newjez

9 hours ago, Dusty Plains said:

The Margaret River Region is generally famous as wine country which is not news to anyone or to most people.  Yet if you go to Margaret River township, its a surfie town, with surf shops up and down the main street, attracting barefoot people from far and wide. The Margaret River Pro Surfing Championship is held at Prevelly Beach at Surfers Point and is an event within the World Surfing League Championships.

Wine and surfing eh? I just can't make the connection.

 

Surfing because there is really good surf there. I remember surfing monster waves at yallingup.

Wine because the grapes grow well.

The wine tends to be quite good though. I doubt the surfers drink it. We didn't. We made good with cheap goon.

2 hours ago, Parley said:

I thought that new Labour leader was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread.

Very bland sliced bread.

But you need to put things in context. Labour in WA wiped the floor because they are a pandemic government.  Trump should never have lost his election. Generally war/pandemic governments romp it in, because people have a common cause. The Tories have done so badly, but the vaccines worked and things are looking up. It's not surprising they won.

But saying that, you wouldn't know we had an opposition. There's just nothing, and what there is is so bland. I don't even know what they stand for. They need to do something. They have a lot of work to do just to survive the next election.

8 hours ago, Dusty Plains said:

Still, if you dislike Australia, as suggested, you are entitled to hold that view, yet here you are. That's the bit I just don't get. Nobody is suggesting that brit expats or other expats need to be pure Australians as you put it, yet there are plenty on PIO who are making an effort, just like the majority of the rest of us.    

It was not so long ago that the English people voted to leave the EU. One of the main factors, if not THE main factor was that although droves of people from Europe moved across the channel into England, the locals were clearly miffed by the fact that many were there for their own benefit and showed no intention of ever being English British or otherwise.  

 

  

Really? I see vast differences between transient labour and people wanted to adopt a whole new lifestyle. Did you really think that was what it was about? Maybe it was.

33 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

Never considered induction. We'll have electric oven and gas cook top. 900mm which will be a luxury compared to what we have now. 

Are you having a range? You do get more to choose from for 1000mm, but it's whether you can fit it in. Our last house had 900mm, and we couldn't find a decent one to replace it with, (not one that was on sale anyway), so we got it fixed, which worked out ok actually.

Gas/electric does give you options if you have a blackout. I find it easier to see what's happening with gas.

On 03/05/2021 at 14:30, Bulya said:

Double/triple glazing available and advertised regularly on the radio.  

It should be compulsory on all new builds.

2 hours ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

So you flashed your willy at the Rozzers?

No, I was fully zipped up when I turned around. I never bothered to turn up for the court hearing. Apparently it's voluntary in the UK.

6 minutes ago, ramot said:

There is advice apparently to keep a 2ft distance from an induction hob if you have a pacemaker? Not sure if that is the same advice for an ordinary electric stove top? 

Induction is different because it uses magnet. I still think it's weird the way it heats the pot, but the stove top doesn't get hot.

15 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

Yes we've done our elecrrical plan and thought out what to put where. Sound advice. You always need more than they include. 

Gas or induction? We went induction. My wife loves it, but I think I prefer gas. You can't leave anything with induction. It burns if you don't stir, whereas you have a bit more leaway with gas. Plus induction doesn't seem to do pancakes. But maybe that's our frying pan.

2 hours ago, ramot said:

Sorry photos a bit late, just back from a trip, bit tired yesterday.

Yes I meant the same as you. Was advised against a pop up plug. Obviously other photo small pull our drawer under oven

I like that. Do you have one of those ovens where the door slides under like in bakeoff?

On 30/04/2021 at 18:08, LandM said:

Hi PIO

I am currently expecting - due in the Autumn - and here in the UK I’d be having an elective c-section on the nhs. It’s medically indicated due to two prior births-with-issues. 
 

...my question is, if we can get out there before i can no longer fly (my husband is on the priority migration list so currently trying to secure a job for a 482 visa) do you think I would be able to have my caesarean on Medicare? Or would I need to look for super-duper private medical insurance that included it?

 

any thoughts or tips greatly appreciated!!

 

lisa

It does bug me when they call it an elective c section. Our third child my wife had pre eclampsia. Her blood pressure spiked and the consultant said the baby was coming out today. No ifs no buts. Call your husband, we're preparing you for surgery. Then on her notes, it says elective c section! What part of that was elective?

1 hour ago, Cup Final 1973 said:

I went to my GP last Wednesday for my flu jab before leaving for the UK.  He was despairing at the number of patients refusing to have the Covid jab.  He said the surgery was thinking of stopping administering the jab because they were losing money and wasting a great deal of administrative time.

Natural selection. All part of nature's plan.

5 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

If somebody called me woke I'd take it as a compliment. 

If anyone has any qualms about being woke, just watch some TV from the 70s or 80s. Or even from 2000. It seems like yesterday, but we have made progress.

3 minutes ago, ramot said:

When I was having a new kitchen installed I asked friends what one thing they would recommend as being the best extra thing in their kitchen.You always need more plugs than you think, but on advice I added a double plug at the side of the unit edge. and an extra pull out ledge next to the oven, as it is away from a work surface. I’ll post a photo later.

We wanted a pop up plug in our island unit, but apparently you can't have one with drawers, so we opted for power on the side of the unit. I think it actually works better. 

1 hour ago, HappyHeart said:

Oh ye of little faith. Negative Nelly! As one of my friends said, whatever you choose you will want something else. She knows me so well. 

I think having lived in a home without all mod cons for most of my life I will be happy as a pig in muck with my own little designer pad I've incorporated some of the things I've coveted over the years in other peoples homes. A real thrill once the nerves settled. My only regret so far is the lack of timber doors and no feature stained glass window. I expect we can look at those things in the future if we decide it's worthwhile. 

As long as the outside areas are on point (they should be after all my planning) and the place doesn't fall down after a year she'll be right....

You can get stained glass stick ons. Not sure how effective they are but they look good. Storage is always the klller. You can never have enough storage. We have oak veneer doors. They are cheaper and you wouldn't know the difference. Plug points are important too. You can't have too many, and getting usb ones is so useful. I would have liked a smart house, but sadly that wasn't in the budget. We did get the water right though. You can run two showers, have the washing machine on and water the garden without loss of heat or pressure. Worth the money.

1 hour ago, ramot said:

just sound posh

People always said I sounded posh growing up. I think with English parents you tend to pronounce some words like dance and France differently. 

Although nowadays if you have the ability to use a knife and fork and eat at a table people think you are posh. I swear there are some people who always eat In the lounge in front of a TV.

2 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

Not sure of the ins and outs of it but my friend delayed getting her Australian citizenship purely because of this. I think eventually she just decided to go for it having lived here for many years and feeling quite settled. Her son has dual citizenship having a British father and that they lived in UK for a time and also Dubai. I'm not sure that she ever got British citizenship. Such complexity involved when we move and have children in different countries. 

We have delayed getting my youngest citizenship mainly because it is a pain maintaining two passports. Children need them renewed every five years. I'll get it done before he is eighteen though. Probably easier if I do it in Australia too.

8 hours ago, Toots said:

There must have been massive council spending cutbacks over the past years because one thing I really noticed when I was back in SW Scotland was the state of the roads.  There are so many lovely little highways and byways but also loads of big potholes causing drivers to swerve around them.  Things are even worse now according to the local paper.  The council just do a quicky patch up job so the potholes reappear in no time at all.  This isn't the main roads but the smaller by-roads which used to be beautifully kept.  The lovely town where I went to school doesn't even have a council street sweeper.  The local volunteers sweep the streets and pavements and keep any weeds down.  Maybe it's just that area but cut-backs are very obvious.

Has the changing weather affected potholes?

3 hours ago, steveshe said:

Makes you wonder all these years how Aussies have coped   with living through winters here . . Poms come over and instantly start moaning houses are not like the UK . Its not the UK . 

Do you not think Australia can learn from other countries? Double glazing is a brilliant idea. Good for summer and winter and cuts down the noise. If only they had decent flyscreens in the UK. They are trying, but not their yet.

2 hours ago, Quoll said:

With respect to heat, I’m always gobsmacked at how hot people keep their houses in winter in U.K.  - our house in Aus was reasonably well insulated but we’ve recently replaced all windows with double glazing and it’s feeling even better. Our wood stove is brilliant - not only does it heat the whole house, the chimney which backs onto the kitchen acts as a heat bank for hours after the fire has died. Even so, the house doesn’t get as hot as my mum and dad wanted their central heating to be - when living in their house in U.K. I often had to close the door, turn our radiator off and open the window!
Recently we had r/c air con put in here in Aus and thus far we have used that on a few days just to take the chill off.  When my son first moved to U.K. he was bemused that people whinged about the cold yet wandered around in t shirts in overheated houses, he was used to wearing jumpers! 

I remember my first Christmas in the UK. I stayed in my uncle and aunties place in London. Woke up Christmas day, I thought I was back in Perth. She had the heating set to the low thirties.

We keep ours at twenty. You can always put a jumper on.

Is Canberra not a big place for IT? When I look for jobs in Oz Canberra comes up most for me. Admittedly I'm old school COBOL currently. 

1 hour ago, Blue Flu said:

Yes recall the song. Sounds appropriate with the suburb under discussion. Although I expect changes from the seventies.  Recall their album Living In The Seventies. 

I love the skyhooks. Play them sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic. I remember the song, but balwyn means nothing to me. I was very young when we lived in Melbourne. All I remember were the Nissan huts, and then some grotty high rise before we moved to French's forest in Sydney.

3 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

It has gone up but compare it to somewhere like Cambridge and it’s still cheap. 

Even compared to the southeast the better parts of Sheffield are comparable. Maybe not Brighton or London, but say Worthing. Sure, if you want to buy a place in Rotherham then yes, it will be cheap. But the nicer areas near the university are not cheap.

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Maybe that's my issue.   I was sent to a speech therapist when I was three to cure a speech impediment.  Unfortunately she didn't just fix the problem, she taught me how to speak "properly".  By the time I started school, I was speaking like the Queen and got teased mercilessly.  The strange thing was that I really wanted to speak like the other kids, but it was always hard work.  I felt I was always 'putting on" the Scottish accent, and even then I didn't do a good job of it - people often thought I was English, though in fact I only crossed the border once in all my childhood/teenage years, to go to a wedding. 

At 18, when I went to London for a working holiday during college, it was a relief to be able to speak in my normal voice!

I guess that much weight is placed on how you pronounce yogurt.

6 hours ago, Parley said:

I've got an axe  that is 80 years old.

It has only had 3 new heads and 4 new handles in all that time.

I'm guessing the wedge was the original though.

45 minutes ago, Blue Flu said:

That term should be struck from the English language forth with. It has suddenly come out of nowhere into the mouths of babes and the family galah. At least giving the appearance of, in its over use and meaningless .

Is there a difference between woke and PC?