What is not so great about living in Australia ?

[bouncy]

Dp and I have always wanted to move to australia, and do is thinking of retraining.

He seems to think that Australia will be a dream come true and everything will be fantastic, but I am sure there are lots of things to get used to etc etc.

I just wanted to know before we full commmit ourselves to learning something new from the people who live there or lived there, what is not so great, if there is infact anything.

TIA

I was too busy with the mozzies to notice the flies!

My DP and I are thinking of emigrating to Melbourne, but not for a good few years yet. Unfortunately his parents will disown him if we take away their grandchild (yet to be born) so we will probably wait unti they've popped their cloggs before we think about moving out there.

I need to get out there for a holiday first tho as i've never been. DP has been and has said it is wonderful. He loves it. He's convinced i will too. I just hope i can cope with the insects as, although i'm good at dealing with the dead things our cats bring in, i'm hopeless with bugs!!!

Oh and i really like the idea of going into small little retailers and buying stuff. I should imagine it would be really nice when they actually say hello to you and you get to know their names too. A bizarre concept that you mostly dont see in the UK!! Everyone is soooooo bladdy miserable!

Maybe I just never found the right areas but what I noticed about the bigger cities was that there wasn't an obvious "centre", the equivalent of the "high street" here. Put me off the cities tbh as I felt I never go to grips with them (maybe everyone shopped in the suburbs in streets full of independant retailers like you are hankering after RGP but I never found such suburbs tbh). Hence ended up in the NT where at least you knew you couldn't go shopping regularly .

Do the shops still shut on Saturday afternoon btw?

This is a huge issue in Aus, but generally opinion is the opposite to the MN expereince. ie That almost all shopping is done in huge ssupermarkets and that butcher, green grocers etc have dissapeared. I certainly find that London has much more of a small specialist retail culture than Sydney did. I guess it depends where in Aus you are talking about and where in the UK you are comparing it to.

KTee, Shops don't shut on weekends in Syd - not sure elsewhere.

KTee shops don't shut on weekends in Brisbane either. I know they do in smaller towns though.

smaller towns like PERTH

are you serious suzywong? I thought only smaller towns like Rockhampton or such shut on Sat afternoons now.

ps made your worldfamous brownie for last time last night. Yummm all gone already .

first

did you eat it all by yourself in the pantry?

well that isa slight exageration, but they do shut on Sundays, mostly about from Perth city centre which is utterly soul-less and not worth a visit and Fremantle. There was a referendum a couple of years ago on whether or not shops (the big supermarkets really) should extend trading house past 6pm and on to weekends. And the state overwhelmingly voted NO because it was feared it would..... wait for it .........'erode family values"

It is a giant Hicktown really.

snakes, snakes oh and did somebody mention snakes. or could it just be I have a phobia, not helped by visiting friend outside Brisbane who pointed out there had been a huge python right where I was standing the week before. I turned down the kind offer of watching the video her dh had made. My dh said I would have died. Apart from that, would move from NZ tomorrow.

oh suzywong, that's what I loved about it when I lived there.

suzy I did share some with dh and the dc for dessert last night. Finished off the "edge" bits myself.