anyone can and will learn provided the environment etc is right of them but sadly one school can't offer all the options for everyone.

H I can't answer the question about which year your daughter will be in but with the language is something I've experienced with my own daughter. At the age of 6 and a half my daughter moved from a British school into a German school. All she could say in German was hello, thank you and goodbye despite living in Germany for most of her life, we'd lived and socialised around Brits the whole time... even German friends insisted on speaking English when we were around. Anyway, it took a couple of months for her to feel really really settled but she enjoyed school from the beginning, the one advantage I suppose was that in Germany they don't start school until they are 6 so she started in Year 1 with the rest of them but she picked up the language very quickly. I do know that when my daughter was in the British school one of her friends started halfway through the year, she was Fijian and didn't speak a word of English, her brother was a couple of year older as well and also couldn't speak any English. They picked up the language and fitted in very very quickly as well, it was a matter of weeks. The fact that your daughter already speak a bit of English but understands a lot I think you will be surprised how quickly she'll pick it up, she is also still very young and won't put up any mental barriers which would make it harder. I hope this helps. Nicki

It'll all be a bit scary for him at the moment, he's moving from everything he know but I'm sure he'll settle in quickly. Do you know which area you are moving to yet? When I moved from Germany back to the UK (my kids have only ever known Germany) I had a 7 year old that really didn't want to move, partly because my husband is still working in Germany at the moment. I did some research on the internet and found some clubs that would interest her and different things about the town she might like ie the park, the lakes etc etc and we started to plan some of the exciting things we were going to do. Obviously the bonus for us was that we were moving closer to family, which they hadn't seen very much of in their short lives. Find things in the area that interest him that he can get excited about. Make plans to keep busy with activities once you are there so that he will make friends quickly. I'm sure that once he has some friends he will be fine. Obviously because we were closer to Germany we moved to the UK at the end of July on the promise of returning for a holiday in Germany at the end of August to visit her Dad and some friends. Whilst in Germany she was saying how she wanted to go back to the UK so she had already felt at home. There is a chance that we will be moving again to Australia (which I hope will be our last big move lol) and I plan to do the same thing, look up different things and find things to look forward to. Although my kids do have cousins that they've never met living in WA so that will be exciting enough I think lol. Good luck and don't worry I'm sure it will all be fine in a matter of weeks.

What a gorgeous name for a gorgeous little girl. Congratulations to you both and welcome to the world Siena. Definitely make sure you take it easy after having the C-section. I've had 3 of them (2 emergency and 1 planned) so know only too well that within about 3 weeks or so you'll feel like you can do normal things but you really do need to be patient for the full 6 weeks and enjoy them getting to know Siena. Over the next couple of years that big IF will be come a lot smaller, there's a reason so many people have more than one child you do forget very quickly but planned C-sections are completely different... as long as you don't get travel sick on the trolley like I did. Anyway, enjoy every second as they grow far too fast and I hope the breastfeeding is going well.

Congratulations.

I'm still not sure how you hope to gain sponsorship either with no qualifications or experience in anything Australia needs unless you have been hiding something all this time. And yes you might be determined but as has already been said you need to put that determination into something that is going to get you there.

Sorry, my fault, I had looked at the post and read it wrong I thought it was you that had been declined the visa but you hadn't you had just posted on the thread. Reading through the thread though would help to give you some idea of how DIAC might think though so it should still help you out a bit. I'm not sure whether you are allowed to look for sponsorship on a tourist visa, wouldn't that be classed the same as looking for work? Might be worth looking into as you don't want it to prevent you from any possible opportunities.

So basically DIAC have already answered the question of how many tourist visa's you can have as he had already reached his limit within the last year. Taking this information I seriously think you should forget about visiting Australia for the next couple of years, knuckle down and work to achieve a qualification and then reapply for a tourist visa otherwise you could seriously jeopardise any chance of a PR visa in the future if you keep messing DIAC about as they will question what you are actually doing even if your intentions are good.

Totally agree with you there Stacey.

Should add by the way that I'm not pregnant... just finding comfort in the form of chocolate from the stress of finding hubby a job so that we can all be together as a family lol.

But then you work hard to buy the best heels in the world and there you go 5 feet tall and it's always a good excuse to buy a new pair of shoes... although I'm not a shoe person at all, in fact I can't stand shopping of any type lol. I'm 5ft 2 and a cm - the cm is very important as it's not quite half an inch but nearly lol. Also means that when I tell people my height they don't focus on how short I am (or round at the moment - trying to fulfill the dream of becoming a weeble) but they are baffled by the mixed measurements lol.

Hi, I'm not 100% sure how it works but if you look at this page http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/skilled-workers/sbs/ there is a pdf file on there with a long list of jobs for the 457 visa. From what I have read I think your job has to be on this list to be able to be considered so might be worth a look and hopefully that will help. Someone else may come along soon who has a lot more knowledge than I do and might be able to shed more light for you. Nicki