WHERE'S BEST TO LIVE IN NZ AND WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW:PART 3!!!!(HOLY SHIT!)

[AngryBeaver]

Can you believe we've finished finished off another thread? Jeez we can talk!!
Just an update..we've found a nice double glazed,4 bed house,with nice garden. So that's one stress off the last.
Hilongwhitecloud

Hi kiwi...it helps to chat. That sounds really good,bit of a commute though. Dh does 30 mins at the mo and his boss thinks he is crazy when he could live in Rototuna and it woud take him 5 mins. Not for us though,couldnt live there .
Does the ferry take about an hour too?

lolly save me some cake!
justa That makes sense, I mean the only thing I know about Clapham is what I have seen on re-runs of Only Fools And Horses! But,totally know what you mean. And the 2 women having avirtual row ended up by telling the poster,look the only way your goingto find out what it's like is by talking to the locals.
The area that I grew up in we couldn't afford to buy in as it's "posh"..we had to buy in the next town,which was ok,but had it's rough areas.
We had worked our way up to a nice detached house in a semi rural gorgeous village...very middle class (Hunter boots and designer dogs on the school run) our local co op was done over in an armed robbery and they locked all the customers inside. They did the Post Office over a few weeks later. A lady killed her neighbour with a shovel. And groups of teenagers were starting to cause trouble up the main road.
So....

I'm glad AB. IME grief is a long process but you need to talk when you are ready. (hugs)

lolly- buses here are not what they could be. Believe it or not they have improved massively since we arrived.

justabout- I like that analogy. I try to look at Auckland in comparison with London, Sydney etc. Our house was expensive but there is no way we could afford a house 30 mins from the CBD of any of those places, not to mention with a garden and by the beach. There was an article in the Herald suggesting house prices will double in the next 20 years (IIRC) so now may be a good time to buy.

sibble Thanks for the info, we will have to add more places to look at onto our list! (justa that cup of Tetley's is seeming more unlikely by the day!We must try and organise a proper meet up with us all though,I'd like to meet all you kind ladies who have helped me)

littlest thanks for the hug

and justa doh, Rodney and Del live in Peckham,not Clapham innit?!

AB It is tough to pick out a suburb to live in because Auckland is so big and spread out, if you don't know it at all it must be hard to know where to start. Do you know about Zoodle zoodle.co.nz/, it's a property website. You can search for suburbs and get info on average house prices in them, etc

thats a great site whatshesaid thanks a lot...I'll be on that all night now!!!

In something totally trivial and random...

The students are wearing shorts and flip flops already!! It's still actually winter. Ok, so it may not be the minus-10, two foot of snow winter I'm used to, and I may actually not have worn my winter coat this year.... But shorts?? Shorts??

Sorry about that It's been bothering me a bit clearly

In other clothes related ramblings, I've lost so much weight my jeans actually won't stay up. Where's the best bet for cheap & cheerful clothes that won't get me laughed out of Uni? (at home I was a Debenhams/Red Herring/H&M/Wallis type). I'm not spending decent money on clothes until I've finished losing weight....

Clothes wise I like Glassons and Temt for cheap and cheerful. Temt is at Albany and Sylvia Park (near Warehouse). I've had a few items from Temt that I get a lot of compliments on and which were really cheap.

But Maxx and Esprit are my favs. In the sales of course.

I just got my first salary cheque. An actual cheque. Woo hoo!

Awe, justabout, that sucks.

Honestly, you should not have to fight so hard. Plus it worries me that people with less experience etc would just accept what is said first off and then they and their kids would suffer.

Just read the other thread, sorry you've had such a crap week justabout

What a crappy week for you justabout hope you get/got the support you need.

Dp flies out on the 30th August. 28days away. :-0

The dc and I have our medicals booked for 14th August so hopefully we can join him at the end of September/beginning of october.

At the time it felt like everything was taking its sweet merry time but actually, I can't believe how fast it's all happened.

Sending you virtual justabout.

That's exciting xMin. And well timed to miss the winter. I can see the sun this morning! Yeah!

Oh justabout you poor thing! What a week you've had. I hope they all get themselves sorted soon and you get the support you need.

Oh wonderful!! That's great. You must be so relieved.

(also: things vaguely chaotic here at the moment, although nothing comparing to how it is for you... but once things settle a little I'll give you a shout for a Monday morning coffee...)

Wine then for u Justabout.

XMinerva - like a plaster - just rip it off quick.

Dh on Skype to MIL. SIL was on skype to me yesterday with DN (Dh not home). Tells me MIL very low currently and depressed due to our move. Brought about by DHs recent birthday and impending birthday of DC. Apparent MIL doesn't know if she will visit -she's not coming if we're coming back in next 18 months so she's still holding on to that and SIL said if she did come she would need 'medicating' to get back on the plane when leaving DS and the kids. And while she's telling me this DN is in background crying - SIL says DN is taking the brunt of this from her gran (she's 15 FFS - does she need this). So now we feel shit.

yep see u tomorrow. dh now off skype. Said MIL kept going on about weather in uk and how it was 17 degrees and they were off to beach in south shields. I know this is her trying to emphasise about how good the weather and beaches are in the uk but come on... it's been 17 degrees here during winter and south shields! - hardly a resort destination

Family situation sounds stressful lolly. We're lucky in that neither of our families have given us grief about being here (though I do feel some guilt that our dds are mil's only grandchildren and we are so far away).

I now have a very tenuous link to Olympic fame - my old flatmate won a gold medal for Nz last night!

Just OH MY GOD at the stunning snobbery about West Auckland!

I live in Titirangi which is, imho, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. I have lived in several countries, many cities, from Portobello Road in London to Barcelona to Dover Heights in Sydney, and I absolutely love Titirangi. It is beautiful, laid back, arty, friendly, great schools etc...

wow some of you need to get out more