portlaunay

I love holidays and travel. If I'm not actually on holiday I'm planning the next or fantasising about where to go. Being over this side of the planet opens up a whole new world that we would never have been able to afford from the UK and we take advantage of that as much as we can. Because of the distances between cities here there's a different mindset and we think nothing of taking flights whereas in the UK it seemed a more exotic and costly option so road travel and trains took precedence. So, embracing that ethos, we've just booked a couple of trips for early next year. In January we're off to NZ for a few weeks, two touring around and another we're spending working on a farm. Then in March we're heading up to Vietnam for three weeks. We did a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia last year and it was the best experience of our lives so we're headed back to the parts we loved to spend a little more time. What do you have planned for next years holidays? Where would your dream destination be? What sort of holiday do you love?

Er, congratulations but I think you'll find from the poster behind you, you've just enrolled in Fighter Weapons School

We've just booked a couple of epic trips for the new year so it will be a quiet one for us. I still cook Christmas dinner for around 50 people so for us it will be an early brekkie on South beach then I'll have to get the turkeys on. Christmas day is usually a full day in the kitchen for me but we eat with the community in the evening, laugh a lot and then fall into coma. Boxing day we spend alone, have a bike ride or go for a swim then grill some seafood and drink wine.

Too soon? Just 7 Mondays to Christmas! What's everyone planning? Is it your first here?

As far as I remember the list is quite extensive and includes engineer. There can't be much of a shortage of them in this town but as Anthony said, a JP can do it so your local council office should have one.

With regards to soccer my son just had try outs for the NPL and he's only been playing for a year. There are some great opportunities here for him and whilst it might be smaller that brings its own benefits. My son still supports Crystal Palace, just bought their away kit and had it shipped over and has a great group of friends who talk soccer, play FIFA and follow the premier league. I hope you don't mind me saying but I don't think looking back at the decisions you made as a 'mistake' is the right thing to do, you're surrounding yourself with negativity. You did exactly what was right for you at the time. You had strong feelings and acted upon them and through that you've learnt a great deal. Start looking forward, towards the next five years. Perhaps make some goals and commitments, include your son and guide him through thinking about what he wants to achieve in that timescale rather than what's immediately ahead of him. Good luck, it's a real tough one but have a little faith in the fact that you made the right decision before, you just need to do it again.

Just don't touch the big red button marked "Delete The Internet" that would be very bad

Do you mean 8am-5pm or 8am-7pm? Typo? I think it's probably the same as everywhere, it depends on a variety of different factors - the sector you work in, the culture of the organisation, your own work ethic, size of the company etc etc. I've worked in public sector here where we worked 8am to 5pm most days and I've worked in private sector where people worked 6am to 9, 10, 11pm, six days a week and put in a few hours on a Sunday too. I'm sure you'll get a number of different perspectives. What are your concerns? How would you like your current situation to be different?

Sorry you've not had a good experience. There's one of those big fluffy husky type dogs on Coogee beach that always annoys our dog, it just won't leave her alone and nips at her neck as she runs. In this case the poor dog doesn't stand a chance, the owner is a right **** We tend to go pretty early in the morning or later at night, just as the sun goes down as it's much quieter and who can resist the sunset over the Indian Ocean.

South beach or Coogee beach for ours. Unfortunately she was hit by a car about six weeks ago and after a lot of unsuccessful attempts at saving it she had to have her leg off. Shame because she's a kelpie/whippet so loves to run and now her back legs overtake her front. She still herds everything - birds and ants mainly. South beach is really busy but Coogee, just over the groyne from the shipwreck, has a lovely long stretch which is usually quieter.

I think this is stolen from Jamie O but we've been making it for so long we've adjusted it to our liking. Peaches are in season at the moment too and there are some lovely big ones kicking around our manor too. Equally good with the lighter, tarter white flesh variety too. Grilled peach and mozzarella salad. (for 4ish) Three firm, plump peaches cut into 6 wedges A good wadge of fresh rosemary Generous slug of olive oil S&P Peppery salad leaves - rocket etc Buffalo mozzarella (three big balls) Nasturtium flowers if you have them growing in the garden Turn your BBQ up as high as it will go to get it scorching hot. Add a decent slug of olive oil to a large bowl. Smash your rosemary in a pestle and mortar then add it to the oil Add a good grind of pepper and a sprinkle of course salt - Maldon sea salt or Murray River pink is good Toss your peaches through the mixture and leave them covered with a towel at room temp for a good 30 minutes. I've left them out for a day - prepped in the morning and eaten in the evening and the flavour was super so I don't think it really matters. Once marinated tip the whole lot onto your BBQ and close the lid. Obviously the oil will flare up so if you have no lid then carefully place the peaches onto the griddle. You want them charred but not covered in soot. Turn them a few times and then return them to the bowl to rest. Sprinkle your salad leaves on a large plate. Once cooled add your charred peaches so they nestle into the green leafage. Tear the mozzarella and scatter over and do the same with a few of the flowers. A final drizzle of good olive oil and enjoy

Sorry I've not been around much lately, work got crazy busy for a few months but I'm back peddling a little and trying to regain a little control. I'm looking forward to catching up with what's been happening on here and hopefully I can have greater input and help people along the way. Cheers, P

Welcome to PP. Sorry, I've no idea about visas but I'd advise talking to a registered migration agent, they'll be able to give you a break down of your options.

[h=2]Do you need a bike liscence to ride a scooter 50cc in Perth ?[/h]Probably not, it depends on the class of license you currently hold. All the information is here but if you hold a full UK license you should just change it for a full license here and you will be able to hop on a moped and go. It's pretty limited though; you won't be able to ride anything over 50cc and its speed has to be restricted to 50kph so obviously you can't take the freeway. There are plenty of cheap cars around but for the first few months you'll still be doing the calculation back to sterling so everything seems expensive. You can pick up a perfectly reasonable wee run around for a couple of grand.

Nowhere near you but welcome to PP

Perth rental market is in a state of flux at the moment with vacancy rates at 4.8% and around 7000 properties advertised for rent, that's more than twice the number expected. The higher end of the market has been ridiculous for many years with agents inflating prices because they've been letting to corporations. Rates for properties over the $650pw mark have dropped between 20 and 50% over the same period last year. Hotel vacancies are higher than they've ever been too. As owners with heavily mortgaged 'portfolios' struggle to find tenants to cover those mortgages they'll have to rethink their strategies and compete with a market of new properties advertising staggering terms such as 'move in for as little as $3000'! Prices will inevitably fall and one of our economics editors in yesterday or todays paper, I can't remember which, even mentioned the R-word. We've been looking for some time at industrial units with a view to rezoning to work/live spaces. One place that we love was put on the market 5 months ago at $1.5m, two weeks ago it had dropped to $950k. @Druid, sorry mate, I'm not sure I agree about China. Since November 2014 they've cut their interest rates 3 times. M0 growth has fallen from 6.7% to 3.2% and China's domestic fixed asset investment has fallen to its lowest level ever, down from 13% to 9.4%. There's a 12% slow down in construction and their domestic mining has slowed by 23.9%. On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about the Chinese stock market which is booming. The worrying thing is though that it's not through construction or mining which is really bad for their economy. The government are doing a lot to try to shear it up but everything they've done so far has had little impact and the speculation about yet another cut in interest rates isn't helping. If China does begin to recover next year there is surplus in their domestic mining operations, something they will be keen to address before they look to external markets. Then, if they do recover sufficiently to open imports again there's a mountain for iron ore to climb from its current price hovering sub-$50 a ton. A couple of weeks ago there was excitement about it 'surging' to $60/t which was bizarre. Remember, forecasts just last year placed the price at $123/t and we're still some way from Decembers mid-year review price of $75/t. I think there are a great many people here who talk good game but it's done almost to reassure themselves. Yesterday I was speaking to a real estate agent friend (I'm not really, I'm just someone who hates him less), about our plans and he said with a laugh, "Wait 12 months mate and you'll get exactly what you want for half what we'd have advertised it at last year"

IKNWC but I'm an idiot. Mrs p bought me a straight razor and other shave stuff for my birthday (I have a beard. I think she may be trying to tell me something). Anyway, after showering this morning I finally decided to scrape my face down to baby soft skin once more. First time of using my brand new shiny cut-throat and what happens? I cut a massive chunk out of my nose! How on earth do you manage to cut your nose shaving? It took me about half an hour to stem the flow of blood, finally doing so with toilet paper and masking tape! As if that wasn't bad enough, having cleaned the carnage of the bathroom I moved on to sorting my hair out. Nice big dollop of product into my palm, distributed it across my hands and then.... I rubbed it straight into my freshly shaven face. As if the blood loss wasn't enough I'm now writhing in agony as Paul Mitchell's foaming pomade penetrated my newly exposed skin which reacted by turning my face a fierce orange. I didn't bother to wait for the shower to warm up and moaned in the most extraordinary pleasure as cool water washed away Mr Mitchell's foam and soothed my burning skin. After a couple of minutes all was calm again. I stepped out of the shower and looked in the mirror. I had a streak of fresh blood running down and dripping off my chin, a flap of blue masking tape clinging to my bloody nostril and a face that looked like the last satsuma in the last box. It was 10am. I finally left the house at twelve thirty. I'm growing a beard again.

Hi, welcome to PP. Whilst I have no experience in your field I will say that after years of living here one thing that I have heard a lot of is people saying the haven't found work because they have no Au experience. This seems to be across the board, regardless of experience, qualification or industry. Whilst the visa process may take some time I'd be inclined to look into taking a reccie here to scope things out before you go too far and invest a lot of money. Spending a few grand on a nice holiday and sounding out some prospective employers could prove very sensible in the long run. Also, from previous threads I know there have been many very well qualified and experienced accountants who've found it very difficult to secure employment. Sorry, don't mean to be the harbinger of doom, just advising caution, WA is not what it was 5 years ago and it's only going to get tougher to secure an income.

I think it's a very different climate now to when we came on our 457 and if I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn't consider this route to Perth until the economy and job prospects improve. The roles you describe aren't those that immediately spring to mind as being in demand, regardless of what the SOL says. There are a few people on here who work in catering and hospitality and I'm sure they'll be able to give a more reliable perspective though. As for drainage, I'm not exactly sure what that means and you'd have to bear in mind that even if you could find someone with a vacancy, the role must still be on the SOL to qualify for the opportunity to apply for the visa. Good luck with it, I hope it works out for you.

You can get an extension stamp in your existing passport, no need for a new number. I can't quite remember the process but after some form filling we rocked up to the consulate services in the city, they stamped a page and gave us a Gov.uk headed letter. I do remember it was hard trying to get through to the right number but try 9224 4700, that's the number for the British Consulate, L12/251 Adelaide Tce

Nothing would make me move back to the UK. It was never about the money for me and I love life here, it nourishes my soul.

We were in the same position when we moved out. The market was flat, recession biting. We let our property with no other option open to us. In hindsight I'm so glad we did as after three years we sold it for 120,000GBP than it was marketed for when we left however, it wasn't without its problems. The first tenants paid but complained about everything and had unreasonable demands. I don't understand the point of real estate agents as there's very little they can do if your tenant turns bad. They wrote letters to the tenants to little effect and we had to get pretty threatening to get rid of them at the six month break clause date. They left the place in a terrible state. It wasn't ruined but the deposit certainly didn't cover the cost of all the cleaning that was needed. Two months after they'd gone the agent sent us a bill for the cleaning, it turned out they'd refunded the deposit without even checking the place. After some insistence the agent covered the cost. It was then empty for three before a family moved in. They were okay but when we put the house on the market and found a buyer they asked to stay an extra three months which we refused because the buyers wanted to move in asap to get their children into school. They simply refused to go and ended up staying the extra three months. They did pay rent for that time but we almost lost the sale. I'm not sure what the alternative is but if I was ever in the same position again I'd do everything possible to avoid using a real estate agent. It was a stressful experience and one I wouldn't wish to repeat.

I have a digital production company. We specialise in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality but we also produce and manage our own mobile apps.

Fremantle is the centre of the known universe and there aren't many poms