get your mits off our rice ghosty - she is a QLD girl - like most of the other swimmers. not that we are a parochial lot but I did see a thing about a QLD medal tally in the paper.
as to the rest of you - you will find dickheads wherever you go. But by and large Australians are a pretty easy going lot who judge you on your merits not on who you are, who you married or where the hell you went to school - let along whether you are a colonial bastard or not.
I as an aussie have never had trouble making friends wherever I have lived - overseas or here in Australia. Have lived in small country towns - and I mean small, large metropolis and I would say that I have seen all sorts of racism on both sides. I think by and large the average intelligent australian is neither racist nor sexist - if you want to talk about the local knob at the pub then sure - you will find it.
If you are on tank water and you run out - you buy more to fill up your tank - problem solved. Never had a problem with either water or fresh veges - again no matter where I lived.
I think you should give yourself two years at least to settle down and sort yourself out. I also think if you make the move - do it whole heartedly.
WHen I moved to the UK - I resigned my job even though it was good and I could have had a number of years unpaid leave - and they would have held my job open. I didn't sell my house as the equity would have been worthless - kept it as a rental - but had no ties and came close to selling it a couple of times when the market picked up.
I had no plan of coming home - until I met dh and had dd1. Then I wanted dd1 to grow up in Aus - with a better climate, better standard of living than we could provide her with in the UK.
I am now a SAHM to two ( dd1 is in school) the local state school - fabulous schools within a 5 minute walk or 5 minute drive - no need to move across the city or lie about where I live in order to get her into a good little school. No need to send her to private school cause this one is fab. As a child with sn she certainly has had access to more assistance in terms of therapy, playgroup and experiences than she had in the UK. We manage very nicely on one wage. No huge trips back to the Uk as yet BUT dh did manage two trips within a matter of months when his father fell ill and then died.
yes it is a long way - but what the hell - a plane trip. I think Aussies are more philosophical about distance than other people. I remember thinking nothing of driving over 1000kms for a weekend. Down friday night - home sunday for a party.
Driving 5 hour round trip to spend the day with my sil. We take a 4 hour round trip to have a picnic and play at a different park.
Culture is what you make it. My dds love going to the museum. Dh and I have been to the art gallery etc. We have seen a variety of shows and concerts. I have seen plays and musicals.
Aussie film industry has made some of the best films. We have world class authors - both children's and adults. We have a scientific community that is highly regarded around the world. We also shock of shocks have bloody good sports people that we revere like gods - maybe not the best thing but I think we laud achievement on many scales.
Aussies embrace change - we like new ideas and things like - god forbid the dreaded EFTPOS or chip and pin that you lot have in england. We have had it for years - in fact I was gobsmacked to be asked to sign for a debit card sale!!
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