Mute point. My wife has been in OZ since November, and due back on the 19th., of this month. As you may know, she should not have flown due to her medical condition at the time, and 36 hours after getting off the flight in Melbourne she was having emergency surgery due to her bladder developing a hole and passage way into her bowel. 10 weeks later she had 4 hours of surgery reversing the first one. This stay, instead of being a holiday with our daughter lasting 4 weeks is still ongoing. In this time she has seen the best and worst of living there. Almost everything is 45-75% more expense than here, the spoken English which is 60% abbreviations, she finds annoying, and when I am there every spoken sentence sounds like a question. So far, the only thing cheaper is the private medical, and obviously the medical for locals and legal residents is free. We live on three acres with only one other house in our quarter mile long dead end road. In one field, I have cut (mowed) a Union Jack that takes up 3/4 of an acre of grass. (An IRS friend told me it comes up on their fortnightly computer scan of the USA looking for major things that change on property, and have owners declared it...) So, on balance, the only big disadvantage with living here is the corrupt pharmaceutical companies and the grossly inept GP's, and of course the prices they charge for shit awful service. To get a prescription renewed is $100.0 to sign in to ask for a renewal, then the charge is $25.00 for the actual script. If there are more than one medication, it's $25.00 for each script. It's a great place to be and to live, as long as one ignores the politics, of this is the greatest place in the world, we are the worlds Policeman, everyone wants to be American, everyone else in the world are wrong AND stupid etc etc.
Why have we lived here for 20 plus years? "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is King"
"In the land of the blind Covert Surveillance kit designers, I am a Prince" I used to be King, but for a couple of years, I didn't bother with much. However, for the past two years I have been more productive. To the point where I have recently finished finished a bodyworn system for a specific 'breed' of traffic Cop and a slightly more covert version for "The Paparazzi" who like to called "Photo Journalists" it has also been suggested for Private Detectives and Process servers. I won't piss any of the Mod's off by posting a link here, but if you are interested, try and find it on one of my websites. Time to Skype my wife in OZ...
To answer your question about us staying; it depends on selling the house, after Lee has recovered.
