kaoticturtle Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Hubby and I arrived on the 9th of April so we've almost been here 4 weeks! We've been based in Canberra as that's where my parents-in-law are but are moving to Sydney ultimately so we've had a few trips up there. The first week was a blur of applying for medicare cards, bank accounts, my tax file number and also catching up with friends and family. Before we arrived, I was in touch with some recruiters and a promising job came along so one of my first priorities was buying a new suit and then getting up to Sydney for an interview on the 15th! My interview was really successful and they came back to ask for references, and for me to go back up to Sydney to meet some more of the team. The references took a bit of time due to the time difference back to the UK, but everything went well and they made an offer for the salary that I'm looking for yesterday afternoon. Yay!!!! The company seems a good place to work from the limited contact that I have had with them, and the role seems to be spot on for what I was looking for. As I'm new to the industry over here I figure that's as much as I can hope for with my first job and once I'm actually working I'll get a better feel for what's what. Having work sorted so quickly is a big relief. We knew that something would come along, but now that it has we can start looking at getting our own place to live and getting back on our feet properly. Prices wise, I haven't felt that things are all that bad. Some things are much more expensive but if you shop around often you can find much better deals. For food, I've found that some things I know are cheap in the UK just aren't over here so rather than carry on buying them, we've switched to something else. One example would be parsnips. We looove parsnips but at $10/kg they are extortionate here! In contrast, you can get pumpkin for $2/kg so we've started adding that to our basket. With meat, we think that the shops here are better value than the UK. The quality seems to be better, and price isn't too bad. Things like lamb forequarter chops are tasty and much better value than the UK. Fish so far seems to be quite expensive but apparently it is in Canberra. Still, we've been able to buy fish its just types that I'm not familiar with and, to be honest, that makes sense when the seas over here are very different to those round the UK. I haven't had a good comparison on clothing costs yet but for shoes, I'm waaay better off over here. The shops seem to stock more shoes in my size (I'm a UK 8-9) so I'm enjoying drooling over shoes that are normal prices We haven't had to buy much in the way of big household goods yet, and even when we get our own place we probably won't have to buy much new as we brought some things with us and we have people over here offering various things from their garages (we scored a fridge/freezer today!). That makes it all so much easier but it may throw our view of relative costs out a bit as we're not factoring these items into our comparisons. Our priorities for the next few weeks are now to get my contract in writing and then start seriously house hunting and organise for all our boxes to be moved up to Sydney. My start date won't be until mid-june so we've got plenty of time and hopefully we'll get to enjoy some of the autumn weather that still feels like mid-summer to us! Overall, my impressions from this first month have been more intense than I was expecting. I've moved over fairly long distances in the past, both myself and since I met my husband, and I've also had to work away from home in other countries and cities for extended periods of time. Given that, I wasn't expecting to find the move difficult and I wasn't expecting to have any problems acclimatising. After all, Australia is an English speaking country so there are no language barriers and, while the culture is different, I'm used to getting to grips with living in other western countries. I also have a large network of family and friends here and I knew that my wage would be more than enough for us to live on even before hubby gets something. Yet, I have still found myself occasionally wondering "what on earth have I done!". I think the distance does make it seem a lot more serious and final than when you move long distances back in the UK or even within Europe. A particularly hard moment was after my first interview when I wandered down to circular quay to spend a bit of time before I had to head back to the airport. The walk highlighted how built up Sydney CBD is, how big a city it is and how small I felt in comparison! We haven't lived in a big city for a few years (although we were in London before that) but in Australia with my line of work big cities are the way we have to go. Sitting beside the opera house I did a quick search for property up on the north shore (as that was where I had heard there were nice places to live) and that was a really bad idea! Up there we would need to spend a huge amount of money on rent to get somewhere with the space we like and I started to get rather scared :eek: A quick call back home had me reassured pronto and hubby suggested some other suburbs that might be more affordable. The sick feeling in my stomach settled when I realised I had been looking at the price of family homes in pretty much the equivalent of Kensington in London! :rolleyes:He also reminded me that once you get out of the CBD, the suburbs very quickly become a lot less dense and free time probably won't be spent in central Sydney. I knew that, and I knew that we could afford to live somewhere fairly nice, but in the rush of the moment my emotions took over and panic set in... I have no doubts about our decision to move over here but I think it just goes to show that no matter how well prepared you are for the move, the enormity of what you are doing will hit at some point. For anyone coming over without a support network in place, it must be hard to get past those moments of panic and see them for what they are. Even with a support network, if you are not used to moving around and restarting in a new city the first couple of months must be difficult and I can see why some people decide very early on that its not for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Hubby and I arrived on the 9th of April so we've almost been here 4 weeks! We've been based in Canberra as that's where my parents-in-law are but are moving to Sydney ultimately so we've had a few trips up there. The first week was a blur of applying for medicare cards, bank accounts, my tax file number and also catching up with friends and family. Before we arrived, I was in touch with some recruiters and a promising job came along so one of my first priorities was buying a new suit and then getting up to Sydney for an interview on the 15th! My interview was really successful and they came back to ask for references, and for me to go back up to Sydney to meet some more of the team. The references took a bit of time due to the time difference back to the UK, but everything went well and they made an offer for the salary that I'm looking for yesterday afternoon. Yay!!!! The company seems a good place to work from the limited contact that I have had with them, and the role seems to be spot on for what I was looking for. As I'm new to the industry over here I figure that's as much as I can hope for with my first job and once I'm actually working I'll get a better feel for what's what. Having work sorted so quickly is a big relief. We knew that something would come along, but now that it has we can start looking at getting our own place to live and getting back on our feet properly. Prices wise, I haven't felt that things are all that bad. Some things are much more expensive but if you shop around often you can find much better deals. For food, I've found that some things I know are cheap in the UK just aren't over here so rather than carry on buying them, we've switched to something else. One example would be parsnips. We looove parsnips but at $10/kg they are extortionate here! In contrast, you can get pumpkin for $2/kg so we've started adding that to our basket. With meat, we think that the shops here are better value than the UK. The quality seems to be better, and price isn't too bad. Things like lamb forequarter chops are tasty and much better value than the UK. Fish so far seems to be quite expensive but apparently it is in Canberra. Still, we've been able to buy fish its just types that I'm not familiar with and, to be honest, that makes sense when the seas over here are very different to those round the UK. I haven't had a good comparison on clothing costs yet but for shoes, I'm waaay better off over here. The shops seem to stock more shoes in my size (I'm a UK 8-9) so I'm enjoying drooling over shoes that are normal prices We haven't had to buy much in the way of big household goods yet, and even when we get our own place we probably won't have to buy much new as we brought some things with us and we have people over here offering various things from their garages (we scored a fridge/freezer today!). That makes it all so much easier but it may throw our view of relative costs out a bit as we're not factoring these items into our comparisons. Our priorities for the next few weeks are now to get my contract in writing and then start seriously house hunting and organise for all our boxes to be moved up to Sydney. My start date won't be until mid-june so we've got plenty of time and hopefully we'll get to enjoy some of the autumn weather that still feels like mid-summer to us! Overall, my impressions from this first month have been more intense than I was expecting. I've moved over fairly long distances in the past, both myself and since I met my husband, and I've also had to work away from home in other countries and cities for extended periods of time. Given that, I wasn't expecting to find the move difficult and I wasn't expecting to have any problems acclimatising. After all, Australia is an English speaking country so there are no language barriers and, while the culture is different, I'm used to getting to grips with living in other western countries. I also have a large network of family and friends here and I knew that my wage would be more than enough for us to live on even before hubby gets something. Yet, I have still found myself occasionally wondering "what on earth have I done!". I think the distance does make it seem a lot more serious and final than when you move long distances back in the UK or even within Europe. A particularly hard moment was after my first interview when I wandered down to circular quay to spend a bit of time before I had to head back to the airport. The walk highlighted how built up Sydney CBD is, how big a city it is and how small I felt in comparison! We haven't lived in a big city for a few years (although we were in London before that) but in Australia with my line of work big cities are the way we have to go. Sitting beside the opera house I did a quick search for property up on the north shore (as that was where I had heard there were nice places to live) and that was a really bad idea! Up there we would need to spend a huge amount of money on rent to get somewhere with the space we like and I started to get rather scared :eek: A quick call back home had me reassured pronto and hubby suggested some other suburbs that might be more affordable. The sick feeling in my stomach settled when I realised I had been looking at the price of family homes in pretty much the equivalent of Kensington in London! :rolleyes:He also reminded me that once you get out of the CBD, the suburbs very quickly become a lot less dense and free time probably won't be spent in central Sydney. I knew that, and I knew that we could afford to live somewhere fairly nice, but in the rush of the moment my emotions took over and panic set in... I have no doubts about our decision to move over here but I think it just goes to show that no matter how well prepared you are for the move, the enormity of what you are doing will hit at some point. For anyone coming over without a support network in place, it must be hard to get past those moments of panic and see them for what they are. Even with a support network, if you are not used to moving around and restarting in a new city the first couple of months must be difficult and I can see why some people decide very early on that its not for them. Where did you look for seafood? Don't buy in supercraps, it's bloody awful and expensive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaoticturtle Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Where did you look for seafood? Don't buy in supercraps, it's bloody awful and expensive! Probably not the right places! To be honest, while I have looked outside of woolies etc for meat and veggies we haven't bothered too much with fish so far. One of our good friends from here was rather scathing about the ability to get decent fish in Canberra so given we're only here for a few more weeks we haven't spent the time looking. Is there anywhere you can recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bromney Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Congrats on the job and welcome to Sydney. I've been here 4 months and love it but luckily I have family (wife's family) otherwise I can see how I would struggle. Sydney CBD is fairly small compared to London or NYC so you'll quickly find your way around. Plenty of lunch time options around and depending on where you work there are some beautiful water views to be had while eating your lunch. Alternatively you can do sports as that seems to be a very popular thing to do. Good luck with everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaoticturtle Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Congrats on the job and welcome to Sydney. I've been here 4 months and love it but luckily I have family (wife's family) otherwise I can see how I would struggle. Sydney CBD is fairly small compared to London or NYC so you'll quickly find your way around. Plenty of lunch time options around and depending on where you work there are some beautiful water views to be had while eating your lunch. Alternatively you can do sports as that seems to be a very popular thing to do. Good luck with everything. Thanks Bromney! It's great to hear from others that are a few months further on and that are enjoying themselves. After my 10 minute wobble I'm actually really excited to be moving to Sydney. We were back there this week and it does seem like it will be a great place to live. One thing I missed when we lived outside of London was all the lunch options so its good to hear there are plenty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ptp113 Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Probably not the right places! To be honest, while I have looked outside of woolies etc for meat and veggies we haven't bothered too much with fish so far. One of our good friends from here was rather scathing about the ability to get decent fish in Canberra so given we're only here for a few more weeks we haven't spent the time looking. Is there anywhere you can recommend? Fishco Downunder (Fyshwick and Belconnen Market), one at Kippax Shops name unknown, oysters from a little shop at Cook Shops, for starters. We'd/Thurs best but fresh supplies daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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