newjez

7 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Wow a year already!  As I have said before I think you must win the quickest settling in period award!  Congratulations on the baby news!

It just seems like yesterday. Goes so fast these days.

59 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

Great post and congratulations!

You might find after a few very hot summers that you discover a new appreciation for the “long” winters and start to even enjoy them. Coming from Scotland I never thought I’d feel that way, but I love winter in Perth now, as a short respite/change is scene from the beautiful hot weather the rest of the year. 

Good luck on your second year!

I always looked forward to winter in Perth. I love the melancholy autumn.

I've only looked forward to winter once in the UK, and that was last year.

1 minute ago, Toots said:

I've been on this forum for 6 years or so   ..............  can't remember when I joined   ....... and I was flabbergasted at first at how it wasn't possible to praise either the UK or Australia without having someone shoot you down.  The sheer narrow mindedness was mind blowing.  It is entirely possible to be very fond of both places but some people find that hard to believe.  I got used to all the negative comments over time (about both countries) and as you say it is ridiculous how some folk won't accept that yes, it is perfectly plausible that some people actually do prefer to live in the UK and some people actually do prefer to live in Australia.  No big deal.

I am very fond of both places.  

I tried that with brexit.

I thought there were some things I liked about the EU, and somethings I didn't like.

Apparently that's not allowed. Fence sitting. Very no no.

You have to support one or the other.

There's no being impartial.

6 hours ago, Karl D said:

This is turning into a Monty Python sketch..we were so poor we didn’t have ought. 

I don’t think the UK have a negative opinion of how NZ/Aus have handled the pandemic. Just look at the respective death rates, and compare to 130k+  in the UK, it would be foolish to do so. The thing that I think is not being handled right, with respect, is thinking that closing this borders and quarantine hotels will rid the country of the virus. It won’t. Ever. It will find a way in.

Vaccination take up is the only way out of this for the world.

I have accepted my fate that I won’t be able to get down there this year, am still booked late December, but I believe you have to start promoting vaccine take up and get a plan together. Isolation does not work long term.

With virus numbers sky high in the UK, and restrictions looking likely, what do they do? They take out the health minister. They have been sitting on that footage for months. Timing is no coincidence.

I don't think anyone is looking down on the Australian response. It's a total joke in the UK.

6 hours ago, Parley said:

I don't know about Europe prices but airfares in Australia were very expensive until about 20 years ago. Before there were budget carriers around.

Now people are used to bargain airfares and flying on holiday is a lot easier to do.

It used to be ridiculous. Wasn't worth flying.

3 hours ago, Parley said:

Don't know about ice/meth, we don't hear as much about it these days on the news in Melbourne.

But we have a legal supervised injecting facility in Richmond for the heroin addicts. People go there and shoot up their drugs and i think nurses are there. It is controversial and no onje really wants it in their suburb.

They are now planning to create a 2nd one.

It is odd because taking these drugs is supposedly illegal but they set up a supervised area for people to go and take them.

 

Davina McCall is a recovering heroin addict. I was surprised by that.

I think police resources are more effectively used by targeting dealers rather than users.

5 hours ago, MARYROSE02 said:

We both spent time in Surfers Paradise which I loved and he hated. He hates Sydney too. I don't hate it. I "just" live here in Surry Hills.

I've been back from Surfers for three months and was planning to go back to Surfers for another look to see if I still liked it. Covid-19 had other plans for me. I even booked a hire car one way but then thought "I'll wait till I have me 2nd Pfizer jab". Too late. My part of Sydney locked down on the same day as the 2nd jab and every state has shut NSW out.

I decided to sell.my house in England and I may use some of the money to buy a place in Surfers, maybe spend the winters there. We shall see.

The prices in UK have gone ballistic this year, but especially in the rural areas. Don't know where your house is, but I would expect a pleasant valuation. Probably more than you think it's worth. Possibly a lot more.

Things seem to be selling very quickly, often before they are listed. It's a crazy market. Makes it hard to judge prices as there is very little on the market.

Be very careful when valuing. Don't sell it too low.

On 20/06/2021 at 12:43, calNgary said:

One of my favorite songs, i like Barnsey and Cold Chisel.,,,,, but i don't like her version...lol

  Cal x

I don't think much of it. She's trying too hard.

I have to admit I always thought "the local factory out of worker" line was a bit clumsy.

Think I prefer Ita. Is she still alive?

3 hours ago, Maussie said:

Wondering if anyone has any insight on booking flights from the UK via airlines other than those that fly from the UK to Australia, namely Singapore, Qatar, Etihad and Emirates (https://uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/CAOTA.html)

The prices are quite high for the above airlines and there are other routes on Skyscanner or Kayak via the US or Malaysia for example. Some posts here mention people getting bumped and when rebooking having to wait in transit for a lot longer than the initial booking. 

Instead of that I was thinking about booking something transiting via the US with United, Delta, AA (https://usa.embassy.gov.au/news/covid19-stay-informed) or transiting via KL, Malaysia (https://malaysia.highcommission.gov.au/klpr/covid19.html#transit_malaysia)

The prices are a fair bit less than the carriers from the UK, with some journeys of under 30 hours which we're willing to do, and there's probably a similar chance of being bumped, but presumably as long as we start the journey in the UK, they can't bump us mid-travel and strand us in an airport like Tom Hanks in The Terminal? 

Am thinking through different scenarios to cover bases. 

I have flown from Fiji to the UK via the USA. It's a long flight, and it wasn't very comfortable. Was some time ago though. The way I see it, the more connections, the more things can go wrong.

Been via Malaysia, and that wasn't bad 

3 hours ago, Toots said:

If you suspect meth/ice is being made and distributed from a nearby house, why haven't you told the police about it?  

Probably a good way to get shot.

6 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said:

...and the cows wouldn't know when to be milked  

I don't like daylight savings in the UK. I think we should stay on British summertime.

But I loved it in WA when they tried it.

11 hours ago, Lavers said:

And the piss heads walking home haha

I guess it depends where you run/ride 

18 minutes ago, Lavers said:

I loved it in summer (when sunny) I was usually up at 4:30 going out for a run or bike ride.

As you say though winter is long, the run upto Xmas was fine but the minute xmas was over it just seemed a drag.

It's amazing the wildlife you see that time in the morning.

13 hours ago, Parley said:

True but they could be stopped from further travel if they went back to their original country.

You would be pretty foolish not to pay if you were going back.

I guess you could always get your name changed by deed poll as well.

4 hours ago, Ken said:

Technically it's the courts that can force you to pay, but yes the SLC can get a court order. Options they can pursue (if you don't have the money or assets that can be sold) include making your employer take a deduction from pay each pay period or even requiring your bank to hand over a proportion of any money paid into your bank account. Because the Australian government have the same issue with the student loans of people who go overseas as the British government does, they have a mutual agreement.

Has this been tested in the courts? I can't think of a precident where a foreign debt has been successfully chased overseas. I'll have to have a Google to see if it's been challenged.

1 hour ago, Parley said:

Why would the current Melbourne lockdown be unnecessary if 50% were vaccinated?

Do you realise millions will probably refuse vaccination alltogether? The rush now is from people who obviously want vaccinations, but as in the US it will reach a point where that rush dries up and then it gets a lot harder.

Your theory that it could have been done a lot earlier is not true. Vaccines we tried to import from the EU were blocked. UK did not have this problem. We are producing AZ locally but that is only allowed for over 50s.

some see it as very selfish too, given many 3rd world countries are in extreme need of vaccines, more so than us.

Because if you vaccinate those most vulnerable you dramatically reduce in hospital and deaths.

6 hours ago, Ken said:

Getting your loan written off depends upon what loan plan it is and when you took out the loan and upon whether or not you've paid the correct percentage of your earning throughout the loan period (i.e. than no fraud has occurred) but provided the reason you haven't repaid it is because you haven't earned enough to pay it off then it will be written off as follows:-

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2005/06 or earlier are written off when you are 65

Plan 1 loans taken out in the academic year 2006/07 or later are written off 25 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 2 loans are written off 30 years after the April you were first due to repay

Plan 4 loans taken out out in the academic year 2006/07 or earlier are written off when you are 65 or 30 years after the April you were first due to repay - whichever comes first

Plan 4 loans taken out in the academic year 2007/08 or later are written off 30 years after the April your were first due to repay

The SLC have the ability to take a lien on your Australian salary but that would only be for delinquent debtors and the debtor would be responsible for the extra costs involved. The normal instructions for how to make repayments (without incurring extra debt recovery fees) are on their website.

Can they actually force you to pay?

On 04/06/2021 at 09:56, Ken said:

I wish I'd known about Solar Hot Water. We've got one of the most efficient gas boilers - but solar would have been better. We didn't have solar panels and battery from the start (I'm not even sure a battery could have been bought at a sensible price back then) but now that we have them I'd prefer induction hobs rather than gas because why are we paying for gas when electricity is free?

I thought every house in Australia had a solar hot water system?

2 hours ago, Ken said:

Even the makers of Marmite accept that you either love or hate it. You're definitely not the only one who hates it. However Marmite and Vegemite while similar are not the same. Some people will like both but just because you like one it doesn't mean you'll like the other.

By the way while I'm not sure about bread and dripping, but I remember dripping on hot toast being delicious. Probably dreadfully unhealthy and I haven't eaten it in decades but nevertheless delicious.

I can only eat it with butter. Horrible without butter. I will eat marmite, but I much prefer Vegemite. Boveril is Acceptable if there really is no other option. It is best on toast with two poached eggs on top. 

3 hours ago, tea4too said:

 You sound like my Mum, Jez. She was mightily miffed when she rang yesterday and I told her I'd got three loads of washing dry and needed to water the pots! But it just goes to show that for a relatively small landmass,  the UK can experience very different weather at any given time. Lovely blue skies and warm sunshine here again today though - hope it's a bit drier for you. T x

Pouring down yesterday, foggy this morning, couldn't see the back fence, warm with brilliant sunshine today. Don't mind the odd day of rain. Keeps the garden looking good.

1 hour ago, Wanderer Returns said:

Let's face it, that's all there is to look forward to over there at that time of year - followed by three months of damp, dull, darkness!

Before I was married, I did Christmas with Aussie girlfriends' families a couple of times, and I think there's more excitement about their up-and-coming holidays.

Keeps people sane during the winter..

2 hours ago, ramot said:

Isn’t it funny, I admit I miss the Salvation Army brass band playing carols, but I absolutely don’t miss the hysterical build up to Christmas in UK. Why should it be the same here ? it’s a different country!  Children feel the same excitement though, which is important. 

They do have the salvation army in Australia.

13 minutes ago, Skani said:

    When I went for a swim at 2 yesterday afternoon the official temperature  in Hobart was 8.7 C and the "feels like" temp was 0.6.  (We do wind chill factor really well.   )

Fortunately my swim was in a covered, heated pool (although, during my Covid lockdown beach walks a year ago, I did see some people swimming in the sea - in wetsuits - in the same sort of conditions.  )

Apparently if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger.

5 minutes ago, Ken said:

Maybe because they've tasted the Vegemite?

Vegemite is a far superior product. Marmite is only suitable for polishing boots.

9 minutes ago, tea4too said:

Anyway ...... back to OP ....... hopefully not speaking too soon,  but the weather in the UK is beautiful just now and has been for a few days . The garden is looking good, the sky is blue and clear apart from the odd fluffy  cloud, and it's lovely to sit out in the evening watching the bats swoop above our heads! Mid June should be the longest day but for now  it still seems  pretty light at nearly 10.00pm. Happy days  T x

Actually, it's raining.

But it's been a nice week.