lozzachino

We recently had a an email from singapore airlines saying any passenger transiting through changi can get a $40 voucher if travelling before end of july. Would save spending cash if you are only after a drink or food or something small. OH said a mcdonalds meal cost about ten dollars when he was there in oct so 40 seems a good offer! Think a swim and a shower is only 15 dollars so you could soend it on that!

Definitely worth getting another agent opinion too. We used Sort Out My Visa and found them really helpful with good advice before we had to pay any fees. Worth a shot.

That link was not too accurate for me. According to a gloucester v perth comparison a mid range bottle of wine in gloucester is just 4 quid. I can barely get cheap bottle for that in tesco or asda or sainsburys. Also a 3 course meal for two in gliucester is apparently 30 quid?? nice idea but if my local pricing isnt accurate i couldnt really trust to the perth one. like others have said it is probably best to make your own that is specific to your lifestyle and spending, lots of effort but good if you like to be organised and prepared.

Ps the boxes are made from wood and look like they have been varnished but think we will varnish again just in case there is any question re that!!

Hi and thanks for all your replies. we have thought about scattering them but we have moved so often there isnt really anywhere special for us that we would be prepared to leave them and would rather take them with. My older dog i had since she was 6 weeks old and she moved with me from SA to the UK via France so she was a well travelled dog! She was almost 15 when she died so she had a good innings. i would prefer to ship them as its just one less thing to worry about with flying and we already have a fair amount to take in hand luggage what with laptop, ipads and things to amuse a 3 year old for 24 hours! But if our best option is to take as hand luggage then we will of course do so.

Hi everyone, i have been doing some research into taking the ashes of our two dogs with us when we move to Perth. We lost them both this year within four months of each other so it was a bit traumatic for us. we got a letter from our vet when we lost our second dog stating the contents of the boxes and neither died from an infectious disease. i was planning in shipping them in our container but have been reading it is better to take them in hand luggage when we fly. Is there a reason for this? Are we allowed to ship them if we included the paperwork with them? Or is it not recommended because aqis will spend time inspecting them and then our bill will be higher? any advice appreciated! thanks so much

Our mortgage is with halifax. We had to pay a fee to get permission to let and were forced to switch to a buy to let product with a £1500 product fee and 2% higher interest rate. No choice in this whatsoever. Also had to switch to interest only as the rent paid is £550, of which we get £470 after estate agent fees. On a repayment mortgage this would have been over £700 but on interest only it is £570, so we are still paying £100 in every month. hubby often says we shouldnt have told them in the first place. Estate agent did say they are obliged to advise that we have a consent to let in place. We have landlord insurance too through halifax, its £11 a month. I just wouldnt forgive my self if the tenant burned the place to the ground, insurance wouldnt cover it and we still owed a full mortgage on it! if i could give my house keys to the bank and have rid of it i would. on top of which our tenant of 19 months handed her notice in 2 days ago! it is stressful but i guess less stressful than trying to sell by a deadline.

We are in this situation, how do we do that? Is it just australian tax due on uk income or can you offset against employment income in australia? we rent our house out for less than the mortgage payment so technically we make no money on our rental and pay into it every month as well as having upkeep costs. its all so confusing!

You are lucky!! Are you allowed to say who your mortgage is with?

I have that issue already in england so wont be any different for us when we move. All our family work and even if they didnt the closest ones live an hour away so we have no family that could support us regularly when it comes to childcare. Becuase of that i work 3 days a week as if i worked more i would actually earn less once we have paid for the childcare. Its really frustrating as i never thought i would be in this position and was prepared to work full time to earn as much as possible to support my family but it just doesnt add up to work more than 3 days which i find sad. of course when my son turns 3 this year from sept we would be entitled to the 15 hrs a week free childcare, provided the gvt doesnt scrap it before! Which would have helped a fair amount, but we are off to oz before then. As we will be on PR visas we will be entitled to the 50% rebate which will really help. if the uk gvt had something similar in place here for when working parents want and need to return to work i think a lot more people would work at least part time, if not full time. i know that doesnt really help you as you dont have PR but i can appreciate the issues you face as I am facing them now. Unfortunately it does come down to the finances, and if you are working but paying more than 50 or 60 or 70% straight to childcare you need to evaluate if its really worth it for you to work those hours. Of course you factor in costs of travel to and from work as well.

Dustyroad, that's the first i have heard about the rental market being good for tenants at the moment...do you mid if i ask what area you found a house and what the advertised price was that you managed to knock 50 dollars off??

We are moving end of april with no jobs. Plan to set up interviews if possible before we arrive. OH went for a week to do a reccie, way too short, and lined up 3 interviews. So have some hope really! Everyone we have spoken to from friends, family, recruiters and potential employers have said that once you are there you become a lot more marketable and you will get something. just have to keep the faith!!!!

I think some of them, like the ones in Perth today were only working part time in the UK but would aim to work full time in Perth, so obviously they think they would be better off. I find it bizarre though that they go for a better lifestyle but then say things like the woman today that she would work all the overtime possible to be able to afford a nice house. They also had 4 kids and while childcare must have been horrific over the years here only one was not at school yet, and once in oz all would be at school within 6 months. However there is still after school and holiday care to factor in and i sometimes wondeer if these costs are included in their 'reality check'. on the plus side i am so glad they are finally showing people houses to rent instead of buy!!! There cant be many who buy as soon as they arrive!!!

Is this a new show or the new phil down under series?

Hi nicky, i hope you manage to find new homes but if you dont, i know our local dogs trust has a cat area as well, that is in evesham, worcestershire. If you have a dogs trust near you perhaps you could contact them and see if they have any advice? I think they will take any animals in and wont put them down. also, let us know where you are then people may be able to help.

What a fab post, thank you for sharing! So nice to see a positive post from someone who was clearly prepared for anything! I cant wait to have our first aussie xmas in the sun next year, oh said the forecast for perth on xmas day is 38 degrees!!

Im not sure how you think you would be able to go within 5 to 6 weeks if you dont have a visa in place? Perhaps the whv doesnt take as long to get but then they do restrict your working so perhaps that is why you arent getting any responses? we have PR in place and oh has done a reccie trip and we arent any closer to securing jobs. Just going to have to get out there and find work when we arrive.

Perhaps wellers you were just lucky with your uk bosses? I have had some particularly horrendous ones here and have just been speaking with family in Ireland having very similar issues, so from my experience its down to the people not the place. But will agree to disagree if you have found different, esp since we havent even arrived in oz yet so definitely cant comment on what its like there yet, but i will let u know!!

I think e points about poor management and or bullying could apply anywhere in the world. Its not going to be worse or better just because you have moved countries, i have lived in south africa and england and have great bosses and terrible bosses in both countries. I recently had a manager who had no idea what i did but told me i had had no prospects to ever progress in my role or in the dept and they wouldnt let me move to another dept as i was too valuable! Also not allowed to do any development as i only work part time. Last month a new manager took over and she knows what i do, and is determined that i should progress to the next pay grade above my current one by the end of next year. She wants me to develop and thinks experience around the other depts in the company would be valuable. so chalk and cheese from one month to the next.

My oh did this after it was recommended by several agencies, he works in construction in a desirable job. He only had a weeks leave left for the year and it was way too short. They are very slack there and all interviews he had he had already lined up before he left, sodon't think you will go and get interviews on arrival if you went for a week. Also we hadn't really considered jet lag, and he was like a zombie til day 5, when he had to come back! we are taking the plunge and going without jobs, and we have a toddler to consider, but hey if it were easy would it be worth it?? good luck and i hope something comes through for you.

Fair point northernbird, however in my 12 years of school and 3 years of uni in SA i never once experienced a student so disruptive that it affected the rest of the class. There was respect on both sides and everyone knew their place. If you stepped out of line, you would be in deep trouble. Value was placed on being a high achiever academically and in sport, but if you didnt do well it wasnt the end of the world. Impression i get of education in the uk is very different from this, however i am sure its not like that at every school.

Sometimes i think its more about the teacher than the school. I was lucky enough to go to private schools and when i had a bad teacher in certain years i did badly in those subjects. However when i had a good ethusiastic teacher who engaged us in every lesson, i did well because i wanted to learn. i think the thing that lets the uk education system down is when you have disprutive kids and the teachers spend all day trying to control them without getting into trouble themselves and dont actually have time to teach so the rest of the class suffers. We never had incidents like you hear of these days, and if someone played up there were immediate consequences.

No amazon in australia?? Cant believe someone hasnt set it up!

Thanks but i am asking from the pov that we may not have jobs lined up by the end of the 4 weeks.

Bump, any more experiences out there you can share? Starting to panic that a 4 week holiday let is unrealistic to secure a long term rental with no jobs lined up however its the best option to prove most funds in the bank. thanks!