chiara

Scottish Stacey, I haven't read all these posts, so someone may have already said this, but I wonder if your OH realises how hard 4 and 1 will be for him. My DH does 2 and 1 and is so ready to come home after the two weeks. He's commented that there is no way he could do 3 and 1 (which was mooted at work) so I can't imagine how hard 4 and 1 is. They basically work all day, 12 hours a day, he has no time to even chat on the phone, and no days off. It's a very harsh regime and I honestly don't think he'll stick it for too long. And don't even get me started on how hard it is at home. My baby was actually looking under the sofa for 'daddy' this morning, and my 5 year old tells random people in the mall that his daddy is away. It's heartbreaking to see them trying to figure it out and make sense of it. I worry that he will eventually become irrelevent to them, not to mention me. I have found I have hardened since this all started, have gone into myself a little, and really am just holding my breath for 2 weeks while I wait for him to return. If he were gone for 4 weeks I'd be back in Ireland, no doubt about it, even at 2 weeks I'm considering it. Just my take on it... edited to say that he gets up at 4.45 and gets back after 7, so 12 hours is an understatement..

Me too! When people talk about moving to oz for 'the lifestyle', I think they mean basically that it is sunny and you can go to the beach. Sadly for me I'm not much of a fan of the beach, to me 'good lifestyle' means being able to eat out a lot; going to nice bars for a glass or two and pub grub or cheap bistros for a salad and a bottle of wine (of course 5 kids does tend to make this difficult at the best of times), but it became quickly apparent that this was NOT going to feature hugely in my life here. Try eating out when there are seven of you!! There are some beautiful wineries around here up in the hills, but they ain't cheap so we've only been a couple of times in 6 months. We tend to get fish'n chips take out for a treat for the kids (they are very good here btw) or the food court in the mall. Sad eh?

Rikyuu, also I forgot to add that one agent required the name and address of the estate agent in Ireland dealing with renting out our house over there!

My husband was offered a job over the phone...you don't have to be here to be offered a job, just make sure your cv pops so to speak. With your qualifications, you'll get a fifo position easily enough I would think.

Hi Mrs Keily We chose the hills because, well firstly because I really didn't fancy the suburbs, felt they lacked any sort of atmosphere or character. Having said that, we did try to rent a property around Connolly, Quinns rock etc but every house we 'applied' for rejected us, time was running out, the temporary rental was drawing to a close, and a nice woman from pomsinoz contacted us about a house she knew was for rent in the hills (she had read on another thread that I had liked the hills). The landlady didn't require my birth weight or mother maiden name, just a bank lodgement and a commitment to keep the place nice. We knew it was too small but we were desperate. It was a no brainer really. And yes, perhaps at this stage we would consider moving elsewhere, but the children are now settled in school so we're constrained by that. And no not all houses are like that one, but the nicer ones get snapped up in seconds.

I have tenants back in Ireland, they pay 650 euros a month (that's about 780 dollars) for a two story, four bedroom house on .7 of an acre. The house has four large bedrooms, massive kitchen etc etc. fully furnished, right down to red smeg fridge and matching curtains and scatter cushions... if something goes wrong with the dishwasher, I pay for it; if they want to mow the lawn, I buy them a lawnmower; if they want a new microwave, I buy one... that's all fine if I am treated the same way here, but I'm not, so I lose out on both counts. That can be a bit gutting..particularly when the rent I get only covers half the mortgage. What's worse is that I can't even FIND a house here where we live. Houses in the hills come up so rarely that they are snapped up. The estate agent mustered up enough energy the other day to tell me that finding a house was unlikely since there was a waiting list for the area we want to live in, and with five kids we're way down the pecking order. Frustration!!

Jove, I love it!! but on a 457 visa buying is virtually impossible...and even after that -- ie on a PR -- buying seems a fools game... the average cost is $500k for a house which in Ireland would be considered a prefab with a corrugated iron roof!! It's a joke!!

OK you are all shocked at that house. But are you telling me this is so unusual? OK yes I included this house in my blog because it was particularly vile, but in general many houses I've had to consider were certainly not what I would consider acceptable in Ireland. Maybe I'm spoiled, but nice interiors, clean walls, hard floors should be the norm... particularly with rentals. In the hills we're dealing with huts in the woods....it's depressing...

Jove, in the hills this is standard at that price. For something decent we're facing $600 + for something really nice we're facing $800 + It's a joke!

northshorepom...the rest of the pics are worse... http://reiwa.com.au/Rental-Properties/Hazelmere/3111435

Longtime lurker, thanks for the compliment -- would love to get a regular column in a newspaper, but so far no luck!

Mods, I hope you don't mind, but my latest blog post is about finding a rental, and I though it might be of interest to your readers....:biggrin: http://www.chroniclesofatrailingspouse.com/2012/07/house-renting-nightmares-and-postal.html

That is exactly why I've decided to avoid the dental option since there is in fact no benefit at all!

Well let me share a bit more knowledge... OK, so daughter will need braces, but in the meantime she needed some extractions, filling etc... I went to a local dental clinic, who has quoted me 165 dollars for an assessment and xray, fair enough. Took her there, dentist did his thing, then said 'now I'm going to give them a bit of a clean, ok?' I said 'yeah sure, whatever' as I had a sleeping one year old sitting in the car outside the window so I was distractedly dashing to and from car to check on him. Went to pay, and was charged 280 dollars. I said 'but that wasn't the quote' and was told that she had a clean, which was 90 dollars extra. Was livid! Aneeewayyyy, was also given a quote for further work of 1200 dollars. Agreed a schedule and left. A teacher then mentioned the school dental bus so I checked it out. Drawn out story short, they are now doing all that minor work for free!! How brilliant is that!! The gave her an appointment in two days, so no long delays etc... check it out if you have kids, save yourself a fortune!

Very stormy, that is a good point, moving up the career ladder would solve the problem for sure. As for fifo families, yes I've 'liked' them on facebook, although joining them for get together's feels like I'm resigned to my fate, whereas I rather battle it and change it...story of my life!!

Ermintrude mcmoo, the cost of an au pair would probably cancel out the benefit of working away. Also, our house is so tiny there's no room!! I do have friends who will take one or two of them occasionally, so I'm lucky. It's just overall the situation is unsatisfactory. He's home next week so he can make some appointments and meet some people hopefully..

Pluto, I have three little boys in my bed at night, last night four!! Regarding quality of time, this sounds awful but I don't really care about that, I care about someone being there to deal help deal with it when a fight breaks out, or helping to get them into bed. Just someone else to be working in tandem with me, so that I might have an uninterrupted shower etc... Yes, I think it would be easier if we figured out a strategy, at the moment it feels as if this is our lot with nothing to aim for. God I don't know how you'd regularly cope with six months though, that is cruel. I did five months apart last year when he was still in the Middle East, and it was hell. One thing I've learned is that I will be encouraging my children to go for professions that mean they will always be employable in their home country, or at the very least not obliged to live far away from their loved ones. I'm sure if he had his time over, DH would have opted to do something else in college...

Thanks Verystormy, have been looking at MR, and it looks nice, but there are so many options I sort of got lost in it all... but I am interested in visiting the area. As for camping, well a liking for an actual bed and a bathroom is enough to turn me off that option in any case!

With DH coming home next weekend, I want us to go somewhere for a couple of nights and need suggestions. I don't want to have to drive more than three hours in any direction, ideally, and we need somewhere that is kid friendly so that we're not spending our entire time trying to amuse them. Can anyone suggest somewhere? I'm thinking it would need to be self catering, somewhere where we can perhaps get a nice glass of wine, some sort of kiddie playground, a heated pool with be in the realm of fantasy, and really just somewhere spacious enough for 5 kids. I've had some suggestions on facebook, but none of them were big enough. Also, I really don't want to spend any more than 300 dollars a night. Am I dreaming?? Oh, and don't suggest camping, I watched 'a cry in the dark' the other night, and there ain't no way I'm risking dingos, snakes or anything without a vertebrae visiting me in the night.... :err: Any ideas?

Scottish Stacey, I'm ashamed to say that the roster is 2 and 1, considering some people do 4 and 1. It's not the worst at all, but at the end of the day we are no longer a proper family, I'm essentially a single mother here, and that's crap. Yes he comes home for a week, but all I can think is 'well 6 days left, now 5, now 4....' I know that's not the right mindset, and I'm sure there's a ton of advice out there about how to cope etc.. but the question on my mind is 'why should I have to learn to 'cope' with something which I find to be unacceptable in the first place?' Some will say well we knew what we were coming to, and that's true, but then we had no choice, nothing else was on offer and we were desperate. Arrgh, am starting to whinge now so will shut up now...

Thanks guys, that sounds hopeful, although as Bensdad points out, the money will be significantly less which is a worry since before he started fifo we were barely making ends meet... its a bad situation when the only way of coping financially is by living apart. Not really my description of a 'better life' really is it? Hmmm feeling v negative about the whole thing today....

Seriously, nothing? In a fit of pique last night (over the phone) I told him if he doesn't find a job in Perth I'm going back to Ireland; if I must be alone, I may as well be in my own home (which was spectacularly unreasonable of me, but feck it I'm sick of being alone all the time).

Hi thereDH is doing FIFO at the mo, and I really can't stand it -- with five kids and in a new environment, I'm really not enjoying the experience. He's a project manager in construction (civil engineer by training) and seems to think that finding a job here in the city will be impossible, and that we have no choice. Well I can't believe that, there must surely be some large construction projects going on around the city -- but where? Does anyone know if anyone is hiring at the moment? Please let me know!

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/news-chat-dilemmas/71316-dental-work.html Here's a link started by the lady I spoke to...

Lara Bond, will find out where they went!