Phoenix16

Thank you and yes I think you are right, they move on and life moves on! The funny thing is I woke up on Christmas Day this year to a phone message (drunken Christmas Eve message from UK after 2 years of silence) saying I need to talk to you, I hate my husband etc, looked on FB loads of happy smiley Christmas Eve pics of them all together so I made the decision to enjoy Chrissie day and ring her in the new year, I then got loads of abusive messages about not caring, after no bloomin contact for 2 years what am I supposed to do, it was Christmas Day!!! anyway, I did her trick and just enjoyed my day....

I'm posting this in the hope of a really interesting debate! I've been in OZ for coming up 3 years, whilst I've embraced the new life and loved it I confess to deep dark moments, it's part of the transition I think! My rock was my friends in the UK, a rock solid group of mates I'd known for 20 years, we just 'got' each other and 'no matter where we lived in the world' I believed we'd always be friends, we bonded as teens and went through the generations together, we lost a dear friend to cancer and it just brought us even closer still,one of our crowd even won the lottery and still that didn't change the dynamics. Then, the bombshell im moving to OZ. It was amazing, everyone was happy, we had a fabulous party, we celebrated, we drank we all had a great time, to top it all we then had a quickie wedding/party and then we flew out the next day. All my friends were like 'oh we have this fab deal with BT, free international calls, can ring you all the time' BUT reality, they don't. AND as time passes, it seems resentment sets in and when you call them its hello but I'm just rushing out can you call me later and we will have a good catch up, and when you do they don't answer..... Anyway, long drawn out question but I'm interested to know, have friends disappointed you? Have people surprised you good and bad? I have to say some 'light' friends who I really didn't expect to keep in touch have been just amazing and gone to big efforts to keep in touch whilst my close mates seem to really not care.

Hi Jules, you are definitely not wasting your time. I have read your posts for a couple of years with great interest and have found them very useful. I was in UK when I first started on PIO and am now also in Perth, in fact Hammy Hill!! Your journey has been, and still is very interesting, I have to say I was shocked to log on one day and read that you were returning and I've read your posts avidly to understand what has happened. I completely understand, I think you are extremely brave and your journey to OZ, initially being happy then coping with the changes and your feelings shows just how strong you are. At the moment we are very settled and happy, it seems to be working out for us and I can't imagine that changing but also, I believe never say never, we just don't know what the future holds and how we change, but I wish you all the best and I hope you keep on posting and let us know how the journey back goes, and ignore the a users, there are many on here who really value what you have to say.

PS, when you get offered a place, in order to accept you send a cheque for around $4k, it's not deducted off any future fees, it's simply a big thank you for the placement, 3 years before they even walk through the door!!!!

cshowell, I believe you are right! I think some Perthites book their school places as soon as they get the positive pregnancy test! but indesisive39 is quite right, Perth can be very transient and places booked at birth become free regularly due to people being reposted over east or overseas, in theory you register your child at least 3 years before but the reality is very different as I discovered and I was unable to register my 3 year old for year 1 so had to settle for year 5 but she is on a waiting list for any available place that comes up earlier. I have been reassured by the school that there is actually lots of movement for the very reasons stated above. on a final note I will say getting a place at private school here is a shock compared to UK, it is aggressive and difficult, and for the privilege say bye bye to the best part of $20k per child per annum!!!!!

The words 'good relationship with the company' 'willing to sponsor us' are possibly the words many people on this forum dream of hearing, just my thoughts but its totally reasonable to expect to pay your own visa costs, everyone in UK with their fingers crossed for visas are paying their own costs, you're here, you're in a secure job with a company that appears to be looking after you, don't worry about the details just be thankful and happy....as I said, just my thoughts...

Welcome to WA and all the best! If I'm right you must be on the peel estuary near Mandurah, it's lovely there and we often plop down the river there on the boat! If you start feeling a little homesick I recommend you pop down to The Clansman for their Sunday carvery whilst you sit outside in the glorious sun admiring the wonderful views and supping ice cold beers, it's a lovely leisurely Sunday afternoon there!!!

We got married the day before we emigrated so ours was a big leaving/wedding party.! We basically told people to just come along and celebrate and say goodbye, no pressies needed! Some people brought champers which we all supped on the night (it turned into a very late and very boozy party!), but many people did give Aussie $$ in the cards which we didn't ask for but which we really appreciated and allowed us a few lovely meals out and treats in our first few weeks in OZ!

As above, if you are from a country with a reciprocal agreement then once here you can rely on Medicare. However, personal advice and from personal experience, having arrived here on a 457 with a good impatriate insurance policy in place, I was eternally thank ful for it when I became Ill and in need of surgery. I'm a relatively healthy person who did not foresee this but was thankful to have my surgery and regain my health much more quickly than I would under Medicare alone and thankfully for the insurance not too badly out of pocket. If you can afford to have the insurance I recommend you keep it on, you just never know and whilst OZ health care, in my experience, is absolutely fantastic, it doesn't come cheap, even on Medicare only you do have to pay towards specialists, scans, tests.....

Once your PR is through you will be eligible to claim a child care rebate if you a both working over 15 hours per week and this is 50% of your child care costs back up to a capped limit which I believe is $7500 per annum per child. Unfortunately you can't claim this on a457 but hopefully if your PR application has already been submitted you won't have to wait too much longer xx

Our ENS PR took about 7 weeks from Lodgement to granting but was pre July changes.

I'm not very savvy with money but I've learnt fast in Perth! I have only lived in Perth so I cannot speak for the rest of OZ. My experience is that on arriving I was shocked at the cost of things. I truly believe if you want this enough you can make it work and I think you have to try it. However, shoot me down in flames by all means but I still can't get my head around spending $500k for an average house in an average area, you get to a point where this is the norm but when I occasionally find myself watching 'Million Dollar Property-Hollywood' and thinking wow that's a good price compared to Perth, I have to wonder!!

I have no desire to return to the 'motherland' but I loved the article and identified with it so much!! yes, I still apologise when some one bumps into me and I think I always will, I always say its the POM in me!! The article was a little tongue in cheek but a wonderful read and I really enjoyed reading it, made me nostalgic but not yearning!

I had to have an operation whilst on a 457 and also had impatriate insurance, at the time we had applied for PR, my experience was that firstly as a UK citizen my impatriate insurance would only provide the cover that OZ citizens receive in Australia, therefore, I received the Medicare rebate for out of hospital expenses only, for in hospital expenses, again I was only covered to the extent an Australian Citizen with private health insurance was and I had out of pocket expenses. I was told if I came from a country with no reciprocal agreement I could have claimed 100% of all costs. However, I was also told that this would not have applied as a consequence of my PR application being lodged and as such I would then have been covered only up to and including the costs that Australian citizens or PR's would be covered via Medicare and private insurance. Saying that, I got the best care, went through the health system very quickly and was very very happy and relieved at the end of it all.

As the OP I set up this thread after hearing about what sounded to me to be a hilarious prank, it was meant to be a bit of a jokey thread and I suspected there would be a 'those that thought it was funny/those that didn't' debate. I definitely wasn't thinking of the implications to the nurses involved in terms of code of conduct issues and I absolutely NEVER EVER imagined the ultimate tragedy this story would become. obviously as this has all unfolded I've had many different thoughts and lots of the comments posted on this thread have been very thought provoking and have certainly made me see things differently, thank you to everyone who has contributed.

To be honest I don't know too much about the story just had my mate ranting on about it being bad! I hope the nurse survives, we all make mistakes! I didn't think of the issues and yes you are quits right, illegal, but I suppose the royals being high profile are always going to be a target. I hope the nurse gets a little bit of support we all make mistakes and I'm sure she felt under tremendous pressure,

I don't think I've ever started a thread before but just had a call from a friend in UK telling me how 'outrageous' it was that an Aussie radio show called the hospital where Kate Middleton is pretending to be the queen! Her words..'it's all over the news and some heads are rolling....' Ive done a quick google search and from what I've seen it was totally hilarious and good on em for getting away with it, what's the problem? I've belly laughed, it's totally hilarious and I for one say what's the blooming problem???

I'm sure he will do very well, he's got his range in Target now so it seems he's building up his Aussie profile!! Hubby loves Jamie, I'm sure we will go along and have a meal. It'll be a one off tho rather than a regular thing and in between that we will continue to adore dining at some of the amazing Italian places in Freo (biased I know, but to me simply the best place in the world!,)

This is a really interesting thread and I'm quite shocked at the book worms who have found it easy to move to digital books!! I've got the iPad and every other modern digital aid!!but I just can't ever see myself ever moving from real books, I adore to read, I read all the time but I love book shops, I love to open a book and sniff the new pages, I love to bend back the spine and roll around in bed getting into a comfy potition as I fall into the story and I just can't see a kindle replacing that! I love my library, or rather my piles of books piled high everywhere I can store them, including the bathroom (hands up who has never had a quick read on the lavvy!) my hubby indulges my whim and I just can never see the day it's all digital......

Just finished Ben Elton's 'Two Brothers', never ever read Ben Elton before but this was just incredible and I would class it as possibly one of my best reads ever, It was simply amazing....

All I can say is that in the 6 months leading up to my migration I started to have some health issues that were dismissed by GP's in the UK and no tests taken, I arrived in OZ and was consumed with settling in and building a new life, the health issues got to the point that they could no longer be ignored, I saw a GP, had a few scans and was quickly (within days) seeing a consultant, by which point the issues were so servere my only option was a full hysterectomy at the age of 42, I subsequently had the op 2 weeks later. Now 18 months later, it was the best decision, at the time it felt overwhelming and I felt angry at all the GP's I'd seen previously who didn't take my symptoms as seriously as they should. Yes, I paid a fair few $1000's over here but actually I don't feel angry, just grateful for the swift diagnosis and that I got my life back. and most of all I feel eternally grateful for the amazing health care I really believe I got here.

We had a child together which possibly helped but a few joint bank statements, a couple of years joint council tax bills and the visa was granted 2 days after lodgement. We then did the silliest thing and got married the day before we flew out!!!

Could I suggest you give Hammy Hill more thought!! We bought an older house for $585k on a massive plot with a very large garden both front and back and a massive pool. it's an older area with large plots on very wide roads, it's 5 mins to Freo and the beach, it's literally half a km to Coogee Marina and its a 10 minute commute to the new hospital when it opens. the initial plan was to knock the house down and rebuild but were actually loving living in it and are now seriously considering renovating and extending, we have plenty of space to do it!, Freo is very expensive but just going a KM away makes all the difference and they say Hammy Hill is a growing market with rising prices, it's an Italian community with loads of the big ostentatious Italian looking houses, you either love em or you hate em and I actually love them!!! It has a real community feel, we have lovely neighbors and we feel very safe. We initially lived in 'swanky' South Beach where the plots were tiny with no outdoor space and we got burgled while we were asleep! With Hammy Hill we feel we have found a hidden secret and on a good day we can see the ocean or walk there in 10 mins, everything's on the doorstep and the council are really committed to improving the area. Have a look and if you have any questions feel free to PM me. best of look with the house arch, exciting times for you xxxx

Congrats and fngers crossed for you! as far as im aware if you are UK based and a citizen you dont need a medical exam, if you did your agent would have advised you. Sit back and relax, our 457 took 2 days but the employer sponsorship had alreay been approved, yes OZ likes degrees but also experience counts for alot, im sure if there were concerns your agent would ave alerted you. i wish you all the best xxxxxxx