bungeeman Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 G'day from Perth, well Connolly anyways! This post will be more factual than my light hearted previous posts. I'd like it to be a bit informative for those looking to come to the area and give some honest feedback on our experience. It seems we leave the UK and they're having somewhat of a heatwave!?? That's it! Wifey grab your things! We're going back!! I am, of course, kidding. So far I have to say, I am impressed. I'm sleeping well (except in the morning with some bloody bird sounding like a screaming child!) and eating well too. The house we're in is nice, not what we would buy personally, but it suits our needs and wants for our first few weeks here in W.A. The weather has been faultless, although the wife, freaky as she is, is still feeling 'a little chilly'. I've told her to leave him alone- whoever 'chilly' is as she'll get herself arrested! (insert canned laughter here) But seriously, it has been a pleasant 22c+ degrees here but a lot cooler (down to around 5 degrees c) in the evenings. I can only imagine what 40+ feels like in November/ December time! Looking forward to finding out. No I know one thing a lot of posts report is high prices of things particularly food shopping. Now over the last 2 days we have had to stock our fridge, cupboards and bathrooms of food, fruit and veg and cleaning products. We have also had to get some baby things too including nappies, a high chair and a travel cot to use for the time being until our container arrives- supposing it's not fallen off into the ocean or been hijacked by pirates. Now taking into account what we have had to pay out for (a complete re-stock of things) we've spent at most $600. Now our food shop should last us about 2 weeks- 2 adults and a baby- (not including bread and milk as we'll have to get that as we go). Now if we were to buy things like 'dolmio sauces', ready meals and the like I've no doubt the cost of groceries would have been nearly double what we've spent-but we bought our meat and veg at Drovers near Joondalup, and our cleaning products at woolworths. I admit it helps having a chef for a wife as everything is cooked fresh, including sauces etc. Don't get me wrong it is a pain in the ar*e going from shop to shop to get the best deals but actually a lot of things are cheaper than the uk -although some things are more expensive (nappies and wipes and formula seems to be up on UK prices not hugely, but noticible). Baby's Aptimil for example is $21 (£13ish) whereas it's a tenner in the UK. And yes, we are converting to £'s at the moment as that's what we're spending. I do think it becomes irrelavent the minute you start earning dollars though. Petrol is $1.39 a litre (87p) which is obviously cheaper-but does go up to $1.49 on the weekends- a strange thing they do out here putting prices upon a Thursday evening until Monday morning, but I remembered that from our previous visits. We have been very busy mind. Our first 2 days have been spent doing admin stuff including verifying our ID's for our NAB bank accounts (very easy to do), buying a Aussie sim card for the mobile phone ($25 sim pack) and a wireless dongle ($49) (I can't believe it's called a 'dongle'- *too many jokes to be made). We've also picked up forms for Centrelink which is to be filled out and sent back. Registered for medicare (very easy- fill out a form, take in visa paperwork and passports and bada-bing!- our cards will be with us in a few weeks) and enquired about changing our licenses to Oz ones. So we've achieved everything we wanted to early on. That was the plan for us as we wanted to get the admin cr*p done asap so we could have a week of as a sort of holiday. The boy has taken well to his new bedroom and is sleeping as well as he did in the UK. As is the wife- her snoring testament to the fact. It is still early days but now we're here and have got over the first leg of the emotional rollercoaster of leaving the UK, friends and family, we are feeling great about things. We took to Hillary's boat harbour this afternoon and had the boy dipping his feet in the sand and sea for the first time! So it's onwards and upwards to our new adventure. Wifey has already received an email from a prospesctive employer asking for a meet up so all is good here down under. Looking forward to the next few weeks to see what our adventure brings us! Now for a glass of wine and a bit of pasta bolognaise as prepared by the missus! Gerrin! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Great post (and still rather funny) ... Welcome to Perth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munchkinella Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Fantastic update Bungee! Had me laughing out loud! :biglaugh: Good to see you're all settling in. All the best Jxxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Fantastic post,lol ,im glad things are going well so far (but for the bird,lol),, i look forwards to future posts, maybe you should think about starting a blog, it would be great to read.. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tappers2oz Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Totally love reading your posts and look forward to each one. Sounds like you are doing fantastic having sorted out all the 'admin' already and job offers in the pipeline! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwgster Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Great post Bungeeman We got our 175 on the 17th of this month and are looking to emigrate early next year. Just got back from a reckie in Joondalup.. Definately the area we are looking to live.. Sounds like you are getting there and that the massive checklist is now getting smaller! haha Hope you write some more in the future, will be very interested to hear how you are getting on. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochc0 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Thank you for your updates - we love posts like this as it helps us to build up a fair picture of how things really are. Best of luck with your new life x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wright4 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Great update, nice to hear about facts, places to go and how to do things for those of us arriving soon. Look forward to hearing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhampa Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 the screaming child might be a possum !! great post keep us updated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lees Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Great read sound s like every things going to plan enjoy your new life down under Donna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candygirl Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 Great Post Bungeeman, you still make me laugh. Waiting for the next instalment who the devil "Chilly" is. Seriously, glad you are settling in and thanks for taking the time to give us "WA Wannabees" some tips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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