Sherman Family – Perth

The Sherman Family immigrate to Perth Australia – August 2009

 

Right from the start, we felt good. Lisa showed she had the experience and especially impressive knowledge and certainly gave us the confidence throughout the entire process. Her assistance was not just in dealing with the paperwork but also with references and calming Aviva down as well as translating various documents that are very helpful to us especially now.

We have friends and acquaintances who asked us who we recommend and without hesitation-only Lisa!!!!

On receiving the permanent resident visas, we looked at the map of Australia to decide where we would live. The decision was to pack two suitcases and two laptop computers – the rest would arrive at a later date when we knew what would be happening to us.

In the end, we decided to move to Perth for various reasons, some of which are logical and some really not! Upon making the decision, I began the preparation-I contacted all sorts of people in Perth that dealt with recruitment and placements, one of whom even offered me to rent their parent’s home which is a 30 minute drive from the city. Since we had heard that it was difficult to rent a home in Australia we agreed even before we had seen the house.

In the three months until July (the designated flight date), we bade farewell from those we knew. Aviva, who doesn’t like flying looked at the distance and flight time and almost died!
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In the end we took off from Ben Gurion airport on 15th July and landed in Perth on July 17th. We booked one week’s hotel accommodation through the internet because we wanted to begin in holiday mode. Upon arrival, we arranged for two prepaid cell phones and then simply passed out on the hotel beds from exhaustion. During the following day we already met the landlord and signed a rental agreement.

During the rest of the first week until Aviva and Daniel recovered from their jetlag, I took care of many chores such as opening bank accounts, obtaining credit cards and so on.

During the first month, I found employment and we made all sorts of other arrangements. All we have to do now is to pass a driving test and register Daniel in kindergarten.

We have come to terms with several realities during our first month here.  One of them is that the Australian government is extremely efficient. As Israelis, we can’t understand this. Until you experience such efficiency it is impossible to understand it. There is a lot of paperwork in Australia. In general, everything here requires you to complete a form about the size of the Dan Region Golden pages. But don’t worry, its mostly X’s in the right places, like filling out the lottery form.

It is best not to insult people in public. There are two reasons for this. First, you can get fined for swearing in public. Secondly, it is quite possible that you will insult an Israeli.

When I booked a driving lesson, I was told that B.G. would be my driving instructor. When the driving instructor arrived, he introduced himself as Itzik from Tel Aviv!

Those of us who are used to Israeli public transport will discover that the transport system here is so good that you don’t even need a car!

Most important of all to note is that you need to go to job interviews wearing a tie even if the job doesn’t require it.

At 17:00 in the afternoon everything closes and the electric gates come down in front of the shops. If someone were to stand in the entrance to a shop, the electric gate would simply be lowered onto their head!

And most importantly, suddenly all the Israelis here are friends and help each other. Let’s see that happen in Israel…..

There is a lot more to tell but we have only been here for one month and no doubt we will discover the not so pleasant things in the near future.

Aviva doesn’t want to go back and Daniel is already speaking English. I have a few parrot friends coloured green and pink that eat the mushrooms in the park.

In any case we are speaking about a project in every respect even if it seems that everything is going smoothly ( and up to now it has ). We are still talking about a move with physical and physiological consequences. However it is an experience we recommend to all!!

Aviva is already talking about living in a caravan and travelling throughout Australia, and to think that she didn’t even want to start the process! Today she denies any knowledge of the “old Aviva”.

That’s it in the meantime! I’ll continue updating at every opportunity about new insights and generally about the experiences we are having here.

One thing is for sure- we are a much closer family than we were before the move!

Continuation of the English to story part 1

 

Part 2- The Adventures of the Sherman family in Australia
July and August 2009

I am writing our story about the last six months whilst preparing for Australia day. For those who don’t know what this is, it is the day when the first ship full of settlers and prisoners landed in Australia from the United Kingdom on 26 January 1888 ( it turns out that the British actually rewarded those prisoners!!!).

Australians are extremely proud of their continent and their flag. To prove the point almost every possible product comes with the Australian flag: bikinis, disposable plates, fake fingernails, underwear, shirts, pants and so on. It seems to me that only one product doesn’t participate in the celebrations and that is the neck tie, I tried to find a neck tie with the Australian flag on it but I was unsuccessful.

The explanation I received was quite logical. Australia day is a day off and a day of fun and therefore all products that represent this attitude carry the Australian flag however a tie represents work so ties aren’t made with Australian flags for Australian day celebrations!.

For those of you who don’t remember or didn’t read the previous story, we stopped after one month in Western Australia. I successfully found work as a Computer Consultant and Daniel started kindergarten, It turns out that kindergarten here is brilliant. Daniel was there for 12 hours per day, ate spaghetti Bolognese and vegemite on toast and drank apple juice. The meals at the kindergarten are varied: roast beef, oranges, bananas, cornflakes and also a jug of blue coloured drink. Daniel looked so happy that even I considered registering!

During the week I start work at 8:30 am and finish at 17:00.

Further updates as at February 2011

We have now been in Australia for more than one and a half years and as I promised here is an update following the ‘honeymoon period”. One should take into account that this is our experience and that one can’t  not generalise about Australia.

First of all, loads and loads of thanks to Advocate Lisa Segelov. At the start of 2010 we wanted to sell the apartment we owned in Israel. Lisa represented us and the matter was resolved quickly and exactly as we agreed.

During 2010 we moved to the “bush” area- this is an area that is populated by wildlife and strange insects and animals of a size that we did not realize existed.

Several weeks ago, a giant spider crawled up one of the walls of our house. I called out to Aviva to come and look at the size of the spider and when Aviva passed me a shoe (to kill it) I replied saying “that this isn’t enough, we need a bigger object to use to kill the spider”. This reaction caused Aviva to come and see for herself and for several minutes thereafter she was deathly silent.

However we have experienced lots of more pleasant surprises. When we moved into our new house the neighbours popped over to see who the newcomers were- the neighbours being the local kangaroos!

Daniel is already in first grade at the local primary school that makes the fanciest school in Israel look poor and neglected. The school is populated by lots of cockatoos ( of many varied colours ) and kangaroos.

At the end of 2010 we travelled to the southern- most city in Western   Australia-Albany. This journey was 510 kilometres from Perth. Here are a few pictures I took on route to and from Albany and of the city itself. I tried to photograph the whales but they didn’t exactly co-operate so I only managed to photograph their rear end.

And finally. this is only the beginning of our explorations-our next trip will we will be equipped like most Australians- a camper and our bicycles.

With New Year Greetings
Zvika, Aviva and Daniel
Zvi.sherman@gmail.com

Adventures of the Sherman family in Australia- the third year

 

Whoever thought it was boring in Australia? –Read the next part!

In September 2006, I received an offer from the second largest communication company in Australia to act as a senior advisor on the subject of storage issues. In hindsight, this was the decision that changed our lives in the most unexpected way possible!

After a few weeks of working for the second largest communications company in Australia, I understood that the company had employed me solely to keep me from working for the competition, and so I found myself in a job that everyone dreams about: ten hours in an office per day “warming my seat” and receiving a large salary for doing nothing. Doesn’t it just sound great?-really difficult isn’t it?

Out of pure boredom I began searching for a home to buy. The first preference was in Western Australia but the prices here were too high so I began to search for houses in Adelaide, South Australia.

I found a home that met our budget and within one month we bought a house in another state. Now what were we to do about my job and how were we to move?

I decided to start my own company as I couldn’t stand my job any longer and so I found myself resigning and informing my boss that there were only two good things about this company. He was of course pleased to hear that I found something positive until he heard that I wouldn’t  regret leaving his company and that any place would provide a more pleasant work environment.

And so towards the end of 2011, I found myself managing a small business with a partner and now all that remained was to find the best possible way to move to Adelaide…. Of course, my first thought was movers and a flight, but in the end we decided to take a 6 day road trip via the Australian desert and the Nullabor Plain.

And this is how we saw another part of Australia – travelling a distance of 3500 kms ending up in Adelaide