One of the (more obvious I guess) reasons why I love Australia is down to the fantastic climate, to at least attempt to personify this I thought I’d chuck up a couple of photos that I took when we took our rekkie to Perth earlier this year.

Western Australia must have some of the best sunsets in the world, you have to be quick though as I’ve never known the sun to set so quickly anywhere. You can literally see the sun setting, slowly falling under the line of the horizon (or the ocean on our case for this photo).

The second picture is one that I took whilst enjoying some quality family time in a park right next to the Swan River in Perth.

The thumbnail may look just like a blue blob but this is actually a pic of the sky… You’ll never realise how blue the sky can be until your sat on a nice grassy bank looking….err…skywards Click it, I know you want to.

It was a beautiful day and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky (apart from the miniscule wisps you may see in the top left of the photo)

Feel free to save these as your desktop wallpaper. Click the image (opens on a new page) Click the image again (to maximise it) and right click with your mouse.

You’ll be presented with an option to save the image as your desktop background (or similar depending on the browser you’re using).

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Yay, it’s seems to have taken forever but the house is finally on the market and the forsale sign us up.

We went for Halifax Estate agents in the end, not the cheapest but they seem to be doing pretty well in our local area.

They wanted us to commit to a 12 week minimum term. We cut this down to 8 weeks on the basis that I didn’t want to be stuck into a contract where, if they were rubbish, we had to wait 12 weeks before we could use a different agent.

The recruiter that I met when when did our Rekkie to Perth asking how we were doing with the move as he has ‘lots of things going on’. This is a really positive message for me as it shows 1) I’ve met a half decent recruiter who hasn;t forgotten me at the drop of a hat and 2) The job market must be keeping him busy enough to think about candidates who aren’t even in the country yet.

Lets hope that we don’t face an uphill struggle when it comes to selling the house. We just want to get there now.

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Perhaps the UK government is scared of loosing to many of its citizens to the Aussie lifestyle

I remember seeing these ads on the news when we went on our Rekkie to Perth (what seems all of a lifetime ago now).

But alas, the country that gave the world such risque comic acts as Benny Hill, the Two Ronnies and Little Britain has banned Australia’s new “bloody hell” tourism ads from television because they are just a little too rude.
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We had a tour of the school we’ve identified following some good reviews on the web.

Absolutely fantastic is all I can say.

The school is a primary school but more importantly it offers a pre-primary school or kindergarten (kindi)

We were taken on a quick tour by the school principal (headmaster).

Compared to UK schools I’d say its of a similar size but the quality of the facilities is what really gave it the two big thumbs up.

Nice big, colourful, airy classrooms.

We had a walk round some of the classrooms whilst lessons were taking place. I guess we were only there during registration but the rooms seemed to be buzzing with energy.

In the Kindi sections the kids were literally having a song and a dance with the teachers. What was really nice is that the parents were not rushed through the door as soon as registration started and were encouraged to take part. If anything (the principal said) they were encouraged to remain with the kids at this early stage to reduce any anxiety and slip out when they felt the kids were happy.

Each day is started with some form of physical exercise. On the way in we noticed a group of older children doing stretching exercises in the playing fields..I know I’m probably making all this sound like some kind of boot camp but the kids were genuinely enjoying their start to the day and in my mind this is a much better way to start the day then sat in a playground eating chocolate and Crisps.

As a second language the children are taught Japanese which makes some sense with Australia being so close to Japan and the rest of Asia. A little different from the French or Spanish I was taught as a kid.

We saw some of the older children having an IT lesson. One very new looking PC per child with the class size being no more then 15 kids.

In essence it appears to be an excellent school.

Thankfully It also fits into the area where we may or may not eventually settle.

I say this because sorting or at least identifying a good school was near the top of our list for this rekkie.

Having said this some of the schools (similarly to the UK) have quite strict catchment areas meaning that if we selected this school we would have had to find a house to rent within the catchment area.

Fortunately, this particular school does not have this strict policy and although it encourages parents to live in an area close to the school (if anything down to the social aspects of school life) it will accept pupils from outside its ‘local’ area. It is a popular school though so understand why the school requests that our application is lodged a year in advance of the actual school year in which our son will start to attend kindi (bless!)

I’m really pleased that one of our more important tasks appears to be completed. However I would suggest that parents contact prospective schools early by e-mail or phone to understand how much notice they need to register successfully for the more popular schools otherwise they may be disappointed.

Thankfully the Internet is a wonderful thing and you’ll be surprised about the number of Schools have their own very detailed websites providing info about their curriculum, surroundings, culture and all those other great things.

Ok, whats next on the list…

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It’s been pretty hectic this week (hence the lack of updates). Why? Well, were flying out to Perth this weekend on a rekkie.

I’ve always fancied Perth since I went out there on business last year.

We were in Sydney at the time on Holiday and I used the opportunity to take the “short” four and a half hours flight from Sydney to Perth.

I think Sydney is a beautiful city, but for me it’s not the sort of place where I’d like to bring up our son. House prices are also extremely high within a 30-minute commutable radius from Sydney as well so if we did move there it would take an age to get into work every morning.

When I was over in Perth, I met an Aussie chap out there who had also spent some time living in Sydney before moving to Perth (via Melbourne). He made a comparison which I think sums up the lifestyle in Perth pretty well.
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