Well folks it's decision time..Do it?

[Wa7]

44 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

I could never understand those people who went on holiday and sat round the hotel pool every day. We had a timeshare on the Algarve and I swear some of the people staying wouldn't have gone out of the complex. You used to see them, up early 6:00 ish putting their towels on the best beds near the pool then going back to bed for a couple of hours.

Noticed the same thing in Bali last year. Same couples same places by the pool. 

We used to hire a motorbike and head off to a different place most days. The complex was next to a fantastic beach too. I reckon some are scared to go in the ocean.

Can't understand why anyone would want to sit around a pool or beach all day, everyday myself either......

Dont personally know anyone scared to go in the ocean, but I suppose some are.

Edited May 1, 2018 by Wa7

[Parley]

16 minutes ago, Wa7 said:

Can't understand why anyone would want to sit around a pool or beach all day, everyday myself either......

Dont personally know anyone scared to go in the ocean, but I suppose some are.

It is a sad fact that not everyone in Australia are confident swimmers.

Primary schools do try to ensure every child leaves school being able to swim but there is limited funding and some parents don't like to pay for anything.

Also with migration, people come here from countries where they are not used to swimming so that is very risky too.

[Jon the Hat]

1 hour ago, Paul1Perth said:

I could never understand those people who went on holiday and sat round the hotel pool every day. We had a timeshare on the Algarve and I swear some of the people staying wouldn't have gone out of the complex. You used to see them, up early 6:00 ish putting their towels on the best beds near the pool then going back to bed for a couple of hours.

Noticed the same thing in Bali last year. Same couples same places by the pool. 

We used to hire a motorbike and head off to a different place most days. The complex was next to a fantastic beach too. I reckon some are scared to go in the ocean.

I used to feel the same, but to be honest; with 2 kids under 10, a demanding full time and the rest senior job which involves a lot of travel, the idea of doing nothing apart from rest, eat and swim with the odd beer (dry white wine for the lady...)  by a pool for a week sounds pretty good.  Maybe by the second week i could do some culture!

[Paul1Perth]

17 hours ago, Parley said:

I mostly agree with you but I can understand if people have stressful jobs then they want a holiday where they just lie on the beach.

A holiday where you are travelling around every day is nice but not necessarily relaxing.

I could understand it if they went to lie on the beach Parley. It was only a 2 minute walk away from the pool. Same in Bali too. No these people were determined to get their prime bed by the pool. A lot of them wouldn't have even gone in the pool. It was more about posing around and taking selfies.?

When I say we hired a motorbike we used to get up early and just go to a different beach. Over the few years we had the timeshare we explored from the French border to Sagres on the other tip of the Algarve. 

Amazing difference in beaches and coastline. So still a relaxing holiday. Loved Portugal, food and the locals are brilliant too. Wouldn't have minded living there if I could speak the language.

[Marisawright]

19 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

I could never understand those people who went on holiday and sat round the hotel pool every day.

Well, a lot of people would struggle to understand how you could visit Greece and not explore the huge wealth of historical treasures on offer ....each to their own!

I am not one of those who would lounge in the hotel all day either.  If I'm going to go to a foreign country, then I want to see some of it.  

Edited May 2, 2018 by Marisawright

[Marisawright]

18 hours ago, Wa7 said:

Can't understand why anyone would want to sit around a pool or beach all day, everyday myself either......

Dont personally know anyone scared to go in the ocean, but I suppose some are.

If you're a weak swimmer and you're not scared to go in the ocean, then you're an idiot.    I know what to do if I get in a rip but I also know I'm not that strong a swimmer, so I'd rather not risk it - so I would hesitate to swim on an unpatrolled surf beach.   

I can imagine some people would be cautious about swimming in the ocean if they aren't locals and they're not sure what the conditions are like.  For instance, I stayed on Hayman Island once and thought, why is everyone at the pool and not out swimming on that lovely beach?   Turns out the entire beach was wall-to-wall stingrays at that time of year.

[Paul1Perth]

11 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

If you're a weak swimmer and you're not scared to go in the ocean, then you're an idiot.    I know what to do if I get in a rip but I also know I'm not that strong a swimmer, so I'd rather not risk it - so I would hesitate to swim on an unpatrolled surf beach.   

I can imagine some people would be cautious about swimming in the ocean if they aren't locals and they're not sure what the conditions are like.  For instance, I stayed on Hayman Island once and thought, why is everyone at the pool and not out swimming on that lovely beach?   Turns out the entire beach was wall-to-wall stingrays at that time of year.

You'd have to be really unlucky for a stingray to hurt you. There are loads in Rotto and I've taken the kids out snorkeling with them. They are so tame or used to people that they take food out of your hand. Some of them are pretty big too.

You didn't mean stingers, as in jellyfish stingers did you?  Some of those are deadly and tiny. 2 people in a week got stung in Broome.

[Marisawright]

4 minutes ago, Paul1Perth said:

You'd have to be really unlucky for a stingray to hurt you. There are loads in Rotto and I've taken the kids out snorkeling with them. They are so tame or used to people that they take food out of your hand. Some of them are pretty big too.

You didn't mean stingers, as in jellyfish stingers did you?  Some of those are deadly and tiny. 2 people in a week got stung in Broome.

No, I mean stingrays.   I know they're friendly but like all animals, they will react if you hurt them.  The problem at Hayman is there are so many, and they lie in the sand right up to the beach.  There are some Sydney beaches with a similar problem, and you have to enter the water with a very slow shuffle, kicking up the sand, to give them time to move out of the way.  However on Hayman, we were told there were so many, they simply couldn't get out of your way in time because they were so close together, so they'd be more likely to react.

[Paul1Perth]

2 hours ago, Marisawright said:

No, I mean stingrays.   I know they're friendly but like all animals, they will react if you hurt them.  The problem at Hayman is there are so many, and they lie in the sand right up to the beach.  There are some Sydney beaches with a similar problem, and you have to enter the water with a very slow shuffle, kicking up the sand, to give them time to move out of the way.  However on Hayman, we were told there were so many, they simply couldn't get out of your way in time because they were so close together, so they'd be more likely to react.

A friend of mine stood on one in winter. He had neoprene boots on and the spine on its tail went through the boot into the top of his foot. He said the pain was really bad very quickly.

Have to put your foot in a bucket of hot as you can stand water and the pain goes off till the water starts to cool. Then swap for another hot one quick.

Same treatment for cobbler spines.

Some people I know have lived here all their lives, surfed and done heaps of lifesaving comps and never had a cobbler "sting".  My son has had 2 and me 1. All when there's been heaps of seaweed around. Like you say, you are supposed to shuffle your feet along the bottom as you get in and they move out of your way. I thought I'd just kicked a rock but the spine went in between my toes. Painful ?

[ramot]

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

If you're a weak swimmer and you're not scared to go in the ocean, then you're an idiot.    I know what to do if I get in a rip but I also know I'm not that strong a swimmer, so I'd rather not risk it - so I would hesitate to swim on an unpatrolled surf beach.   

I can imagine some people would be cautious about swimming in the ocean if they aren't locals and they're not sure what the conditions are like.  For instance, I stayed on Hayman Island once and thought, why is everyone at the pool and not out swimming on that lovely beach?   Turns out the entire beach was wall-to-wall stingrays at that time of year.

It's a lovely pool though!! I snorkelled there and came face to face with a Wrasse I back peddled very fast, it was very large face to face.

[Parley]

1 hour ago, Paul1Perth said:

A friend of mine stood on one in winter. He had neoprene boots on and the spine on its tail went through the boot into the top of his foot. He said the pain was really bad very quickly.

Have to put your foot in a bucket of hot as you can stand water and the pain goes off till the water starts to cool. Then swap for another hot one quick.

Same treatment for cobbler spines.

Some people I know have lived here all their lives, surfed and done heaps of lifesaving comps and never had a cobbler "sting".  My son has had 2 and me 1. All when there's been heaps of seaweed around. Like you say, you are supposed to shuffle your feet along the bottom as you get in and they move out of your way. I thought I'd just kicked a rock but the spine went in between my toes. Painful ?

You know what killed Steve Irwin.

[Quoll]

On 01/05/2018 at 19:19, Parley said:

It is a sad fact that not everyone in Australia are confident swimmers.

Primary schools do try to ensure every child leaves school being able to swim but there is limited funding and some parents don't like to pay for anything.

Also with migration, people come here from countries where they are not used to swimming so that is very risky too.

I was gobsmacked at the poor levels of swimming prowess in primary schools. I always thought everyone in Aus was a blonde bronzed surfie type but the number of non swimmers across the many primary schools I had dealings with utterly astonished me. My own Aussie DH is pretty much a non swimmer though he enjoyed playing in the waves as a kid. My own kids were competent swimmers before they got to PS.

[Skani]

7 minutes ago, Quoll said:

 I always thought everyone in Aus was a blonde bronzed surfie type but the number of non swimmers across the many primary schools I had dealings with utterly astonished me. 

That surprises me.  Would that be an ACT thing....not being by the coast (although I know it shouldn't be a reason)?     Swimming lessons were compulsory for us and still are in every school here from about  Grade 2 AFAIK.   Although we had a notorious bully of a swim teacher at the Hobart pool when I was in primary school - still remembered unfondly by all local  baby boomers.  Nothing like the lovely people I see taking the primary school classes at the Aquatic Centre nowadays.

[BacktoDemocracy]

On 20/4/2018 at 09:46, Leighbee98 said:

So folks it seems it is now time for us to really make this decision.. Are we going for it or not?

We have heard back from 1 of the Migration Agents (we contacted three one is pending reply and the other we still need to provide more details to) and it would seem we have a couple of options.

I wont go in to all that just yet as we would like to hear back from all three first.. but we seem to have the ability for either of us to be the lead applicant under either a 189 or 190 (and I could also have the option of a 489)

As Wifey is an accountant we either need her to be the main applicant (high points) or I need her 5 points as partner skills as im lower in points as an IT bod. And with accountants there is the possibility we would loose her position from the list thus couldn't use her as the main or claim the desperate 5 points i need. (Thats my understanding)

So we need to commit and get started with skills assessments and English tests in either case.

So decision time. Do it? or not?  We haven't yet been to Oz and try telling an accountant to "take a punt"!!!! 

 

What do you think?  Did you give up a lot in the UK not knowing what would happen? did it turn out ok? no regrets?

Really do your homework on transferability of qualifications and State recognition of them and there acceptability in the industry you want to work in, really investigate job opportunities, be very wary of recruitment agents, my experience was they claimed they had loads of jobs but few ever panned out.

[Quoll]

8 hours ago, Skani said:

That surprises me.  Would that be an ACT thing....not being by the coast (although I know it shouldn't be a reason)?     Swimming lessons were compulsory for us and still are in every school here from about  Grade 2 AFAIK.   Although we had a notorious bully of a swim teacher at the Hobart pool when I was in primary school - still remembered unfondly by all local  baby boomers.  Nothing like the lovely people I see taking the primary school classes at the Aquatic Centre nowadays.

Could be but ACT parents are usually keen to push their kids into sports. We weren’t like Qld with a pool in every school! Swimming lessons are still compulsory from yr 2 up but the standard across the board is poor - they learn to kick, float and blow bubbles one year then don’t do anything until their fortnight the next year. My DH was a Ballarat boy and neither he nor his brothers are good swimmers. My nephew from Geelong is still a non swimmer in his early 20s. It takes practice and parents don’t want the cost of weekly lessons let alone daily training sessions. 

I have seen the cultural differences treating swimming differently too - I remember one little Vietnamese lad who would not go anywhere near the pool on carnival day and refused to remove any of his clothes. Poor kid must have been omniscient though because a few months after that, he and his brother were playing down at the beach, long way from the water’s edge when a freak wave came and washed them both out to sea. His brother was caught but he drowned. I don’t think they’d arrived by boat either. That was my first school pupil death and his antipathy towards water was so marked that we all remarked at the time. Poor kid.

[LKC]

In our school in NSW, the kids did two weeks of swimming lessons in year 2, and then from year 3 onwards they had a swimming carnival once per year, and they could choose swimming as their optional sport when the other kids were at PSSA.  However, there were never enough kids, so they usually ended up running round the field or playing dodgeball.  My girls are confident swimmers, thanks to private lessons, and can swim in the sea and in a pool easily.  We are going on holiday to Greece in July and will ensure that we can keep the swimming going.

[NickyNook]

Same here. Mine had had private lessons and could swim at an early age. They (at primary school in NSW) had a compulsory, intensive 2 week swimming course at the end of Year 1. That sorted out the wheat from the chaff and the non-swimmers were taught to swim during those two weeks.  I used to help out at the pool (mainly with getting the kids dressed afterwards) and it was clear that almost all kids could swim at some level other than a couple of recent arrivals from SEA who were real beginners. 

The school was very close to the beach and loads of kids also did Nippers.. Even now, 25 years later, the number of children doing Nippers is phenomenal. The crowds of pink at the  beach on Sunday mornings has to be seen to be believed.