Anne B

Glad you enjoyed Burra although the damp firewood doesn't sound good. The Paxton Square cottages are quite basic from what I gather (no TVs) but as you say it adds to the authentic historic experience. Did you visit the miners dugouts where people literally lived in mud caves by the creek? Unbelievably primative, it's amazing how people survived in those days. We had a cottage just over the road from them which was really nice.

Burra is a nice place to stay - there are cosy old stone cottages (make sure you get one with a fire) and during the day you can do the Burra passport - go round the old copper mining, heritage areas and museums, so there is plenty to do that is fun and educational. I took my kids away with me a couple of years ago for a couple of nights and we had a great time, played Monopoly in the evenings. It does get cold though and also take some food as there isn't a lot of choice for eating out. It is also cheaper than the Clare Valley.

I remember that day well - we were camped at Wilpena Pound, trying to pack up the tent that morning was a nightmare as our hands were like blocks of ice! We had enjoyed 30 degree heat a couple of days before at Arkaroola and hadn't packed for Antarctic weather conditions!!

Just got back from the Gold Coast - haven't been there for over 5 years. Well the place is buzzing, the whole area seems much more positive and years ahead of sleepy old Adelaide. The contrast was very noticeable - to be honest I would happily move up there tomorrow - Adelaide seems so behind the times in comparison. There seemed to be more young people around too.

Totally agree - I can't stand the current Australian cricket team, they are so arrogant. Will never be able to support them, I was cheering on India and NZ this time round. Love the Socceroos though, really enjoyed it when they won the Asian Cup. I don't hate the French at Rugby, but I still remember with great fondness the Rugby World Cup 2003 when England beat Australia in Sydney in the final (with the drop goal from Jonny Wilkinson)!! Absolute magic! My Australian husband had gone down the pub (in England) to watch the match with a fellow Aussie - apparently the England fans at the pub felt so sorry for them they bought them drinks at the end of the match!

I don't feel 'homesick' as such but on balance I prefer living in England. I would move back to England tomorrow if it was easy (kids schooling/jobs/finances are keeping us here). I don't hate it here, I really like some things, but I don't think it will ever be 'home'. I just want to be rich enough to live 6 months of the year in each country!!!

The Hundred/Section bit probably only applies to rural properties where the address is a bit vague or a large block of land out in the middle of nowhere. SA is divided into hundreds, it is how they divided up the land when it was first settled (by Europeans) - this is an ancient way of dividing land, a hundred would be the size of land which sustained 100 households.

Mitcham, Urrbrae, Unley - south east of the city. Tennyson is quiet and upmarket but it's by the beach.

I do - we went on the beach at Robe a few years ago, the kids were having a surfing lesson, cars were driving up and down all the time, it wasn't relaxing at all. With small kids it would be a nightmare!

WEA http://www.wea-sa.com.au/

Henley Beach overall is a nicer, more desirable and more expensive suburb than Seaton because it is near the beach and has some very up-market properties, but it really is on a street by street basis. You can get much better value living a little bit inland, it is still only 5 mins drive in the car to the beach but without the high price tag. Have a look at these 2 properties, one in Seaton, the other in Henley Beach - they go against the stereotypes. In general if there are houses with cars parked on the lawn and lounge chairs by the front door, avoid the area! http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-henley+beach-113462967 http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-seaton-118000419

There are lots of reasonable suburbs all within an easy drive of the beach and the city - Grange, West Lakes, Henley Beach, West Beach, Fulham Gardens, Fulham, Kidman Park, Flinders Park, Lockleys, Seaton etc. Grange and Henley are the most expensive, but all of these areas have pockets of nice streets and grotty streets so you really do have to look around carefully. There are some streets in Henley Beach which are worse than parts of Seaton, some nice areas in Seaton near the golf course which are nicer than Grange. North Seaton is definately a lower socio-economic area. There are some nice areas in Kidman Park and Lockleys near the river. Kidman Park, Seaton, Fulham Gardens have a high Italian/Greek population so you might not fit in so well with the neighbours if they are elderly and speak Italian at home. It so best to look around when you get here. Areaa like Thebarton and Torrensville are worth a look too, also Sempahore.

It depends on when your eldest's birthday is but if he is in year 11 now in the UK then he would be in either year 10 or year 11 here. If his birthday is between September 98 and approx April 99, then he will go into year 11 and be about half way through the year in May this year. If his birthday is May, June, July or August 99 then he most likely will go into year 10. My son's birthday is late July 99 and he is about to start year 10 next week, even though if we had stayed in England he would be in year 11 now and taking his GCSEs later this year (he was the youngest boy in his class at primary school in England).

Wow, what a lot of traffic!!! We did that 23 years ago (outside of school holidays) and had the road to ourselves most of the time. I suppose times change, places get busier, you remember things and places as they were but would probably be disappointed to drive it now with all that traffic. Apollo Bay was a wonderful place, and we enjoyed a free concert on the beach in Lorne from Big Audio Dynamite as they were there for some Sony music Australia awards. Happy times, good memories!

Back to the subject of the thread - I agree that the value is all in the land and not in the builiding. In sought after streets, almost derelict houses still sell for a lot of money, because the land is worth a lot. Well maintained houses don't sell for much more than the knock-downs. I wouldn't buy a new house on half a block, as in 20 years time the house will look dated and scruffy (many Australians don't maintain their houses) and is it only a small plot of land. I predict that today's modern shiny courtyard homes will be tomorrow's slums. Lots have been built cheap, rented out, not looked after and are already looking scruffy. As for waterfront being highly desirable, yes and no. Waterfront properties in Port Adelaide haven't done very well (the views of and dust from the cement factory probably don't help). In North Haven you can still get relatively cheap houses with sea views - we considered moving there but it seemed just too far away from everywhere, too much time spent driving to decent shops or decent schools (also maybe too close to some disadvantaged areas as well) - so factoring in the time and the petrol costs the advantages were outweighed by the disadvantages. There are other factors apart from waterfront one major one being proximity to good schools (although which schools are considered good can change over time), transport links, shops, jobs etc.

The sewerage works may well be bigger now than 20 years ago. When we lived in North Glenelg we were right on the seafront so the sea breeze probably played its part in keeping away the smells - it was always windy!! The boat ramp is quite a long way from the majority of the houses in West Beach though. In all the times I have been at the sports fields for kids sports I have never smelt the sewerage works either. The caravan park must get the smells quite badly though! Also you are right about the smell where the Torrens meets the sea, quite an eggy smell, so I wouldn't live too close to the river.

West Beach is a nice area in a very convenient location, close to the airport, HarbourTown shopping centre (which has a huge supermarket), Ikea etc. It does not have a lot in terms of shops but there is a small strip of shops including a Foodland supermarket, liquor shop, coffee shop etc, plus a good bakery and a landerette. West Beach has never had a pub but there is the Surf Club on the beach which does meals/breakfast/coffees etc. The beach has been eroded a lot recently, largely due to intervention by the authorities moving sand which to be honest has not been a good thing for West Beach. Along the seafront and Military Road the old 1960's housing is gradually being replaced with modern expensive beach homes which sell for well over $1million. Inland the housing is varied, some streets are expensive, some are still relatively cheap. Don't live too close to Tapleys Hill Road it is very busy! The old drive-in cinema was developed for housing about 15 years ago so there are some nice houses in that area but on smaller blocks. Henley Beach is 5 minutes up the coast, Glenelg is not far away either. There is smell from the sewerage works north of Glenelg but I wouldn't think that the smell would reach the residential parts of West Beach very often, if at all. I used to live at North Glenelg quite close to the sewerage works but it was very very rare to get any bad smells! The more southern parts of West Beach are affected by plane noise, and there is a flightpath to the NW of the airport for light (propeller) aircraft which can be noisy, but Adelaide airport is a relatively quiet airport in global terms. Altogether a nice suburb which is very desirable because of its location close to the city and close to the beach.

Didn't realise who DAAS was but now see it is the Doug Anthony All Stars. I saw them at the Fringe way back in 1992 - they were hilarious. I didn't realise they were still going!!

Last time we went to Singapore we didn't bother with the Singapore Stopover deal with Singapore Airlines as they only had expensive category hotels available. I searched the net and ended up booking directly with the hotel over the internet, we got a good deal, they even upgraded us to a better category room on arrival for no extra cost - it really was no problem. The hotel we stayed at was the River View http://www.riverview.com.sg/, it was reasonably priced and nothing OTT but very comfortable, we have stayed in Singapore several times before and fancied being by the river which is a lovely area with bars and restaurants at night. The hotel had a nice pool and the restaurant was really good, staff very friendly. We just went to the Ground Transport desk at the airport when we arrived http://www.changiairport.com/getting-around/to-and-from-airport/ground-transport-desk, there are cheap shuttle buses $9 (singapore dollars per person) which will take you to your hotel, we waited about 3 minutes before getting alloacted a bus, very efficient. On the way back to the airport we took a taxi from the hotel which was very reasonable as well.

Congratulations !- hope it all went well and that you are all doing fine.

Apparently Boris Johnson wants there to be Bilateral mobiility zones between Australia, NZ and UK. "Any Australian or New Zealander who wanted to travel to, live and work in Britain would get a free visa – although they would not get immediate access to welfare support. The same would apply for British citizens who wanted to work in Australia." Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/let-australians-live-and-work-in-britain-london-mayor-boris-johnson-backs-migration-report-20141103-11fwfn.html#ixzz3I4qXHOSl What a fantastic idea! As someone who has lived with all the hassle of visas just so that I can live in the same country as my husband of 20 years I can only wish that it had always been like this. Especially now as Australian spouses of UK citizens (and Australians generally) are treated so badly by the UK, whilst the country is flooded with EU citizens. Bring it on! Hopefully it would also get rid of some of the ridiculousness of the Australian visa system whereby Brits have to prove they can speak English - at least the UK govt only makes you take the IELTS test if you are from a non-EU non-English speaking country. It's not April 1st is it????

Totally addictive and have never got the same view twice! It is better if you go straight to the GeoGuessr website https://geoguessr.com/, there are more options to play, I am very good at the London game but hopeless at the UK one (which mainly seems to be views of hills in Scotland and Northern Ireland)!!

Managed to scare some trick or treaters this evening - answered the door with a carving knife in my hand dripping with tomato sauce! (Gave them some chocolate afterwards!)

The things we most enjoyed doing on our trip back last year were the simple things - like visiting the pub or going for an Indian. Just loved the old buildings and the history and the diversity of everything. Even enjoyed driving round the M25! We ran out of time to go to the Harry Potter studios but whilst visiting my Auntie in Beaconsfield we went to Bekonscot Model Village - it was a really hot day and some Morris dancers turned up (more for kids though)! Obviously you will be there in winter - we had a lovely weekend once in Stratford on Avon in the middle of winter, saw 'As you Like It' at the Shakespeare theatre which was pretty special. Likewise York is great in winter, we went on a Ghost walk on a cold foggy night - it was very atmospheric. Christmas lights should be going up soon, which I miss so much here, plus maybe go for some walks in the woods with all the fallen leaves underfoot.

No advice but it sounds like a Three Cornered Jack - so google that for some advice