News from Adelaide

[Guest Bronwyn]

Hi there to all my cyberfriends, I've missed you all more than you realise! We have been in Adelaide for exactly 2 weeks now and had a lot of fun & tons of new experiences so far. It would take me some time to tell you everything, but I'll try & summarise for those who are interested.

Well, moving day came & went in a blur. We then moved in with the in-laws, and basically for me all communication with the outside world stopped due to lack of internet (boohoo!). That last week in South Africa was all work & no play - saying goodbye to everyone wasn't very relaxing. We were still arranging visas & forex the day before our flight, in spite of all my plans. We banned anyone from the airport, and I think that helped us finally relax, although my mom-in-law wasn't impressed. They dropped us off at the doors and we dashed inside before the tears could flow.

I love flying, so that wasn't bad. We watched a few movies, ate everything they gave us, drank a couple of mini bottles of wine, and generally enjoyed ourselves. The sun went down on the right side of the plane and then came up again 3 hours later We flew into Sydney, missed the flight to Adelaide, and caught the next one. We arrived on an extremely hot Saturday (about 42 degrees, apparently!) at about 8pm.

The Adelaide Caravan Park was not bad at all - very clean and neat, no complaints whatsoever (except the internet didn't work). We lived there for about 10 days. They had brand new pots & pans, and Noritake crockery, fancy stuff! During that time we saw about 5 schools and 5 houses. It seems the school is not the biggest issue - they were all good. The housing where we were looking (Eastern suburbs) is expensive, but you can also get a house a little further out of town for a much lower rent, and drive in.

Some days you are proud of yourself if you can get out of bed & have a shower before 12, the jet-lag is bad. If you also manage to do one necessary thing on that day it's really a goodie! We have registered for tax and bought a car so far. We can confidently say that all the petrol-heads on the forum are going to be very happy to find out that cars are a lot less expensive than in S. Africa!!! We went into the City Council three times to use their free internet, but you only get half an hour (to give everyone a chance) and it wasn't enough time to get into the forum after the necessary banking, etc. We activated our ANZ accounts (no problems), and I have actually been to the hairdresser and had my hair coloured & cut (don't ask how much - just start saving, dolls!). Last night we signed up for Bigpond Telstra wireless broadband and so today, I am happily sitting in my bed typing you this long mail! The price was $299 down and then $50 per month for either 20 hours or 200 MB, your choice. 12 month contract.

We had a lekker braai with Annette & her hubby Marius, where we met Bob & Ginny and another couple, and it was a really good day - thanks again guys!! We also met up with Andrea & William (not often on the forum) a couple of times already, and we have seen another couple from Alberton, Zoe & Patrick who we first met in Sandton. We also met 2 other SA couples at the mall yesterday - no Aussies yet besides Bob!!! No way, we need to meet Aussies too, but that will come in time, I hope!

By the way Bob - I only tasted the wors - decided to leave it for the desperado's among us (maybe my kids ate it tho ). But it was very good wors. Will ask u for the address of the shop soon.

Anothe highlight was the fish & chips at Glenelg (how fresh is the fish? I love it), and the fruit & veggies here are big & tasty.

We have still got so many things to see & do, we can't wait. Moved out of the caravan park into a house in Marino yesterday. We arranged it from S. Africa, until the end of January by when we must be in our own rented house. It's a stroll down to a rock cove, with pretty smooth coloured rocks everywhere, I've never seen anything similar! The shells here on the beaches are also unbroken, because the sea is calm, the waves are only knee-high!

Okay, gotta go and make supper for the starving masses. All they care about is food & TV! And it's after 9pm.

Please feel free to mail me specific questions, I would love to try & help if I can, now that we are here and have a better idea of the lie of the land.

Marius - when & where? Pippa - we look forward to seeing you again in March - Tazz are you already here? Carlos - congrats on the good news, I'm so happy for you. Hannes how are you doing? Bob I will PM you now.

Bye, Bronwyn

[Pippa]

Hi Bronwyn,

Welcome back to the forum ! We all missed you so much! I sent another sms message to you this morning, but I don’t think you get them, as I keep on receiving error messages… (don’t know what is going on… ).

I am so glad that everything is well with the family and all! I really can’t wait to get to Adelaide to experience it for myself!

Please give best wishes to Stephen and the kids!

Lovies, Pippa! X

[Bob]

Pippa,

when sending an SMS text message from a mobile to an overseas mobile, whether it was from The U.K. or Australia, we had to put a + at the very beginning of the number, then the international prefix (in this case, for Australia it is 61 ) then delete the first zero , so , your next number after the 61 should be a 4 (because all Australian mobile numbers are either 40 , 41, or 42 )

Your first few numbers to an Australian mobile number, therefore, should be + 61 4 . . . . . . .

Hope this helps to get through to Australia.

[Marius]

Bronwyn,

G'day Welcome to Adelaide I thought I will give you a little time to calm down and settle and wait till you surface here again as that is normally a sign things are moving towards some normality. I will PM you our contact detials and we can make a plan to meet some time for sure. I see you plan to settle in the east, we live east, well, nort east in Newton. I am glad things are slowly working out for you here, it will all smooth out in no time. Yes, for some reason thwe fruit and veggies do taste and look better. You will meet some locals soon enough, you will see most are very welcoming, friendly and helpfull. We even got "pressys" form our neighbours this year nogal.

Let us know if you need any help. Enjoy the settling in and exploring

[Mike]

Welcome to Adelaide. Hope that you enjoy!

[Denise]

Hi Bronwyn

Well you have done it. We have 10 days to go before we leave. I am so busy as you must know. We go to singapore first and arrive in Adelaide on 13 Jan. Hope to catch up with all you guys when we arrive. I have not been writing on the forums as just do not have spare time at the moment but hope to meet up with you all when we get there. We will be staying in flagstaff Hill for the first week and then move to a rented furnished place in Christies Beach which is not far from Marino. I was interested to hear about free internet at the council. Please tell me more as we would also need to use it for a while. Hope you have a lovely Christmas

From

Denise ( Lynne on the forums )

[Tazz]

Hi Bronwyn

I am glad it went well for you. We will be arriving in ADL on the 15th Jan. Not long to go!

Through Denise , she kindly gave us the letting agent they used and we managed to organise accommo in Somerton Park until the container arrives.

Have a lovely Christmas and we will catch you there in the new year.

Mark & Shelley

Edited December 24, 2006 by Tazz

[Bianca S]

hi everybody, I am so happy for all of you. Good luck for first weeks in Adelaide /Oz and for those in SA - the last weeks are difficult. Bronwyn, I know what you mean about family on airport. Its very stressful, now we're also not doing doing it again. It upsets the kiddies.

Hoping to meet you all in a while (need to finish studies first in UK ) Planning to go to Adelaide-area.

Hope you have a wonderful Chrismas!

Marie

[Guest Bronwyn]

Hello guys - thanks for the chat! Bob I will try to PM you again, don't know what happened the other night, I tried twice and got thrown out twice and by then it was very late!

Pippa, you can SMS 0961 416 950 121 (My mobile from there). But only until about mid-day or 1pm your time. After that I am dossing!!! My family hasn't grasped that yet and they SMS all night, waking us up, duh!! . It took me a few days to click I can put my phone on meeting mode and the alarm still goes off in the morning. Now we are sleeping better.

I have received a couple (and sent a couple) from you tho.

By the way the PSP games are not a problem. You got me worried because we bought Darren 'Need for Speed - Carbon' for his (South African) PSP for Christmas, and I thought maybe it wouldn't work, but it does.

I really hope you all had a good Christmas. We actually had a lovely day, Andrea (from forum) & William and Zoe & Patrick (not on forum but arrived the day after us from Parkhurst) and a total of 8 kids at our place. Let's just say a good time was had by all (I hope!).

OK, the ironing calls , Bye, Bronwyn

PS. I just saw a mistake I made in my previous post - Sorry! The internet is $50 for either 20 hours or 200MB, not 20MB. Don't know how to fix it up there in the post, maybe someone else can? B

Edited December 25, 2006 by Bronwyn

[Tania]

Hi Bronwyn,

Dit was nou 'n groot lekkerte om nuus van jou te kon kry!! Ons was vir 'n week in ('n vrek warm) Beaufort Wes by my skoonouers en ek kon nie wag om by die huis te kom om al die nuus op te raap nie!

Ons is baie bly om te hoor dat als so goed afgeloop het! Nou wag ons net vir foto's. Het julle al bietjie kon rondrits en mooi plekke gesien?

Ons wag vir deel 2.... van jou post.

Groete

Tania

[Mara]

Hi Bronwyn

Glad to see you are settling in so well! I fixed your error for you, it now reads 200mb.

Mara

[Carlos Carvalho]

Hi Bronwyn

Fantastic to hear from you guys Down Under. Been off the net for a couple of days, since we had a family filled Xmas feast at home. Regards to Stephen and kids.

Carlos, Liza, Alexia & Luca

[Riekie]

Hey Bronwyn!!! Fantasties dat julle ook nou hier is, en klink vir my, jy vat dit alles sommer so in jou "stride', so jy gaan hierdie emigrasie beslis "ace"!! Ek het jou "post" vreeslik geniet en veral die humor wat in alles deurslaan. Dit is so lekker om te sien dat NOG iemand se droom 'n realiteit geword het - mens volg almal so van daai "hoe emigreer mens" dae tot die "ons is hier" dae en elke keer is dit net lekker om te weet nog 'n gesin het dit gemaak!! Geniet julle lewe in Oz - klink of julle sommer al klaar goed saamkuier met al die Adelaiders!!

[Queensland Girl]

Hi Bronwyn

You have made it! You have accomplished alot in a very short time. Well done and WELCOME!

[Lee Tavares]

Hi there to all my cyberfriends, I've missed you all more than you realise! We have been in Adelaide for exactly 2 weeks now and had a lot of fun & tons of new experiences so far. It would take me some time to tell you everything, but I'll try & summarise for those who are interested.

Well, moving day came & went in a blur. We then moved in with the in-laws, and basically for me all communication with the outside world stopped due to lack of internet (boohoo!). That last week in South Africa was all work & no play - saying goodbye to everyone wasn't very relaxing. We were still arranging visas & forex the day before our flight, in spite of all my plans. We banned anyone from the airport, and I think that helped us finally relax, although my mom-in-law wasn't impressed. They dropped us off at the doors and we dashed inside before the tears could flow.

I love flying, so that wasn't bad. We watched a few movies, ate everything they gave us, drank a couple of mini bottles of wine, and generally enjoyed ourselves. The sun went down on the right side of the plane and then came up again 3 hours later We flew into Sydney, missed the flight to Adelaide, and caught the next one. We arrived on an extremely hot Saturday (about 42 degrees, apparently!) at about 8pm.

The Adelaide Caravan Park was not bad at all - very clean and neat, no complaints whatsoever (except the internet didn't work). We lived there for about 10 days. They had brand new pots & pans, and Noritake crockery, fancy stuff! During that time we saw about 5 schools and 5 houses. It seems the school is not the biggest issue - they were all good. The housing where we were looking (Eastern suburbs) is expensive, but you can also get a house a little further out of town for a much lower rent, and drive in.

Some days you are proud of yourself if you can get out of bed & have a shower before 12, the jet-lag is bad. If you also manage to do one necessary thing on that day it's really a goodie! We have registered for tax and bought a car so far. We can confidently say that all the petrol-heads on the forum are going to be very happy to find out that cars are a lot less expensive than in S. Africa!!! We went into the City Council three times to use their free internet, but you only get half an hour (to give everyone a chance) and it wasn't enough time to get into the forum after the necessary banking, etc. We activated our ANZ accounts (no problems), and I have actually been to the hairdresser and had my hair coloured & cut (don't ask how much - just start saving, dolls!). Last night we signed up for Bigpond Telstra wireless broadband and so today, I am happily sitting in my bed typing you this long mail! The price was $299 down and then $50 per month for either 20 hours or 200 MB, your choice. 12 month contract.

We had a lekker braai with Annette & her hubby Marius, where we met Bob & Ginny and another couple, and it was a really good day - thanks again guys!! We also met up with Andrea & William (not often on the forum) a couple of times already, and we have seen another couple from Alberton, Zoe & Patrick who we first met in Sandton. We also met 2 other SA couples at the mall yesterday - no Aussies yet besides Bob!!! No way, we need to meet Aussies too, but that will come in time, I hope!

By the way Bob - I only tasted the wors - decided to leave it for the desperado's among us (maybe my kids ate it tho ). But it was very good wors. Will ask u for the address of the shop soon.

Anothe highlight was the fish & chips at Glenelg (how fresh is the fish? I love it), and the fruit & veggies here are big & tasty.

We have still got so many things to see & do, we can't wait. Moved out of the caravan park into a house in Marino yesterday. We arranged it from S. Africa, until the end of January by when we must be in our own rented house. It's a stroll down to a rock cove, with pretty smooth coloured rocks everywhere, I've never seen anything similar! The shells here on the beaches are also unbroken, because the sea is calm, the waves are only knee-high!

Okay, gotta go and make supper for the starving masses. All they care about is food & TV! And it's after 9pm.

Please feel free to mail me specific questions, I would love to try & help if I can, now that we are here and have a better idea of the lie of the land.

Marius - when & where? Pippa - we look forward to seeing you again in March - Tazz are you already here? Carlos - congrats on the good news, I'm so happy for you. Hannes how are you doing? Bob I will PM you now.

Bye, Bronwyn

Hi Bronwyn

My husband Manny was browsing through the SAAustralia forum website and saw your news from Adelaide "finally" and was so pleased to read that you are so excited and positive about your move to Adelaide.

We are from Johannesburg and have been in Adelaide since the begining of 2002 and love it.

Welcome to your new home.

From RSA to SA

PS: We live in Urrbrae - the Eastern suburbs