Surf N Turf

Welcome back. Good choice of name - the place needs more happy hearts!

I think you've hit on one of the main factors between the cities - whether you're more into indoor versus outdoor entertainment. Of course you can do both in either but each is slightly more geared towards one or the other based on the weather. I'm probably drawing a long bow here (and not for the first time) but it's a bit like the UK versus Oz debate. The UK is argued to have more depth of culture partially based on all the indoor entertainment: great TV, pubs etc etc. We're argued to be sunny and shallow as the TV is rubbish and getting up early and heading outside in something lycra is felt to be the norm. I'm massively simplifying the argument but I think it reflects the city debate.

Actually, let's forget the girls in the bar completely as I took myself off track there too. I do think that Melbourne is the more interesting city. Just my opinion.

Jeez, note to self: don't mention push-up bras as too distracting for main point to be understood. I'm just saying that you have to work harder to find the great stuff in Mel. I'm not saying Sydney doesn't have a PhD and a great sense of humour

I've lived in both but all I can offer you is my personal preference. I love melbourne. Some of that is to do with weather as I like having 4 proper seasons. It's charms are also more subtle. Sydney is all up-front brashness. Like a girl at a bar in a short skirt and a push-up bra. You can see what you'll be getting. Melbourne is her more cooly dressed older sister who has a little more depth. You've got to work a bit harder. For example the suburbs around the CBD are packed with interesting places to eat and drink (as are many of the CBD lane ways) but it takes a while to see past the grungy facades. You can have a great life in either place though. I'd go with the best work options and build from there.

This drives me insane. I had a sick day in bed recently only to find a 'tried to deliver' note in my mailbox the next morning. My arse you did. The massive effort of raising his/her arm a few inches above the mailbox to press the intercom was obviously too much to ask. I reckon they don't even bother taking the parcels on the road with them. What gets me ropeable is that I then have to pick up the parcel on my way to work and carry the damn thing around with me on public transport to work and back. When I complain I just get the nodding dog treatment as they wait patiently for me to shut up and leave. I might get postal on them one day. :mad:

Might be time for the Sunrise (morning TV) show to bust out its 'Reject the Recession' choir. When this last happened in 2010 the only logical response was to unplug the TV and throw it out. Life has been much better since. But hey, Australia avoided the worst of the GFC and who's to say it wasn't Koshie's choir. :no:

True dat.

I'm getting traumatic childhood flashbacks to the many many times when I'd ask my dad an innocent question and be pinned to the spot 40 minutes later while he rustled through his Encyclopaedia Britanicca's. Your kids don't know how lucky they are to grow up in the age of google!

What's your criteria? Although I should know better by now than to ask such questions. I must not have had my fill of being patronised today It can't be population as Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide are also over a mill. I think I'm correct in saying that only Birmingham and London have populations over the million in the UK. Are the other sixty odd 'cities' in the UK also small towns?

You really are an ejit. I was pointing out a repeated behaviour, not calling him names. That I reserve for you.

It's really not that important.

That sounds great.

Convincing.

We have an oz TV ban in our house so we've done exactly the same thing through HMA and iinet. Both are excellent. Although we've not registered with Netflix as we can generally find and view the few TV shows we enjoy without them. Possibly not always strictly legal but we generally go on to buy the shows we love so that we can watch them again/loan them out.

Thanks for the heads up but breath still baited as HWB has somehow let this one slip under the PIO radar. If the bad news doesn't happen in OZ it ain't news at all it seems.

You're the parent I wish I was!

I doubt the panel are given that info. In any case, you'd just appear like someone who really wants a new job and is wisely not putting your eggs all in one basket. Good luck. I hope you crack the job you want.

I'll be awaiting your thread about a racist incident on public transport in the UK with baited breath. Perhaps not, might pass out. Really not worth the trouble.

My clients are long-term unemployed. Not a happy bunch.

You beat me to it! We haven't all hit the snooze button on life just yet.

You offering MR? That's quite a welcome home for BacktoLife. Good on ya!

My two cents worth on whether you'll flourish or fail is also to remember how long it took you to establish the life you currently have in the UK. The right job, home, and friends would have taken time to establish. Years probably. And your sense of belonging even longer. When you move to a new country you often have to take the first job and home offered and accept the first friendship overtures. It can be a bit of a scramble and they're unlikely to stack up against what you've left behind. The comparison you should be making is with the ones you move onto once you start getting really established. Sometimes it seems like migrants expect instant gratification and aren't willing to give their life here time to develop. Time they gave the UK. This is just one factor in a very complex picture though. I think it's mostly about attitude and a bit of luck. I hope it works for you.

I think you'll find it easier than you expect. I've done flights to the between Oz and the UK on my own with my daughter when she was 1 and then 2 and a half. The only real problem there was that I was never ready to sleep when she was and so I was demented with tiredness by the end. With two of you this shouldn't be an issue. Starting the flight at night seemed to help as she was ready to sleep quite soon and we weren't too far from the stop-over by the time she woke. I agree with others to keep stop-over short. Just bring the usual assortment of stuff you'd take for a longish car journey. They'll give you a pack of little things for your child to play with. One of the main forms of entertainment is likely to be just walking up and down the aisles. It'll be fine.

I returned to uni to study full-time in my mid-20's and wasn't entitled to any financial help. I got a job working in a hospital doing admin on weekends, plus a bit more during holidays, and supported myself that way for three years. It was doable. Having been self-supporting since 18 I just got on with it. I think the problem for most school leavers is that their part-time jobs are unlikely to bring in the sort of income that will support them in the same way. We've got a much stronger tradition of people going to uni in their home towns in Australia so I guess there is an assumption that they can stay at home and be supported during that. I've got mixed feelings in terms of whether that's right or wrong. On the one hand I know first hand how many people are exploiting the welfare system. And unlike uni students they're not doing it in order to develop skills and knowledge that will improve their lives and benefit us all. And they're much less likely to be paying it back in the form of taxes later on from decently paying jobs. So, why not support them? On the other hand I don't agree with any automatic assumption that the state kicks in at 18 to fund personal choices. And this is why I'm not a politician. It's all shades of grey for me.