how are all the newbies doing?

[ozzieclare2be]

There seems to be quite a few of us on here been around less than 6 months in adelaide just wondered how everyone is doing. We have been here just under 4 months. Got off to a great start, then not so great now much better. We are both working, though ive just had 3 interviews for new jobs and little un is settled in nursery.

 

We,ve met some lovely people and made some good already and i think this is now helping us to settle. Im only now really starting to enjoy adelaide and i guess i will more once the health probs i have had since i arrived are resolved . My experience of the healthcare system has been blighted by an incident in flinders during which i got my phone stolen whilst i slept in a corridor as no beds!! Apart from that i cant fault it where in nhs can you get a scan organised in 3 days!!!

 

I think arriving in winter is possibly one of the worst decisions we made, i was bloody freezing and i underestimated how people sick i would be. For anyone new be prepared to hit a low point around 7-8 weeks in, alot of people i have spoken to said the same happened to them. If we stay in adelaide forever i dont know , but we are starting to see the benefits of family life here compared to grey old manachester

[Rachiegarlo]

Flowers for you.

[Guest TC for short]

We arrived in June and are only just starting to feel settled, but we'd already spent 7 months in Melbourne & were never expecting to come to Adelaide in the first place. Still get near-panic-attacks & wonder whether we've done the right thing but we just ask ourselves if we'd be any better off if we went back tomorrow. The answer's usually fairly quick in coming! I never tire of the view driving down Flagstaff Hill or the sunrises over the hills (although I see far too many for my liking!), but I do miss Suffolk village life - pushing the cows out of the way so I can open the gate to get the kids to school, knowing the folk in the shops, & a "swift half" in the pub.

 

TC

[Guest woolmerdj]

Hi Claire

Like you, I am a nurse(not found work in my area of speciality Child mental health, yet)

being new, so far away from home was always going to be difficult, and like yourself we arrived in winter this year. We have been very lucky, having met some fantastic people who have wanted to help us settle. We have found a great rental in Myrtle Bank, East of the city and have done some really unusual things, such as having made friends with an Australian friend of my best friend in the UK, she took us to her friends farm in Birdwood, something we would never have done in the Uk.We really like Adelaide and have so far found live here very laid back.We cant wait until the summer, as will really be testing life out here.My duaghter is going to a good school and my 18 year old son is really trying to find employment, but is having problems as he has little experience fo working life, hence the usual catch 22 situation. He is applying for TAFE and apprenticeships in a trade.The only drawback ( and is a big drawback) is the homesickness.I so wish I could bring my family and friends here, as they are the things that make live so wonderful. I face a daily ritual of wanting to go home, but when I am out in the lovely sunshine, driving around the calm road(unlike London where I lived before) seeing the sea on the horizon and the Hills on my left, as I drive down Cross Roads, I pinch myself and remind myself of the adventure I am taking part in.

Jane

[catherine.c]

Hi Claire

We arrived on the 2nd September 08. We have never yet felt like going back but I have found myself a bit teardul lately! My daughter is still in the UK with her family and I miss them terribly. They are waiting news on a visa but things seem very slow on the visa front at the moment.

Joining skype has been the best thing! We can talk for hours and see each other and all for free.

This site has also helped and I have met up with a few people - not you yet though! I work in CCU at Ashford so would be good to have a chat.

My other daughter is travelling around Australia at the moment (lucky thing) and is having a fantastic time. She seems to have settled into the social whirl quite nicely and talks about meeting interesting people that she would never have met in our town in the UK.

The sun and the beach of course has helped - running around St Neots does not have the same pull as running along the beach to brighton!

And food tastes so much better on the barbie!

Cheers

Catherine

[Guest Rachael]

We arrived 9th July. James is on his second job now which he's enjoying much more than the first. We've bought a house in Chandlers Hill and been living here since the middle of September.

Mum and Dad arrived 7 weeks after us and have bought and moved into their own place now also.

We just finished decorating the baby's room and I have 4 weeks to go before we become a proper little family with our first Aussie baby.

Have met a few PIA people and they have been great. Look forward to meeting more in the near future.

R

[carryon]

Hi, we arrived in june and everything has been brilliant, i,m actually glad we arrived in winter, made all the running around sorting things out easier! Settled in from day one, dont miss a thing about U.K, except my old job, but i'm more than happy sorting the kids out and doing our house up! I truely wish we had come here years ago, Wife is very happy in her job and both the kids love! I honestly can't say a bad word about the place! Have met some great people and live in a great location!

 

All the best to everyone:)

 

Simon

[Guest katsmajic]

Hiya Claire,

 

We're still newbies, just passed our 6mth mark.

 

We're loving life here, agree that arriving in winter has helped - as experiencing the weather now and knowing its only going to get hotter - alot hotter - its alot easier to do all the running around whilst its cooler, also we've now seen the worst of what Adelaide weather is going to throw at us (i hope )

None of us have had homesickness - kids miss their nan, as do i but shes been out already and is due to arrive next month for a longer hol yay...i got dog sick - sounds daft but ive always had dogs so for my bday i got a puppy - although think baby donkey fits better than puppy...

 

Martin has had bit of a mare with work - now looking for 4th job - toolmakers/manufacturers be warned all the work is up north - something we were aware of but still decided to live down south with the beaches and travel up to work - it hasnt been that hard to find work if you travel but its harder as everywhere seem to do casual contracts theres just no security as you go no notice of work ending...and although yes SA is due a boom in manufacturing it is still a long way off and alot of companies are struggling to stay afloat until that boom...same as uk all the work is off to china!!!

 

Weve met fab people, made fantastic friends we love living by the beach - totally spoilt - our lil kids are blooming.

Catch you for a coffee soon Claire xxxxx

[Guest Weez]

Hi we have been here for about 6 weeks and although things haven't exactly ran smoothly.....new car having tons of probs that the garage have deciede to take ages to fix, OH jobs not what he expected..is there such a thing as a laid back Ozzie on a building site??........son breaking his foot 2 days before he is suppose to be starting a new school:goofy: despite all of that we have found a lovely rental with fantastic veiws extremely helpful ozzies and brits and beautiful weather......we are happy and ready to ride out any other storms that blow our way, we love it here and are not budging one bit!

[Guest cazzie]

We have been here almost 8 weeks now and I have to say that I am feeling much more settled now. I love living close to Seacliff beach and the views of the sea from Ocean Boulevard, in fact views of the sea from anywhere.

I have been into the city a couple of times now and really enjoyed the Central Markets, I love that life here is much more laid back generally and as for the weather - wow!

Bill and I got into Adelaide zoo for free because we are both 'rangas' - much to his annoyance! But it was great and very funny walking around with loads of other redheads.

For shopping, I love the boutiques in Norwood Parade - very trendy.

My children are beginning to accept that I have made this move but are still disappointed that I could leave them (before anyone new thinks I am a horrible mother - my kids are all grown up with homes/jobs/partners of their own), but that should get easier to bear. I am disappointed that I can't walk into a teaching job because they won't accept my qualification, but I realise that I have to work around that and look for other work, which I will be doing soon.

The people I have met are lovely, friendly, welcoming and helpful and best of all, Bill and I are settled and happy together. Life is pretty damn good.

Good luck to everyone coming here, the first few weeks might be tough, but it doesn't take long to feel 'at home.'

[sue2oz]

all you guys sound as though you are getting great good luck with the next 6 months

 

suexxx

[Guest cazzie]

all you guys sound as though you are getting great good luck with the next 6 months

 

suexxx

 

 

Thank you Sue and family. Will keep you posted. Enjoy the good weather and have a great weekend.

[Jo & Steve]

Thanks everyone for your updates, its always good to hear how you are all doing. Good luck to you all and I look forward to hearing more, and when we arrive posting my own experiences.

Take care

Jo x

[ozzieclare2be]

its great to see how everyone is doing and settling in

[Guest Tracijbc]

Hi there,

 

We arrived on 2nd May, so it's around the 6 month mark for us too.

 

On the plus side, I have found a great job with a bunch of really nice people. We have met some other Poms In Adelaide, and found the majority of them to be really sound people and we are glad we managed to make friends with people so quickly. The weather is now warmng up, and that's a blessing, as because of the timing of our migration, we had "enjoyed" a wet UK summer (2007), autumn and winter in the UK, and then straight into autumn and winter in Adelaide. The houses here are soooooo cold and not built for winter, be prepared to have whatever heating you have on for a lot of the winter. In our unit, we only have a gas fire as heating, so we were ecstatic when our shipping arrived with an oil filled radiator as we could then heat the bedroom. Be ready for electric blankets and hot water bottles a plenty!

 

I have settled far better than Matt, but I strongly believe that it has a lot to do with your work position. He went from being self-employed for 12 years in the UK to now being a casual. The life of a temp is not a settled one, and it is something he has found hard to adjust to.

 

Also, be ready to have that "8-week hit". So many people I have met, no matter how long they have been here, say that after 8 weeks, you can have a really bad time, and we both went through it. I don't miss the UK per say, but I do miss the people I love back home, and all the phone calls in the world don't make up for a night out with the girls, or a shopping trip with a long lunch and a few cocktails and laughs.

 

Will we stay in Adelaide? I have no idea. If not Adelaide, where else? Do you become a nomad moving from place to place every couple of years and never feeling settled anywhere? We shall see.

 

If you are planning to do this brave and crazy thing we have all done, the best advice I can give is to spend your last few months in the UK not obsessing about moving here, but embracing all you have in the UK and the people who are special to you there. Not everyone will have the time or money to be able to pop over to Australia and visit you so spend some time with them whilst you can and arrive here with no pre-conceived ideas of how it will be. Go and vsit those places you have always wanted to go to, as once you are here, Europe is a VERY far away place!!

 

The most important thing is to enjoy the opportunity we have all been given. There are people who would give their right arm to do what we have been given the chance to do, so be happy and don't be afraid to be emotional and ask for help.

 

Traci xx (and, of course, Matt)

[ozzieclare2be]

Hi there,

 

We arrived on 2nd May, so it's around the 6 month mark for us too.

 

On the plus side, I have found a great job with a bunch of really nice people. We have met some other Poms In Adelaide, and found the majority of them to be really sound people and we are glad we managed to make friends with people so quickly. The weather is now warmng up, and that's a blessing, as because of the timing of our migration, we had "enjoyed" a wet UK summer (2007), autumn and winter in the UK, and then straight into autumn and winter in Adelaide. The houses here are soooooo cold and not built for winter, be prepared to have whatever heating you have on for a lot of the winter. In our unit, we only have a gas fire as heating, so we were ecstatic when our shipping arrived with an oil filled radiator as we could then heat the bedroom. Be ready for electric blankets and hot water bottles a plenty!

 

I have settled far better than Matt, but I strongly believe that it has a lot to do with your work position. He went from being self-employed for 12 years in the UK to now being a casual. The life of a temp is not a settled one, and it is something he has found hard to adjust to.

 

Also, be ready to have that "8-week hit". So many people I have met, no matter how long they have been here, say that after 8 weeks, you can have a really bad time, and we both went through it. I don't miss the UK per say, but I do miss the people I love back home, and all the phone calls in the world don't make up for a night out with the girls, or a shopping trip with a long lunch and a few cocktails and laughs.

 

Will we stay in Adelaide? I have no idea. If not Adelaide, where else? Do you become a nomad moving from place to place every couple of years and never feeling settled anywhere? We shall see.

 

If you are planning to do this brave and crazy thing we have all done, the best advice I can give is to spend your last few months in the UK not obsessing about moving here, but embracing all you have in the UK and the people who are special to you there. Not everyone will have the time or money to be able to pop over to Australia and visit you so spend some time with them whilst you can and arrive here with no pre-conceived ideas of how it will be. Go and vsit those places you have always wanted to go to, as once you are here, Europe is a VERY far away place!!

 

The most important thing is to enjoy the opportunity we have all been given. There are people who would give their right arm to do what we have been given the chance to do, so be happy and don't be afraid to be emotional and ask for help.

 

Traci xx (and, of course, Matt)

 

are you me lol was great to meet you both at the weekend hopefully we will take up the camping challenge

[Guest xhaylesx]

Well I have been here same amount of time as you Claire. I love south australia, love our new lifestyles, love our house and the SUN!! The biggest difference to us as a family is family time! brought about by my DH being home at 4pm everynight instead of 8pm!

 

As you know I have had a wobbly couple of weeks, not related to being here though, more personal issues.

 

My biggest struggle I have to say is not having a car, and therefore not getting out and meeting people, missing all the meetups and then feeling totally isolated and lonely ;-( We are going to get this sorted but it will take a little while and I hope to keep my chin above water in the meantime.

 

We are also thinking about doing the camping thing. I think we will buy some stuff for Christmas with the money we will save from not buying everyone and his dog in the UK a present then try it out after Christmas.

[Mr & Mrs Taz]

Hi Clare

 

We arrived about 10 weeks ago and everything seems to have been plain sailing we managed to get a rental after 1 viewing & jobs after 1 interview each.

 

Jak had hit the 8 week meltdown but she is back to her usual self again.

 

We found work difficult at the start and both thought about calling it a day after about a week but we battled through and we seem to have settled now, companies here seem to just let you get on with it and it is a case of sink or swim and we are swimming now.

 

We arrived when it was cold & wet and could not believe what we had come too but within 2 days the sun was out and it just looked like a different country, I suppose a bit like the UK when it is sunny it is fantastic and when it is wet it is c##p.

 

We have met plenty of friendly & helpful people both Australian and British who go out there way to help you.

 

Returning to the UK has never entered our heads and we never think of the UK as home now,we call Adelaide home and we think this has helped us settle as well. Don't get us wrong we really miss our family and friends and we still get our parents saying " Oh you are still enjoying it, so you are staying then".

 

All in all we know we have made the right decision and we are looking forward to eventually making it to a PIA event so we can meet everybody.

 

Cheers

 

Derek & Jak

[Sallyh]

Good to read everyone's v different experiences. Ours is different again...

 

We've been here 6 weeks, it feels like v much longer, and strangely normal. Weird though because we are surrounded by more family than we have ever been before, and most of them live about 10 mins away, or at the most, 45. DH, Matthew, is from Sth Plympton originally, and we have moved into a rental about 5 or 6 mins from his parents (not entirely intentional but working out ok! ).

 

Ben our eldest has started at Tabor, and I am still enjoying the novelty of a 10 minute school run (and having far less uniform to deal with, but still trying to understand all the things we need to do at home, getting used to the teacher's show and tell system, what day the spellings come home etcetcetc!).

 

Our biggest difficulty has been finding a church but we have, after 6 different sundays finally found a brilliant one. If you don't go to church you may not understand but the amazing thing about church has been finding the right one, being accepted as family by those we don't know yet, and it felt more like 'home' than any house ever can... weird sounding but true I am afraid! It was like we hadn't moved, even though we didnt know any of the people yet.

 

Matthew is still looking for jobs , has applied for 1 and submitted a tender for another, but we are in a dilemma about whether he actually goes through with the Newstart allowance claim, because we don't really feel that we want the employers he is contacting, being contacted by Centrelink chasing him up and trying to find out whether he is telling the truth about his applications or not. Does anyone have experience of that? Meanwhile I have received 1 parenting payment, and they are saying they won't pay any more, and will cancel the claim, if I don't give them a tax file number by tomorrow I think it is...EXCEPT I HAVE DONE MY APPLICATION FOR A TAX FILE NUMBER WITH THEM.....

 

Just a thought about the toys I see someone else giving away - we have resolved that when our stuff gets here, we are going to sort through the boys' toys with their help and make a box up of toys to donate to Centrelink at Marion. It is a terrible place if you have kids, and so far, for our 2 claims, I think we have had to drag our kids there about 4 times, and none of the visits have been less than an hour....... and our children are v well behaved but boy was it a struggle in there to keep them occupied? The people all seem nice (if a little slow, and not very accurate at times) but the toys are few, and terrible - and there is nothing child friendly about the place... and then I think that actually most of their 'customers' are likely to be there with children too....... So, we're going to do some other poor kids a favour and give them some decent toys.....

 

So apart from the centrelink stress (and dilemma -will we actually bother, particularly if they cancel the claim it took me ages to get processed and have to start it again??????) we have settled in great, just got to get some work for Matthew. Oh and our neighbour lent us his mower when he heard Matthew trying to fix ours - and then offered us a swings set for the boys for the garden. And landlord said they don't mind us having it.

 

We've had fun bailing out the 100+ litres per wash that the machine in the house uses, but finally bought a hose to water the lawn from the grey water, so water saving has started round here and certainly feels better than tipping it all down the drain. Thought we'd killed the roses but MIL said they were scorched in the heat, so the washing powder gets a reprieve (its phosphate free so should be ok).

 

The hardest thing for Matthew is finding out that some friends (even ones we have stayed in fairly close contact with while he's been in the UK) have changed, and not all for the best. We are discovering which friendships are ones for the future and which ones are past their best which is sad. I have made a few early contacts through church and also through a music group I took the boys to the last couple of weeks (Mainly Music in Unley) and on Sunday I met another expat and she knows some more, she gave me her number and also said she'd give me a ring. Apparently there's another family she knows who have moved here from Bristol and they have 3 boys the same ages as us.

 

As for homesickness- our friends are v supportive of the move, but like others have said, its not like getting together over a coffee. I think family struggle more with it but they aren't really saying how they feel so we can't really address the issues with them unless they do.

 

Am trying to convince my parents to visit at Easter. Anyone got an idea of the temperature range for March? My mum doesnt want to come when its really hot........

[Guest graandjac]

:jiggy:LOVE IT ALL:jiggy:

[Guest Alipally]

We've been here for 5 weeks now and I don't feel like I've had chance to take a breath! Presently I'm in Sydney... again, and work has taken me around the country somewhat, but it's all good (Like having a driver turn up in a stretch limo to take me to the airport!) Truthfully, I've not had time to be homesick/peoplesick or otherwise miss anything. I don't know if that will change. OH has only just started looking for work and commented on Saturday that he still feels like he's on holiday !

 

Our achievements to date are:

Job for me before departure... via video link at 7.30am!

:goofy:Secured rental in Noarlunga Downs that takes the dog!

Retrieved dog from Quarantine in Sydney (boys drove there!)

:realmad:Bought essentials for house as container still hasn't arrived!

:goofy:Sampled some wines in McClaren Vale!

Been to the Hills ... Hahndorf, Lobenthal, Stirling, Aldgate

applied for lots of jobs for OH

Looked at some show homes and have def. decided to go for a 2 storey option....

We are currently riding the exchange rate roller coaster..... I still haven't changed it... waiting for the next interest rate cut here.... it will mean that GBP will be worth more again (I hope that this is going to go our way... but as everyone knows, waiting for the rate to go up is nerve racking to say the least!)

One thing is for sure, I'm racking up the frequent flyer miles and thinking about our next holiday and it's not to the UK!

 

We are lucky, I know and we have people on here to thank for a lot....

 

YOu know who you are!!

Ali

[Guest michelleandrichard]

We've been here for exactly 8 weeks today - landed on 3rd September. Spent the first few weeks rushing around here there and everywhere and deciding where to settle. I have only just found this thread and it is really helpful to read other people's experiences and feelings. I have obvioiusly hit the point where you get tearful as I have spent a lot of time feeling very down over the last few weeks. We love it here in Seaford and have been very fortunate to get a great rental by the beach, but we just miss everyone so much.

 

I don't think we were prepared for quite how hard that would be. Its not just people its also being in your comfort zone and around familiar things. I am possibly finding it harder than my husband as there is a lot of time at home when kids are at school and he is at work, but I have started to try and get out and about.

 

Kids have settled really well and don't seem to talk about England at all. I just hope that we will start to feel more at home with time. I do think there is a natural low when you have finished all the organising and running around - not to mention all the time you spend before you leave preparing.

 

Hope to meet some of you soon.

Michelle and Richard

[Denise]

I'm not there but just wanted to say to everybody how much I have enjoyed reading all your posts on this thread, can't wait to be a part of it.