mumoffour Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Dear all We arrived a year ago today. 4 kids (8,7,4 and 3), hubby with job offer and a desire to live by the sea. We hadn't done a reccie because of hubbys work commitments and sheer expense/ hassle factor of our family size. About a month after arriving, hubbys company announced redundancies in the hundreds and last month announced that manufacturing would cease in 2016. When hubby was interviewing for the job by phone, he was told initially as a contractor with a view to becoming permanent - which obvs now looks overly optimistic..... Still he has a job and has settled well into the work place, likes the work and his colleagues. We stayed in a holiday let for the first 3 weeks and moved into our permanent rental a smidge before the end of the 3 weeks. The holiday let was SO cold and we were moving a single electric heater into whichever room we were in at the time. The first rental seemed like a palace! It has heating - however despite the wall panel saying heating/cooling it doesn't have cooling which we only discovered on the first crazy hot day. We are moving next week into a newer house with air con, solar power, in a cul de sac (never thought I'd ever say that!) so the kids can play out the front (there's a communal basketball hoop etc). We have dreams of buying a house eventually but it just isn't sensible with work being a bit flaky (we've done the whole selling a house from the other side of the world and have no desire to rush back into that situation - so will stick to renting for another 2 years and then see...) Best buy so far without a doubt was a satnav for getting around - still use it now! The kids joined a school at year groups appropriate to their academic levels not age group (big mistake as the culture in our local area is very much "hold them back" and "give them 1 more year at home" so right now, the kids class peers are about 12 - 18 months older than them). Now the house has sold in the UK we are moving them to a private school (and dropping back a year level) which we hope will help our son with AS blossom. The kids have loved living at the beach, heading to the park and skate parks after school. They have tried Nippers and several sports that weren't on offer where we lived in the UK, basketball, tennis courts are free, dvd rental from the library is free. We're the family at the beach in winter in coats and hats running around trying to look like we know what we're doing with an AFL ball (we're getting much better!!!) Cost of living is tricky - we use Aldi, Woolworths and the local fruit shop, are concious that water is metered and are extremely stingy with heating and lights. Cost of prescriptions can be a shock but we also use the public dental system where there is a long wait for appointments. What you save in one area (on food, for example is spent on another such as paying for school book lists) We have saved money since we arrived but now have chosen private school for the kids so no more savings for us! We had to be very careful with money when we first arrived and that mentality has hung about but it's also a testimony to having settled that I enjoy my weekly breakfast out at $11 for scrambled eggs on toast and$4.50 for a hot choc, which I think would've given me a heart attack in our first few months (when we were also still converting all $ amounts to £!) You just gotta not do it because it's just not relevant once you're earning $. Some stuff is way cheaper and others much more but it all evens out (for us anyway!) We're a bit over an hour from Melbourne so head up there a few times a month for museums, AFL and the odd concert (Manics this Friday!!) We never did concerts or football games back home (kids were younger I suppose?) Hubby just bought a 4 x 4 so we can re-start doing that at weekends - lots of trails near by and once I get over the fear of snakes getting into the tent, attracted by the camp fire phobia = we may even camp??? About wildlife, we've had 2 whitetails in the house despite spraying pesticides around windows and doorways etc. Seen no other spiders whatsoever. Have seen one snake dead on a road and a dead baby snake on our drive that looked like a bird had dropped it there (about 20cms) so besides still reminding the kids to stick to the path and stomp stomp stomp their feet - it looks like that worry is starting to wear off too :-) Youngest child is getting a stronger Aussie accent than the others. Other kids are using the aussie terms for stuff - even I find myself saying "How you going?" We joined a playgroup that was recommended to us by a fellow PIO'er but apart from that, I find we don't make a conscious effort to socialise with others from "back home". The society down here is very varied in origination which we love. I volunteer at the school and deliver the local neighbourhood watch newsletter and somehow have joined a gym, adult ballet and 2 book groups. I made sure we had learnt the national anthem before we arrived which was helpful as it is sung every Monday at assembly. We even have an Australian flag for our flag pole and only fly the St Georges flag on a few odd days a year. We have 3 years till we can become citizens which we shall be going for. We have no desire to return to the UK though with hubbies job looking increasingly dodgy we may have no choice, in which case we'll be squeezing all we can into our time here rather than sitting home saving every cent for moving costs which would probably be the sensible option! We have bought many bargaintastic items from the local secondhand facebook page which has saved us a small fortune and people gave us free-tv boxes and tvs when we arrived. Life could be very expensive if you are used to buying everything new. Hubby loves how the fans are seated together at afl games and the atmosphere hasn't felt threatening at all. The kids love that the postman drives his motor bike along the pavement to deliver the letters. I love that the current pm is the daughter of immigrants. I think we've settled fairly well though we still see something and say "That's so aussie" (in a good way!) so I guess if we had properly integrated, we wouldn't notice those things??? We worry more about the future now because we did give up a secure life back home and here is looking increasingly tenuous but we're still relatively young and hubby is skilled so we'll just have to move again if we need to. I would recommend anyone thinking of coming over to come and give it a go but to expect to have some really dodgy days of homesickness but also to commit to trying to immerse themselves to really give it a go. I don't think you can be really open to your new home if you're up half the night on fb chatting to friends from back home so you're too tired to go for coffee when invited the next day :-) If I can be of help, please just drop me a pm and I'll try and help out with any specifics :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fifi69 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 What a great post. Glad you've all settled and hope job situation for OH stays good. $11 for scrambled eggs on toast does seem expensive though lol. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del70 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Wonderful post! It took me back to when we were in Aus a couple of years back. Hoping to return if possible....... Good luck with everything! :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy79 Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 great post, I always love ready updates.... hopefully work wise it all turns up and you can get PR in a few yrs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tayloal Posted June 30, 2013 Share Posted June 30, 2013 Great post mumoffour, hopefully your hubby will find something if need be in the future to enable you all to stay. I have a feeling I know the company he works for (big global one) that announced they were manufacturing in Oz altogether. That's a shame but if the AUD$ continues to fall then there may be hope with a smaller presence in the country unless it all goes to Asia. I'm glad you made the point of the secure life you had back in the UK, i'm in a similar boat and have had a few wobbly moments of late but hey life's for living and giving things a go! Good luck to you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salt n Pepper Posted July 11, 2013 Share Posted July 11, 2013 I loved this post. We have just arrived from the UK. Day 3 and the jet lag is a dream . But it won't take long to adjust. i'm going to read this post when I'm feeling homesick, and also remind myself why we are here. To try something new. TFN and a house in Geelong is on the list today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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