Naomi from Manchester

Congratulations, Mungbean! Sounds fabulous. I lived on Evans St in Rozelle for 6m, it was great

Leichhardt is a bit of a trek from the coast. St Peter's itself is sort of a bit of a non entity, apart from Sydney Park it's just a nasty road at the end of Newtown. We're on the Erskineville / Newtown / Alexandria border. These areas are not exactly quiet with nice views! Lilyfield is quite quiet with harbour views from Leichhardt Park (which is in Lilyfield, not Leichhardt!) - Leichhardt park is great, has a pool as well. Other quiet with views places I can think of are Cremorne ($) or even Middle Harbour areas such as Castle Cove (actually not a bad commute to the city by car). Depends how quiet you want it. Enjoy!

Have you found a preferred suburb you like the feel of?

The bus commute from some of those places you mention may not be significantly quicker / less hassle than the train commute from Cronulla, (depending on where exactly in the city you end up working, obviously). My my favourite place from your list is Bronte

My partner is a plane spotter ... We almost bought a unit in Leichhardt with a roof garden

I don't think there's any flights between 22:30 and 6:30.

Are you considering public transport or car? Do you have any specific Eastern Beaches in mind, not everywhere would be a quick commute by public transport, have a look at the transport nsw website for journey times.

Try asking Global Health Source (Google their website). They are an allied health recruitment agency, and a great source of info whether you register with them or not.

Try asking Global Health Source. (Google it since I don't think I can post a link). They're an allied health recruitment agency and are a great source of info whether you use them to find a job or not.

Go you! So much fun in the surf

I really cannot be bothered to reply to you. Oh crap, I just have.

I find this hilarious, especially since when I come across your posts on this forum, including what you've said on this thread, I find much of what you say to be so outrageous, comically right wing, that I often think you're joking at first. It's only when I read on that I realise you're serious.

Yes it was tongue in cheek. I genuinely find all babies beautiful and cute, not least those who aren't considered typically cute. More so those babies actually, I feel extra protective over those.

There's a reason babies and toddlers are so cute - they'd definitely get abandoned more often if they weren't. A friend recently announced she was pregnant with twins, and I noticed all the other parents looking aghast for a brief second before offering their congratulations, I think I did too!

I love Warriewood, would be better if it had a pool though.

I was almost put off having kids when I read We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. What if your child becomes a high school mass murderer!?

Pittwater in a tinny is great, we don't know the first thing about boats but the guys showed us how to work the motor and off we went no problems. Best to ring them and book ahead if it's the weekend. You can search your family name at Hyde Park Barracks and try to work out if any relatives came over as convicts Newtown has a lovely little grave yard with a big old tree thing. St Stephen's, I think. I've never heard of Jerusalem Bay, will look it up. I like ike seeing how the other half live wandering round Vaucluse.

The average age in Sydney for a first time Mum is 28, apparently. I think that 32 has been the right age for me, since I feel I've spent enough time and money on myself since finishing full time education.

Fish.01 - you sound like you know what you're talking about, I hope no one minds if I jump on this thread to ask a quick question, since I'm finding the child care rebate and benefit incredibly confusing. I've been on the phone to Centre link but have somehow come away none the wiser :o/ My daughter starts day care on Monday 3 days per week and I've been struggling to work out how much it's actually going to cost us. Day care charges $120 per day. Centre link has assessed us and declared that child care benefit will cover 41% of the fees. (Although the whole $720 went out my bank account today as day care charge 2 weeks in advance, although we requested that Centrelink pay the benefit directly to Day Care). So am I correct in thinking that we will also receive the $7500 rebate? Is this amount divided into fortnights and paid directly into my bank account? Is there also some sort of tax break too? Cheers.

- Palm Beach and Avalon. They're quite close, hire a tinny for an hour or two from Barrenjoey Boat House and scoot around the flat water jumping out for a splash or where you see a tiny beach, then swim in the surf at Palm Beach, then a short drive to Avalon for lunch, a wander round the shops and a swim / boogie board. - Kayaking in Sydney Harbour. Either hire from the Spit Bridge and paddle to Balmoral (get out for a coffee and swim) and back, or hire from Rose Bay and paddle to Parsley Bay (cafe and swim again) and back. - Sydney Harbour Bridge climb. - If you're a swimmer take part in an ocean swim race, there's one at Coogee and one at Queenscliff some time in April. - Barefoot Lawn Bowls at Clovelly. This is a really fun Saturday afternoon type activity for a small group of people. Beautiful views, quite informal and you can have a few drinks whilst bowling. - Hyde Park Barracks museum is a really interesting 90 mins or so if you're in the city. - Australian beers and lunch at The Australian, also in the city. - Young Henry's brewery in Newtown. - Surf / paddle board lesson.

This is really interesting reading!

An honest response from Paul1Perth! (#33)

Not sure where you live, but we pay $120 per day for daycare in Sydney. It's easier not to pay for 2 in daycare at the same time, if you leave enough time between them one can be starting free state school whilst the other starts day care. Most people seem to plan it so there's only about 2.5yrs between them, however. You just stop spending money on yourself, you don't really have time for this anyway (no longer time for weekend hobbies, evening classes, mini breaks, shopping sprees etc). 'If you can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em!' (Said someone).

Depends really, not if you're paying Sydney rent for an apartment in a suburb close to the city centre and having to buy and run a car etc. If you're living in a different state or if you've got more of a backpacker / shared house lifestyle thing going on then maybe it would be.

I don't know about that but they're so incredibly incompetent I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't aware of it themselves.