Si T

A friend of mine owns DavidLee Hairdressing in Woodvale. Not sure about women's prices but I pay about $25. Possibly mates rates but never asked. It depends what kind of cut you want really. If you just want a short back and sides with no fuss then go to one of the chains and go through the conveyor belt. I prefer to have my hair washed etc and so am willing to pay the extra. It doesn't make the cut any better but I just prefer it that way. I used to go to a similar place at home and paid more than I pay here. He plays for the same football team as me and all the players and our kids go there along with a number of our wives. If he wasn't any good then I am sure the girls wouldn't go there. My own wife goes to a girl in Mindarie who works from home and is very reasonably priced. I think she pays $30 for a cut and blow dry. Can get the details of either depending what you are looking for.

Being that you asked for opinions I am going to give you mine. It may seem a little blunt but it is with the best intentions. Quoll has stated that in reality you have until 2020 to make a final decision and so you have plenty of time. The blunt bit - You stood in front of your wife and made certain vows to her that you would basically stand by her through thick and thin until you died. You are now saying that you are willing to put that all at risk when you have no need to being that you have other options in the short to medium term. I made the same vows to my wife standing in a church. I have since leaned toward atheism but that doesn't mean that I take the vows I made to my wife any less seriously. No matter what I felt about what I wanted for myself I gave my word on the day that I got married that I would put us as a whole before myself as an individual. Is that such a difficult thing to do, especially when you have an option via the RRV? The bottom line is that you have to look in the mirror in the morning when you shave and have to like what you see. I love living here in Australia but if my wife really didn't like it and wanted to head back then I would be on the next plane out with my RRV in my hand just in case she changed her mind. I would much prefer to be slightly less happy in the UK with her than live in Oz without her. Simple decision for me. I don't mean for the above to offend but am hoping to shock you into seeing sense in the short term. I possibly have a simplistic view of these situations but in my eyes you have a very simple decision to make. RRV and give your wife time or risk losing her by disappearing off to the other side of the world. For those who liken it to those in relationships with servicemen it is completely different. I was a nuclear submariner and the number of the lads who came home to Dear John letters was scary. It was one of the reasons I got out after six years before I had a family. On a slightly more practical note if you did have to reapply for your visa's further down the line I would imagine it is a damn sight cheaper than a divorce.

Stock is not held specific to a particular sale, especially in retail. Stock is held in the hope of selling it during the period for which it is planned and if it is not then it will be sold in a clearance sale. I would say that it is a bit of both, although ripped off is probably a bit strong (I prefer your use of Marketing Ploy), as it will be held as an item to sell but in the knowledge that it can be sold at a lower sum should it not clear in the "season" (using clothing retail as an example). The goods are bought at full value and often sold at less than cost, especially when you factor in stock holding costs relating to the warehouse, shipping etc. It isn't just the cost price from the supplier which needs to be taken into account. I see your point that the manufacturer will often produce in relation to specific purchase orders from their customers but the general public do not buy under those terms.

I am happy for us to agree to disagree on this. If we all shared the same views then the world would be a boring place. I guess I get riled in the way that the views are expressed rather than the views themselves. Although I would be inclined to disagree that the items only go on sale because they can't sell them. It is also a proactive sales strategy. Surplus stock can more easily be dealt with by robust stock management.

I do mine every year via e-tax. I am an accountant so would expect to be able to do so but from what I have seen of it as long as you have straightforward tax affairs then you should be okay. Just take your time and don't leave it until last minute.

Hey Pabs While I get where you are coming from I don't believe in sticking it to them in return. We have to find a way to make them more accountable to us, the general public. Makes me sound like a communist but that couldn't be further from the truth. I am a true blue capitalist but I believe that it must be controlled so that it benefits the whole country and not those in positions of privilege. I understand that this is an almost impossible goal but if you don't try then it is certainly unachievable. The FSA was supposed to do this but it was pretty much a toothless tiger. I come from the position that where people have to make a choice between paying the bank and putting food on the table then they should not be vilified for making the decision to leave their debts behind.

Hi NWM I understand where you are coming from with this but you have to draw a line somewhere. For example if I were to say that if you bought something from a retailer in a sale, their profits for the year would be lower, thereby reducing shareholder wealth which reduces the reurns for the shareholders which are generally pension funds. Pension fund returns are then lower which means that the man in the street does not get as much of a private pension when he retires. I have intentionally gone to the extreme to get my point across and obviously don't believe that people should not buy at sales prices because of this but hopefully you get where I am coming from. By the way, I don't advocate sticking it to the banks even though I personally lost my job with one of them due to the cuts they had to make. It was just business and not personal. I simply come from the position that if people get to a point where they have to not pay them off they should not be vilified for that. Cheers Si

It's a similar system to the USA. You should be eligible to a tax return as you have been paying tax on the assumption that you have been paid at that salary level for the full year instead of half. You will find that tax return companies will set up in the shopping centres over the next month or so and you can have a chat with one of them.

Which part of further clarification do you not understand? Again a cheap shot to make you feel better. Get over yourself. Tell you what, you keep your small minded views and I will go back to living my life in the real world rather than judging people on an Internet forum. Deal?

But you and others make sweeping generalisations which do not make that clear. If you did then these threads wouldn't degenerate the way they do.

It looks like we are not going to agree on this so best of we leave it at that. You seem more intent on scoring points with personal comments so this conversation is not worth continuing. I didn't change my tune. I attempted to clarify the point I was making because I realised that I hadn't made it clearly enough and it needed that clarification. Who is to say that the hypothetical person hadn't already moved to Australia and circumstances since then meant that they had to make a choice? It must be nice to be able to see life in such black and white stark reality and be so sure of your ethical place in the world. My experiences in helping people in these situations has unfortunately taught me that life is very rarely that simple. I don't charge a fee for it either before you try and question my ethics again. I sincerely hope you never find yourself in this situation. How would you possibly be able to live with yourself if you had to declare yourself bankrupt through no fault of your own?

Please don't question my ethics. That is simply unnecessarily insulting and uncalled for. If you wish to get personal then this can very quickly degenerate int0 a pointless name calling exercise. I would prefer a structured conversation but it is up to you. The commercial decision is not whether you wish to pay but whether you are able to pay. Maybe I should have made that clearer. I have seen too many people suffer severe mental anguish over the years over whether they can pay the debt due to the perceived moral views of others that it has taken them a long time to recover their health even after the financial side of things have been resolved. You are incorrect that the money has been stolen. As long as the agreement was made in good faith and you have made a concerted attempt to pay the debt then a person struggling to make those payments should never be afraid to take such a final drastic step for fear of being called a thief where the alternative is continuing concerted mental anguish. If you genuinely believe that they should then it isn't my ethics which should be in question is it?

Would being sanctimonious be classed as a positive or negative? Theft is illegal as is Fraud. Using pensioners is a cheap and grossly inaccurate attempt to take the moral high ground. You and I both know that the subject revolves around major corporate lenders. To try and imply anything else cheapens your argument. As I stated previously the original decision has to be made ethically and morally. Is judging others without knowing their situations morally acceptable then????

Unbelievable how another of these threads has degenerated from a simple request for advice on whether the OP can pay a credit card from here to an us versus them on the moral judgement of leaving debt in the UK. All this because of a simple statement that there it can be left which didn't either approve of this step or not but was a simple offer to provide information to help people if they wished to find out more. Good on him as far as I am concerned. Why is the decision to leave the debt a moral decision as opposed to a straight commercial decision? If I had debt in the UK which I wanted to leave because it made commercial sense for me to do so then I would and without a single guilty feeling on my part. Maybe its my background as an Accountant which allows me to view money dispassionately. I worked for one of the major banks just prior to the GFC and ended up being made redundant because of it. Did the bank feel that they had a moral obligation to keep me employed due to the financial trouble being of their own making or did they make a commercial decision that best suited what they needed at the time? I have long been of the opinion that the individual has as much right to make decisions based upon commercial impact as the large corporate does as long as they entered the initial agreement in good faith with the intention of fulfilling the terms of the contract. Those of you who sit in judgement of those who may have chosen to not continue to pay their debt without any knowledge of their personal situations need to take some time to reflect on why exactly you feel you have the right to do so. I have helped numerous newly bankrupted people in the past to get their lives back on track and in almost every case the biggest immediate benefit is that they can get a good night's sleep for the first time in a long, long time. Do you really think the lender loses any sleep as they are completing their insurance claim forms so that they get their funds back? Or the insurance company when they are completing the re-insurance claim form to make sure they are not left too far out of pocket. By the way Pabs, superb spot of fishing there mate. Got some crackers in the net. Before anyone decides to jump on me for my views please check my signature. These are my opinions and I am not really bothered whether you agree with them or not. The same as I would expect you to feel about whether I agree with yours. To the OP, I have been paying my own credit cards since we arrive 2 1/2 years ago and they are almost finished so it can be done. However, if I felt it necessary over the last couple of years to leave them in order to ensure that my family didn't suffer financially too much then I would have done so without a second's thought. Good lcuk Si

Hi Rob Take a look at my reccie and arrival report regarding what Perth is like as I have tried to do it in such a way as to avoid all extreme views that some people have of Perth. My simple view is to look at all of the wildly negative posts, then the wildly positive posts and settle on somewhere in the middle as a pretty good idea of what it's like. Personally, my family and I enjoy living here but it does have its downsides. It can be expensive but in a lot of professions the difference in wages offsets it. Not all but some. Forget the exchange rate at the bank. The important one for day to day living is the difference in your wages. What you earn in pounds in Scotland compared to what you earn in dollars in Australia is your real exchange rate. Once I made my wife realise that she admitted things did not seem as expensive as when she was using the banks rate. As a guide our personal rate is around 4x as my home town isn't known for its high salaries even for us accountants. If I had been an accountant in London then it would have been much lower. You get my drift. In terms of suburbs the vast majority will be within an hour's drive radius of the airport unless you want to live rural. If you are going to be FIFO then anywhere within an hour's drive will be fine as you won't be making the trip too often. I drive an hour each way every day and compared to the commute I used to have at home it is a doddle. There is a bit of rush hour traffic but not as much as I am used to. Hope this helps Si

We were on series six a couple of years ago. We went into it knowing that it would be edited to death in order for them to get the drama they wanted and so took it all with a pinch of salt. My stepdaughter was at uni and didn't want to come (even though the original idea had been hers) and so the big question for them was whether my wife would leave her behind. The fact she hadn't been living at home for 18 months and we saw her once every six months or so was conveniently overlooked. We didn't plan Australia with the view that it was better or worse than the UK but that we simply fancied trying something different. Its certainly that but not in the major things such as having to work, pay a mortgage etc. I know a lot of people go on about the weather and my opinion is that there are benefis to the climate here in WA. Yes, it is too bloody hot to go outside on some days but not the way that can be portrayed and the majority of the year you are able to get out and about "if you wish to". The difference with the UK is that often I would have liked to go to the park with my son but simply couldn't due to the weather. Even on the hottest days here you can wait until later in the day and still have a chance whereas at home the rain doesn't get any less wet as the day goes on. However, I would not for a second say that Australia is a better place than GB as I am very proud of my heritage but that at this moment in time it is better for us as a family. Kirsty even moved here to give it a go last September and judging by the hangover she is nursing at this moment in time is giving it a fair crack. I notice a few comments on housing etc. We have been here almost two years and are currently in our second rental. Oue new build will be completed in May and so we will have our own place again. For what its worth the house we are building is costing more than the highest valued house we were shown on the show but that is only because my salary is also higher. Swings and roundabouts. The programme is what it is, entertainment for the masses (but in our case a chance to validate our visa and have a first look at Australia for free) and should simply be seen as such. When was the last time you saw a truly factual programme on tv outside of the documentary channels and some of them are debatable?

Hi all I play for AFC Joondalup vets and we are looking to start a junior section for the coming season. We are going to be holding a couple of initial sessions at 6pm tomorrow and next Wednesday evening as we are looking to begin with an under 12 side initially and grow from there over the next few seasons. I will be coaching the side with the help of some of the other vets players and our main goal is for the kids to enjoy their football. I believe that the game is much more enjoyable when you are winning but if not it is important that, while they are young, the kids do not get too downcast if a game does not go their way. I coached kids for five years before coming to Perth and spent a couple of years with the Swansea City under 6's and 7's setup. We will be teaching the kids to get the ball down and play as this is the way we play as a vets team. If you fancy just coming along for a look and a chat then we will be getting together as mentioned above so hopefully I will see some of you there. Cheers Si (Simon)

I currently live in the Northern Suburbs and moved from a rental in Mindarie to one for four months in Clarkson until our new build is ready. I don't personally go in for the "this area is good, that area is bad" so I will not comment on the following places. Some areas are Mindarie, Clarkson, Jindalee, Quinns Rocks, Ridgewood, Kinross, Carramar, Alkimos, Connolly, Ocean Reef, Edgewater, Tapping, Ashby, Wannerroo, Woodvale. This is not exhaustive but plenty to be going on with. My only advice would be to not listen to others opinions of an area too much as compared to what many of us are used to in the UK there are very few genuinely rough areas, For example Mindarie is classed as a good area and Clarkson bad. I personally wish that I had moved from Mindarie to Clarkson a long time ago as I believe Mindarie is overrated other than the area right by the marina and landlords and agents are greedy in terms of rents etc for the houses you can actually get. I tend to judge an area by the state of their front gardens and I can probably count on one hand the number of scruffy properties I have seen in any of the areas in the last two years. One useful comment above is in relation to the commute to work. I work near Freo and even though I am used to commuting it does sometime get to be a bit of a bind. Then again cruising up the West Coast Highway on a sunny day certainly beats speeding down the M4 in pouring rain. Good luck Si

My youngest brother is a professional violinist who is hoping to release his first album in the middle of next year. Although he loves classical music most of his work is in more upbeat stuff and covers of songs such as Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. He only this morning sent me a link to the video he shot for his cover of The Rolling Stones' Wild horses. He has asked me to keep the link to myself until he has seen the finished video (he is at sea doing some cruise shows at the moment with poor wifi) but once he gives me the nod I will post the link so any of you Stones fans can judge. He is visiting us in Perth over Christmas and is in the middle of seven months straight of cruises around this part of the world. Would have been nice to see him put on a show while he was here but don't think it would be able to be organised. Cheers Si

I am also CIMA and from what you say above you will have no trouble. It is not post qualified experience but your experience overall. It may be worth you looking into the MRA that CIMA and CPA have. The cost is not really a great deal more but the skills assessment is awarded along with your membership here. You only need a letter of good standing as an Associate/Fellow from CIMA, complete the paperwork and pay the fee. It is also handy to have the CPA letters when you first get here to ensure that employers recognise the qualification you have although I have noticed CIMA is getting more of a mention if job adverts lately. You can always drop the CPA qualification once you have been here a little while if you find it is not adding any more value than your ACMA Good luck Si

One thing we can agree on is that you wouldn't get me working at the mine sites for any money. I work for one of the underground miners and as far as I am concerned the lads and ladies up there earn every penny they get.

You didn't comment about selected people, you made a sweeping generalisation about of group of occupations and all and sundry who hold a position within them. No different to the ridiculous generalisations about one race or another whether is be cold, pompous British or Racist Aussies. If you had left the corporate occupations part out then your second argument would have carried weight (or not even been required). How well you have fitted in when in other countries is irrelevant. The comment about your mindset is how you obviously view a group of people regardless of where they live or have come from. Geography and culture don't even come into it.

For what it's worth I hold one of the corporate occupations. Your opinion that I would look down on people because of my job says more about your mindset than mine. I think I will start a charity "Adopt an Accountant" where "normal" people get the chance to spend time with us and educate us about how real people live. Between my time in The Royal Navy Submarine Service and fifteen years working as an accountant in engineering, construction and manufacturing I am completely deprived of contact with how real people earn their money and live their lives. Thank God for my ivory tower or the minions would even be able to touch me.

Just read the match report from our game down your place last season. A good read and gave me a chuckle or two.

We will have to grab a beer when we come to play you this season mate. Not sure when the fixtures are out but I think the AFC Joondalup Hamersley game is going to be a tough one for both teams. Si