It's decided ... moving to Sydney April/May 2008... which areas are good with kids?

[MrsBigD]

o.k. it's still a bit away but thought I better get started re what to consider.

Visa stuff I have info and paperwork to be done.

I've been to Sydney yonks ago and obviously didn't look at it with the eys of a parent trying to work out which area to move to for good schools etc. but more to find good night clubs etc

So who knows Sidney from the parental perspective and is willing to share all the gritty details ?

at the campervan. Sure the kids would enjoy that

Head spinning already here too and I still have 18 months to plan! Let me know which area you move to and we join you LOL that way I already 'know' a neighbour

As for your cat... how old is the lovely feline? I think it's quite a long quaranteen isn't it? Or has it changed and all she needs is a clean bill of health from a very specific vet?

Astrophe: yes, let's stick to this thread (unless you would like one especially entitled "questions for my guru" ). We're planning on going out around the 3/4 November - I really need to get my skates on and sort it out, it's just been hard with three kids on holiday for the past six weeks! Thanks for the bus link, I'll check it out. I was planning a nice long post but bathtime looms, so I'll get back to this tomorrow!

the campervan is looking more appealing by the minute
Lela the cat is 2 years old born in France now living in Switzerland and the big question is will she move to Oz???? It is 30 days quarantine she will need various injections and this has to be signed off by the 'special vet' that can only sign the import forms etc., then shipped out by the specialist pet shipping agent in the of course the special travel box ALL of which will cost an 'arm and a leg'
DH is not the greatest lover of cats so you can imagine his reaction when the cost is mentioned will keep you informed on the outcome

[bows modestly in manner befitting guru]

So November is the holiday, then you leave in Jan, is that right?

And Tribeoffive you leave in Jan too? Sorry, I'm a bit forgetful.

(BTW, Tribeoffive, its completely off the topic, but while I've got you cornered would you mind telling me if you reccomend your family structure? We have two little ones at the mo, and are planning some more when we go back to Aust, so there would be a 4 or 5 year gap between our current youngest and the next lot. Any thoughts? )

tirbeoffive, can I ask a question - how much for the cat to get into oz?, we too have a cat though she is a bit older and we are considering taking her with us, just kind of thinking it through at this stage, we are probably looking at moving next year, half way through the visa process. I knew about the 1 months quarantine, she has been in kennels over here for 1 month, the last time last year when we were in oz, and that didnt seem to bother her too much.

We shipped our cats. It was around £1,600 in total I think.

We had to pay for the chipping, jabs, crates & crating, pet shipping agent, flights, and quarantine at this end.

They wouldn't let us bring the guinea pig (poor old Frank).

hi Tribe, sorry very big thread and didn't see your question.

Yes, I'm southside, eastern suburbs (Bondi, Bondi Junction, Woollahra and Coogee). I work in Pyrmont, although have also worked in Chatswood. I have 2 dss of 20 and 15, but they are only with us during holidays. I have 1 dd of 3.

MrsBigD, Ascham's fees aren't too bad until you get to secondary then they are . For me I was particularly interested in them because they are non-denominational (hard to find here) but show the girls all religions, plus have excellent language tuition and great facilities (indoor pool, tennis courts, huge theatre), and as well as being academically excellent (but non-selective), do an awful lot of music and sport. They start with violins at 5 and all the 5 year olds give an end of term concert.

at the cost of shipping the cats arfishy. DS1 made some somment the other week about our cat, totally assuming he was coming too and was pretty gutted when I told him that it hadn't even crossed my mind to bring him. Worst thing is the cat sort of belongs to DS2 - he chose him, named him etc. - who is 7 and EXTREMELY emotional about things. DS2 is also adamant that he is quite happy to go on holiday to Australia, but doesn't want to live there. Anyone else having problems with reluctant kids? We don't go permanently until April Astrophe - I will be following your progress closely tribeoffive, have you made any decisions about where you want to live yet?

arfishymeau
God better keep that cost from DH [SMILE]
Moving from Switzerland it may cost even more knowing my luck
Poor old Frank
ASTROPHE
Other subject family sructure well yip certainly do recommend. The older guys 15 and 13 are brill with the 3 little ones 4,3 and 1 it does have its moments though . Havin to jump from dealing with teenagers to toddlers everyday sometimes is very confusing for me and them. Im terrible for calling them all by each others name
Having practise run at handling the 'teenage phase' at mo and got to admit its not 'pretty'
But all in all its good fun thank god for hair colouring!!!!

Will def be over in Jan hoping to get a week or so in Nov to check the place out hey might bump into u sunnydelight

well MRSBIGD i can confirm Im moving to Sydney and can confirm STILL don't know where in Sydney
got some moving companies comin round this week to quote for moving etc AH! just had a thought wonder if the kids and cat could stowaway in the container nah! dont mean it, REALLY!
Its amazing how much the move to oz is costing just forked out 800 swiss francs for chest x-rays got 3 medicals for the little ones still to do, the cost of the visa application AND dreading what the removal companies want
OH and of course the cat
Quite funny today ds2 is telling everyone he,s going where nemo's dad went Sydney Harbour cute

aaaawww so cute your ds2. DD hasn't made that connection yet LOL

Oh god removal companies... haven't even thought about that yet. Planning on selling heaps before moving.

We're lucky re visa. As I'm going in as a NZ family member and it's a temporary 5 year working visa it's only £80 couldn't believe my eyes when they told me!!!

at your visa costs MrsBigD! I had to shell out $1600 twice for mine, along with private medical exams for me & DD, with extra for the x-rays and courier costs.

Yes, I have to confess that I wouldn't have forked out for the cats. DP insisted and paid himself.

Should I tell you the worst thing about poor old Frank? - you're only allowed to import guinea pigs as food !

MrsBigD, agree re Ascham. It's great, but I haven't quite brought myself to commit. I could have a yacht to while away lovely weekends in the Sydney waters for the fees they want (or food on the table/a holiday every now and then if I'm being realistic).

Tribe - didn't realise you are in Switzerland. This thread is getting way too big for me to follow. Yes, I think it will cost more . On the subject of teens though, I feel quite sorry for ours - they go bed at 5am and then get woken up an hour later by a rampaging DD (her speciality is dive-bombing sleeping people to make them go 'oof'!).

Agree with MrsBigD about a list. I'm losing track of who's coming, when, where etc. Me, robinp, and mogs are having a meet-up in Sydney in Jan. I think Peppa is already here too, so can meet us maybe? Tribe sounds like you'll be here then too, MrsBigD you'll have to be on the 2008 meet.

I'll start off

Arfishy - already here - Eastern Suburbs Sydney
1 permanent DD of 3.8, 2 x DSS of 20 & 15 (hols as at Uni/Secondary school in UK. Hoping they'll transfer)

As I'm bored at work I set up a new thread to aid tracking who's where in Australia to aid those who are weak of memory, like myself

Australian Stats Thread

arfishy, I had expected horrendous visa and medical fees so was very positively surprised when they told me about low cost. Downside is that my visa is a temporary non residency visa so some restrictions apply, but I can live with that.

As for Ascham... had similar thoughts, food and holidays much more tantalising

teens yip my 2 suffer likewise it is quite funny though
my DS1 15 is still in scotland when we moved here from France we thought it best he went back to Scotland to finish school it wouldnt of been fair for him to start to learn another language so he returned to live with Dad he sits his exams this year and I am hoping he will move over with us next June (fingers crossed) DD2 13 is still with us she seems to have a flair for languages so shes done well can now speak frenc, german and a little swiss german.
Poor DS3 well i dont know what he speaks a mixture of french german and english (english is a bit choice though his latest is f..kn hell
That would be great meeting up with u guys in Jan cant wait
Just made appt with vet for the cat to get things in motion wont be tellin DH not yet anyway

tribe, we paid 3k (uk) for shipping. That was packing, taking away, shipping here, customs clearnce, quarenteen, delievery & unpacking here.

That included insurance to. we went with Brittania, found them to be v good. They said 8-12 weeks. We are getting it next week (11 weeks house to house)

LOL. DD is bi-lingual in Australian/English.

I get very confused when she refers to the kitchen worksurface as a 'bench', flip-flops as thongs (which makes the teen DSS blush), the sofa as a couch and her trousers as pants. I haven't worked out what Aussies call 'big girl pants' yet.

She understands everything I say but is now saying 'parsta instead of pas-ta, yo-gurt instead of yog-hurt and ye-ah instead of yes'. My mother is going to have a coronary when we vist - she knows the Rothschilds don't you know

bi-lingual Australian/English eh? messaged a friend of mine in Brisbane the other day that I'll need a glossary for Australian expressions because sometimes he uses words I just respond with a very blank eh??? to only to get a synonym that means even less to me.

I really do pity my children: mother German, father Kiwi, so far grown up in the UK with German being inflicted on them by me. DD actually speaks very nice queens english at times LOL. Soon to be move to Aussie land to acquire local 'twang'...

hah found one

Australian Slang dictionary

and another one

they're 'undies' arfishy. have you seen the pat rafter ad?

Big Girl's Pants is a bloke who's a bit of a sissy/wimp.

Hey MRSBIGD good find will have a longer squint later at it
Sandcastles 3k thats roughly 6k swissfrancs well its bread and water for everyone for the next 3 mths if thats the cost

LOL. Big girl undies doesn't sound the same does it?

The other thing I really can't manage is 'Dance Pants' (DD's dance class). To rhyme you have to pronounce it Dan-ce instead of darnce, but I can't get it right and end up saying dar-nce parnts to hysterical amusement of everybody Australian & DD.

Sandcastles - was that 3k for all of your furniture or just 'stuff'?

lol@ darnce parnce