Missus B

Pm'd you:smile:

Excellent news, congrats!!:jiggy:

Well, I just checked my bags in! 47kgs altogether, not including my hand luggage!! The lovely girl on the desk said ''Congratulations on your new adventure and don't worry about the excess'' There are some really decent people out there!!:notworthy: Ok, that's it from me for a few days til I get settled!! Brisbane here I come!!

Ah....let me think.....mortgage perhaps???:eek:

Problem solved by a lovely lady working for BMI. I called to Dublin Airport, showed her my visa, as SA are codesharing with them for the first part of the journey. She looked at the notes, rang SA and told them it is indeed a permanent visa and it was appalling what had happened and Boom! Luggage increased back up to 40kgs. Gave her a big hug and a box of choccies and went on my merry way. Check in tomorrow, hitting Brisbane Tuesday morning!! Woohoo!!:jiggy:

Say perhaps you have lost your job in the recession. You have 90k worth of debt. You have 10k in savings. There are no jobs to be had where you live. You get a job offer from Oz after being unemployed for 6 months. Do you do the ''right'' thing in your eyes and use your savings to put a tiny dent in the 90k debt, have nothing to live on, and still be up sh7ts creek regarding the other 80k? Or do you use your savings to try and secure a better life, and possibly put yourself in a position at some stage to start repaying this debt from Australia? Sorry but I know which option I'm choosing....

I explained this til I was blue in the face. I honestly can't get over how stupid these people are. I emailed them links to the DIAC explaining this but they wouldn't budge.

Haha every little helps!!:wink:

I'm having one of those days as well but I know it'll be better by the morning. But for now, there's always wine:wink:

Sending you hugs:hug:xx

Don't I know it. Am sucking wine through a straw at the minute:twitcy::yes: I'm sure you'll be fine though. I just don't seem to have the luck of the Irish at the minute...:eek:

I think had I managed to speak to someone in the UK, they may have been a bit more sympathetic. here were definite communication problems. I was literally in tears on the phone. My accommodation fell through 2 days ago and I had to organize something else quickly, now this. I think it all got too much and I started blubbing.:cry:

Thanks WB:notworthy:

Correction!! Read the post again. It is not me leaving debt behind to move to Oz. I have simply expressed an opinion. I have been lucky enough to be in a position to pay off my debt before moving. But not everyone is as lucky. And my sister is not moving either by the way.......:wacko:

There's nothing I can do now anyway, as every office in the UK is closed and I'm not ringing Singapore. It'll cost be a much as the case!:eek:

What they have said is that they can see it is a permanent visa, but as it states that it allows a travel facility in and out of Australia for a period of up to 5 years, they said it is not a permanent visa:wacko: Nobody I spoke to seems to have a clue. I'm taking print outs from the DIAC with me to the airport in the vain hope that they will give me the allowance. But as I am code sharing with British Airways, I doubt there is anything I can do. I'm just using a group in Dublin Airport. It's gonna cos me around £180 but I'll have it in 3 days. I haven't managed to get a cheaper quote and at least I'll have it sooner rather than later.

I am due to fly on Sunday with Singapore Airlines. I have an ENS 121 Permanent Residency Visa. According to SA, I am entitled to 40kgs baggage allowance for first time validation. They have now stated I am not allowed 40kgs as they do not consider the ENS 121 to be a permanent residency visa. I have sent them a copy of the visa and some jobs worth in Passenger Services has stated it is not a permanent visa. I have emailed them the DIAC guidelines for this visa. They are still stating it is not a permanent visa. I now have to arrange to fly a suitcase with another carrier at the cost of £250. Think very carefully before booking with them. I will never ever book with them again after this fiasco. The customer service is appalling and I have spent 3 hours today on the phone to someone in India, to no avail.:realmad: Am I missing something here? Is the ENS 121 no longer a permanent visa???

Almost everyone will get a mortgage at some point. Almost no one can afford to buy a house outright. If you can, with your Fireman Sam wages, then fair play to you! But most of us have to borrow to buy a house. My sister put €40000 down on her house but this has now been swallowed up by negative equity, and she will unlikely ever get it back. She was able to pay it back when she bought the house. She is a public sector worker. Most public sector workers have been hit by cuts. Private sector workers have been hit by job losses. My sister's friend lost her job on Tuesday after 18 years service. She still has 5 years left on her mortgage. She has been able to pay it for 20 years, but could lose her house if she can't make the payments for the next 5 years. I imagine when you start earning a decent wage with the fire service, you'll save every penny and buy your car, house and holidays outright? Correct? You gonna use a push bike to get to work until you can pay for your car with cash?:realmad:

How was it a wrong decision to buy a house before anyone knew of the recession? She waited and waited and waited until she was 41 in fact, after renting since she was 18. She couldn't wait any longer. She saved extremely hard to afford a little 2 bed house in rural Ireland. And then the market crashed. Take off your blinkers! I'd like to see your take on things if you had to take a 14% pay cut and had a mortgage that at one stage, you could easily afford, that now you can't.

Yeah, cos life is that cut and dry isn't it...:nah:

Total horse sh7t PB. My sister has worked as a midwife all of her life. She saved a deposit for a house. She got a mortgage at the height of the property boom. Then the recession hit. She has taken a 14% pay cut in her wages. 14%!! Every month!! Not only that, she is on a variable rate mortgage. Interest rates have just gone up. Petrol costs more money and she was priced out of Dublin property, so she has to travel to work. She is in negative equity and is struggling to keep afloat. If she had the chance to move to Oz, I'd be telling her to go for it and leave the house behind. Everyone in Ireland is up to their neck in it. Life isn't about money you have or don't have. Leaving debt behind doesn't mean you've lived beyond your means. It can mean, for some, that the recession has brought them to their knees. Ireland is a depressing place right now and I don't think the UK has seen the worst of it yet. I would advise the OP to try and pay it off, as it will allow them to return with a clean slate, if they choose to. But I know, I wouldn't feel bad about leaving debt behind, if I literally couldn't afford to live or put food in my belly.

4 days for me! Best of luck!!!x

What Rupert said. Just take all the wrappers, labels, price tags off and remove boxes. They have no way really of proving they are new without going to a load of hassle, which they don't really have time to do. They are more concerned at people shipping a container load of new washing machines.

I'm looking to rent my own place and I signed up to a certain website, that was free- not Gumtree. I stayed on it a week. I got several emails but not one of them were genuine. They all asked to reply to a private pop email address. They just looked too good to be true. But I could see why students would get sucked in. On the other hand, I got another email today asking if he could lodge a cheque for 4.2 million in my bank account. Seems some chap in Nigeria has come into an inheritance. And I get a cut just for lodging it. It's a win win situation. It seems totally legit and I'm just about to email him back my details.:yes:..........:nah:

All I can say, is that the fear will pass. I'm leaving on Sunday on my own to go to Brisbane. I've been terrified for weeks now about leaving my job, friends and family. I have had a constant and relentless nausea in the last 4 weeks. Bu in my final few days at home, the fear is going and is being replaced by excitement. I was told this would happen by several members on here but you have to go through it to really know. It will be good for you to be busy. I said yes to every invite so I didn't have time to think about the enormity of what I was doing. You will be fine though. But just remember to take a deep breath and a quiet moment to yourself every now and again before you get there.:hug: