Cosette 
In August 2012, I wrote about three tools to help expats stay in touch with family and friends abroad: Skype, the magicJack, and Viber. Here’s an update starring Facebook Messenger. As it turned out, I rarely use Skype. My family never caught on to it and I don’t keep it open to see if friends …
I’m not an expert and I’m not a lawyer or migrant agent. But I’ve spent a year working on putting my visa application together. With the benefit of hindsight, here are tips to make your process smoother. I applied onshore. That is, from within Australia, as opposed to offshore, from another country. I applied …
I started on the road to residency in June 2013, almost a year ago. The process is finally coming to an end. Well, sort of. I’m applying onshore (that is, from within Australia) for a de facto partner visa subclass 820. This is a temporary visa. When granted, if the relationship is intact after two …
We’ve just returned from spending a few days in the London Tavern, an old tavern and hotel in Beechworth. Beechworth is a picturesque historical town located north-east Victoria. It’s famous for its gold rush boom during the mid-1850s. In its golden heydey, Beechworth was wealthy, powerful, and influential. It boasted a range of industries and had colourful characters …
The Legend of Hercules is a clichéd and boring clunker of a sword and sandals film.
We spent last weekend in the Mornington Peninsula. Located south of Melbourne, it takes about 90 minutes to drive there, depending on the traffic. The Shire of Mornington Peninsula is made up of about 40 small towns and suburbs. Although it has a population of about 145k people, it’s a popular tourist destination. Not only does …