Any Sydney mums around?

[thatsnotmymonster]

I am getting pretty excited as it is looking increasingly likely that dh is about to be offered a job in Sydney (should know by next week). However, whether we are able to accept or not all depends on the salary package, particularly with th school fee issue- has anyone else moved and had the company pay the school fees?

We live in Scotland and so ds is in P1 but he will be 6 in March and dd1 is due to start school after the summer as she will be 5 in July. I don't know whether they should go into Yr 1 and 2 in Oz from when we move or whether they shoud go into Yr 1 and kindergarten. Do most people wait until the year the dc turns 6 or send them the year they turn 5?

The office is in Pyrmont and we are hoping to rent in a nearby suburb- I have been looking at Lilyfield, Five Dock, Drummoyne...can anyone recommend any other nice suburbs in that area or tell me if there are any to avoid?

Anything else I should know? If this happens we will be moving around April.

Thanks!

oh, amazon have just started doing free super saver delivery to Australia - last week! Competing with book depository I guess. TNNM, yes, there are public libraries.

One thing you'll enjoy as being cheaper here (unless things have changed a lot recently) is eating out, and take away food. We ere always horrified at the cost of a meal out in the UK, even at a dingy Tesco cafe or somewhere. Here we can have a gorgeous Thai meal out for the same price (not that we do it much).

I wouldn't be able to do it now - 38 weeks and I have to do a three-point turn to get out of bed.

I was struggling to get off the sofa earlier and DD (just three) caught me saying ahhh, ffff-ar out. "Why did you nearly say "fuck", Mummy?" she piped up

lol ninedragons - at least if the air mattress was on the floor you could have just rolled off it...although then you'd have the problem of getting up off the floor.

I'd need a fucking hoist.

I would seriously end up having to call in sick to work if I ended up on the floor with no-one to help me up.

ninedragons - pmsl at your 3yo! They are a little inconvenient like that, aren't they!

Hope you have your baby soon then!

Thanks for telling us about Amazon Astrophe, we use bookdepository a lot.

TNMM - DEFINITELY go for the health insurance extras for $80 a month. We have private health cover which covers kids dental. Last time I took mine to the dentist for a basic check up, clean etc and DD needed one baby tooth out as the grown up tooth was growing crooked it would have cost $800 if I had to pay upfront. I nearly died (3 kids). It is also covering 1/2 of DS1's orthodontist fees and I pay $18 a session for chiro.

You do need to understand the medical system. I here. I ended up in an ambulance a couple of years back thinking I was having a heart attack. The nearest hospital with ER was private and I thought that as I had high level cover that would be ok. It was a really horrible time - if I had been admitted the private cover would have kicked in but as I spent the day in ER having different procedures done it was all classed as outpatients (which isn't covered) and I got billed for everything. It cost me $1,600 in the end and was SO stressful as I never knew which bill was the last. I felt so stupid - I worked for Citizens Advice for 12 years in England so always knew exactly "how things worked" but things are very different here.

Wow I didn't realise dentists could be so expensive. We don't have any health insurance but I would like the boys to have their teeth checked from time to time!

I agree with sunnyd about knowing the system. I feel completely at sea at the moment and it doesn't help that I am 19 weeks pg. If I'd realised how much hassle it would be sorting things out I would have done as much of the 'booking' as possible in the UK before we came.

Mine is about $120 for a checkup if you don't need anything done.

oh well we will just have to pay it I suppose. Dh and ds2 have awful teeth so they need to be seen fairly regularly.

Ninedragons (and others) how do you find out about garage sales? I would love to go to some but haven't seen any in my area yet. I have located Salvos and Vinnies, though (which came in useful both for more coffee mugs and when school had a 'maroon' day to raise money for the Queensland flood appeal)! Dp has also been busy on eBay and three out of the five of us have bikes already.

Garage sales around here are usually found by noticing the rough hand-made notices attached to a tree or lamp-post. Honestly, that's the only way I've seen notification of them.

About the only thing I have kind of got to grips with as fas as medical etc. is concerned is that it is a Very Good Idea to join a Bulk- Billing Surgery. This means that you don't pay to see a GP if you have your Medicare card sorted out. So look out for one of those.

Ninedragons - just a quick question, if you don't mind - have you been to Ocean World )or whatever it's actually called) in Hong Kong, and have you been to Sydney Aquarium? Much though I love Sydney Aquarium, I still have great memories of the Hong Kong place and still think it's better - but am not sure if my memory is playing tricks on me! Just thought I'd ask what your thoughts were on the two, if you've seen them both - thank you!

Ooh I can answer that as we had a few days in Hong Kong before we came to Sydney. yes, Ocean World is great although it's far more than just an aquarium- it's like a combination aquarium/zoo/theme park. The boys loved seeing the Giant Pandas and the location on the other side of Hong Kong island makes it pretty impressive too.

Sydney Aquarium is good but I think I've seen a fair few aquaria around the world by now and it doesn't really stand out. I liked the dugong though :)

I have been looking out for a bulk billing surgery but the one that had 'bulk billing' outside the door wasn't in fact. It seems (from reading British Expats and PomsinOz posts) that lots of surgeries may start out as bulk billing and then start charging their newer customers. The main thing that shocked me about my first GP visit was that I had to wait for 3 hours despite having made an appointment. I'm trying a walk-in clinic next time.

Yes, I remember that about Ocean World - the butterfly/ bird enclosure was amazing, and the chairlift ride... I was there in 1997, it made a massive impression!

Am at your GP waiting time, that's outrageous. I've had to wait 30 mins before, but that's pretty similar to the UK so it didn't really register as being too annoying. Bad about the bulk-billing not working for you as well though - my one is still defo bulk-billing thank goodness! I guess, as with everything, you have to shop around. The good thing is that you don't have to register as such, you can go to any local (or not so local) surgery.

HFD - is there a polyclinic near you? They're quite good, apparently.

Yes I am so glad I never have to see that GP ever again! She mentioned I would need another appointment to get my blood test results but my midwife picked them up for me instead :)

I think the place I'm planning to take ds2 tomorrow is a polyclinic. Someone in Manly recommended it and said they only had to wait 20 mins with their daughter.

HFD, our local paper often has garage sales in it - sometimes in the classifieds, but our council also has a page where they print garage sale dates free I think.

Our GP only bulk bills kids under 5 (although they still bulk bill DD too, who is 6 now...), and its about $60, but I only end up about $20 out of pocket after claiming medicare, and I'm very happy to pay it because I get to see my lovely doctor who never rushes me, and is generally on time.

I've never been to a Bulk Billing clinic where I've been happy with the doctor and not felt rushed, so $20 is ok for us.

I haven't been to HK aquarium, but agree that Sydney is not very impressive compared to others in the world, and its quite expensive too, for an hours entertainment.

Gosh, I'm glad I have my lovely GP surgery then! (sorry) - we have a nice GP too, and so far I haven't had to pay a penny/cent, Medicare picks it all up, afaik.

We have opted for the extra cover- the system does sound a bit confusing!! Makes you appreciate totally free NHS even if the gp's are rubbish

Been away visiting neice and nephew this week- starting the goodbye process. Toll the dc's school today.

It's beginning to feel real!

How's it going TNMM? I'm too lazy to trawl back through the whole thread but I can't remember when you are actually planning to arrive?

3 hours Thumbwitch!!?? Where do you live??
I would be pretty angry about half an hour, but would never stay 45 mins before calling around and finding another doctor - are you somewhere rural?

Hey Sunny, thanks for asking. I am feeling slightly overwhelmed but mainly by the number of jobs that need done around our house to get it ready for renting and the amount of stuff I need to get rid of!! Doing a car booty on Saturday and having an open house viewing on Sunday as we have 7 people wanting to view the house!

Our visa application was submitted on 1st March (my birthday!) and should take 4-6 weeks. I had the shippers in yesterday to assess for a quote.

DH has a start date of 16th May and finishes up here on around the 29th April so we will probably fly out around the 6th/7th May.

Wow TNMM that isn't long! The time will fly by, believe me :)

Yes, it's a bit of a manic time, but in some ways having a fairly tight timeframe is probably better - less time for procrastination (or maybe that's just me ). Keep us posted.

Ooo - good luck TNMM - it's hard work and stressful when you are going through it all, but so worth it in the end! The moment you step off the plane and think "wow - we are really here" is just fab! And I agree with sunnydelight about the tight timeframe - we had a years notice, and still left everything until the last 2 months!

Well I've done a LOT of work today- been to the skip twice, charity shop once, off loaded a sofa bed to a man with a van, gave my friend a mattress, a bookcase and some cushions and got the back of the car full to the brim for car booty tomorrow...and I am knackered lol

DH's colleague got his 457 today after a 5 week wait so hopefully our will be similar.

I think the time frame is just about right- got to keep getting stuff done but I can do a few things a week and hopefully I'll get there in time!

it still doesn't feel real to me though!!

I found the not real thing lasted ages and ages - to be honest, there are some days now where I suddenly find myself thinking "wow - I'm in Australia" - most often when I see some random bit of wildlife that looks exotic (it was golden orb spiders this week - they are a bit big!)

I think our 457 took about 5 weeks to come through - I was surprised how quick it was.

Hope your house viewings go ok tomorrow.

I can imagine the not real thing lasting a long time- it's just such a huge change so will take a while to comprehend! I am looking forward to exotic wildlife

In the end we've only had 2 viewings but we have a very very clean and tidy house! However we had a major issue this afternoon- dh took the car to the skip with a load of stuff and said he ould quickly pop into the car wash on the way home so that the car did not look filthy when viewers came. Well...the car wash malfunctioned and the dryer smashed right through the back windscreen showering the whole car in millions of pieces of glass and we now have no rear window. Even worse is that no one from the garage has called us about it yet and they are not going to be liable
Anyway I could have done without this right now, grrr.