Nice People Thread Part 9 - and so it continues

Generali

michaels wrote: »

Nor me.

Gen is it really worth buying a place in the 'bush', the fires don't put you off at all. Is the new year bonus season by any chance?

It's bush but not too remote. An area like this would be well defended and you have a few roads you can leave along if needs be. A really bad fire round here would be like the current one at Springwood, not like the ones on Black Saturday.

Purchasing may or may not be connected to an impending bonus.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

My passport says British on it, why would I not class myself as British? Being English only makes me shudder a bit. Is it just me?

I use British and English pretty much interchangeably. The number of British who aren't English or Scottish is so vanishingly small that it makes little difference.

Generali

Well we looked at 3 places today. One is out of our league for now, but it's good to know what you could get if you spent a little more, one was a dump but the third was well within budget and a very nice little place:

http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-Sale/House/NSW/Helensburgh/?adid=2010740010 (please don't quote as I will delete).

The photos don't do it justice actually but it's really nice. There's a sort of open plan kitchen, diner, sitting room downstairs with a laundry room and a biggish double garage and a bedroom with a en-suite.

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms (one with a big walk in wardrobe) and a bathroom plus a 'rumpus room', an upstairs sitting room really.

There's beggur all garden but at the top of the street is a gigantic park. It's got a cricket pitch, 2 rugby pitches, an AFL Oval and a soccer pitch. Plus a kids play park and 2 swimming pools which are open 6am - 7pm and are free for residents to use!

It'll sell for about $600k I reckon.

Thoughts.....?

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

It's bush but not too remote. An area like this would be well defended and you have a few roads you can leave along if needs be. A really bad fire round here would be like the current one at Springwood, not like the ones on Black Saturday.

Purchasing may or may not be connected to an impending bonus.

I wouldn't buy in the bush. When I was a kid I was in a small bushfire and it has had a huge impact on my life as I am irrationally petrified of fire as a result. They are very scary. Also, when I was a kid I had relatives in Ferntree Gully, which is a wooded area near Melbourne which caught fire in the sixties. Their house did not catch on fire, but it is very obvious when you see the blackened trees and grey ash earth how close it got.

Gens point about having several routes out is an important one. However I also wouldn't want my most treasured possessions distributed in such a way that I could chuck them in a car and get out as that also could make a target for thieves.

Eta: have just seen gens housing pic as reading backwards. I don't consider that as in the bush. Lovely looking house actually and $600k probably v reasonable by local standards.

Eta again... how long is the commute?

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

Yes, my passport does say British. Under nationality, which is what the question in the census was about IIRC, my passport very clearly says British Citizen.

I don't feel exclusively English. I'm not, so maybe that's why I feel that unity is more important than others.

I'm a 'right mongrel', am proud of it, but use English and British differently. I chose to live in England and feel 'English' before British. It makes me sad that while other parts of Britain are celebrating their cultural heritage England is lost in amalgamation and when we ask what we have to celebrate we shrug and look embarrassed and say Morris dancers.

I like being bits of everything ( British and well beyond!) but my Britishness feels English. In this country I have only lived in England, and really only know the parts I know. I wish I'd been a tourist here more.

michaels

Doozergirl wrote: »

I know I was away a while but have you guys seen this? I thought a few people might like it.
http://www.ukdataexplorer.com/census/eastofengland/

I set it to include Herts

I live in an area of virtually no ethnic diversity. I was surprised that over 70% of people in my area put their nationality as 'English' only. I put English and British with about 10% of my fellow townsfolk.

My passport says British on it, why would I not class myself as British? Being English only makes me shudder a bit. Is it just me?

Thanks for posting this DG, just wasted a fair bit of time just on the local wards. whilst St A is pretty (high occupations, high qualifications, owned with or without mortgage plus some private rent flats near the station, low unemployment, 70% white - this not being too high makes it posher, 50% christian, 30% none) on all measures I notice some wards are even posher than our one so perhaps we will have to move once DD1 is i the good school over the road....

Generali wrote: »

Well we looked at 3 places today. One is out of our league for now, but it's good to know what you could get if you spent a little more, one was a dump but the third was well within budget and a very nice little place:
.

The photos don't do it justice actually but it's really nice. There's a sort of open plan kitchen, diner, sitting room downstairs with a laundry room and a biggish double garage and a bedroom with a en-suite.

Upstairs are 3 bedrooms (one with a big walk in wardrobe) and a bathroom plus a 'rumpus room', an upstairs sitting room really.

There's beggur all garden but at the top of the street is a gigantic park. It's got a cricket pitch, 2 rugby pitches, an AFL Oval and a soccer pitch. Plus a kids play park and 2 swimming pools which are open 6am - 7pm and are free for residents to use!

It'll sell for about $600k I reckon.

Thoughts.....?

Over here I think at least locally school catchment is a big factor, even if you are going the private route with your kids, being in the good catchment means you will get a certain type of neighbour. there are a few roads that are so expensive that catchment doesn't matter as they are clearly all private school but otherwise it does make a difference to the sort of kids your kids will hang with when they play out, how much litter is around etc.

Do you see your kids playing exclusively at the park or will the lack of garden be an issue?

Can you buy the dump and get it completely rebuilt or is that not a sensible option, it happens round here even on the roads where you pay 1.5m for a 3/4 bed detached? Finally what is an AUD worth in GBP?

michaels

lostinrates wrote: »

I'm a 'right mongrel', am proud of it, but use English and British differently. I chose to live in England and feel 'English' before British. It makes me sad that while other parts of Britain are celebrating their cultural heritage England is lost in amalgamation and when we ask what we have to celebrate we shrug and look embarrassed and say Morris dancers.

I like being bits of everything ( British and well beyond!) but my Britishness feels English. In this country I have only lived in England, and really only know the parts I know. I wish I'd been a tourist here more.

Its strange, when I was growing up British was was possibly culturally insensitive because of the BNP. Now even though I feel more English and have no objection to Scottish independence I self report British because of the EDL connotations of English...go figure.

lostinrates

michaels wrote: »

Its strange, when I was growing up British was was possibly culturally insensitive because of the BNP. Now even though I feel more English and have no objection to Scottish independence I self report British because of the EDL connotations of English...go figure.

That's the other thing I guess. I don't like the idea of giving a countries identity to a load of racists. I'm stubborn enough to say I feel English even if I don't if its laying some claim back from some twerps who confuse 'Englishness' with whiteness, football chants and ( self edited as realised I had crossed line too far into my own bigotry against edl)

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

I wouldn't buy in the bush. When I was a kid I was in a small bushfire and it has had a huge impact on my life as I am irrationally petrified of fire as a result. They are very scary. Also, when I was a kid I had relatives in Ferntree Gully, which is a wooded area near Melbourne which caught fire in the sixties. Their house did not catch on fire, but it is very obvious when you see the blackened trees and grey ash earth how close it got.

Gens point about having several routes out is an important one. However I also wouldn't want my most treasured possessions distributed in such a way that I could chuck them in a car and get out as that also could make a target for thieves.

Eta: have just seen gens housing pic as reading backwards. I don't consider that as in the bush. Lovely looking house actually and $600k probably v reasonable by local standards.

Eta again... how long is the commute?

The town is a bush town but the house itself is not in the bush. This is the out of budget place ($850k or so):



That's a bush house: a fire will come by at some point. That is the National Park behind it which extends for many kms.

Crime really isn't much of a problem in this area. People don't even seem to lock their cars for the most part. For most people, treasured possessions are things like photos: the stuff that can't be replaced. Who gives a damn if the TV or PC go up in flames. The photo of Granny as a young woman is what goes in the boxes for the car.

@michaels: $1 = 60p or £1 = $1.50. Purchasing parity is somewhere between $1 = 50p or £1 = $2 and $1 = 40p or £1 = $2.50.

GDP/head is about $45k. Median household income is probably $55k give or take. Taxes are low though so take home pay is quite a bit higher than the UK, especially once you take pensions into account (I get 11.5% paid into my pension on top of my salary plus $650k of life insurance plus PDI index linked until I hit 65).

Generali

Oh commute is a little over an hour.