Loopylu

As Napoleon said - England is a nation of shopkeepers so it might explain the obsession with supermarkets...

I suppose I should not draw comparisons but the weather here in the UK is glorious at the moment (I see you have torrential rain in Qld for the next 2 days) so no chance of getting bored with beautiful countryside to explore!

Oops! I meant virus!!! LOL.

This has been the main approach but you have to travel to a centre that has the right type of refrigeration for Pfizer so if you are very elderly and unable to get there or choose not to travel you can get AZ from the local GP practice instead.

Coming from Australia I had free run of Changi so potentially I could have acquired the vaccine from one of the locals serving in cafes and duty free. On the way back, if current rules apply I will be confined to a transit lounge.

Just taken my Mum for her second Pfizer jab. Mass vaccination centres are open every day. As an over 50, on Tuesday I can phone and make an appointment for the Astra Zeneca at the Carmarthen Showgrounds drive through. As you can see from my photo we are having glorious Spring weather...

No I mean purple sprouting which unlike boring broccoli has purple heads and tastes quite different. It is more similar to broccolini if you had to compare. It is possible that it grows down south but I have never seen it for sale in my 13 years of living in Qld. In the UK it is only available for a month or so starting March/April depending on growing conditions.

It’s proportionate to the risk seeing as Covid is here in the UK and will stay. People arriving from high risk countries with different virus strains are in hotel quarantine. if Australians ever want to travel again or get their overseas tourism industry back, they will have to accept that Covid will be there in the background in their country but hopefully controlled to a sufficient extent by vaccines.

Everyone arriving from overseas in the UK (including UK citizens) all have to undergo 10 days of isolation. Hotel quarantine applies to red list countries. 4 new countries were added to this list yesterday including Pakistan and Bangladesh. Although I started my journey in Australia you have to transit somewhere en route. I deliberately chose to fly with SingaporeAir as Singapore has Covid fairly under control. Qatar was cheaper but its proximity to UAE made me nervous. Two days after I arrived Qatar was added to the red list so anyone arriving on their flights will need to undergo hotel quarantine in the UK. Interestingly, Thailand, until a week or so ago, made arrivals go into 3 weeks of hotel quarantine but has moved back to 14 days.

I'm currently visiting from Wales from Qld as I got an exemption to leave as my father is very ill. I have been like a kid in a sweet shop in the supermarkets. I just wander round gawping at the choice of products available compared to Woolies, Coles, Aldi or IGA. I suppose the larger population can justify the variety... And the prices are so much cheaper for fresh produce. So glad I am here when purple sprouting (one of my favourite vegetables not available in Australia) is in season! I saved 6 quid just on a bottle of rhubarb and ginger gin at Tesco by using my parents' Club Card that I loaded to my Stocard App.

From my recent experience of entering the UK by plane on 17 March, you cannot get in without registering where you will be isolating for 10 days and paying for 2 Covid tests to be taken on Days 2 and 8. I spent my 10 days holed up in my parents house not seeing anyone or going anywhere....

I think you have misunderstood what I meant. If you only mix with your own kind/tribe then there is a tendency to fear those who are different or even consider them to be inferior. Of course teachers do not promote racist views but it is possible to learn these from your peers at school. I believe that a lot of society’s problems are caused by lack of exposure to/not mixing with/understanding others. The misogyny issue that is currently plaguing Australia has been shown to have some of its roots in single sex education (another form of separation, this time from 50% of the population). Again, teachers have not promoted this view but, not being exposed to the other sex in the classroom and building non/sexual friendships with girls, the young men involved have developed a damaging attitude towards women.

I forgot to mention that, if the OP ends up in Brisbane, there is an inner-north high school - Aviation State High - that specialises in offering aerospace and space travel related subjects. A couple of my boys’ primary school friends ended up going there and seemed to do OK academically.

I would say that 80% of students at Wavell are out of catchment as the catchment is geographically very small and most children living in catchment go to private schools as it is a higher socio-economic area. We are definitely not in catchment and made a conscious decision not to use our catchment high school (Albany Creek) because it had less to offer and was too “white” and middle-class but with no better academic results than Wavell which has kids from quite challenging backgrounds. I didn’t want my kids growing up in a bubble of white privilege and potentially picking up racist attitudes along the way.

I know one of the universities in Brisbane (Griffith?) runs a degree for aspiring pilots as one of my boys’ friends is doing this. It is a very expensive course ($120,000+) and I recently met one graduate on the till in Woolies who had gained a position with Virgin but then Covid hit. Hopefully air travel will return to some semblance of normality soon....

Wow - you are living dangerously on this forum, dissing anything Australian and saying it’s better in the UK. However, you are a professional who has worked in both systems and so are probably best placed to draw a comparison. Unfortunately, as everyone has been to school, they often think they know more than the teachers about education! it amazes me what the kids learn these days at school and I suppose technology means they have greater access to reference materials and ways of presenting their work. I remember having to traipse to the local library and feeding in 2p pieces to photocopy materials from books that were not available for loan to help me do my schoolwork. I think the quality of State School education in Qld varies greatly from school to school. At one extreme you have Brisbane State High and the science based academies and at the other, the lower demographic schools in places like Logan and Inala and in remote areas. We chose Wavell State High for our kids based on the variety of subjects on offer and it’s a great school compared to the school I attended. Fantastic, caring teachers who cater to a very diverse cohort of students. By comparison, my market town high school in the UK was rough and it ended up in special measures and renamed because it was so dodgy.

If the poster's partner is the father of her child then it makes sense to get dual citizenship sorted before leaving the UK to address this issue.

If you have anxiety please do go and see a doctor. Moving countries is a major upheaval and can result in depression even though on paper you seem to have the perfect life. I know because I have experienced it. I have lived in Australia for nearly 13 years and have never really settled and rely on anti-depressants to keep me on an even keel. I am stuck living in Australia for the foreseeable due to the age of my kids and the stage of education they have reached and my Australian husband's serious health issues. I am currently back in the UK as I got an exemption to travel because my Dad is seriously ill. I am really happy to be back here and feel like I can breathe again. However, I would not necessarily throw in the towel just yet on your Australian journey particularly as you have only done a year and it may be more difficult to re-establish life back in the UK with Covid - it could result in a case of "out of the frying pan, into the fire" in terms of stress. It must be hard with the current travel restrictions not to be able to go back for a holiday to see your Mum and I am sure this is probably at the back of your mind too. Hopefully, you can get some medical help soon to help you cope with how you are currently feeling. Take care!

I think he said he had a Bridging Visa B or that they were planning to give him one of those.

I flew back on 16 March using SingaporeAir. Qatar (like UAE) is since 18 March a red list country so if you fly with them you may have to quarantine in a hotel in London unless they make exceptions for people who only transit through Doha Airport (who knows?). The only other non-red list option at the moment is Cathay Pacific.

An ABC news article 5 days ago: The COVID vaccine is free, but some Australians have been asked to pay beforehand A free and accessible coronavirus vaccination program has been key to Australia's chart out of the pandemic, but some patients say they have been asked to attend paid appointments before accessing the vaccine. Read the full story

I actually found the NHS England information first when I was researching how to get the vaccine and that was very clear that the Covid vaccine is free to all foreigners in the UK.

I just wanted to let people who may have to travel to the UK know that vaccinations are available free from the NHS to any foreigner who finds themselves in the UK. No need to register with a GP. I am on a waiting list and will get a call when a slot at the vaccination drive through becomes available.

Marisa told me I was selfish for travelling to the UK to see my dying father and that as a Christian I should have sacrificed this trip for the greater good. So yes - she said I should turn my back on my parents.

Got to love when non Christians tell you what you are supposed to believe or do. The Ten Commandments tell us to honour our father and mother and that means being there for them and not turning your back on them when they need you.