A Singaporean In Australia

Let's get down to things in proper. Your big move.

Congratulations for getting the Subclass 189 invitation, as well as the arrival of your son in a month's time. Exciting times are coming for sure. Some of worries are unfounded. Kids, especially very young ones, are highly adaptive to new environments. In fact, the adults (you) will be the ones struggling to adjust to the new way of living while the toddler is almost oblivious to the change. You'll see. So perhaps it is time to imagine about how both of you will cling onto each other and cry on the frightening first nights instead.

The worry of whether your wife can cope with 2 kids is a valid one. Till today, my wife is still regularly posting stuff about how hard it is to be a mother of 2 on Facebook. Since, no two wives are the same, there is no telling if you will be murdered by a disgruntled wife during sleep for your failure to click 'like' on the articles she shared on Facebook. I highly recommend you to introduce your wife to other wives with little kids. You can find them on the internet like how you found me or sign up for a "Play group" near your house. They are nice little activities usually organised once or twice a week by a member of the community or a mother among the group. It is for frightened mothers to group hug and cry while their children start playing and wandering out of sights. Joining a play group helped my wife tremendously. I will highly recommend it for your wife.

A job is definitely hard to find in current climate but an income may not be. It all depends on high deep you are willing to dig. On the positive side, due to bad economy, renting a house is much, much easier than the situation I had to face when I first came here. The once haughty landlords are almost reduced to beggars nowadays. It is unlikely for you to have trouble finding a whole house to rent. I can give you some pointers when you confirm your moving date. If the worst comes, your family can take shelter in the spare room of my peasant's shack. I understand you like privacy. Alas, the only place with privacy at my shack is the backyard where tenting is allowed. No NParks officers will shoo you away, I guarantee it. Don't worry, like I said, last resort. We shouldn't need to consider that.

A $300-$450 is comfortable in this rental market today. You should not find a problem getting a rental place, especially so if you don't mind living in a less satki set up like an apartment, townhouse or villa. It isn't a problem to rent a house too, unless you insist on living in your favorite Singaporean suburbs, such as Canningvale. Tell me your expectations and I can point you to some suburb names within 24 hours so that you can start your research.

The question about pest is a serious question and it shall be answered with professionalism. To date, I have lived in 5 suburbs. So it qualifies me to give you a fine analysis. The frequency of insect problem is completely random. Take for example, I was visited by some 3-4 palm sized spiders in 2012. [click here to see them] They couldn't get into the house because most houses are installed with an insect screen all round the house. While Summer flies can get into the house from time to time, the bigger arachnoids or flappy stuff will be too big to sneak in. Anyway, back to my point of randomness, I have not seen any Huntsman Spider near the houses I moved to since. That would be some 4 years apart. It could be the house I rented back then was near the bush or river. I wouldn't really know. After moving to the apartment, I hardly see any spiders for the next 3 years, bar the couple of tiny Redbacks I smashed up at most. However, living on the second storey made us prone to having flying insects. I guess it is a give and take situation. If you live on the ground, you meet ground insects. If you live higher up, you meet flying insects. The lack of spiders around also mean a safe haven for flying insects. You may want to keep a pet frog, if they bother you that much.

Moths! Hey bro, the episode of 迷离夜 was about butterflies, not moths. Come on, they are completely different things. I am surprised so many kids of our generation got traumatised by that show. I was one of them but grew out of it and even started to appreciate that classic after I realised Mediacorpse could only produce propaganda filth in the later years and will never match some of the amazing serials SBC did in the 80s.

Over the past 3 years living in the townhouse, I had to swat at 3 moths. They were the miserable tiny types, unlike some of those glorious, dusty-looking ones you may find in Singapore occasionally. I am sure you can deal with 1 moth per year on average. If there is any consolation for you, some of those manly warehouses around WA can offer you a lot of nasty weapons to deal with intruding insects. You can stock up on some at low prices.

If your family needs a lift from the airport on arrival, feel free to contact me. No surprise moth attacks, I promise.