kevsan

true, although parking is getting worse. I gave up after all the spaces were regularly gone by 6:45.

IF Beaches arent your thing then you will have no problem. Look at the suburbs back from the bay, so Carrum Downs, Langwarrin, Frankston, etc. We live in Langwarrin and love it - our personal preference was to be closer to the beach but we didnt want to compromise on the house we bought or strangle us with a mortgage, so we bought a 3 bed 2 bath house last year for $450k on double the size plot we had in the UK. Its a 10-15 minute drive to the beach and just slightly less for the train on the frankston line and the express trains run every 10 minutes, 50 minutes into the city. Personally i would avoid the Cranbourne train line as its single track in parts so runs much less frequently and is generally packed all the way.

stolen my thunder.......

and this is what we did. 25k was all we had, and we burnt through most of it pretty quickly, but $9k and $6k for 2 cars, rent $2k per month and the rest on 'stuff'. I was earning straight away so the impact wasnt as bad as it could have been.

Follow the frankston line down the bay and then you can just weigh up commute time vs rental cost. its about an hour into the cbd from seaford where i get on. Anywhere south of chelsea should come in your budget

The only way to really tell is mark out the floor space and stack it up. I took some photos in my thread about it: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/transport-shipping/235966-movecube-ala-tetris.html we got all our stuff in easily and with space to spare. in hindsight, i would have done the same and then booked a smaller one for the rest of the stuff that we ended up dumping, on to have to buy here again.

I think that technically this would be mortgage fraud and breaches the terms and conditions of the loan. In the worst case scenario lenders could demand full and final repayment, which would force many borrowers to default - if they found out.

skipton do expat mortgages, and although they state in the details you need to be an expat, when we queried they said that they would consider those that are planning to move abroad shortly.

This was a recent post about to do lists - the forum is littered with them. http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/news-chat-dilemmas/236120-do-list-am-i-missing-much.html

Thats exactly what i did, which was a royal pain as i had to go back 10 years. Essentially send a template in the form of: To whom it may concern, I can confirm that X worked as a X between XX/XX/XXX and XX/XX/XXXX for XXXX plc/ltd Duties included: XXX Cut and paste from job description / whatever you did XXX If you require any further info please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours XXXX XXXX and then politely asked my boss(es) / HR to print on headed paper and sign before sending back. that was it.

Well, I guess you would have to ask our friends! But certainly there are 2 couples we have got to know here that we have a deeper connection with than a number of our UK group of friends. One of which have just gone through a cycle of IVF to have a second child and when we went out last week to celebrate the success (currently 8 weeks pregnant) their words to us were "We wouldn't have even considered starting this if you guys hadn't have come into our lives and we know how much you love and support us" So it seems a pretty genuine friendship to them even if its less than 18 months old.

Sums us up too. It was hard leaving and experienced a certain amount of anxiety about what might happen, but you cant live your life for other people. If this is what you want for your immediate family then go for it, dont live on regrets. It can be permanent or temporary, but you need to be willing to have a go. We've been here 18 months and have settled really well, including developing friendships that are as strong if not stronger than the ones we left behind. Yes we miss friends and family, but will be heading back at Christmas for a month to catch-up with everyone we 'left behind' and even after this short time, there are a number of people that we aren't that fussed about seeing (and vice versa i expect) as people move on with their own lives, and others that we still have strong links with.

When i did it, i put down as full working rights PR visa. More importantly, i stated when i was arriving in country in the covering letter along with a happy to phone / skype at a time suited to them. Without this a lot of recruiters will think you are just testing the waters, but if you can state specifc dates you will be in country for face to face it goes a long way in your favour.

Good Luck! Sometimes it will come down to the wire. Ours didnt look like the sale would complete in time, so left the keys with the in laws. Got the phone call that completion had happened just as we pulled into the car park at Heathrow....

UXC have been taken over by CSC so might have a freeze on recruiting until the dust has settled.

You can ask - we ended up with ANZ frequent flyer cards after a couple of weeks, and Bank of Melbourne as well.

How much does it all weigh - could you go down the excess baggage route? if not, most parcel companies can be competitive or hideously more expensive than auspost depending on location and weight: check out: http://www.skippypost.com.au/ http://www.packsend.com.au/ http://www.interparcel.com.au/ https://www.ship2anywhere.com.au/

I would break everything down into managable chunks - including asking for advice on here - so that its easier to track that line of thought.... Get a cheap whiteboard to make notes of stuff as you think of it! In terms of the moving bit, we used a movecube and i thought it was great. The whole movecube/container/suitcase approach largely depends on how much stuff you want to bring.. and you'll probably want a list for that. Bear in mind, unless you take it on the plane with you, you'll need to allow 8-12 weeks of not having that stuff.. so 12 weeks before you go, or 12 weeks after you arrive, or, as we did, 6 and 6. That helps focus what you'll want to bring. - Plenty of movecube/container threads, or start your own

There is also a NCFC group on facebook im a member of - "canaries down under" and some of the guys there play i think, plus there is the annual Norwich vs Ipswich grudge match at Macquarie Park that they are always looking for players for!

Sainsburys Taste the difference Scotch Eggs Ginsters Cornish Pasty possibly my friends and family. that is all....

Agreed. Parking is ridiculous, even worse if you miss the early bird specials and come in later. Plus as well as parking there are the eastlink and citylink tolls which all add up (more than the trainfare alone) and the monash freeway is always choked. in the last year i've had to get off the train once at bonbeach due to a train fault but thats itm, and after 15 minutes it was fixed and we were on our way. delays can and do happen, but for me its a no brainer compared to driving. Oh - and the coffee & compliements kiosk at Seaford Station serves awesome coffee!

Yep - on the frankston line anywhere south of mentone at 7am you'll get a seat - not the best seats in the world and the older trains are a bit more cramped but good enough to work from. Cranbourne can be more crowded, but the further away you are from the city the more seats avaliable.

We live in Langwarrin which we love - and is still not as over developed as some areas. You'll find most of your housing requirements within your budget, just! - Its a 10minute drive to the beach which is great. I work in the CBD - i drive to Seaford station 15 minutes (as the parking is slightly better) and then its an hour into the city. (although the express trains have just started running again 45-50 minutes to Flinders street). Trains run every 5-10 minutes at rush hour. Anywhere around there, as ThePomQueen mentioned although Mornington onwards starts to get to be a bit of a drive to get to the station. Metro starts at Frankston, although parking there is a nightmare. You can go East to Cranbourne for the more new builds, but i found the rail journey to be a nightmare, for parking and overcrowding. I dont think the trains run as often as its a single track for part of the way

Specifically: http://www.tenants.org.au/factsheet-24-mould

i would certainly recommend a movecube and brought our key items including the TV! It doesnt work on picking up FTA channels, but we use a setup box provided for free by optus- - you can buy setup boxes for a lot less than a new TV. checkout my movecube thread here: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/transport-shipping/235966-movecube-ala-tetris.html