Ex-pat Mums in Oz??

[yummimummy]

Is there anybody out there......?
(Apart from me)

Will do robinp. My diary has tumbleweed going through it, so I should be able to squeeze you in

With any luck I may be able to join you for coffee in Sydney in February. Our immigration application is all over the place at the moment until we finally hear (next week hopefully) if DH's company will allow the transfer to Sydney (and associated sponsorship). If not the whole thing will take longer and I am desperate to get there for the beginning of the school year! Why no girlie meet ups arfishymeau - are you finding it hard to meet people? I would also be really grateful if you would like to share your experiences of settling in in Sydney. Everyone is telling me to head for the North Shore with kids - do you know different?

You know what - the weather here is fab!
We've only seen rain once in 2 weeks.
And we went to the beach the other day!¬
And played in the water!
(I'd forgotten we even had a beach here)
Not looking forward to the flight home on Thursday though!!!!
(But 2 1/2 weeks is a bit too long to live with your parents when you're 37; and DH said he's got wood in the fire ready to go when I arrive so I've got that to look forward to!)

And I got a tan (tut tut)

yummi - must have picked to right time to go away... we went to Coolum for the long weekend - got soaked at the Eumundi markets, rained on us when we went for dinner.... seemed to just eat. shop and veg out. We did venture into the heated swimming pool which the monkeys loved. All right until you had to get out... We had one day out of 5 that was sunny.

Not that cold here though.

Hi SunnyD. We'd love to have you at our Sydney meet-up! And AussiSim too

The only reason I don't meet people is (well, I hope this is true!) because I work and in an all-male industry. If I were a SAHM here it would be fine I think, there's lots going on. All the other mums I've met have been lovely.

I've also heard lots of good things about the North Shore. There are some beautiful places there. You can get some wonderful houses not too long a commute away from the CBD.

Arfishymeau - I was just about to ask a question of all the Mums in Oz, expat or not. How many of you have jobs and if yes how hard were they to find? I have been on some migration forums here and lots of them have comments about how hard it is to find work....just wondered what other peoples experiences have been!

harrogate - I was a teacher and resigned prior to going to live in the UK - there is work here now but I am a SAHM with the dds. Mainly since I was 19 weeks pregnant when we arrived in Aus. I am sure unemployment is running at one of its lowest rates...there seems to be work out there.

Not sure what you do

\link{http://www.careerone.com.au/\this might give you some idea}

I am actually going to do my masters in the next little while and retrain from high school history and english teacher to an early childhood sn teacher!!

Unemployment is generally very low, especially for skilled workers. What's your area?

I am a Customer SErvice Manager - I look after two teams of 6 people in each.

Why don't you keep an eye out on www.seek.com.au and www.jobsearch.com.au to get a feel?