TescoValue

Absolutely, I love (trying) to learn the language wherever we go on holiday. I can manage a conversation at the moment, as long as it consists of good morning...how are you...good thank you. Unfortunately at this point I get lost and just keep repeating 'baik' or 'bagus' so they laugh and revert to English.

Having enjoyed the food in Bali so much (and no Bali belly to date), we have signed up for a mornings cookery class tomorrow. Having never done anything like this I am not sure what we have let ourselves in for, has anyone tried it? I love my food spicy (pedas sekali was one of the first phrases I learned), and everything has tasted amazingly good..but I made sure that beef rendang was one of the recipes on the list as it's certainly been my favourite so far!

I think I read somewhere that Cathay have just been voted the worlds best airline? They certainly looked after me when I somehow lost my ticket between the check in desk and the departure lounge, they even booked me an entire middle row as 'comfort' seats on my leg from Sydney to HK after I had caused them so much trouble!

We are currently in Sanur and absolutely love it! It's nice and relaxed, not too busy, but there are plenty of bars/restaurants to choose from. This being our first trip we were not sure what to expect, but would definitely come here again. We also decided to book our taxi man from the airport to take us on a tour of the island. He was fantastic and made suggestions as to where we could go, but left the choice up to us, if we said no then that was that, no pressure at all...he even saved us money by taking us to areas where we could view the rice terraces for free instead of paying an entrance fee. We are not really ones for doing all the tourist hotspots, preferring to make our own way around, but I can say the Monkey Forest was fantastic fun (but very busy), plenty of monkeys to see and very tame. Be warned though, they do like to jump onto your back and lie on your shoulders! Also had a fantastic lunch at the rice fields in Ubud, again one for the tourists but the view was spectacular., with a lovely cooling breeze blowing in from the fields. We were lucky to virtually have the restaurant to ourselves and left just as the crowds began to arrive (we had an early lunch at 11:30, it was filling up by 12:30). Only downside is the fact that my wife has been bitten by the mosquitoes. No matter where we go or the amount of sprays, creams and coils we use, they always get her...and she reacts badly to them. Currently she has two bites that have swollen up, one is about the size of an orange. She is now sat on the bed covered in wet cloths to try and stop the itching. Luckily the chemists here seem very knowledgable and have given her some antihistamine tablets!

Absolutely no problem, apology gratefully accepted, my fault for taking your post the wrong way in the first place!

Blimey, sorry for providing the OP with some valid information by saying it took as a while to get through the airport. If you read my post I didn't moan and actually stated we were possibly unlucky with our timing. I thought a heads up may have been useful thats all. As it turns out I have now managed to speak with some people who have visited Bali more than us, and they say to try and avoid arriving on a weekend as this is when you are more likely to hit the airport queues.

We are in Bali now for the first time and are really enjoying it. One thing to be prepared for though is the airport, get ready to queue and queue and queue! Perhaps we were just unlucky with our timing, but it took us almost two hours to get out of the airport. You also need to buy your visa on arrival, so to make life easier it's good to have $35 US per person so you can quickly get sorted. Apart from that, we have found everything to be fine. We are in Sanur and the people are very friendly, they especially seem to enjoy my attempts to speak their language!

Our dogs have been out of Spotwood for just over a week. The people there were absolutely amazing, one of my dogs was more exited to see one of the handlers than me when I pick them up..think he was just getting revenge after we left him for so long! Satch will be well looked after at Spotswood, they are brilliant. On another note, I didn't realise you own the 'boxes' the dogs are transported in, so if you want to keep yours when you collect Satch, I recommend a big car! We went in a BMW X3 and there was no where near enough room to take both of our 'travel pods, home. However, we were not planning on using them again, so I was happy for the quarantine station to destroy them for us! Good luck with the move, Melbourne is amazing...

I am new to posting here, but I have been viewing the threads since we arrived in Oz (about 6 weeks ago). My wife is a nurse and we came in on a 457 visa and, after reading the problems other '457 partners' were having getting a job, I was dreading the process.... Needless to say, I struggled massively! I have a masters degree and loads of experience in my field (geology) but I could not get an interview at all. After changing my CV to a more Australian friendly format I had higher hopes..however nothing.... But the last week has completely changed my perspective of Australian employment. I got two job interviews and was offered both jobs..talk about busses coming at once! So the moral of my story is, no matter how down you get, keep sending off applications (my total count was over 70) the Australian recruitment industry seem to take their time over applications...something will eventually happen. Both my wife and I love Australia and, although we are going through the inevitable period of being homesick, we have both said this is the best decision we have ever made. After only 6 weeks we have made new friends and we are finding Australians to be the most friendly, polite and helpful people we have met. We can't wait for out PR visas to be granted!!!

We went through the same dilemma with our two dogs and after much heart ache decided against visiting them. We did however call the station now and again to check up on how they were doing. After collecting them earlier today I can report they are absolutely brilliant and it is like then never left...they are currently getting accustomed to their new house and we will be taking them for a walk on the beach later. All I can say is that every person from the quarantine station knew our dogs by name when we called and that they all came over to say good bye when we left. In fact, one of my dogs was more interested in being fussed by a certain handler that by me! I think this points out, without a doubt, that they are looked after impeccably by the staff. Hope this helps in some way!?!