bj27

I'd say if you're on a reccie, you probably don't want to stay in the City. Much too say in all directions. With the temperatures you would want to wear warm clothes and perhaps do a bit of a road trip in between outings. If you do go down south towards Victor Harbor or Port Elliot for whale watching, and you want to see some Australian nature, you could also go to Urrimbirra Wildlife Park, or if you want to see the roos in the wild do one of the beautiful walks in Deep Creek NP, or drive to the coastline around Myponga or Rapid Bay. For the wine tours, the Tourist Information Centre in McLaren Vale can give you a map of all the wineries, and tell you which ones have playgrounds for the kids. And I agree with Howde that there are many beaches you could go to. Semaphore, Glenelg, Brighton, Hallett Cove, Port Noarlunga, Moana, Aldinga Beach, wherever you want to go. Bring a thermos or get some take away coffee on the way!

My son gave up drumming because we couldn't find a good teacher in our area. Daughter is very happy at Theatre Bugs, didn't have something like that where we lived before. Myself and hubby rediscovered dancing, used to be a problem because we didn't like having a babysitter every week. But now we go to Moana Pioneers Hall on Friday evening. Kids come along and enjoy themselves with other kids in the kitchen or the playground near the beach. We've done things like tango, salsa, boogiewoogie and disco. It's so nice to have that time together again without needing a babysitter, and as it's usually a five-week block we can take a break if we want to without having to wait for a year to start again. I think the difference with before is that this is very relaxed, kids enjoy themselves, you can rock up if you want to and no-one blames you if you skip a few lessons. Otherwise I wish I knew more about fishing. Never fished before, as I don't like taking it out of the water only to put it back in. Easier to just leave it alone ;-). But for consumption sounds better. I know how to clean them, grandfather used to go out a lot and brought stuff home, but I just wouldn't how to catch anything!

the landlady of our furnished rental (for the first few weeks after our arrival) offered herself to be a referee. But what helped us most I think was the fact that we asked the real estate agent straight after the inspection if we could come with her to settle the paperwork. We had a package with everything that was needed (you can find that on the internet or at the website of the agent) and some extra. The agent made a few phonecalls, while we were sitting there, including to the 'old' landlady and the 'new' landlord, and he agreed. So we left our little furnished room in the morning to go to an inspection, and had a contract when we came back in the afternoon! TBH, it's not the best house, but it's affordable and we wanted to start in a safe place in case finances wouldn't work out as expected. The good thing is that it gave us a chance to save a bit of money for a deposit...

I had my kids with me as well, you do need to bring something to keep them occupied though, as ever since that visit they feel extremely bored as soon as we mention the word 'centrelink'....

my 8 year old did trials in November I think, two evenings, but that wasn't a big deal, mainly to see if they would have enough boys to make a new U9 team. As adelaidenow says, they will find a spot in a team for the younger ones. There are also school teams that they can join.

yes you can, the phone is nearly impossible cause you wait for an hour and then they say they can't help you. We went to the centrelink/medicare office and they helped us really well. We came in a year ago on a 175, now 190, and were eligible for both medicare and centrelink payments (family tax benefit/rent assistance/childcare rebate). For that they didn't look at what we had in the bank, only the taxable income (including interest on savings accounts) is registered, as far as I know.

football or soccer? My son is in a soccer team for the Seaford Rangers... They currently have an U8 team as the youngest team, as well as an U9 etc

hi, just a short note to say hi again. Don't really know why but I haven't been on this site for a long time! We arrived in Adelaide in Juni 2012 and have lived in a rental house in Seaford since. Kids go to Moana Primary and are happy there, we both found work although it's still on contract. We are enjoying ourselves a great deal!

THanks all for the info. We'll have a critical look ourselves at seaord prmary, seaford k-7 and port noralunga prmary butit's good to know about these persnal experiences. Thx! (sorry, typos, iPad)

Hi We arrived in Adelaide, lets see, 10 days ago and have been driving around to find a good place to look for a house. One of the areas that appealed to us is Port Noarlunga South. Our kids are 6 and 7 (nearly 8) so they would be going to Seaford primary school I think? Does anyone now anything about this school? I'll be happy with any piece of information, it's quite overwhelming, all those choices Thx

thx Lyn. How are you coping now? OH already left, and you are almost in your last week? I'll probably go insane by that time.

Hi Paula, found you! Our countdown app says 94 days we bought ourselves a bottle of champagne last weekend to celebrate our 100-days-to-go . good luck with the waiting!

Thanks for the welcomes Thanks Jennet for the website Lyn: Yes, we are looking for a job. Both. The first one to find a good job is going to take it, the other one will stay home until the kids are settled. I have a job in research support, like project manager / business analyst in an academic environment. My OH is a senior records and information manager. He would like a job in an archive. butchy2k: at first I was sorry to have two winters in a row, but it will give us and the kids time to 'grow' into the summer heat . we have a new thing to worry about though. Yesterday evening my mum called to say my father is in hospital with a heart condition. . I'm glad we're still around but it adds to the stress levels

Thanks Jennet. Good luck to you too! You mention an education website, is there a specific one you have looked at? So many things to do, we even have no clue yet as to which area to look at... But, we'll get there step by step

Thank you :-) Someone said that in the last hour before take-off she felt like she had a jet-lag before the flight :-). I think I can imagine why...