• 2000 Apr - Easy to settle in South Australia
• 2000 Apr - Big thumbs up for meet and greet
• 2000 June - The best decision of my life!
• 2000 June - Milton 's migrant Survival tips
• 2000 Sept - Planes, trains and automobiles
• 2000 Sept - The area around Portland
• 2000 Dec - Karaoke King croons the night away

The best decision of my life!

Milton Westcarr emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia last October. Here he gives us an account of his first few months Down Under. 

Emigrating using the Meet and Greet Service gave me an excellent footing. The rest has been up to me but I've made great progress. As soon as I arrived here I enrolled on self-paced Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer' course at Drake Training, a move which helped me secure a permanent job as a customer service engineer for a major photocopier and printer manufacturer.

The job involved travelling to various locations throughout South Australia to service high-volume copiers in school, universities, and offices and print rooms. I have all the gadgets: a company laptop computer, mobile phone and a pager! Soon after I started I flew to Melbourne, on a product-training course for a few weeks, so I'm getting to see a bit of the country.

My social life has been extremely exciting. I started making friends from the moment I arrived! A few days after I arrived I met a young woman called Melissa at a bus stop who invited me to play in her mixed netball team every Tuesday. What a shock, men playing netball!! Welcome to Australia!

Soon after her friends invited me to go camping with them for three days in the Outback and kayaking on the River Murray. We have also been out together for a guided nocturnal walk in Yukkamurra Earth Sanctuary, where we saw animals such as hopping mice, wallabies and kangaroos. We also bumped into John Craven there, who was out filming on location.

At the time of writing the temperature in Adelaide rises from around 20C in the morning to around 44C.

After I finish work I usually meet some friends and go for a swim in the beautifully warm, green sea and walk along the pristine white, spacious, sandy beaches which have never yet been over crowded.

Most weekends are spent visiting friends and going to either a basketball match, Australian Rules football or to see the cricket at the Adelaide Oval. There are so many big family and sporting events that go on here and a large amount of them are televised. Australians have a lot of 'get up and go' and they certainly know how to put on an event and enjoy themselves.

An estimated 200,000 people turned up to the Adelaide sky show at the end of January. It's a spectacular firework display, but is only on for about half an hour at the most. The eight lane roads leading to the event were all closed to traffic, except for 100 free buses shipping the thousands of people in.

Like I said, Aussies know how to put on an event!

Through the SA government I arranged temporary housing at a reduced rate for my first three months. Now I am renting a detached three-bedroom house with a large garden brimming with orange and lemon trees and overlooking tennis courts and a cricket pitch.

It is easy to feel happy in a country with deep blue skies, hours of glorious sunshine and where there are so many things to do and see. The grass is definitely greener here.

My conclusion is that I have made the best decision of my life emigrating to Oz because the standard of living is high, but the cost of living is really low.