Slean Wolfhead

It will fit in really well.......

Absolutely not, I agree with you. It is bribery from Australia to curry favour. That's the point i'm making...there are people on here thinking Australia is doing them a favour by giving "handouts", they aren't. Australia is doing itself a favour. In any other language it is pure bribery, in politics they call it "aid". India does not need UK money when it's one of the most richest, most corrupt nations on the planet. We didn't take their natural resources, we used them as a massive factory and labour supply, but they've since been in control of their own destiny for 66 years and not done a great job at all. It was the Indian media who pushed for the UK to keep it's "aid" because we assumed it gave us the right to tell them what to do, so they told us to shove it because it meant nothing in the big scheme of things. The thought that Indonesia will toe the line because of Australian bribes is exactly the same. A newly-industrialised country of 250 million will not need to take bribes from a country of 22 million....who will need who the most in 10 years?

But the reason Australia needs them is that they're the 2nd fastest growing economy in the G20 and Australia will want to use Indonesia more than Indonesia will need to use Australia one day....just the same as the UK and India and we only stopped giving them aid handouts last year. The reason we kept giving them handouts was not because they needed it, but because we wanted to maintain influence with them by buying a stake in them. They're a nuclear nation with a space exploration programme and some of the richest people on the planet, why did they need "aid" ? Indonesia has a labour force of 6 times the size of entire Australian population, they're a lot cheaper to produce goods and they're on the doorstep. That's why Australia wants to give them money, to keep them onside. Nothing to do with "handouts" under the pretence of begging, they're diplomatic sweeteners with a political purpose for Australia. If Indonesia decided to tell Australia to shove it's aid up it's arse, it's only got to look North for alternative business from far bigger countries with cheaper economic deals.

It's 3.9 million families.

Good point.

Can't get into that link, but surely the proposed capital gains tax is on capital gains made since you left UK ? So anybody over the last 5 years or so isn't really going to be liable for much at all, if anything?

A traditional Birmingham chicken, mushroom and spinach balti with an adult-sized fluffy nan bread.

You have to try these things. Since we've been here about 7 of our friends have gone back home for a visit after getting doubts and the odd bout of homesickness. All have returned to Oz happy to re-affirm their commitment after seeing what they'd be going back to. It can be therapeutic i guess.

Very good for Canberra...not sure about everywhere else that they've expanded to cover. They have transaction dates up to 24/10, so about 3 weeks ago? Through the Research tab.

Have you tried Tripadvisor forums and local experts for Tokyo? Probably a wise choice.

He went there for a lifestyle choice, had a degree in the UK which got him nowhere except answering calls for a credit card firm. Guangzhou's southern China, a couple of hours north of HK. Cool short winters, but not like the UK and no snow. It's like India, a world inside itself.

My brother went 10 years ago and did TEFL. My parents had to lend him £3000 as a 25% deposit on an apartment and he was earning about £4500 a year....we thought he was going to be left so far behind he'd never be able to afford to move back to the UK. The flat is now worth £250K, he has two of them, he has a 50% share in a posh bar, his wage has risen past western levels and he's married to a Chinese with a kid. In short, he's caught us all up and overtaken us....and now he probably won't even want to return to England. Guangzhou...17 million people and he loves it.

Of course, but it's a bit weird how people get melancholic over stranger's deaths. Worth asking why he's described as influential when he's inspired pretty much nothing except sexual perversion and drug taking, although each to their own. Just a bugbear, the #RIP brigade.

So does a kid hitting a saucepan with a wooden spoon. It was a fair question. 30 years a heroin addict, miserable as sin, total asshole, mean to a fault. But he wrote a handful of good songs in 50 years? Why would it make anybody sad, you didn't know him did you?

What has he influenced you to do ?

Who did you use for posting from the UK? I can't get my mother to post me anything because the cheapest she can find for a medium sized box is about £70 from the UK.

PFI was actually a Tory invention by John Major's government first used in the early 90's and is still the current Tory/Lib Dem Government's preferred method. Labour did complain vociferously in opposition, but when they got into power in 1997 they decided to retain it. But they're politician's, so you should expect that they will lie to you. The issue has always been poor examination of the contracts and a lack of control over future costs, all of which are weighted towards the "private" partner because they take the financial risk in borrowing the upfront costs, and they take the profits...and often retain ownership of the facility upon completion of the term. This was always the initial complaint, but it was deemed that this was the only way finance could be raised because Governments would no longer provide funding. As to what is a reasonable profit is up for debate, and the private sector will take as much as they are allowed to get away with, and they have been allowed to get away with scandalous profits that have actually bankrupted the organisations they were set up to assist. Since 2009 the practice has continued, but with a major change. "Private" finance was not available after the worldwide crash, so the Tory/LibDem Government has been funding the "private" part through loans. You're left with the ridiculous situation of public money being given to the private sector to enable them to build the facilities, which they will then use to gouge huge payments from the public purse over the next 25-30 years. We're not only mortgaging our future, taxpayers are providing the mortgage finance in the first place then getting charged for it being used on our behalf! It's completely ludicrous. If you go back to the initial concept in 1992, the business case is disproven if Government's are having to fund anyway....and they could do it a helluva lot cheaper than the current method.

It's easy. One thing i would recommend is that you register your new Aussie mobile number on your account website before you actually need it. They send confirmation codes by sms (and it works fine to Aussie numbers), but there's a 7 day wait for newly added numbers to be made active. Don't do what i did and be left waiting for 7 days before you can make a transfer or new payment.

A bit like the old free range Goan pigs then.....made for very tasty meat though :smile: I haven't got a problem with Basa, makes a great fish curry. I guess the business expansion frightens a lot of countries and you're going to get propaganda and protectionist comments to protect the local trade. Oz can complain all it likes about food standards, but the two worst cases of dirty production and animal cruelty I've seen for years are both pretty close to where i live now....almost 3rd world conditions being applied to animals going straight into the local food chain.

Basa, as i understand it is a freshwater cat fish, normally from Vietnam, so it feeds on the bottom of rivers? I think it was unfavourably taxed in the USA where it was competing too well with their own native catfish, then the UK was suddenly flooded with it (and Oz it seems). I like it...it's meatier and you can cook it without it falling to pieces or flaking, but it's competing in an established market where some other producers are going to be upset with the competition.

It will be yes (hopefully), not been here that long and I did all the settling in stuff while my partner had the job lined up (she was sponsored for the VISA's).

You're well qualified and would tick all the boxes. There are a lot of PMO's here who are out of work, but shortages in Business Analysts, and Testers/Test Management...but then you'd run into the citizenship issue as the projects are normally related to public service transformation, which isn't insurmountable but would preclude work in sensitive areas such as Defence, or Customs which i think ATOS specialise in? Unless ATOS can help with a waiver and transfer you to the Aussie partner...have you explored that as an option?

Ha...pretty disastrous and soul destroying at times. I've eventually been offered a good job after 4 months of trying but have been waiting 5 weeks for the paperwork now and it's frustrating...business processes are very slow in some areas, plus it's a new financial year and people are juggling new budgets and waiting for approvals. Until i get the contract in my hands I'm not counting chickens, and if it doesn't arrive I may well end up actually counting chickens on a farm or something ! Canberra's a funny place and probably dissimilar to Sydney..mainly public service which requires citizenship for employment as a general rule, they do let a few permanent residents take contract or "non-ongoing" work but other VISA's don't seem to get a look in (I've got PR). Agencies, so far have been in general, awful..hardly call you back, don't want to help. It's possible to get work through agencies with a citizenship waiver for some jobs, but some agencies are not interested in doing the paperwork so just tell you that you're not acceptable, but then another agency will say that you are . It's difficult to work out who's telling you the truth.....do they just want the applications to prove they're good at recruiting, is the job there or not, and are they even interested in you? One PR has managed to get good contract work with the Federal Govt., but her partner couldn't get a job after 100 applications so i think has gone back to college and will be changing careers. Part of the migration process is the ability/opportunity to change careers so I hope it works out for them. Nevertheless I got a good rundown on their experiences so it's lowered expectations. Just getting a foot in the door to be able to prove your worth is the key initial outcome, or as they call it here...a "fair go" ! ITIL is taken quite seriously here and used in selection criteria (even if it's not well practiced in the actual job)...at least a foundation certificate is very useful.

Career break scheme, unpaid leave?

Yes...but until the balance of the lease is paid up, we don't actually own the vehicle so have no ownership documents. When they arrive..the date that we took ownership will be less than 12 months before we arrive.