Bythesea

I got my job out here via Skype. Only thing I would add is that you have to be a bit more disciplined in waiting for the other person to finish before you start answering compared with a face to face. I "drive a desk" for a living and normally wear a suit. I had an interview at midnight (my time) and wore my suit and tie. The interviewer who is now my boss was surprised but I would rather have been over dressed than under dressed as impressions count and bad impressions count more....

The Leader of the Opposition is a coeliac and Melbourne is very friendly on the GF front. We live near a Gluten Free bakery which is great - they also supply cafes and restaurants. Our local Thai has a menu with all the GF stuff marked on it. Etc etc You do have to watch out though as some products do contain gluten where in the UK they don't eg mass produced ice cream..... But that isn't too much of a hardship as the gelato shops here are superb eg Davey Macs near us and very GF aware. In general there is far more awareness and even that great Melbourne dish the Parma sometimes comes in a GF version I was told that the reason for this was that there were more coeliac s in Aus was that the wheat here is harsher than in Europe. That might be cobblers though.....

By the way we used insure your move and made a claim which we were satisfied with after negotiation. But in the end they are a broker and you end up dealing with the insurance company behind them.

Not answering your question directly but really the question about insurance should be not what the premium is but what people's experience is on making a claim. You may get a cheap premium but if they are tighter than a gnatt's chuff when it comes to pay out you lose out big time. Not trying to be a smart arse but it is not about price but about value.

We shipped about 6 with no problems. Some from UK and some we had originally bought in NZ. Some had stamps on, some didn't and we had no problems. We declared them on our packing lists.

Thanks for both the repsosnes - much appreciated. BTS

That's an intersting one. Am still in the UK with my old man overseas/ UK and technology has certainly improved our relationship. Whereas we probably only phoned each other 4 times a year and caught up f2f once a year, with Skype etc we talk at least once a fortnight. He really is the tech-savy one with Pads & Pods coming out of his ears and I am the laggard.... So yes, although the miles can be further, it can be easier for relationships, IMHO. BTS

Hi hopefully someone can give us some recommendations....when we move to Oz we are looking at moving about 2/3rds of our stuff over and storing 1/3 in blighty. We are West Midlands based so if any one has any recommendations for storage companies we would be very grateful to hear about them. We are looking at long term humidity controlled storage and we will not need access to our stuff during the time it remains in the UK. Cheers BTS

I know the answer is no already, but just want you to put me out of my misery... :cry:I have an 05 plate Saab 9-5 estate diesel with 110,000 miles on the clock. I assume that a) cos it is so high mileage and b) Saab are no longer with us (RIP :cry: ) and c) the car is basically worth the square root of bu55er all, I should basically "lose" it (as no-one is going to nick it :laugh:) If I was staying in the UK, I would either run it into the ground or wait for it to gain classic car status :embarrassed: Shame as she is a great car, have no finance on it, she is in good condidtion, given us no problems & it suits us down to the ground. I love rocking up to work in it amongst all the Beamers & Audis clones. :jimlad: I guess the cost/ supply of Saab parts going forward really rule out us considering bringing it over. BTS