Petkula73

+1 for GM Tax. They did my return last year and they'll be doing it again this year.

For short term rentals you are probably best off looking at either renting a holiday house or a serviced apartment. I won't do anyone a favour by bigging up their business, but Google "Serviced Apartment Melbourne" or use a well known company that does peer to peer lettings (starts with an "A"). You're definitely doing the right thing coming on a recce first. Melbourne is a big, big place and things that look close together on a map rarely are. Until you actually see them for yourself you won't know.

Seen they have just launched Melbourne Monopoly and it's getting slated. Instead of using actual streets or even suburbs, they've just put random tourist sites on the board such as the MCG (in the Mayfair box), Fed Square (as Park Lane) and things like the Brighton beach boxes, the Great Ocean Road and so on. Who does this appeal to? It would have been great if they'd done it properly. I'd have put Toorak as the most expensive street, and probably Sunshine West as the Old Kent Road.

Each to their own, but in my opinion it's out in the middle of nowhere, has zero character and there are much nice places.

Cabrini in Brighton and in Malvern both charge outrageous parking fees. I had respiratory issues earlier in the year, which meant I was getting out of breath just walking from one room to another, but I thought I'm buggered if I'm paying $20 extra on top of everything else for parking. So I parked on the street and wheezed myself along over a few hundred metres to the hospital. Daylight bloody robbery is what it is, especially given street parking in Brighton right outside the hospital costs nothing.

They must have. It's now presented by the photogenic Cameron Ling. As Sir Led Patterson would say "He's got a head like a half sucked mango. The last time I saw a head like that, it had a hook in it."

It's probably fair to say it isn't a big budget production, or particularly well made, but Melbourne Weekender on Channel 7 is definitely worth watching for some ideas about what to do in Victoria. It's on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays at around 5.30. It also has possibly the worst theme music ever too!

Hmmm - bit sceptical about any Indian restaurant that serves beef to be honest. Beef Madras sounds wrong on many levels...

Agree with the comments about getting things redirected within the UK and getting someone (friend or family) to filter out the crap you don't need and post (or scan) it over. A cautionary tale from our own experience of this... We set up a 3 month redirect from the Royal Mail when we initially came over. 3 months later and we hadn't received a single letter. From our email we knew that mail was being sent to us, but it wasn't arriving. After loads of hassle chasing up the Royal Mail it all boiled down to this - on the apartment block website in Melbourne, our address was listed as (name of building) 26/12. The actual address was (name of building) 2612. Therefore all our mail was rejected as an unknown address and put on a slow boat back to the UK! So, between the Royal Mail, Australia Post and the apartment block management, no one had the gumption to check if 26/12 actually referred to 2612... Not sure how we were supposed to know this in advance... So be careful to double check and confirm the address is correct before you pay for anything.

$80K a year? Really?? Most top private schools in Victoria are around $20-$30K a year. Melbourne Grammar, Geelong Grammar, Haileybury, Brighton Grammar, Firbank Grammar etc.

Sri Lankan food is great. Same with Southern Indian. Miles different to what's served in the UK. Much fresher and more fragrant with loads of coconut, curry leaves and lime.

That's correct. Curry in India tends to be nothing like a British person calls a curry. Much milder in general and much more rice than we would have. Something like Chicken Tikka Masala is a good example. Invented in Glasgow I believe. An Indian would never have heard of it.

I wouldn't want to re-enforce any stereotypes here so you'll have to draw your own conclusions...

Scars are nasty, but can be avoided by not trying to dry the spots up too quickly. I don't think calamine lotion is very helpful. The best thing we found was a tea tree based foam which reduced the itching and kept the skin moist.

Completely agree. I've recruited various IT contractors in my role as a project manager and probably one of the things I'm least interested in is what certification they have. At the end of the day, if you're sitting in front of me I'm going to assume your skills and experience are adequate and it's all much of a muchness when comparing one person with another. You can have as many bits of paper as you like, but as an employer you need to prove to me that you can actually do this job, not sit in a classroom. The main factor I look for in a candidate (assuming their CV is acceptable) is would this person fit in with my team dynamic? The second one would be things like will this person make my life easier or harder? Do they have a personality? Can they express themselves? Do they need a lot of prompting or hand holding? Do I trust them? And most importantly, do they actually look like they want this job? If you can demonstrate that to me you'll shine in an interview. I wouldn't bother to ask you loads of technical questions to try to catch you out as I don't want to recruit someone who's learned something by rote. Perhaps the best answer I've heard in an interview to a technical question was from an Oracle developer who was asked what he'd do in a pretty complex technical scenario. "Dunno", he replied. "I'd go and Google it probably". He got the job.

Agreed. I'd be wary of having multiple tickets for one journey. We've done it in the past and it's a risk. Miss your connection for whatever reason and you're left pleading with the onwards airline to transfer you to another flight. If you've paid for an unrestricted ticket then fine, but presumably the only reason you'd do this is cost and your ticket will be completely restricted and non-changeable. Personally, I wouldn't fancy rolling up in Amsterdam and being faced with $1000+ for new tickets on SleasyJet. Re booking, if you're not sure of the travel agent just get the flight details and go to somewhere like FlightCentre for a price match: http://www.flightcentre.com.au/lowest-airfare-guarantee Personally though, price wouldn't be my biggest factor, it'd be a combination of duration, comfort and price. No point saving $100 to spend an extra 10 hours on a journey or to have a small, uncomfortable seat with rubbish entertainment and service. Stick with the major Asian and Middle Eastern airlines and pay a bit more in my opinion. Don't be tempted to fly on any Chinese plane!

Each to their own, but personally I'd bung the dogs a couple of valium and stick them on a four hour flight. If you have 24 days free to drive around Australia there are a lot better things to see than driving in a straight line through the outback. Miles better ways to spend that time in my opinion. At the end of the day they're only dogs. Serious question - have you been here before and actually experienced the distances? Lots of British people assume it's like the UK. When you see signposts for towns 2000+km away it can be a bit mind blowing.

Seriously, what's the point? BBQs are cheap as anything here. Ditch your old one and save a lot of hassle cleaning it.

Don't buy privately unless you really know your stuff. Too many lemons out there with secret histories of accident damage and major mechanical problems. At the end of the day, people generally sell their cars when they start to go wrong, so you could be buying someone else's problems. If you buy from a dealer, you are covered by law with a three month warranty for anything under 10 years old (plus the balance of any manufacturer's warranty or warranty provided by the dealership). http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/motor-cars/buying-a-used-car/warranties One thing to bear in mind is if you have a UK licence the documents transfer will be slightly more complicated. When I bought my latest car I still had a UK licence, so it involved a trip to VicRoads and filling in various forms, whereas with a Victorian licence the dealer could have done this for me. I'd also advise wherever possible to buy with a credit card for two reasons - 1. the extra level of insurance provided and 2. You can earn loads of points. Finally, whatever bullshit the dealer comes up with, always knock a minimum of 10% of the sticker price and insist that this is the full on-road cost (i.e. don't agree a price then have them stick extra on top). Insist that they service it before collection and if the tyres are under 3mm I'd also insist that the dealer replaces them. I'd also push hard for things like a tank of fuel to be included. The main thing to remember is it's their job to sell the car, not yours to buy it. It's a buyers market so squeeze them until they bleed!

Probably not what you want to hear, but my advice ould be to let this go and move on. To drag a case like this through the civil courts will be extremely time consuming, stressful and you'll maybe get back a few hundred pounds if you're lucky. We own a house in the UK but rent here, and unfortunately we ended up in VCAT at the end of our last tenancy thanks to a landlord who thought he'd try and deduct $1200 from our deposit to renovate his garden. It was a tip when we moved in, we paid fora gardener to come once a fortnight and it was in a much better state when we left then when we moved in. However, he was trying to sell the property, so paid $1800 to renovate it whilst we were still there, then when it failed to sell and we moved out, he suddenly had the bright idea that he could screw the tenants to cover the lion's share of it. Therefore, he refused to release the deposit, he invented loads of other things we had failed to do such as clean the windows and cooker (we cleaned both thoroughly and had photos to prove it) and tried to scare us with threats of legal action. I'm not the sort of person who can be intimidated by someone like that, so we let VCAT arbitrate and they kicked out his claim in its entirety, leaving him with the very clear message that he was trying to commit fraud. He departed back to Caulfield with his tail between his legs! However, it was not something that I'd want to do again. Loads of anxiety, sleepless nights, pent up aggression and so on - at the end of the day it's a very emotive experience. Therefore, save yourself the stress and move on.

No, three British Citizens and prominent IRA terrorists shot dead by the SAS whilst in the process of planning to blow up a car full of explosives outside the Govenor's House. That the SAS effectively executed them is of little consequence - a car packed with explosives was found in the following days in mainland Spain. Ultimately of course, all three would still be alive had they not been plotting to kill and injure innocent civilians and British armed forces. I have no sympathy.

What an egregious comment. Do you truly classify the Provisional IRA as "fighter(s) of freedom"(sic)? Please tell what freedom they were fighting for? The right to vote? The right to work? The right to practice religious beliefs? The right to healthcare and education? The right of free movement? All of this they already had. So, you're effectively justifying this "fighting for freedom" based on a minority of people wanting the six counties of Northern Ireland to be governed from Dublin not Westminster. And you're excusing the bombings, the executions of the police and political opponents, the punishment beatings and so on as part of this struggle for freedom. How risible! It may have escaped your attention, but the UK is not some banana republic or third world dictatorship. We have a democratic process, which despite being far from perfect, works. If you oppose something you have the right to protest, to write what you like, to stand for election, to petition for change. Yet Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and their friends didn't believe in democracy, preferring instead to commit heinous crimes hidden behind some half baked religious and political ideals. That's terrorism, plain and simple. Inexcusable and indefensible. Conversely, the RUC and British Army in Northern Ireland operated under a code of regulation, a legitimate chain of command from the government downwards and operated in a peace keeping role. Huge difference to the IRA. And in the middle of this we have some bearded idiot from Islington North sucking up to Sinn Fein, attending appreciation rallies for Bobby Sands, publicly meeting with Gerry Adams in weeks after the IRA had attempted to kill the Prime Minister and Cabinet in the Brighton bombing and editing a Labour newsletter which praised the attacks and regretted that they hadn't caused more death. Some "freedom fighters" indeed. Your comments on the Belgrano sinking are completely out of context. This was not an act of terrorism. The Argentinians had taken a British Overseas Territory by force, against the wishes of the islanders and despite having little tangible claim to them except their proximity to mainland Argentina. The Argentines had been previously made aware that the 200 mile exclusion zone would not be considered the limit of activity by the RN. At the time of the sinking, the Argentines were planning an all out assault on the Task Force which the sinking of the Belgrano and subsequent retreat of the Argentine Navy, prevented, saving thousands of British (and Argentinian) lives. It's also a subject of conjecture that the Belgrano was heading back to port. Although it was sunk outside the exclusion zone, heading away from the Falklands it is likely that this was as part of a manoeuver to outflank the Task Force. It's very easy to be wise after the event, but given the opportunity and potential consequences of not taking it, Mrs Thatcher was 100% correct to order HMS Conqueror to sink the Belgrano. It's absolutely irrelevant what the families of the 300 odd sailors may claim 33 years later.

You're making me depressed now! Wonder if they'll post one over for me?! Have you had a curry here yet? Save yourself a big disappointment if not...

A word of caution on that though. We bought some tomato plants from a supermarket last year and two weeks later we were over run with white flies. Once you get them it's nigh on impossible to get rid of them as well. We made the daft mistake of using insecticide and all that happened was it killed off all the predator insects and a few white flies, but a week later the next generation hatched and multiplied!

That's true, but I think in any situation where you have electricity and water in close proximity should be treated with extreme caution. I think sparkies say "one flash and you're ash". Therefore, personally I prefer to have my own RCD and power surge.