tina0101

Lol. Waitrose is expensive!! Where the posh people shop :-).

Nerves are great, aren't they!! if if you want any advice or help or a cuppa when you all get over here, send me a pm! :-)

We just used our holiday let's address and then changed it when we moved. You'll be here before you know it!!

Sign up to Seek.com, the local government website, the catholic school website, even Indeed.com to see what sort of things are coming up. I'd also contact schools directly - student service jobs are not advertised that often for State schools in our area (Brisbane) and when they do come up, they are fairly popular and get lots of applications! As Pom Queen said, October/November are good times as it's the end of the year.

I contacted a number of private schools here before we left and built up a rapport with them both by email and by phone (usually confirmed the time I was going to ring by email first though). Didn't have to pay any fees to register my son at any of them. He actually liked a Catholic school we hadn't even considered. That's about $6000 a year, so much cheaper than the UK. Lots of the privates have bus routes and the train is always loaded with kids travelling to their school at certain times. But out if you get a decent state school, and live in the catchment, you will be able to go there.

Get on Facebook too and search for groups. Get him into kindy/whatever 4 year olds do these days and you'll meet mums there. Its nerve-wracking, but just be confident and go over and chat. :-)

Had a lovely cuppa at a new cafe in Wellington Point the other day - Delamauta Handcrafted Coffee and Tea. One of the best I've had in Brisbane. I do love a Zarraffa's double shot mocha too!! Just what I need at 7am on a Saturday :-)

Lots of negotiation - nothing is ever the price advertised!! Agree about the weather - I actually prefer it when it hammers down to the constant drizzle!! But it's meant to get nice tomorrow!! Glad it's all working out for you!!

I remember that question!! Heheheheh. It's like packing for holiday - you wouldn't do that 4 weeks in advance!! Lol not long now :-)

I've met up with people from PIO and from facebook groups. When you are new to a foreign country, it's helpful if you can join online groups who arrange things. These days, the internet is a much better way of researching clubs and things that are on. Usually do it all by pm though. Would never invite someone to stay at my house without meeting them in real life first though. You never know who you are actually talking to!!

Every morning on the traffic report, the Bruce is chocka. I don't think I've ever watched the traffic report and it not be a problem.

When it boiled down to money, we left our two cats behind, which really upset me. Fortunately, they are with the in-laws and are probably happier where they are and I get regular updates and photos.

kde2014, I have sent you a pm :-) northernlove, Deffo check out the flood maps and places that has recent issues when the bad weather hit. I know Bayside was relatively unscathed when you compare it to other areas, but I was surprised at the number of major roads that flooded (I drive from Wellington Point to East Brisbane each day).

Congratulations!! I live in Wellington Point, which is Bayside and we are very settled here. Manly's good, so is Birkdale. Not all of Alex Hills is dodgy, but I personally wouldn't live there (no train line). Cleveland and Ormiston are also nice areas. Victoria Point and Thornlands are a bit further down but also lovely areas. There aren't really obvious 'bad' areas - when we were house hunting in the areas you mention there was a right mixture of new, old, nice and ugly houses in a street. We drove round the areas before we went to open houses to see if we liked them, checking out how busy the roads were, how well kept the gardens were, how many people kept extra cars on their front gardens, if there were dogs barking etc. Where are you at the moment?? You will have to consider school catchments as well.

When we flew over with Singapore, it was a standard 30kg each but because we were validating our visa, we got an extra 10kg each. So, between the three of us we had 120kg!! lol. I also agree with the comment about waiting 3 months for the container - when it arrived I was looking at stuff in there and wondering why the hell we shipped some of it over!! We'd bought everything while waiting for it to arrive!!

Hi 1. Look at Stayz or AirBnB to see if you can get a short to mid term let. The Gold Coast is fairly big and you may want to factor in where you may be working, public transport links etc. 2. You can get a bank account from the UK. Before we left I used google maps to see what had branches where in the area we were looking at. I'd also check cashpoints as if you don't use the one for your bank, you get stung for charges (like it used to be in the UK!). There are plenty of big banks but they may not all have branches in every area. 3. We had about half a container and it was about £1750 (I think!). We saw three companies before choosing - Crown, Pickfords and PSS. All were similar in price. They came to the house and we walked through with them saying what we did and didn't want to take. 4. As I said before, Gold Coast is fairly large with lots of suburbs. Google and Google maps are great, also check out the local news online so you know what's going on. We started off in the Gold Coast for three weeks and found the drive to Brisbane to be a bit arduous, especially in rush hour.

Students don't sit exams at 16 like the UK. It's all about the last two years. In Queensland they will generally choose 6 subjects for Years 11 and 12 and work towards an OP. Exams are sat in all subjects but they also sit the QCS tests in September, which also helps towards the OP. All kids do English and at least one Maths and then select the other four. It's quite a complicated system the way the OP is calculated. Some uni courses do request a certain level of subject (e.g. if they want to go into Biomed Science you need at least Maths B). If they look at university courses online they will specify an OP that they need to achieve to join that course (although there are other pathways, if getting an OP isn't right for them).

Congratulations!! I would definitely reinforce what you say about the personal connection. Seems to make a huge difference out here.

The motorway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane can be pretty awful, especially if there is an accident. Today there was a couple of crashes and it was km after km of traffic jam. Same as the UK really, it's busier during rush hour, but I know plenty of people that do the drive each day. No idea on the trains, I'm afraid!! I know it'll take over an hour each way though.

Visit Tamborine Mountains, take in the views at Mount Cootha, pop over to Stradbroke Island, numerous theme parks, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Australia Zoo. You could quite easily fill in 4 weeks. It's a 10 hour(ish) drive to the Great Barrier Reef - you'd probably need more than a weekend

Just did my sons renewal. Was actually quicker than I've ever waited in the UK!! Did it all online, printed and sent off the forms (went to the post office and did registered post) and within a month we had the new passport through. And you can track it all online!

I much prefer the chips at the local chippy to the British one. Yes, the British ones are like home, but the local does chips that are beer battered and are absolutely scrummy. Actually found the British one to be a bit soggy/greasy last night when we went there!

I can confirm that Whitetail bites go on for a while - 6 months ago I got bitten and it still flares up occasionally!!

You're not coming out til January - for what it'll cost to ship it over, you may as well stop buying and start drinking :-) Then you can come out and start building it up again. We ended up giving away alcohol to family and friends before we came as it was physically impossible to finish it all before we came over!!! I'm sure your mates will help you!

Can you take a year out on 'leave' and come and try it?? If you stay together in the UK, she may start to resent you. If you both come out here, you may resent her. Someone is going to have to compromise. Trying it and if you really don't like it, you can always go back. I know you've been together a while, but you are still young and if it doesn't work out, it's better you tried than for one of you to settle. Good luck