Nathalie
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Everything posted by Nathalie
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I use Tom Tom on my smartphone aswell as google maps ( which also has turn by turn navigation) google sometimes has it wrong but it's got nice features ( such as traffic) and is free. Tom Tom is good but doesn't look as fancy as maps. If you have a smartphone get a holder for in the car and maybe try out maps first?
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Plenty of casual games available for mac, but still many popular games ( shooters, mmos) are only available on windows. You can install windows on your mac but many wont find that easy to do.
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It depends on your most important criteria. If money is not one of them, the iMac is simply the best hardware wise and you get good service. If budget is important then manufacturer is all the same to me, might aswell go for one that looks good. If you're a gamer you may want to go for a random windows machine.
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Telstra has the best coverage everywhere. I'm on the payg cap+ plan and decide every month how much I want to put on the card. For $30 you get 400mb of data and $300 of calls, which can be international as well. It suits my needs. If I need more I can top up or go for a higher cap. Example: the $60 payg top up gives you 3gb of data and over$900 to spend on calls. In think that's an extremely good deal. Downside ( for some) is that you have to have your own phone ( it's an upside for me) which could mean you have to pay a couple of hundred up front to buy a handset.
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Just type in google micro sim cutter and you'll find lots if stores that sell them.
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In our case, the sim got cut to the right size (ie micro sim) by the guy in the telstra shop. We also got one of these " micro-sim card cutters" ourselves too, just in case we needed to do it ourselves. (the micro sim is simply a normal sim with just less plastic around the electronic bit)
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Starting married life in OZ? All I can find is negative feedback :(
Nathalie replied to Tea4two's topic in Aussie Chat
You need to take the negative feedback as a "reality check". That's what I did, it just gives you a good idea of the good and the bad. If you have the right attitude you believe this country is for you, you will make it. We have come here on £20.000, my OH got a job within 3 weeks (90k) and although we spent alot on setting ourselves up, we have money left over and we are even able to save some money each month from his salary alone. I will start working next week, and we will be MUCH better off then we were in the UK, not to mention our quality of life has improved enormously. Don't let the negativity scare you off, Australia has much to offer and sounds to me you have not got a lot to lose. -
Tried thanking you multiple times Pumpkin, didn't work Back to the topic, I understand when people struggle for one reason or the other (nerves, not used to the format) but if non native speakers can pass relatively easily, then I don't see why it's extremely difficult or complex for native speakers.
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We just made a list with things that needed to be done and then ranked them in order of time it takes to get it sorted and when it needs to be sorted by. You have plenty of time, we felt once we booked the flights we had a set date and worked from there. Just write down all the things you can come up with, add stuff later you forgot and then start ticking things off the list once you have done it. Maybe someone has a premade list for you hehe, but it's really common sense, write up and start doing I say I have no kids so that makes it a little more complicated I guess, but plenty of families on here who can give you tips
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Bit of a broad question....you could "start planning the move"? It all depends on when you want to go, where you want to go, do you have commitments (house etc), dependents (schools etc). You may want to be a bit more specific in what you want to know.
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iPhone definitely works In general if you have a contract phone it's locked to your carrier. You can ask them to unlock it if you tell them you are migrating and want to take the phone with you. If you buy a phone outright independent of carrier it's generally unlocked and you can stick in any sim.
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I'd be interested in this myself, I'm not in your target group as I'm Dutch, but have lived in the UK for 9 years. I sat the test for a "just to be sure" reason and found it incredibly easy myself (overall 8.5 score) and very straightforward. My other half is born and bred English and although his grammar is worse then mine, he passed himself with the same score and the only part he found "hard" was the physical writing itself (as in writing with a pen rather then typing on a keyboard).
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Speed is very important for us, and when we went househunting, every address was checked to see how far it was from the exchange. We think we should have an acceptable speed, here's to hoping The NBN is a fantastic project and I hope it will be very successfull.
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Good on you bhoz, go for it if you feel confident. It's an adventure and you may find what you are looking for. Although many people are negative there are as many who are positive and if you have the right attitude you will make it.
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Your "own" credit (ie the amount you pay to top up) rolls over. Only the bonus one doesn't (logically)
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You may consider buying your iPhone outright from the Apple store, they then come unlocked and you can insert any sim you like (regardless of country - this is also handy if you go abroad). Then get a prepaid sim of your liking and voila, you're done. No credit checks needed, all sorted 15 mins after you walk out of the phone shop. In the UK the 16GB iPhone costs around £600, so if it's in your budget, I'd say it's definitely worth considering. You can also buy it in Australia (I believe consumer electronics are slightly cheaper here), but then you'll have to locate the store first.
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We went with http://bargainrentacar.com.au/ and we hired ours for $660 for a month, this was about $800 cheaper then any of the big ones. I believe they do also pick ups from the airport to get you to your car.
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Slainte, can I ask what mobile phone you plan on using?
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You can find the various packages here: http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/prepaid/prepaid-offers/ We took the pre-paid Cap+ with $60 credit (ie, you need to top up $60 a month to get the benefits).
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This site will show you which providers are where and you can type in addresses to see how far you are from the exchange - http://www.yourbroadband.com.au/ Also, if $60 a month isn't too much for you, get the prepaid sim from Telstra, it will give you 3GB of data (and you can tether it to your laptop) plus $940 additional to call/text, even internationally and to international mobiles. I've called internationally with it (mostly mobiles) last month for around 12 hours and could not even spend it all (I think it was worth about $700 that I called for), and that for only $60.
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Apparently it's a $20 penalty if you don't vote, cheaper then a speeding ticket
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coming from Holland where they incidentally make the best mayo in the world, having lived in the UK for 9 years and thus dealing with the english crap all that time, I can't imagine it being worse!
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great to hear your outlook has become a bit more positive mcginlm72 We came here mainly because of me. I moved to the UK from Holland because my partner is English, however the UK never had my fancy and always dreamed of somewhere with nice weather and lots and lots of space. I've grown to dislike the UK very much, and my OH grew to the idea of moving out here. Lots of investigation and we were pretty convinced things here could only improve our lives compared to the UK (ALOT more earnings, better jobs, alot more space and did I say the weather?) We've been here now for over a month and sofar we feel we have made the right decision
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I think the advantages of being a citizen outweighs the "disadvantage" of spending an hour of my time to vote every few years...it actually seems quite a bargain
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we went with the Visa Bureau and we have been very satisfied with them. They kept us informed every step of the way and in our case we had our visa's within 10 months from starting the process. I Had a bad experience with another company and if you want details please PM me.