Moving to Australia

[staffsMike]

I haven't been around much recently because I've started the daunting task of moving myself and the little lady over the Australia for at least a year, if not the length of her degree.

I have far too many questions to ask, but we've just had a visit from some of her family who are already out there and been informed of the frankly disgusting prices of the things I just can't live without (electronics, movies, games etc..) not to mention the stupid prices of simple things like bedding out there. It seems we are going to end up shipping a lot of stuff over tbh.

So.. first of all does anyone know any play/amazon style websites in Oz worth using, that are at least respectfully priced. I'm seeing $20 -$30 for single DVD's

I knew we got hosed here but I didn't think it could get much worse.. until I started looking at Aussie sites.

Anything like that would be great but if you want to give any general tips that would be great too. Should be somewhere based on the East coast if it helps.

[PeterStoba]

I'd just like to say good luck Mike

I have a friend who lives out there on the east coast, near Brisbane. I'll ask what she does about dvds etc..

[kalniel]

Don't forget to fit right in by mentioning the Ashes at least once a day.

[Jay]

can I come with you? I can be your butler!

[TooNice]

I know this is not helpful, but for all the talk of rip-off Britain, the Aussies really have it worse for many things. I can't help (well, may ask some Aussie friends but don't hold your breath, they are probably just going to give me an ear full), but all the best with the moving

[staffsMike]

I know this is not helpful, but for all the talk of rip-off Britain, the Aussies really have it worse for many things.

Yeah I can really see that now. I was hoping I was just looking at the wrong sites but it seems I'm not lol

I shall recall the ashes as often as I can

[PeteSmith]

Ofc this means your going to have to change your handle to 'AussieMike', or risk claims of false advertising. I'm very jealous, hope it all works out.

eBay.au

[Disturbedguy]

Mike, I work with an aussie, will ask him about any play/ amazon style websites and get back to you, pm me so I dont forget.

[Whiternoise]

Why is $20-30 bad? If they were US dollars then that would be a bit crap, but they're not.

20AUD is about a tenner, $30 must be around £15. That's high street prices in the UK (amazon cut it down a lot, but the RRPs are always £17.99-19.99 for new releases), so it's not overkill. What you will suffer from is release dates being later in Oz..

Also, be wary of mandatory internet censorship. In theory it won't be a problem, but if you value your e-rights, Australia is the last place you should be going, they have some proper nutcases in parliament.

The Australian communications regulator's top-secret blacklist of banned websites has been leaked on to the web and paints a harrowing picture of Australia's forthcoming internet censorship regime.

Wikileaks, an anonymous document repository for whistleblowers, obtained the list, which has been seen by this website, and plans to publish it for public consumption on its website imminently.

Wikileaks has previously published the blacklists for Thailand, Denmark and Norway.

University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt said the leaked list "constitutes a condensed encyclopedia of depravity and potentially very dangerous material".

He said the leaked list would become "the concerned parent's worst nightmare" as curious children would inevitably seek it out.

But about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/...?page=fullpage

Oh here are some apparently popular sites:

http://www.bookworm.com.au/

http://www.thenile.com.au/

My favourite point:



How ironic is that?

Just remember that everything is half price to convert to pounds

[TAKTAK]

Have fun in Oz bud

I'm sure you'll be allright when you get out there and find your feet, watch out for the nasty spiders though :/

[steve threlfall]

You flamin galah!

You should still be able to use cd wow.

It seems you can

http://www.cdwow.com.au/

[Guy]

Wow, good luck with it all Mike

Keep us updated with everything that goes on.

[staffsMike]

I hate CD-Wow.. MEH!!! Oh well, thats the closest to home I've seen yet.

I get what you are saying Whiternoise that's how I saw it at first. But then I tried to think I payed £10 for a dvd.. it's been a good a few years lol
http://www.cdwow.com.au/DVD/DARK-KNIGHT/dp/105537

That's better but it's only region 1.. but thats CD-Wow so I'm used to that.

I've just been looking at CD-Wow's top 100 DVD's..which consists of a total of 70 DVD's. Who lives there!? I'm more scared of these peoples shocking taste than the spiders!

I knew there was a reason I wanted to go to Canada

One thing I have noticed, since I will be working as a teacher out there (hopefully I guess..) is that their summer holiday is at Christmas (duh..). If that is actually the case I'm going to miss a chunk of money off my typical salary.. that's going to hurt

[Whiternoise]

Surely you'll just be working during the winter then? (i.e same time working, just holidays swap)

[staffsMike]

I wont get there until August/September, so if I can get a job before I go or as soon as I am there then sure no problem. If not I could end up waiting for the new school year which I assume is Jan/Feb. That could mean I'm only working for around 6 months while there. Not handy for putting the Mrs through med school..

I've got a couple of people out there I know through Oxford though so hopefully that can be figured out sooner rather than later.

[Salazaar]

Remember to remind your new Aussie mates every day that a) they're all descended from crims and b) that New Zealand is a far superior country in many, many ways. You'll make loads of friends in no time!