newjez

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Actually, that is not true.  A lot of partner visa applications are refused because couples think, "I don't have to prove we're a genuine couple because the marriage certificate proves it".   

Unfortunately there have been so many people trying to get a visa by paying someone to marry them, Immigration now expects as much evidence from a married couple as they do from a de facto one.

Are there any age or health related issues on the married/partner visa Marisa?

Also, if you have had one before would it be easier to get one again?

Would it make sense to start the process a year before you intended to come?

During the Length of the visa, are you allowed to leave Australia for any period of time?

How long before you can apply for citizenship, and are there any requirements?

On 21/07/2021 at 22:05, Ozinoz said:

We got a Flymo EasylifeGo robotic lawnmower... would never look back... it (we have called it Nemo lol) is amazing and you never have to pick up grass as it cuts so fine it mulches as it goes. The only thing you do need to do is trim the edges or just plant borders.

That looks fantastic. Do you empty it?

On 08/07/2021 at 06:37, Toots said:

Yes there was a massive inland sea which covered a huge area of Australia 100 million years ago.  Maybe in another 100 million years Australia will again be covered in water.  Climate change has been around for millions of years and it's still happening. 

It's my dream that they will flood the interior of Australia. Most of it is below sea level. It would make huge areas of Australia fertile, and may even lower the rising sea levels a bit.

11 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

He cooks them in a frying pan. Time consuming but tried on the bbq flat plate and not as successful. 
I’ll dig out the recipe. I think he tweaks it a bit though. Has to be thin enough to get them just right. I tried once but too much faff. It’s his baby. 
 

Good try at the accent btw

Just read "quartered safe out here" by George McDonald Fraser. He really brings those northern accents to life. It was a good read too.

11 hours ago, TenPoundPom said:

Hi all,

Has anyone used Australia Post to take their UK passport photo? I've just uploaded the digital photo that they took of me and they obviously did it specifically for UK. However, the UK guidance says that you should have your head/shoulders/upper body showing in the photo and that it will be 'cropped later'. The photo Australia Post sent me is closer up and doesn't have my shoulders/upper body showing - it's as if they are already sending me the cropped one. 

With current turnaround times of 'up to 10 weeks' I need the passport in that time so I don't want to risk a photo rejection. 

Has anyone had experience with submitting a cropped photo - accepted or rejected?

Thanks, much appreciated. 

The trick we found was to stand a couple of feet away from the wall, and you get less shadow. The website is pretty good and gives a good indication of how good the photo is. Turn around from the UK was only about three weeks. 

We do grow some of our own fruit and vegetables. I've got pear, apple, plum and cherry and blue berries. Only the blue berries are cropping as the others are too young. We have a lot of tomatoes of many different varieties. I grow lettuce on the window sills and chillies. Plus most herbs. Parsnips. I would like to do it larger scale. We have friends who grow most of their own veg. But they have larger gardens with green houses.

Funny, the cherry tomatoes I saved seeds from last year haven't bred true. They are more plum sized. Still, you live and learn. Must have been hybrids.

3 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

The guys I hang around with barely talk about the Euros and soccer, even the English guys, it's mostly AFL and there's been more chat about state of origin and the wallabies great win last week.

The Euros have sparked a bit of interest and if England win there'll be a few of us who'll talk about the game. The aussies won't have a clue what we're talking about though and it will all be forgotten in a couple of weeks. AFL finals will be the major thing, specially if Freo and West Coast make the 8. West Coast had better get their finger out this weekend though.

I've always been much more interested in playing sport than watching it. Even cycling, which is my major sport. I'll watch it at the Olympics, but I don't really follow it.

For me, if I do watch sport, the enjoyment I get is from the tension and excitement of a close finish, and the skill involved to get there. You can get that in AFL, but it's rare. You usually know who has won by half time.

That's why one day cricket is better to watch than a test. You can get a close test match, but it's rare. But when you do, it's beats one day hands down.

I love a good tennis match.

Rugby I like. Well union. Never really watched league. But I'd rate it similar to AFL.

But that last England match was something else. I just wanted it to be over. So tense. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I reckon if we have another like that against Italy it may finish a few of the old dears off.

Tension mixed with skill.

That's what it's about for me. I guess you need some sort of vested interest in it as well. 

15 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

Do any PIO members have any experience of longer term off grid life? There are lots of differences of opinion about what going 'off-grid' means. I'm thinking along the lines of being non reliant on services (water, mains electricity and gas) Being as self sufficient as possible. Growing your own food or being involved in a community sgaring scheme. Living a frugal life and aiming to reduce waste, reduce consumption of goods, reuse, recycle etc. 

Anyone else interested? 

Ben fogle does an excellent series, new life in the wild, with people round the world doing various levels of off grid.

It has always appealled. But those that do it seem to have had a wad of cash before they started, often from a high pressure job.

I think I'd like it. I don't really like people who aren't in my family, and some of my family I only just tolerate, so I'm probably suited to it. I'm getting the feeling that the world is leaving me behind. I'm left of centre, but I am struggling to keep up with the wokeness and cancel culture. Everything is changing too fast.

Maybe I'm too old for modern society and I should just drop out? 

Only trouble is, the wife doesn't do camping, so it would have to be quite high spec.

2 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

What do you mean by outrank? A top nurse practitioner can earn more than a newly minted Dr. 

By outrank I mean have authority to make decisions and over rule.

On 09/07/2021 at 07:22, kungfustu said:

eh? never had a side good enough? from 2000 to about 2010 we had a team littered with world class players, scholes was picked out by Zidane as the best player he has played against, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham, Cole, Ferdinand, Terry, Owen, Shearer, Rooney how long have you got.....youv'e been out out of the scene for way too long Paul to know much if anything about our England team.....having the players was never an issue.....in fact the problems back then were not only the rivalry between clubs but trying to fit all these world class players into one team.....Gareth has changed the whole feel.....there is a unity now that wasnt there 10 or 15 years ago.....no rivalry and I think this generation of young people have a different outlook to past generations and that rubs off on the pitch.....oppositions always new they could get under the skin of one or two of our players and get a reaction......that doesnt happen anymore.....Italians will be a whole different proposition and we will need to be at our absolute best and need a big big chunk of luck to come through it.....if we win you can dine out on your English heritage for a few years Paul.......................................................through gritted teeth

You are too right. I've never seen England play like this before. They are playing like a team, which sounds strange, but I've never seen England play like a team before. Italy are going to be hard. They will try every trick in the book. 

3 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said:

 

I was chatting about this with a friend the other day, and he quite-rightly pointed out that back in the 'good old days' half the players were on the p*ss, and they weren't fully match fit a lot of the time. There was no shortage of talent or enthusiasm - just look at Gazza. He could've been one of the greats, but instead we remember him more for his off-pitch antics. In the last 20 years there's been a seismic shift away from the drinking culture for many young Brits - statistics say that a quarter of 20-somethings are completely teetotal. The pub may still be the focal point of socializing for many of our generation, but not for the younger ones, who rely heavily on social media. This has also permeated sport, which has become far more competitive, and with more countries competing at the highest level players need to at the top of their game. Let's hope it's a fantastic final on Sunday (or Monday morning for us), and the enormous weight of expectation on the English players doesn't affect their performance.

There will be tears either way.

7 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Odd. I usually had chips in the eighties in West London. Thought hash browns as an American intrusion more often on the menu in the nineties. Fried Bread yep. Oatcakes even better.

Chips?

Bit of bubble and squeak.

My mother's black pudding was so black even the white bits were black.

9 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said:

For the 3 days of summer each year?!  If you already have a container booked then it's probably worth it, otherwise no.

I cooked a goose in mine for Xmas two years back. You can use a BBQ all year, even in the UK.

That is a lot of money for a BBQ. Even so, you can get pretty good BBQs in the UK. I would sell it if you can. Bring it if you can't.

7 hours ago, Cup Final 1973 said:

Fabulous atmosphere in England at the moment……..everyone humming « it’s coming home » and cars driving around with the English flag hanging out the windows!

That was one of the best football games I've ever seen. It had everything. Absolutely brilliant, and massive well done to Southgate and the side 

12 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

Bucketing down in Perth at the moment. Expected to last most the day. Entire weekly forecast is for rain. Most uncommon to have such an extended duration. Love the rain myself , so no problem for me. Just unusual to have so much . Did you find Perth rain torrential?  Never thought it as such. I've seen it in FNQ and NT and Kimberley, but Perth? 

I've had it rain so hard in Perth I've had to stop driving. It doesn't compare with the north, but it can be pretty heavy.

44 minutes ago, VERYSTORMY said:

That's funny. I am in central west Scotland, normally one of the wettest parts of the U.K. and it has been a very hot and sunny summer so far. 

We had an Australian summer last year in the south and heard of floods in the north.

It's amazing the degree of weather variation on such a small cluster of islands.

We had not a drop in April, and then it's rained ever since. Not a problem pre covid, but pretty depressing with covid. Especially with numbers increasing rapidly with Delta.

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

 I've had it cooked that way in front of me at a restaurant and although it took ages for all the pink to go, it wasn't overcooked.  However I'm like you, I bake mine.  I started buying frozen salmon over the Melbourne lockdown and I bake it straight from frozen, wrapped in baking paper.  30 minutes at 200 C.  Perfect. 

After Mum died and Dad had to learn to cook on his own, he used to do fresh salmon in the microwave in a special fish-cooker tupperware.  It was nice but of course, more like poached. 

I cook it on the BBQ but I always overcook it.

My missus bakes it in the oven, and serves it with a pesto sauce which is to die for. Not sure of the receipe. She ordered it in a restaurant, loved it and then experimented until she got it right.

But it is a thing if you Google it.

3 hours ago, Ken said:

Two weeks of warm weather in England and they declare a drought. The UK has a lot of hours of rainfall but not many mms. London gets an average of 584mm of rainfall annually whereas Brisbane gets 1200mm. Sydney 1175mm, Hobart 670mm and Canberra 629mm. Of course not all Australian cities have high rainfall as there's Perth 588mm, Melbourne 531mm and Adelaide 517mm but there's always Darwin 1,727mm to raise the average!

The UK weather has changed alot even in the little time that I have been here, which is about twenty five years.

We used to get alot of that drizzle. You know, the sort of wet air, where you are not even sure it's raining, but everything gets wet.

Nowadays, it's a bloody Monsoon. Seriously, I've seen the rain come down so hard recently that the drains can't cope. It's often warm too when it's raining like this. It's like living in the tropics. Actually, to be honest, it's a lot like Australian rain 

Whether this is temporary or a real change I do know. But change it is.

On 02/07/2021 at 01:58, Blue Flu said:

It does if taken literary. One must proceed with a degree of caution with surveys though. No idea about this one, but from someone that worked for a survey company in England, in that role travelled across a lot of England conducting survey's, there was a few 'tricks' in the game that would have skewered results. But the general crux is probably right. Odd. I thought the French invented perfume or deodorant in times past to act in such a purpose. Obviously Britain's time in The EU had some pay off. Imagine the situation without deodorant? Doesn't bare thinking about. 

I used to shower twice a day in Australia. I shower once a day in the UK, but you could go for a day without showering in a UK winter with no problems.

I have a teenage son who forgets to shower. My sense of smell has been damaged by sinus infections, but sometimes even I can smell him. My wife thinks he is disgusting. Must be a hormone thing, because it tends to be our tall children who stink.

I never wash my feet in the UK. They just get wet in the shower. In Australia, wearing thongs, my feet tended to go black, so I made a point of washing them.

4 hours ago, Rustybarnacle said:

We have lived in Adelaide for 10 years quiet happily, but now we have a hollow feeling and want to go back home to be with family.

Since moving to Australia we have had our first child, since his arrival we miss the comfort of family and the feeling of belonging. Suddenly we feel very alone.

Australia has been very kind to us and our lives have changed dramatically since our arrival, we had a busy life enjoying all Australia has to offer but now none of that seems to matter.

We understand that Covid has a lot to play in how we feel and not being able to see family for so long has certainly bought feeling's to the forefront, but it has also made us appreciate them more and understand what is important in life.

Does anyone else feel like this or felt like it?

 

Sometimes it is really determined by how you set your mind. Something clicks and takes the shine off everything around you. Have you had a holiday back to the UK to see how things are?

This year we are covid ravaged and the summer has been constant rain, and it's pretty depressing so the UK at the moment is not something to be missed. I usually love living in the UK, and last summer was brilliant even with covid. But it's just damp everywhere now. In the south anyways.

Maybe have a holiday over here next year and see how you feel?

14 hours ago, Parley said:

When i go to my local Indian for takeaway i always get the Balti Lamb, Saffron Rice and Naan Brad.

Not really sure of the difference but i have had Chicken Madras and a Beef something or other. If i take my daughter to dine in, i let her order for both of us and we share as a communal meal.

The main thing for me is they aren't too hot. Once someone got me to try a beef vindaloo and it nearly killed me.

When I first came to the UK, I'd never had a curry in an Indian restaurant. I'd watched red dwarf though, and he always had a vindaloo. So I ordered a vindaloo on a night out with a few mates. Nearly bloody killed me. I thought they were playing tricks on me, but no. It was hot. Got it down, but it took a few beers and some of that yogurt stuff.

8 hours ago, Parley said:

It is a good sign if you and your husband are happy to chat to each other for over 3 hours. Well done.

We do a lot of people watching in restaurants, and invent stories about the other patrons. Obviously after we've run out of conversation on the weather.

15 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

On the breakfast menu mine is salmon eggs Benny or maybe pancakes (which I usually regret as too sweet)

On the lunch menu I usually go for the health bowl options or the fish. Never order anything involving burger or chips. So unimaginative. 

 

I love fish, but I never order it at a restaurant. I think I worry it won't be filling enough.

I love salmon on eggs, but not a fan of hollandaise sauce. I'd have it with Vegemite though.

15 hours ago, HappyHeart said:

Less boring. 

Quite like a chicken pathia too.

But I've tried them all and I keep coming back to the Madras.

On 30/06/2021 at 06:44, HappyHeart said:

Oh Parley....that's the most boring thing on the menu...very Aussie though

Mine is a lamb Madras.