maidensarah

I sometimes like to watch it just to see bits of Australia. What channel is it going to be on?

Turkey and all the trimmings. I don't eat the turkey myself though (veggie). Last year we had lamb too as my Nan was there for dinner and doesn't like turkey. This year we have another Norfolk Bronze Free Range turkey as last year. We do pigs in blankets too though I never had these growing up. I do Paxo stuffing as that's always what I had growing up, but OH makes a sausage meat stuffing as that's what he always had.

I had just under £3k which was around AUD$7k at the time

How much longer is the life expectancy in Australia?

1 in 3 is high. I think it's about 1 in 4 here but obviously a larger population. They're trying to cut that down too. I think if they just let women have an epidural rather than always trying to put people off the idea people would be much less scared of birth. And rightfully so. It's extremely painful, and if it goes on a while is just awful! Not everyone is lucky and has a quick birth. Most women in America give birth with epidurals but it's because of the cost here that they don't like people having them. I don't personally know anyone that's opted for a c-section one for fashion reasons, though I know people that have had them with second children due to either a traumatic first birth, damage in first birth so C-section was a better option second time, or emergency C-section first time so it's recommended then to have further C-sections rather than VBACs. My first birth was long and horrible, mostly gas and air and two half doses of an opiate (Meptid) that didn't help in the slightest, and that birth took me months to recover from. My second was much quicker (9 hours rather than 26), I did opt for an epidural this time though as I was so scared of it being like the first, however by the time it was fully effective I was at pushing stage and it only took another half hour then. (Spent 3 hours pushing my first out!). Still took me a few weeks to recover due to blood loss/lack of sleep in the days after the birth but not as bad as the first time round. I won't be doing it again!!!

Yes get a Lonely Planet Australia book. They're a weight in your backpack though!

In a lot of ways it's better to travel on your own too. You can go where you want as and when, you don't have to worry about what someone else wants to do or where they would rather go. Just make sure you stay safe

No (at least you didn't at the time, I don't know the rules now), but you just couldn't work there again. We did have a great time, I think about it often (which is why I come here) I did go with a friend though we did go our own ways a bit at times. Are you planning to go on your own? We met lots of single travellers and they were all doing great.

Just go straight for the WHV. Buy an open return ticket if you're worried about work and if you really run out of money and can't find anything then just come home. I went out on my WHV with only just under £3k, (not including my flight over - and I didn't have a return ticket). It was about 2 months before I got a job. In total I worked for 7 months of the 12. Towards the end of the year I claimed my tax back which gave me a good amount of Aussie dollars, I think it worked out at about 1k English money. But I couldn't then work anymore after I claimed that, but I needed it then. I lived on noodles and stirfrys and the 'goon' which I think worked out something stupid like £4 for a 4 litre box lol! I didn't see everything I wanted but we did a lot. We got a bit distracted by boys though!! I'm an indecisive person too, and I was only 20 when I did this. I'm quite proud of myself really for having the guts to do it! Go for it, YOLO and all that

I miss Australian Thai food. Way better than here imo

Thanks

It's lovely roasted! I first had pumpkin in Australia. Shame it's not eaten much here by most people in the UK. I remember when I was weaning my son and I wanted some pumpkin to puree for him and couldn't get any anywhere

How long do you have to live in Australia before you can apply for citizenship? And what's an RRV? My British passport expired the other year; I'm waiting until I get married in June to renew it now due to the cost.

I've stayed with a friend's family in Bridgman Downs. That's a nice area. Nice modern houses if you prefer those to the Queenslander type. Expensive though but I used to get a bus into the city, took about 45 mins I think. Nice and easy. Local shop, though their Colmans English Mustard was out of date by a year or so. lol.

I have spent one Christmas in Sydney, Australia, 2005, I was 20, on a WHV, and it didn't feel like much of a Christmas for me, though we still enjoyed ourselves. I think we were out 'til about 6am Christmas Eve/Christmas morning, then spent some of Christmas Day on a little boat on Sydney Harbour (organised through Scruffy Murphy's pub). It was 35degrees, I was hungover and all I had was a turkey roll and tried to recover from the night before haha.

Definitely worth a shot. Lots of people move to different countries having never been there before. You're not tied to anywhere forever. My OH and I have two little ones and couldn't afford to move there right now but will definitely consider it in the future. Though he wants to go to America more!!

How exciting, good luck! Have you been to Australia before?

I spent 3 weeks in Cairns when travelling. Would have liked to have stayed longer but couldn't get any work in the short time that we had to try. It was around June/July/Aug ish 2006? Can't remember exactly.

Will this mostly be through immigration or people having babies? Please excuse my ignorance. I don't know a lot about anything except my babies at this time in my life

Only boring people get bored

What I liked about when I was travelling there was that although I didn't get all Australia, I spent a few months in both Sydney and Brisbane, as well a shorter visits to many other places up to FNQ, so I got to know both of those cities fairly well, which gave me a fair idea of what it might be like to live there

Yep, hopefully a future holiday, when the children are old enough to appreciate/enjoy it

Hopefully!

In the attic. I'll dig them out sometime

Places I didn't get to visit in Australia but wanted to: Uluru Kakadu National Park Lichfield National Park Melbourne I also wanted to go on the Indian Pacific Highway across the continent. To get a feel for how big it is! Great Ocean Road I'm sure there's many others I've forgotten/not thought of Maybe one day....?