beketamun

Interesting points. As immigrant communities go, the English don't have one do they? The Irish are the best immigrants in the world, not always their choice of course, but there are Irish pubs and clubs in every city in the world, networks of people to get you settled in and help with work....not so many English clubs. The Scots have Burns clubs, The Polish have clubs, Croatians, Greeks, Italians with communities centred around Italian restaurants, even the Lebanese in Australia....but they are all smaller of course. The English organise nothing, the expectation is that you just go it alone but there is no sense of any "belonging" to anything? What is the English niche..I don't think we actually have an immigrant identity because we were used to taking things over and trying to shape them to be absorbed into our culture, rather than assimilating. It's a fascinating culture, even going back to William the Conqueror and a Norman King who invaded England and then his French people took on the identity of the English rather than make it an extension of Normandy. I don't think that's ever happened anywhere where the conquered have won the culture war by acting like a sponge despite losing the actual war and leadership power.

Generally here in NSW, you put in a colorbond fence to code height or stick it on a sleeper to get a bit more height, then get the extra 200mm pergola bit added on the top. I mentioned the 1.8m limit and the fencer looked at me as if i was mad...."everybody does this".

which part of Australia is that? There's a new suburb near here where they're forcing every house (6500) to build a sitting area/courtyard in the front garden with transparent fencing so they can't avoid communicating with their neighbours walking past, it's meant to promote neighbourliness. Not sure if it's working but it's different. I can see the point about side fences and windows overlooking back gardens in Australia..they are different to UK gardens. Lots of people are in their al frescos for long periods, in the pool or sunbathing, you're not looking at Fred Bloggs picking his spuds for 10 minutes a month.

Good point, it's like comparing London to somewhere like a village in North Wales I guess...almost alien to each other. Australians seem to have a good time in London, but i don't reckon they'd like living in some of the more incestuous parts of the UK.

I think your experience and knowing how to adjust into different lifestyles is admirable. I don't think everybody is like that though, and expectations are different. If you've only ever lived in the UK, Australia can be a shock. There's more space, people are more independent, they can cope very well on their own without the very close relationships that are created in small English towns based around pub culture and general nosiness into other people's business. I mean that in a nice way. The UK gives you a blowhole, you find out a lot more about people, it's very very casual, you can moan til your heart's content and nobody cares. In Australia, there is a lot less of that...people mind their own business and expect you to mind yours, I've seen a lot less emotional blowouts in Australia and people's business is private. The horror if you just turned up at somebody's house unannounced and knocked on the door...it just doesn't seem to happen here. I do it on purpose just to see their faces.

I don't think he did. His next line was I used to find that having a mohican and dying it orange ala Johnny Rotten was a good strategy.

Are you saying that they skim 95% off charitable donations to fund their lifestyles? That's a bit of a stretch isn't it? Surely they have the money she's just won from her libel case, printed on the front page on Boxing Day, or the big money they make anyway? https://www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity-life/meghan-markle-receives-public-apology-and-major-payout-from-british-tabloid-after-lawsuit-win/news-story/e91c422dcebdac5c708b49a6dff225c7 https://afrotech.com/meghan-markle-businesses-duchess-of-success?item=3

You've spilt something down your pinny, love

We have a smoked turkey this year, just picked it up from the local smokehouse and it will go on the barbie tomorrow and get smoked again. I will have it with proper homemade "American" potato salad, pickles and salad. My other half is having goose fat roasters, stuffing, pigs in blankets, sprouts, gravy etc...I can't be doing with having to eat that sitting in the sunshine.

As Alan said, take advice from a migration agent rather than anyone on here.....it's good for opinion but it's not advice specific to your circumstance.

They will get Medicare, I know someone who moved over his 90yr old father, with dementia, from a UK care home into an Australian care home. He was funding privately anyway, but was surprised when his dad had a Medicare card issued immediately. He'd applied for 3 month tourist visa, then parental when his dad was on-shore, then bridging VISA. All sailed through. It will never get finalised for obvious reasons.

Yes I agree. It is similar to the farmer leaving the paddock gate open for the beef cows to go somewhere else, yet they will always return at night to what they know, until one day it is too late. Mindfulness can be a useful skill to develop and practice.

You make a good point. A lot of arguments seem to be about UK v Australia, which are largely futile and mainly down to the people's adaptability rather than the place. There are arguments for where you should live in Australia itself....the country is so different. I see people complaining about Australia when they are actually complaining about the town they live in, and they miss so many opportunities to make a success of their adventure, then resent it forever and put the blame on a "country".

Thats not a problem, you went with an honest plan. I know some who went in on sponsored PR with full intention of staying and barely lasted a month. Some who got sponsored PR with the intention of taking the money, bumming around as a tourist, using all their holiday and then disappearing back to Ireland...but have now been here 10 years and will never move back to their origins. Everybody is different, plans can change.