deryans

lol, hope it does not worsen at a rate that outstrips my healthcare, but I'm using reading glasses only, so I do notice my first glasses (if i can find em!) are not that great for reading anymore

I can't speak for the UK, but I can for Perth and and some other major Cities, as I have very close friends there, one of my good friends is High up in the Police Force, I have never mentioned that before but some of the stories they have told us would make your skin crawl, Suicide is High in Australia and Cutting has become an epidemic with young teenagers, the biggest problem now is Ice the new Drug of Australia and it is ruining lives it is a horrible drug , all we can do is inform our Children and always talk to them, so many teenagers are now on Anti-Depressants too, I believe Social Media has a lot to do with it IMO !!

I worked in the Justice system in both NSW and SA, Ice is definitely a major problem both there and in SA, it is cheap and very easy to manufacture, infact one of the last trials I attended in SA was a wanna-be bikie clown convicted whilst carrying around 16K worth of cash and about 30K worth of ICE in varying states ( paste, powder, crystal).

I also worked in the child protection (as a consultant on protective intervention and slow burner abuse, yeah delightful subject matter ..not) in NSW , and what I saw quite simply exhausted me emotionally and professionally, huge professional effort by case workers and police are squandered by senior lassie faire leadership & political clowns (yes, clover) who should be shown the door.

I have also travelled extensively though-out australia , and been into some of the most remote areas of the country, and what I saw left me with only despair, it's not getting better , sadly it's getting much much worse. I saw first-hand what substance abuse does to remote societies.

So, yes, Australia is OK if you can afford to bring up kids in a nice environment, same as UK I imagine, however, if you can't ?.....

I agree with one of the other posters here, Australia is good to start a family, but not so great anymore to complete it, UK and Europe have much much more opportunity and options than say a regional area in oz like Adelaide or Perth or indeed Townsville ?

We moved back to the UK this year and Kids are thriving and I have seen no evidence of ICE and or groups of kids hanging round on street corners.

If you have private health cover with HBF you get a free pair every year ......

 

https://www.hbf.com.au/health-insurance/for/optical

BUPA offer x2 free pairs per year, calendar, so each January on or around 16th ish, we used to nip down to specsavers and collect x4 pairs, two pair for my wife and two pair for me, we now have over 8 pairs each, and I still can't find a pair when i need them.

Mind you , we used to spend over 4K aud on private health care each year, so x4 pairs of glasses hardly makes a dent

bit of legwork, but work through jetpets = emirates = vet = emirates = jetpet, you'll have to do a bit of runaround

Seriously though, I can assure you emirates and any other carrier that sequences through Dubai, take very good care of the animals, as regards the little chap, as long as the medication does not affect his respiratory function (i.e. breathing) then he's good to travel on that basis, you will need to be totally upfront with emirates regading the epilipsy and I can't advise you on that. On another point, Dogs don't really have a sense of time, so say 1 hour in crate is the same as say 6 hours in crate, does not actually matter what environment, crews keep temps and pressures in cargo same as for people up top, and indeed can even make it warmer for pooch if requested/#.

Hey Rosie,

Call Emirates and/or Qantas and explain what you want, they are both very professional animal movers, they know their stuff, (they may refer you to a freight handler) do not worry, we moved a Pet dog to london via dubai a few months ago and they were fantastic, call them direct, explain what your needs are and you'll be well looked after, just a head up on the timescale, you need to be doing this say 6-8 weeks before you travel. Some vaccinations need to be in place 4-6 before travel date.

I used to work for QF and know exactly how animals are treated and handled, and I can assure you it's very professional and caring, they do actually take very good care of the animals.