lozzachino

Thanks everyone, we have pretty much ebayed all the big stuff, just got random bits left now, some books, cds, dvds, kitchen bits which i guess would be better to carboot but really reluctant now with the weather turning! Had really hoped we wouldnt be spending another winter here but hey, what can you do!!

...how did you get rid of the stuff you didnt ship? just trying to work out whether to ship everything or only a few boxes with stuff we would really like to keep. It wasnt much less on the shipping quote to ship everything compared to what we thought to be essential, but now im thinking of taking the bare minimum, no furniture, just boxes of quality stuff we have. did you ebay it? Car boot? How else can we flog stuff, do to want to sell things for next to nothing unless i really have to. Otherwise i think it would be better to ship? Any thoughts welcome!! also how did you time it to sell things like beds and sofas and kitchen stuff so you still had things when you needed them if possible? thanks

Homeland is american, do you mean homefront? We are enjoying that too and good cop was amazing! Hope they do another series as it was left quite open! Having got my oh to bring back a tv guide from oz this week, both homeland and idiot abroad are on free tv in perth at the moment.

As an aside, i used recruiters when i moved to the uk and when we moved cities, and they were just as useless as described here! One took my details, made me do typing tests, and then called me 6 months later with a 1 week temp job!!! Like what did she think i had been doing for the last 6 months, living on air?? Ridiculous!

Thanks everyone, oh is just there for the week so not sure what will come of it. I didnt expect an agency to be the guardian angel that will find him a job but its just one way to look for work. He was told in an interview that he wouldn't have even been considered if he hadn't made a trip out there. And the fact we arranged our own visa instead of sitting around fishing for sponsorship has been mentioned as a positive too. Oh is an estimator in construction and yes we have been told its slowing down now with xmas approaching but they fully expect it to pick up again after jan/feb. we don't have rose tinted glasses on, just want to make sure we are doing everything possible to get us to Australia asap!

Thanks everyone, this is what i was thinking. Surely it looks good for him that he is getting out there and is serious about finding work! Only risk the agent is they don't get their commission when the employer decides to go with another agency who has put the same person forward! So I'm thinking the best way forward is approach as many agents as possible but keep them informed if you are put forward for roles by other agents?

Hi all, oh is in perth at the moment and has been told by an agency not to go to lots of other agencies as it looks bad on him if he is put forward for a role by more than one agency. Is this right? Sounds to me like the agencies just want to keep him to themselves so they get the commission for finding him, or am i missing something important? Or should he not go to any more agencies? He has had one interview from one agency, another interview from another recruiter and this new recruiter has another potential one for him. any advice would be fab, thanks!

And Galahad those horse artworks are amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Hi again, just thinking, as an adult who wants to get back into riding, would it be better to book some lessons at a yard or just go on a few hacks (outrides as we used to call them in South Africa)? Am thinking it would be a nice way to meet people as well, but don't want to be the oldest one there having a lesson when I mostly know what I am doing, if you see what I mean! I have seen some yards do adult lessons but these are mostly in the week and I'm not sure will have any child care in place if I'm not working, so would have to go on weekends.

Fab, thanks everyone!

Hi, OH is going for a short visit and the person he is staying with has offered to lend him their car for the week. Do we need to get any sort of insurance for him and if so what and where from? or does it work similarly to the uk where the car owner can add a driver to their policy for the time period it's being used? any advice would be much appreciated. I've done some googling but not having much success. thank you!

Hi all, i started riding when I was 7, rode regularly until I was 16 and then on and off til 3 yrs ago when I part loaned a lovely grumpy old grey called Charlie. Unfortunately I had to stop when I was pregnant as I had such bad morning sickness and Charlie was a very bouncy horse so it was a bad combination! Otherwise I would have kept it up til my jods didn't fit anymore! We are hoping to move to Perth soon and I would love to get back into riding and hubby even asked me if one day I would like to have my own horse, which I hadn't even thought about! I have done some research into stables and there seem to be quite a few in the far south, north and east of Perth. If anyone can recommend a yard for lessons or hacking that would be fab. Also the cost of full livery seems quite cheap in aus or am I missing something?? thanks x

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences. We are hoping to move out soon, hubbie going on a reccie in October to Job hunt. We have a 2 year old son so your experience would be really helpful to me x

Thanks for that. Does it affect insurance premiums at all? Seriously considering taking the points as its cheaper and i don't have to take a day off work to attend a 4 hr course!!!

Just got a speeding fine for which I can pay 80 quid to go on a course and get no points or pay 60 quid and get 3 points. Will points carry over to my aussie license when I convert it or will it affect me, will I still be able to convert it? So worried now, any advice would be great! am so mortified, have never had anything like this before, I was driving to the airport at 4 am, there was no traffic and there were restrictions to 40mph and I was doing 48 despite being the only car on the road!!! Argh! Not an excuse I know but just so annoyed with myself!!!!

oh maybe i should have said we are headed to Perth, as its closer i'm not sure if this makes it a bit cheaper than getting to other places in Oz?

Hi, we are only having about a third/half a container. ADE72 is quoting for a full container so that's the difference. PSS told us if we would around 750 c/feet or more they would recommend we have our own container which seemed a little bizarre to me. Not sure if I was missing something there!

yes, i know they charge for what they pack, thats ok, i think we'll be under the 650 mark, but with pss i'm not sure we'd be under 600. still like you say, its a tough thing to negotiate your way through. its my instinct to bargain my way down from an initial quote but all the way through JM has been our front runner so the fact we've had the best experience with them throughout it all makes me happy with our final decision. let's hope the actual move goes well now!

Hi All, Thought I'd share our experience about securing a movers. We had 5 companies out to quote, John Mason, PSS, Anglo Pacific, White & Co and Doree Bonner. The cubic feet quotes ranged from 592 to 710. John Mason was 650 so right in the middle. The quotes were: JM 650 cubic feet for £2750 Anglo 610 cubic feet for £3250 PSS 592 cubic feet for £2950 (they also tried to flog us a full container for around £4k even though we have nowhere near enough stuff!!!) Doree Bonner quoted on 600 and 700 cubic feet - 600 was £2794 and 700 was £3218 White & Co was 675 cubic feet for £3250 we really liked JM and Anglo, but we emailed them all back (except Doree Bonner - just didnt get a good feel for them and the sales guy tried to say negative things about other shippers which i didnt like). Asked very politely if there was anything they could do to improve their quotes. Anglo emailed back saying basically 'no ..... off'. PSS emailed and improved by around £50 on their quote. White & Co never replied. JM called us on the Monday (we email on the weekend), said he'd been looking at the quote and as it was already a good rate (the best we had had) he could only take £50 off and he could also get the shipping insurance down 0.5% to 2.5%. he then emailed us that offer and said if we wanted to accept we just had to sign the acceptance form from the original quote (valid for 3 months!) and then we dont pay anything until its all packed and they know exactly what the total cubic feet is. So overall, we found we had the best experience with JM from start to finish. The salesman was very knowledgeable and gave us some great tips for packing and shipping, despite all our research he still gave us info we didnt know, he was very friendly, and when he asked what other companies we were getting quotes for, he said they were really good companies and he was glad that we were considering JM along with such other well-reputed companies. The sales team were quick to get back to us, very polite and very accomodating. Anyway, hope this helps someone who is also trying to make a decision!!

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone is working in the construction industry in Perth and how easy/difficult you found it to get a job? OH is an estimator/surveyor and there seem to be a lot of roles available (looking on seek.com.au) but just wondering how difficult or easy it is to secure one of these roles. OH is going over for a week in Oct and is setting up meetings directly with potential employers at the moment. 3 recruitment agents have said they will look at what roles they have 2-3 weeks before he goes and see if they can get him any interviews as well. Anything else we should be doing?? or any tips?? Thanks

thanks guys, got the confirmation email a couple days later so all good!

think its up the packers unless you have a strong opinion. JohnMason told us they would make us of all empty space in drawers and even the dustbin! Anglo said they dont like to pack in drawers because customs 'dont like it'.

thanks, yes we got the visa in June (see my timeline ), hence the visit to attend interviews

Hi, OH is an estimator and is going over to Perth for a week in October and hoping to attend some interviews and make some contacts in the construction industry. He already has one meeting set up with an employer so far. Just wondering if anyone has done something similar and got a job at the end of it? Really hoping this will be the case but dont want to get too excited Thanks!

we've been wondering about this too as one mover told us it was no problem to ship them, another said not to ship them due to the high temps and another mover said not to ship because customs/aqis inspectors inspect them for drugs!!!! i really want to ship a few essentials that we know and like, so might do a small well packaged box.