Slean Wolfhead

We emigrated sight unseen, never regretted a single day. Often it's down to people and not the place. If you're independent, single-minded and realistic, you can have a great life.

I think a lot of it comes down to the choice you're offered, especially in the UK where Crufts has been part of the institution and they haven't looked after the animal's best interests when deciding what makes a good dog. It's weird that we've spent trillions on trying to breed out disease in humans, but for dogs they just try and make a pretty face and damn the health consequences. We know what interbreeding does to the genetic mix, but it still goes on. I like Australian dogs, the sheer amount of mongrel seems to make them much healthier and the need to retain a lot of them as working animals keeps any pedigree nonsense based on appearance at bay. Mind you, with the price of pedigree dogs in Australia and the cost of vets, I don't know why anybody would want to go down a "pedigree" route, especially for some species ! My Uncle was a vet and based on his career he reckoned the healthiest, non-shedding small dog you could get was a miniature schnauzer. But if you have to pay $3000 for a puppy, you're far better off getting a cross-breed and paying less for vets over it's lifespan.

As opposed to expected economic contraction and accompanying interest rate rises, which of course isn't part of the Brexit plan under the current Govt....it's very odd that this isn't being publicised as well and the public are not trusted with knowing the "plan"? If you prefer not to talk about it, we're left with hysterical posts like the OP's who hasn't the foggiest idea what any of this means, then we're straight into billion pound tax grabs, bodyguards and accusations of the left dangerous and violent people? They then top it off by saying how much better educated they are when in reality, we have some of the stupidest people in the country ranting like members of a sect but without the ability to even begin evaluating anything for themselves to even a primary level, but then would expect somebody to step in and look after them if it all goes tits up ? But it's still an odd thing to publicise is it ?

I don't know......it seems half of Canberra are going there every weekend at the moment, but usually for 1 or 2 nights. It's a long day if you're travelling from a distance and have to get back.

The human problem is that our brains are trained to seek out continual improvement. You earn £100 a week, you want £200. You earn £200, you want £400. The idea of leaving your British life for a better Australian life hasn't changed...it's just that you've become used to it and want something better, and you miss those things you value. If you went back to the UK and experienced those valuable things, would the bad parts that made you want to leave in the first place be any different and would you change anything about your final decision to emigrate? I've been thinking recently that one day, if we work hard...we can go back to the UK for 3 months at a time and experience that life, over the summer, catching up with people and taking a rental property, living the life but without having to be entrenched in it. I haven't reached the point of wanting to live there again though,...the negatives far outweigh the positives for our lifestyles and prosperity, but that is the benefit of Australia...it gives you opportunities to be in control of your life far more so you have choice.

The UK already said this wasn't an option.....Abbott raised it after Boris Johnson did in the UK, then BoJo was slapped down by the Home Sec, and Abbott was slapped down himself. The reason is.....Australia will do a deal with the UK when it's in their best interests, and of course their will be a deal. Australia will also target the EU separately to pick up any slack left by the UK exit, and that potentially is a much bigger market for them. So they can't and shouldn't promise the UK anything when they are likely to want to compete with the UK for EU business once there is a potential gap...farming exports for one. The Brexit may also change the EU's negotiating stance with others and they may want to sew up quick deals with countries other than the UK.

My brother is English. He reluctantly moved to Germany for work 12 years ago and has never moved back to England, changed his perspective on everything. He can speak German but rarely uses it...it's more useful for reading and English is the common language spoken in his workplace, on public transport, in restaurants etc... If you were betting on the better place to invest and have a stable future, you would not choose the UK right now, at least for a few years and then evaluate what mentality of society remains, what sort of leadership, and what standard of living they're going to end up with....social and family-orientated it will not be under the current leadership. With an easier pathway into potential German habitation already, it's a no brainer. You can visit the UK easily as a tourist...it's faster for my brother to get from Frankfurt to St Pancras than it is for him to get from there to Birmingham on our train system. The other thing i read about recently is how Germany is attracting Americans away from US universities because of the lack of tuition fees, and degree courses are being re-aligned to English to offer a universal course for foreigners. The kids get an English language degree, study and work experience in a foreign country. Compare that to the UK, Oz and the US where big uni's are just becoming commercial businesses now aimed at the Asian market with the richest students as the targets.

From the ACT/NSW side....Snowy Mountains, Perisher. Lots of accommodation there and Jindabyne. I don't know what's on the Vic side.

It's a country fallen on it's arse, that's what it is.

So what is the process now? Just seen on the news that the Good Friday agreement specifically states that the UK Government shall be impartial (and the wording is absolutely crystal clear). This would mean that the DUP deal, which they now say they haven't agreed to, should be legitimately binned by Parliament upon reading of the Queen's speech, and then Corbyn should be given a chance to form a Government (and it is either agreed to or not...) or we go for another election?

Balderdash. This was an early unscheduled election called for no other reason other than to increase a majority as it's main stated purpose. It has failed, she will resign tomorrow.

Why change a good thing then.....

Yep. There have been hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq since 2003, and up to 2009 40% of them were children. Many have these have since been killed by religious infighting, but the catalyst was the USA, UK and coalition destroying the Iraqi society and letting these lunatics run free. They target our civilians and children, because they reckon we didn't give a shit about their children when our bombers were going over blowing them to pieces as "collateral damage". Until this is recognised, they will keep coming for us. We see Islam as evil, they see us as more evil...and we have killed 100x more of them so far. For them, they are still at war and they haven't got their own back yet.

There are IT agencies in Canberra and Sydney that are Indian-owned and only seem to deal with Indians who are sponsored. $4800 could be less than the first paypacket on the rates charged, which is still easily payable from somebody who might be coming in from a wage 10 times less, or a company that generally charges the customer between 40 and 100% markup on the wages that the employee gets. It's a pity the rules don't seem to distinguish between private and public sector, and large and small businesses. As always with policy, one size has to fit all or it's too costly to manage.

I think that comes down to the old FOMO and psychological contentment. "a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent". This social angst is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing". Steve Coogan said something similar when in the Sunshine Coast, driving a 4x4 30 miles up a beach and not seeing a sign telling him he was trespassing, or an official telling him to stop, or pay a fee. It was so empty and free that he didn't know what to do with himself, the opposite to his upbringing of British officialdom, organisation and being streamed, that he had the nagging feeling that he was "missing out on a big party going on somewhere in England". Australia's not for everybody and it would be very difficult if you had the mindset that you were being punished, or unable to afford to travel and make the most of it. I can't speak for Perth, but on the other side the European culture is far more pervasive than the UK, because mainly ex-Europeans are here on equal terms with the ex-British and their Aussie/European heritage goes back generations already. You only have to look at the surnames on any company email system and it's astonishing, but that follows on to local clubs, restaurants, social groups, sports teams. They obviously cannot import the architecture or history, but they have direct and active lineage back to home countries and they can maintain that connection by regularly travelling back without having to live there permanently. They also bring that influence back with them and it's welcomed, whereas the UK at the moment seems to be actively disliking Europe, except when the offer is there of a holiday in the sun. That isn't a shock, overall, they've never liked it away from the beaches and tourist hotspots.

Some people just make the wrong choices for their own circumstances, personality and need to test their own strength of character to find out who they are. They can't help that, just as they can't help blaming a continent for their personal unhappiness. Everyone is in charge of their own lives and the object is to find happiness and contentment. When they find that, they stop moaning and looking for things to blame.

I think i saw that the business case expects 70% of the passengers to come from the East coast and then on to the UK. This is why Qantas have won the battle with Perth Airport to fly these flights from the domestic Qantas hub and not the international terminal. Anything beats going through immigration at Sydney, and if they can fast track departure and arrival it's a bonus. It may also bring more domestic traffic to WA to coincide. The benefit for WA folk is just taking one flight, the benefit for Qantas is that they can persuade more East coast people not to go on other airlines via Singapore, KL, HK or BKK.

Didn't i read that they're doing different seats for this plane, a little bigger?

There has to be a point to all this. I don't think people really understand what they've done yet, or at least, know whether they have the capability to deal with what comes next. There is a lot of bluster and blind optimism from people who can offer little. There is hope though. This is an interesting piece, it was written in 1979 about Britain, it's attitude, and it's role. http://www.economist.com/node/13315108

You would certainly hope it does better, as that is the whole point of the exercise. However the "5th largest economy" notion is trotted out continuously without context. We also have people living on the streets, dropping home ownership, shortage of housing, poor infrastructure investment outside London and a reduction in useful things that a lot of people can do in areas that voted Brexit, pretty much everywhere in England outside London. Where the money goes from the 5th largest economy is another matter, but we have a very strong financial sector that has benefitted hugely from being part of Europe and has seen a massive amount of capital touch British shores and then disappear which we have taken a cut of. The re-shaping of the UK economy and the increased competition for work that was guaranteed to us under EU rules is a major challenge, because a lot of the structure that we require as a truly independent nation standing alone has been abandoned and forgotten over the last 40 years. That was the benefit of sharing the workload and benefits rather than having to duplicate systems and pay for it all ourselves. To earn enough to do this independently whilst making our own workforce more productive, flexible and efficient is asking for a big cultural mindset change from a standing start. I think it can be done, but a lot of the current generation will be long dead and buried before the real results can be measured.

I would go on an extended break to see if you still fit in to the UK, at least 4 weeks to let the initial excitement wear off and then start looking beneath the surface. The thought of picking up where you left off has been covered on here before, but in 12 years everybody's lives will have moved on as well as your own.

yes, i remember having trouble with this. The missus was working and earning the dough with her proof of earnings, while i setup the home, utility bills, registrations and didn't work for 3 months. We went to get mobile contracts and she was refused but i got one, despite no job or income. Turns out, they're looking for a credit history and proof of actually paying for something, rather than the actual credit rating. It's a good tip for new immigrants, make sure you spread the first accounts you setup across both names and each put at least one in your own name so you enter the system quickly. Helps you lift off.

They want to know how much banking you'll be doing with them, which includes how much money you expect to put through their account that they can use to make profit. If it's not much, they might tell you to go bank elsewhere, or try and charge a fee for maintaining the account.

I guess a lot of those jobs at the bottom of that list contain a lot of staff working part-time or weekends, or who are doing them as second jobs or student work to retain a grant.. Difficult to extrapolate anything without the terms of the survey though.

Also, the UK brands are changing their recipes all the time anyway, so what you remember doesn't always exist anymore anyway. Kraft's tinkering with Cadbury to squeeze every last penny out of a bar of chocolate is to it's detriment, they're only interested in packing every supermarket shelf and i just don't buy the stuff anymore.