Moving Countries - Australia to SO-CAL!!!

I met myself the woman of my dreams a couple years ago whilst on holidays in the states, bought her out to Australia, married her, just got my Greencard and now we've decided to move to the states and setup camp in SO-CAL!! Tickets are booked for early April so i've got a couple months to pack up my lifes belongings into a sea container and move COUNTRIES!!! Holy Cow!! Not sure where we're going to live yet, maybe Riverside to start but would like to buy a place in the OC. I haven't got a job lined up yet, so if any of you SO-CAL hot rod shops have any openings, then I'm your man! ;-) haha

Really lookng forward to getting over there and settling in. Can't wait to get to some of the shows, breakfast meets, cruise nights and meet some cool people.

See ya soon!!!

Cheers

 

Excellent. Somewhere to ship stuff from eBay sellers who won't ship out of the US.

Good luck the move, Paul. Hopefully we'll get a chance to hook up next time we make it to the US.

 

Thanks mate

 

PAUL...WELCOME to the states mate. i just hope you like it here, i mean i do but what kind of recomendation is that. hell i.ve only been out of the country of TEXAS a few times. hope you don't miss your KANGKAROO'S! HA!...POP.

 

Your going to be living the dream, all the best...Rod...

 

Riverside would be a better choice if you have no job lined up. OC cost of living is way to high. shoot me a PM when you get here and i can give you a list of local shops in the area

adam

 

Well best of luck and welcome. I think you're going to love it and you should be somewhat happy with our crappy car scene haha.

 

...and I thought Nevada to Minnesota for my wife was a BIG move!

Congrats and a Safe Trip!

 

Welcome to Hot Rod Central!!!

 

Good deal, See you in a few months.

 

the housing market is still in a slump, it will probably be that way for a long time. orange county had a shitload of foreclosures, same with los angeles county.

perhaps check out highland park/eagle rock/south pasadena/altadena/san fernando, (most of the valley and into san gabriel valley) for houses when/if you are ready to buy.

good luck

 

welcome to the land of hot rods....

and..........





the Petersen Museum
Winternationals and World Finals, NHRA
The Grand National Roadster Show
The March Meet
The Mooneyes Christmas Party
The Antique Nationals
The California Hot Rod Reunion
El Mirage Dry Lakes
L.A. Roadster Show
and on and on....
AND no humidity, and no bugs

check out this website run by a HAMBer:
www.socalcarculture.com

 

Watch out for In N Out, there food is like crack. Once you have it you will never want to eat a burger from any were else. Double Doubles( animal style) yummmmmmmy.

 

Good luck with the move. I met my wife online back in 2000 and moved out to Texas from the UK back in 2004. I sold all my stuff at home and just started a fresh out here. (Wish I had brought the 57 Belair with me.)

 

Mate, it's life in the fast lane. Hope you're up to it. Don't ever let your eyes off your prize, or it will be gone! I liked CA of the '50-60's. You know, when Knott's Berry Farm was actually owned by the family.
Texas is much more like OZ, only with Mexicans. CA & TX both speak Spanish.
Good luck, and God's speed.

 

Random Thoughts:

I did a bunch of international travel at one point, including Australia. I couldn't get a decent baked potato anywhere, and I started wanting one. But I could get all the beets (beetroot) and pumpkin I wanted, and those are rarely eaten in the US. So set up guys back home to send you things you miss - vegemite for one dumb example, and bring your recipes.

The food tastes different in other countries because the animals eat different things, and the culture produces different food. Since Oz and USA are both full of immigrants, you can expect food from all over - in LA especially there is great Chinese, Mexican, Korean, etc ethnic food, so shop around and try new things; ask the locals where they prefer.

The metric system is little used so learn your miles, yards, feet, inches, cups, quarts, gallons. (Not the Imperial gallon, the US one is 3.78 liters.)

In the US you have to buy your own health insurance - no National Health. Number one cause of bankruptcy in the US is unexpected medical bills. California has MediCal for low income folks which may help. But California is broke and politically a bit of a mess so don't rely on it, be prepared to fend for yourself.

Learn the traffic laws. Pedestrians have right of way and know it, they will walk in front of you and you have to stop. Right turn on red light is okay after a stop (unless posted). The LA freeways are intimidating - some places are 10 lanes wide as two freeways merge, and getting into the correct lane to get on the right freeway is needed. If you get on the wrong freeway, sometimes it's best to keep going a ways, there are some unsafe neighborhoods where getting off the freeway to turn around is not a good idea. I think most of the world has now heard of the ghettos of South Central and Compton through American TV; there are other equally bad places you haven't heard of.

Good luck! Sounds like an Adventure.

 

If you end up in South OC look us up!
www.hotrodchurch.com
www.acescarclub.com



I don't know if they are hiring, but I have seen some pretty nice traditional hot rods comming from here in South OC:

OC C.A.R.S Inc.
Custom Auto And Race Specialists
http://www.occarsinc.com/contact.html
20622 Pascal Way Suite D
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 768-3192

Godspeed!

 

That round thingy on the left hand side of the car above the pedals is the steering wheel and the car thingy drives on the right....welcome!

 

Daaaamn, I miss In-N-Out.

 

OH...we can be sooooooooo cruel..........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-VfVu_bDBE&feature=related

 

congrats!!!

 

Welcome to the northern hemisphere ,some things may be different but hotrodders are a good solid base anywhere you land.Congrats with the life choice to you and your wife and make sure you live the dream. Rob

 

HAHAHA

Yeah thanks guys! I've been to the US quite a few times and eaten the good burgers You're right once you had one, you have some McSh!t burger back here and ask yourself why'd you even bother. I live din Philly for six months and drove around heaps (annoying Sawzall and every tuesday night at his shop! ) so driving "shouldn't" be too hard to get used to...although changing gears with the right instead of left hand is going to take some getting used to.

i think the hardest thing will be the non-metric system. Miles, pounds, and quarts shouldn't take too much, cos you can roughly convert and if it's close enough, then thats good enough....but inches and what not when measuring things out on tape measures and adding up...now that's gunna kill me!! halves, quarters, eighths, seixteenths, thirtyseconds, sixty fourths, one hundred and twenty eighths....i dunno even where to look on a ruler to find 17 one hundred and twenty eighths!! Might just have to bring my own crazy metric tape measure and a handy conversion chart

Thnaks for the welcome guys,

Paul

 

I made the same move from Australia to the states in '71. Been here ever since. Hope it all works out for ya!!!

 

Stop with the IN and OUT Burger stuff!!! Its making me hungry. Good luck on the move hope it all goes well.

 

Well the Americans have got KIWI KEV ,Now it looks like they gunna get AUSSIE PAUL .
Please post pic of new wife ,hahahah,and let us judge if its worth it

Good luck .

 

Welcome to the states...

Welp..looks like I'll be needing to stop at IN-N-Out tomorrow for lunch.

About two miles from the office...maybe I should walk there..

Uh...well see...

 

good on 'ya, mate. God bless the aussies. The more the merrier........!

 

I haven't met a Texan yet that speaks Spanish.......or they're all lying to me.

Jeez Paul, didn't realize you got so good at building hotrods. Good luck with the job and housing market in California............I'll catch you round.

 

hotrods? What's a hotrod??

You still a rum-aholic?? Need me to bring you another bottle of the worlds finest?