marta

We have top level with MediBANK too and are charged $470 as I mentioned earlier, and we have to pay the extra % for MediCARE as well. Hmmmmmmm now I am very confused.:eek:

-You cannot take your Super with you should you leave Australia as you have to wait until pension age. -A PR costs a lot of money and you have the hassle to get all those documents again (police check, medicals etc). Anyone else? Would be interested to know as well...

That's right. If you can afford it - the better.

We have top cover with Medibank (I am German and without a job so we need it as I am not covered by Medicare) and pay $470 each month together for partner insurance.

Yes please, and can I have a job too please.

I am not a Pom but I am in love with a Pom - and with Pommieland as well!:notworthy: Overall there are so many lovely spots in the UK, lots of beautiful nature and amazing history, so much diversity. I wish I had travelled more when I was living up there. Maybe one day...when we are back in Europe.

Hi my partner and I have been living off 80k together and we are doing well, however, we rarely spend money on entertainment (eating out, travel, movies etc), we don't have a car, don't smoke and don't drink. We live in St Kilda in a crappy flat and pay $475 p/w which is just ridiculous. But overall you should be fine with 95k! Even when your partner doesn't work. Good luck!

Would recommend self-packing when you have that many books. We had too, and we wouldn't let anyone near them because we knew best how to pack them without damage. Maybe a little crazy but it worked out... Good luck and all the best! Do you start working in academia if I may ask?

Well yeah public transport in rush hour is almost like in London... But with the big difference that people in London know what to do when there is hardly any space on the tram or the trains whereas here in Melbourne you basically lose out when you try to be nice and helpful to other people during rush hour. I have so often experienced that, especially when a tram is over-crowed, people just don't understand that it's in everyone's interest to move away from the doors, for example, and that they shouldn't read their newspaper widely opened. Just examples. Sorry but that still makes me very angry because Melbourne is not a small town but a major city and it cannot be that hard to achieve in Melbourne what people in London with more than 13 million inhabitants can do. Apart from that I can see why Melbourne is attractive in general. It has lots of parks and nice places, a couple of museums and places to eat out. Also, rent is still cheaper than in Sydney.

So sorry to hear that. I have heard from other foreigners having a hard time at work...and sometimes socially. Cultural differences or just mean people who envy you for what you have achieved. It's a shame because it's always a big step leaving your home country and working in a new environment. I wonder if Aussies are treated the same when they come to Europe... All the best to you. Hope it will get better for you someday.

That sounds good. All the best to you!

Me too. Can totally relate.

I know of people who have to pay for their company car but the dodgy side here is that the employer did not inform your husband about this right from the start. Very strange. It's a shame also. I have heard from a couple of people on 457 visas that their employers seem to think they can do with them whatever they please just because people on a 457 visa would have to leave in 28 days straight away if they lose their jobs... I am sorry. Hope it works out well in the end! Good luck.

A friend of mine lives in Point Cook with her hubby and three-year old son and they like it a lot there even though public transport is not very good when you don't have a car. Rents seems to be reasonable as well down there. If you commute into town it should not take longer than an hour each journey. Good luck!

Depends on the job I guess. I once got AU$37 an hour which was mind-blowing compared to £6.25 in London...

Hi, Check out this thread please http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/jobs-careers/140658-tips-writing-competitive-aussie-cvs-3.html 'Cause, yes you definitely have to adapt your UK CV to an Australian resumé. Good luck! BTW and don't be dissappointed when you don't get too many replies for a start. Aussies are quite lazy and will hardly give you an answer, especially when you are not in Australia yet - unless they are very very interested in you, which would be a great thing of course. But even then it might take ages. We also have a thread about that subject... All the best.

Ours took about two weeks but we only had groupage not a whole container. But I think everything up to four weeks seems normal. Your shipper/removal agent should contact you as soon as the load has been cleared. You don't need to ring them up I think. At least that was the case with our stuff. Good luck!

We downloaded the Expat Shield (it's free) as well and it has been working fine. BUT beware that the Expat Shield has a lot of pop-up adverts which sometimes can give you a virus even when you have an anti-virus program installed. We had about two or three occasions where we got a (pretty bad) virus installed. For that reason we have been using the Expat Shield only on an older spare laptop without any data on it just in case the virus starts doing crazy things. Just thought I should share our experiences so you are prepared if you download the Expat Shield as well.

I think it's quite common in English speaking countries to start studying again at a "mature" age. (It's not in some other European countries such as Germany and Italy.) I really think it's worthwile and I would start studying again straight away if I had the money. Well, but maybe I wouldn't count as mature student anyway. Go for it if it's what you want and good luck! All the best.

Would definitely get a UK one. Prices and choice are much better there.

Not by email but online!!! You need to lodge your application over the Australian Immigration website only. That might take an hour or so. But please beware that sometimes the website is not working due to repairs in the background. This will be announced on there. But I think scans should be fine without a notarised stamp on them. It worked in our case at least and we lodged our application from Italy where it's basically impossible to get notarised copies for English documents. Good luck!

Cool! Thanks! Yeah that should be fine then 'cause they have been working on the hotel before Christmas I think. (We are going there for a stop-over in May/June. That's why.)

I guess if you come here for your studies it might be worth a try. You will find a lot of students in Melbourne and a number of communities from different cultures. Even a big community of Germans. As if I had wished for that......:arghh: Haha. No I mean it. Melbourne is fine but not just very European to me from a European perspective. I assume it's nothing at all as European as Hungary for example which must be a wonderful place. (I have only been there once.) And your language is so beautiful - and hard to learn!!!:notworthy: I don't know about housing in Melbourne but there are a couple of places for students from the universities in the CBD. Otherwise there are also a couple of websites for house-sharing if that is what you intend. (Rents seem to be quite high in Melbourne. But I have no comparison.) Anyway! Take care and all the best! And when you are moving to Melbs send me a PM and we can meet up if you want. Well, hopefully my partner and I are staying for a couple of years longer down here. And then we'll take it from there. Depends also on what happens to our visa which expires in 2015.

I have a quick question please. Thought I would check on here first before writing to the hotel directly in case someone used the swimming pool and/or hotel recently. The thing is I just read on the Transit Hotel website that 'Terminal 1 is undergoing upgrading till mid of 2012'. So does that mean the Swimming Pool on T1 cannot be used or is it just the hotel on T1? Thanks guys.

I cannot look at these pictures, I get nightmares. I admit I did watch the film in Italy. Also the one about the plane crash. But I still get nightmares thinking about it alone. I admit the films were both good, maybe a little pompous but that is ok. All those poor and brave people deserve it. What a catastrophical day. On the other hand I find it very disturbing that you can listen to all those voice recordings of the people in the planes and the towers on Youtube just like that. Not sure they would have wanted that. Also very disgusting are those films of people jumping out of the windows. I just get the creeps...how terribly terrible. It's a shame that just as the film "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" comes out everyone is suddenly interested in 9/11 again even though the book by JS Coer was published in 2005 already. It's a wonderful book. Rather read the book than watch the film.