Gidday, mates!
My long way to Australia is almost completed - now I'm a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, leaving Russia in a week or two. Everyone promised me beer - beware! >:D
Jokes aside, if you know some accomodation to rent near the University - please, drop a line. I'll provide any personal information if required.
Also, there are some other questions:
• what mobile operator would you suggest for a student?
• do you have some unused bicycle to sell me?
• have you laptop to sell (starting from 1GHz and 256 MB)?
All comments and advises are warmly welcomed!
WHA ??? WOOOOOOOHOOOO !!!! :dance2: :dance2:
Absolutely amazing Tim ! that is by far the best news I have heard for a long time !
Dont know about others, but I will have a bit of a look around in the newspapers etc here and see what I can find for you.
I have my old dell Inspiron which my son has been using - you are welcome to it as a warming gift to Australia ! (1.6 Ghz - 512 Mb RAM )
there are lots of mobile phone companies around with some good offers, you need to decide if you wish to pay a monthly "cap" (starting from $19 per month) or have a "prepaid" system where you pay for "credit" , and then "recharge" when it is used up (only lasts for usually 1 to 2 months).
Have to get ready for our garage sale..... but I'mm gonna be smiling ALL day now !
WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA TIM !
That's great news Tim :crazy, I was beginning to think you'd given up on the idea of coming to Australia.
If you were only an occasional mobile user I was going to suggest Vodafone pay as you go. You have no contract & pay a flat rate of 1c per second. I've been on that plan for about 10 years and only pay a couple of dollars a month. Unfortunately I can't find it on the website now so they mustn't be offering it to new customers. In the city I think you should get good coverage with any provider so it's just a matter of choosing a plan that suits your usage. The three main providers are http://store.vodafone.com.au/mobile-phone-plans.aspx (http://store.vodafone.com.au/mobile-phone-plans.aspx) http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/plans/ (http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile/plans/) & http://www.optus.com.au/home/index.html (http://www.optus.com.au/home/index.html) there are also a host of smaller companies if you want to search.
:welcome1: Tim, that's really fantastic news! Glad that you finally made it! :thumbsup:
Regarding finding a place to live, Sydney Uni has an accommodation service to help new students to find a place to live. There is a section specifically aimed at international students. Have a look at http://www.usyd.edu.au/current_students/accommodation/international_students.shtml
For mobile phone plans you can compare some of the cheapest available plans on this page: http://mobile-phones.smh.com.au/MobilePhones/Refine?t=e82eb731-7ebc-4fd1-8bd2-a41fdc1e3e40
For bikes (or anything else cheap) I would suggest http://www.ebay.com.au once you arrive.
Hope you will enjoy Australia!
edit: oh, and for beer I'll be able to make plenty of good recommendations! biggrin
G'day Tim - Long time no hear.
Glad you finally got all the red tape sorted out. :dance2:
Welcome to Oz and hope you enjoy it. :welcome1:
Great news Tim! Like the others I was wondering if you had given up on the idea. Best wishes with it all, and good to see you back on the boards too.
Congratulations. :congrats
Strewth cobber, we'd nearly given up on you getting here. Glad to see it's finally happening and keep us posted on how you're going
Dave
Haven't heard from you in a while Tim, great that you got a spot at Uni. Hope everything works out for you in Aust. :welcome1:
Well done Tim! Unlike the others, I am aware it takes a long time to get access to Australia so I hadn't given up hope. Well done again!!
@All others: The Immigration department's own documentation says "up to 72 weeks" and that does not include checks with other government departments such as ASIO and Centrelink.
You're not saying it's quicker to jump on a boat and try your luck are you Mike
Dave
Quote from: daveandton on July 26, 2009, 04:01:02 PM
You're not saying it's quicker to jump on a boat and try your luck are you Mike
Dave
Hell no! That would put one more illegal between my wife and her immigration!! :shock
Guys, you are as kind and optimistic as usual! :thumbsup:
Especially Veebee :) Dude, I don't want to leave your son without the laptop, he probably needs it for education or something! Your enthusiasm is overwhelming, I'll be smiling all the week :)
Thank you all for the links to mobile providers, I gonna spend some time in try to find something appropriate.
BF - the accommodation service of the University requires my UniKey login to search the database, I'll try to ask them for the login-password pair. Anyway, thanks for the tip.
I want to note that I was hired to write distiributed computing software which models complex biochemical soil processes. It's very possible that we'll establish new boinc project with time. Now guess what team will officially support it ;-)
:aus1:
:dance2: :rocks
Tim, I just bought the kids a "new" laptop each from an onlione auction, so the Dell Inspiron is yours if you want it.
The hinge on the screen is a little "wonky" (new Aussie word for you..!) but everything works fine.
And the prospect of an official BOINC project happening in Australia... "run" by one of our own ... COOL !
O'kay, guys, I'm here in Sydney. What a wonderful place! I'm so amazed!
I landed on Friday morning, came to the Uni, passed the formal procedures, found my superviser and spent the weekend with him and his family. Participated in a barbecue party, took some photos of a high-school soccer match and even swam in the ocean for a while.
Today in the evening I'm moving into a rented room in Bankstown, Brancourt ave 94.
So, Veebee - I wanna meet you and if you haven't changed your mind get the laptop :) But don't expect that my English skills are very good - you guys are so fluent that sometimes I hardly can catch a word :)
Guys! I want to say that your support helped me very much. You were the first Australians I had ever met and that was very good experience. Dreams come true if you want them badly!
:aus1:
Welcome, Ranger Tim! :aus1:
Ranger Tim
:welcome1: to Australia. Trust that customs weren't to painful and looking forward to seeing just what it is you may come up with, BOINC-wise
WELCOME !!!!
This is fantastic Tim ! and yes mate, the laptop is yours.. like I said, its a little worse for wear (wobbly screen hinge) and a little slow (by todays standards) but you are welcome to it as a "house warming gift".
(Its a Dell Inspiron 6000, Pentium M @ 1.6 Ghz. 512 Mb Ram from memory, but will have a look what I have got laying around... just put a lot of extra RAM in the kids 3 laptops.. there is some of there older stuff around somewhere).
I will PM you about meeting up..
:welcome1: Tim and glad you're here :cheer1: :cheer1: :cheer1: :cheer1:
Dave
:welcome1: Ranger Tim!! Hope you enjoy Australia, Sydney and its people! Maybe some of us Sydney B@A folks should get together and welcome you with a few beers..
Great idea! Does next Tuesday arvo, maybe 5pm, suit anyone? I'll be at circular quay until 6:30pm. Another option is Friday lunchtime next week in the city somewhere?
:cheers:
:welcome1: to Australia Tim!! Glad to have you here. Why am I worried about Bankstown? It's been a long time since I lived in Sydney and it seems I should be wary of that suburb. ??? Never mind, I was told the same thing about Redfern but I've been known to wonder around that suburb at the wee hours of a Sunday morn, sober. biggrin
BF, I was going to PM you or post on here about trying to organise a cpl of us to meet up with him ..(just in case he turns ou tto be KGB or something ... :rofl:)
if we can get a few more, thats great.
He does have long days at Uni, so I had initially thought that a quiet cpl of beers with some pizza or something at his place after uni might be a good way to get to know Tim and vice versa, but I'm happy to do what Tim woul dlike to do, and what suits the majority.
I WILL have to do it soon though, just got the call this arvo that the Insurance Company has approved my operation, and they faxed it to the neurosurgeon today. Hopefully will have a date tomorrow sometime.
So, lets sort out a plan, to welcome Ranger Tim back to the team and into the country.
Veebee: thank you for inviting me to the "Sydney Swans" football match, but I just don't understand this game and I don't like huge crowds of people. Anyway, we can try it a bit later.
I just want to meet you and several other teammates and socialize a little with a cup of coca-cola and a portion of some food (I have to remind you again that I don't drink alcohol at all :cool:). Even if we just go to the park it will be nice because I want to see you and not the city.
So - just tell me where and when to go - and I'll come.
See you, guys! :aus1:
I have PM'd you about the weekend Tim...
and also had a look at your stats... and HOSTS !!!
have you already hacked into all the computers at Uni ?? ?? ?? :greet
Well done mate !!!
Quote from: Ranger Tim on August 14, 2009, 09:31:50 AM
"Sydney Swans" football match, but I just don't understand this game and I don't like huge crowds of people.
Heh - it's a Swans game - the other three spectators won't have a clue about the rules, either... >:D
Quote from: Mysteron347 on August 14, 2009, 11:55:44 PM
the other three spectators...
um, you left a few zero's off there.. (the Swans average higher than any league team or ground)
some stats:
30,000 + members at the Sydney swans FC ...
Average of 63,392 spectators to home grounds games in 2007
and and average of 45,480 spectators to home grounds games in 2008.
(NRL average is currently just over 16,300 per game)
The only area where membership HASN'T increased is Sydneys Outer west.. and IT is where the 2nd Sydney based team is going...
The last 2 years have seen record PROFITS for the club.. unlike many league teams...
and as for rules... its a lot simpler than league.. go forwards at all times if you can, and then if you kick it straight you'll get more points than if you kick it crooked !
the average AFL player runs over 5 times the distance the average league player does in a single game.. so they are a lot fitter.
oh.. and no need for 12 players to press their heads between each other butt-cheeks every 5 minutes to maintain their "love" .. for the game.
Terrific! You've probably picked up already Tim that people are pretty passionate about Australian Football. (And you haven't experienced Perth or Adelaide yet! >:D ) If you want to have a look @ the Swans you'll need to get cracking; only a few more weeks left in the season.
Congratulations on your arrival Tim, and I hope you have a great time. I have fond memories of my 5 years at Sydney Uni. biggrin
It's much easier to watch AFL on TV than at the ground. They've been tailoring it TV so long now it seems like a "made for TV" game now.
Hey, guys!
You missed the opportunity to meet two your teammates and have a good breakfast and a good conversation, I hope next time I'll see more people.
Veebee gave me his laptop so now I'm fully equipped. Thank you, John, for organizing this! I've installed 2 GB of memory and my XP just flies on it, no problems! Heh, my professor works at Core2Duo desktop but it has lots of additional software and services running in background, so Veebee's laptop now responds much faster and looks like fully-contemporary station >:D. I'm going to connect it to the abc@home project, it will be listed as "Nexus" :cool:
Thank you guys, thank you Veebee for the warm welcome!
Live long and crunch! :aus1:
aha ! good to see you online and here in the forum mate !
we shall try to organise a "get-together" for the Sydney members...
.. maybe a Christmas lunch or something? we have plenty of time to work it out, but I think it would be good!
Also, glad the laptop is running well for you... my son had all sorts of EVERYthing on it.. when it started up, it would take forever to stop loading up all sorts of silly little programs...
AWESOME!
:yahoo: Welcome to Australia! :yahoo:
Make sure you let the rest of us know if you ever get time off from Uni, and decide to travel around the country a bit.
I'm sure you will find you have friends all over the place looking to catch up for a pizza and a coke - or prawns and snags!
I hope I get to catch up with you one day.
@RangerTim
Always a bed up here in the bush if you need somewhere to stay for a couple of nights if you are in the area.
:rocks
Quote from: teemac on August 26, 2009, 07:37:01 PM
@RangerTim
Always a bed up here in the bush if you need somewhere to stay for a couple of nights if you are in the area.
Yep same applies here. I'm a few hours drive north of teamac, so if you ever decide to tour up the east coast, you'll find plenty of places to stay ;D
I was in the middle of a very ordinary afternoon....
my pain meds were reduced from ( a max of) 24 mg morphine Sulphate every hour (and I used most of that)... (equates to 288 mg in 12 hours)
down to a 40mg slow release tablet (every 12 hrs) and 10 mg Endone (morphine) every 4 hrs (equates to only 70 mg per 12 hrs..)...
and this reduction was done "instantly"... not a slow reduction over a day or two..
So, 5 pm saw me awake due to the most severe burning pain in my left hip, groin and thigh that I have had for a long long time. Embarrassingly it actually brought me to tears.. thank goodness it was time for a 10 mg dose, which kicked in around 20 mins later... about that time, my partner and my two boys walked in,and 10 mins later ....
IN STRODE RANGER TIM !!!
we had a great time, Tim is such a nice guy, great sense of humour and best of all, he had a look at my daughters laptop I am using whilst in here... getting rid of some of the rubbish which appears in most windows installs and the little lappy now responds much better !
Better than THAT even, was the fact we had a few good laughs, and even though the act itself hurts, the resultant "chemicals" n my blood worked nicely to make me feel better.
So I would like to once again, say : WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA Tim, and thanks fpr your well wishes.
I would like to propose that we (the members around Sydney etc) organise a day to get together with Tim... maybe there's a computr fair ir something coming up over chrissy holidays ?
I will be out of action for a few weeks yet, but am keen as mustard to help some more of you guys meet him... he is already a "top bloke" in my books !
Thanks for posting that veebee. I enjoyed reading it. Hope you start to feel better soon and good on you Tim!