pintpot

Same for Yanks then :biggrin:

Same for Poms then

Bit of a nightmare, given that water sports are the only thing that keeps living in Perth from being about as interesting as watching a plank warp, by all accounts Still, who can say life is dull when you're trying to outrun a Great White? Just remember, like with lions, you don't have to outrun the shark yourself - just the bloke next to you :biggrin:

Possibly both of them have. An acquaintance (friend would be pushing it) was brought in from Tesco to sort out their online offer and brought a lot of staff with him over the next year or two

Woolies mobile has a really generous data allowance on pre-paid $2 for a SIM, $29 recharge gets you 5GB of data - cheap as chips. You'll struggle to get more than 1 or 2 GB with anyone else Runs on Optus' network so pretty good coverage. Don't know Cairns but I can't imagine it won't be covered http://www.woolworthsmobile.com.au/ Working off Wi-fi hotspots is a pain in the a45e IME - it's bad enough in London, where there are more, here I haven't tried but it's usually just too much gyp - even if you can access for free you'll be entering passwords and registering for loads of different hotspot services, it just gets too difficult. It's not like you can just travel around and the iPad will just connect seamlessly to any Wifi network in range $29 is virtually free anyway, it's about the price of a couple of beers after all ;-)

There's an add-on for Firefox and Chrome called "stealthy" that automates the search for a helpful proxy server that I use. It doesn't always work because it depends what proxies are available, also lots of them can be slow, but it usually suffices for me to watch UK TV without a UK IP address. If it's not working then I have a downloaded prog on the laptop that does a similar thing (Expat Shield), but it has more stable/more usable proxies The add-on will work for US sites, not sure about ES I only use it intermittently, if there's a series on the BBC or C4 at home that I want to catch before it surfaces over here. If I was a telly addict then it might be worth my while paying for one of the commercial VPN services, which I am told tend to have quicker/better connections. But the basic process is always the same, you connect through a server that's in the country desired (or looks like it is)

Quite fortunate, given this on the same page ;-) http://www.news.com.au/business/city-of-haves-and-havent-got-a-job/story-e6frfm1i-1226316078595 Woolies are investing a lot in modernising.....they have hired a lot of top people from Tesco in the past 2 years and trying to exert a big change in the business model. Will be interesting to see how it pans out - not sure the way the big supermarkets treat agricultural suppliers in the UK is something people would want to emulate, but that's already started One thing I find odd in reports/debates about the big supers is the attacks they get for replacing branded goods with "own brand" labels. A lot of the lower-end market branded stuff is garbage IMO (think of the blummin' awful branded cooked meats, cheese, stuff like that), and deserves to have its market taken away by own brands - maybe they'll get pushed into upping their game in terms of quality and leave the bottom of the market to the supers' own labels, as happens elsewhere

100%. You can't JUST go on results

That But you'll have to do plenty of research. There's more to what's the "right" school than just what people think is the "best" school, IYSWIM. And you can't apply for them all. So pick and choose, don't panic, and do the rounds when you get here. Your kids are still very young so plenty of time. IME in the UK waiting lists aren't set in stone, it's not a case of "first off the rank", if the school suits your child (like if it's sports, music, academically oriented) and they want your child, they'll make space even if you weren't strictly first in the queue. Obviously there are limits, I just don't think it's desperate to get them on the lists at all costs *right now*. This seems to apply in Aus and the UK, fwiw When we were in the UK we thought we had to flap about trying to get our 4 year old into the right private school (as that's what we were used to) from day one, because of the timing we missed the boat anyway to get him in for this year and then when we looked into it further most of them wouldn't have taken him anyway until 2013 regardless because he is young for his year (June baby) and the private schools in Sydney have different (earlier) cut off dates than the govvie schools, and most won't take kids born after April. Turns out his government primary school is excellent, we couldn't be happier with it and he is blossoming there and is visibly really happy, learning, developing in all respects as much as we could wish for. We sent him to an assessment for Sydney Grammar 2 weeks ago and whilst they'd be happy to take him, we've agreed with the school that it would probably be best to make the transition in Yr 3, ie 3 years time, as the age differences from their PoV will have ironed out a bit by then and he and we will have more time to form lasting friendships before yet more change

If money's no object, then I'm done with old houses - I'd want to build my own new one, and it'd be very modern and uniquely designed with spaces to suit how we'd want to live. And most importantly it would be as close to zero energy as it was possible to make it. The price of energy is only going to get higher in the future, quite possibly cripplingly so and quite quickly. That alone makes me not want an old house. There's just some fantastic tech available now both to reduce energy loss and to provide heating/cooling/ventilation with minimal input and I'd want to take advantage of that. It's one of the reasons the p1ss poor standards of insulation and draughtiness that appear to be acceptable here wind me up - lots of the houses I've seen here are shockingly badly built Money probably will be an object, of course, it always is, so I bet we end up buying an older house with a bit of character again :biggrin: My last house dated back to the 14th century (with extensive alterations down the years since). Lovely but a constant maintenance headache. In particular, not having to worry about the inevitable roof replacement that was looming at some point in the next 5 years at a price of somewhere north of 50K is a massive weight off the shoulders

I don't think many teachers like the testing either.....but they're not really who the testing systems are supposed to serve. I think they are supposed to serve government to some extent (to allocate resources or to address failures) and parents (to enable them to have some choice or to apply pressure to schools) I don't think they're very effective, but you have to have some system of measurement and I think it's in the nature of education that you'll always get shedloads of argument/debate about how that system might best be set up. The elephant in the room in terms of what people often think of as a "good school" is that there is tons of class prejudice - I recall a school near us at home that had resources pumped into it by the LEA, they appointed an inspiring head, poor teachers were fired or redeployed elsewhere, the head picked a new and high quality team, discipline was enforced, etc etc etc.....it worked in terms of outcome by whichever way you wanted to measure it - "outstanding" Ofsted reports, increased exam and SATS results, higher "value added" scores. Loads of people still avoided sending their kids there, because it was in the middle of a council estate. Regardless of how good an education it provided, people from middle class villages didn't want their kids mixing with the council estate kids. It's pretty hard to break that down I'm not a teacher fwiw, my recent exposure to the school system is from having a child of school age and being involved in setting up PPP companies as part of the "Building Schools for the Future" programme in the UK. That got cut by the new government of course, because it was seen as wasteful, and it did involve a lot of cost, but there was a lot of collateral damage involved in cutting it. Lots of people saw it as an expensive vehicle to deliver a new school building, but it wasn't really about that; to win the competition to provide educational buildings and services, you had to make a holistic pitch centred around an educational philosophy, and then show how the buildings and facilities were designed around that philosophy. The pace of progress in both educationalism and building design created by the competitive process was quite astounding - A bid that would have won a scheme in 2006 wouldn't even have been in the running by 2009

Somewhere new that I haven't tried before. IME of moving about a lot, trying to go "back" anywhere and re-create a life that has gone is generally disappointing. Even if you have almost universally fond memories of that previous life (perhaps that just makes it worse). And when I think of the places in the UK that I have loved living the most (Suffolk, Cambridge, west side of Sheffield, Vale of Glamorgan), my wife doesn't feel the same way about any of them It would all depend on the availability of work in any case

An ingenious attempt to get past some of the silly driver learning rules here, nice try Not sure how it would pan out in practice. Back in the "good old days" you could play tunes with this sort of thing, I have a biker mate in the UK who has never passed a bike test for example: He got a provisional licence in the UK, a few months later his folks emigrated, he came to Aus (I forget which state) at a time when you couldn't get a P licence here without passing the practical test so that's the licence the Aussie state gave him. After a year it got converted into a full licence, and when two years later he went back to the UK, chopped it in for a full UK licence. I bet you couldn't do that now :-)

So am I interested I'm inclined to agree, however: Are they? This isn't my experience Aren't they? I think they are allowed (indeed, encouraged) to do exactly that One of my concerns on this issue is that a lot of the criticism of conventional schooling appears to be on a belief that it (conventional schooling) is all about teaching by rote, forcing kids into boxes, constant exam pressure and stress and a grey drudgery of straitjacketed education that doesn't allow kids, parents or teachers to explore different avenues and gain a broad education. And I just don't think that's the case

Good company, they are a proper outfit. Good luck

My perfect job (not restricted to Oz) has to be a cricket commentator. Specifically on TMS You only have to do 20 minute stints once an hour or so, the rest of the time you can bumble about; game doesn't start until 10-11am depending on country, so no early starts; you get to watch a game you love without being nagged/badgered to go and do some DIY or something; a few cheeky ales whilst working aren't going to get anyone overexcited; you get to talk rubbish with your mates and get paid for it; it's only played in summer, so wherever you go travelling with your job it's always decent weather; and now Pakistan is off the agenda for touring sides, *almost* everywhere you go is a really quite nice place to be as well. And it's a job that will be forever closed to the Yanks and Chinese ;-) What's not to like? :biggrin: Tough gig to get into though :-(

The experiment's been tried a few times with mixed results. Perhaps this time we could learn from our mistakes and not found the colony with religious nutters (US), convicts (Aus) or Jocks (NZ). Secular law-abiding English only need apply. No need to find an island....just identify a piece of land, decide the current inhabitants are sub-human, declare it Terra Nullius and just move in. There's a rather nice piece of land just over the channel that will do just fine :biggrin:

PS Don't think we'll let you escape Sydney without an overpriced and poor quality beer, drunk in a rubbishy pub that's more like a betting shop :biggrin:

If you are going back for good anyway, as you have decided to do I believe, then I would probably chance it tbh. It's when the split has an open-ended time limit on it that I would be more cautious It's not ideal but......you're heading home anyway, you know you'll be happier there, the job might not hold itself open for ever, etc etc......

It is more hassle renting out furnished but it depends on your target market. If you are trying to rent to young professionals/graduates straight out of Uni, postgrad students, that sort of market, then it needs to be furnished, because these sort of tenants don't have their own furniture and unfurnished is a hassle for them Think back to your own experience - I rented furnished through Uni and for 5 years afterwards in about 4 different places, before I bought a house. It was only once I'd bought my first house I bothered to buy furniture

I wouldn't spend too much time looking at Mosman with a budget of <$1K a week, unless you want to live in a flat - but I think from earlier posts you don't. You won't find a house there for that Cars are the norm here......without one you can probably do work and school commutes and so on and get about the city lightly loaded. I suspect it's shopping that will kill you

According to the data, it is worse. But I don't think it's by much, and like most of these things there will be wide variances between states, cities, suburbs and all sorts of other stuff I wouldn't be making any decision to live in the UK or Aus based on drugs. But if lived in an area (in either country) that was blighted by them, I'd be looking to move to a different area

Singapore is a much nicer airport and less hassle then Bangkok. Can't help with KL as I've never been through it - but Singapore is a pretty safe bet Don't worry about timing. These airports are major hubs and are busy at all times with people travelling, planes in and out all the time and so on. You won't be disturbuing anyone

I've given you two - firstly you swept everyone disagreeing with you into a pigeonhole labelled "do gooders", and secondly (I've already told you this one, you must have missed it), you suggested people were commenting based on "unqualified or second hand opinions". Most people commenting have first hand experience of living in both countries/systems, of course. They don't have your experience, but they do have theirs and it's just as valid

Quite. And it's anyone else's prerogative to disagree with you as well You've made as many assumptions in this post as anyone else has on the thread. Choosing to use a silly derogatory pigeonhole (that you've repeated three times) for anyone who's disagreed with your OP for a start, and then adding on a big fat assumption about others' opinions being "unqualified or second hand" Good luck to you in your move. Seriously. And I meant what I said about concentrating on the positives, it makes migration much easier/more successful *and* will leave you a happier person too. IMO and E