I've had occasions where it's been quicker to just a) delete the Resources.resx file (in Solution Explorer under your project Properties) and b) re-add the file (open up the project properties, click on resources and look for the blue-link offering to add the Resources files) HTH Matt

any tips? Perhaps have your sanity checked ;) Hmm, perhaps moving to the other side of the planet is a little extreme. We lived in Birmingham for 18 months (just came back last year) and would have stayed if it weren't for aging family back here. You have a beautiful rich heritage - you can drive anywhere and see buildings 1000+ years old. You can pop over to Europe for a few pounds. It's hard to justify encouraging you to come to this country when you are certainly not trading up. I can assure you that any reprieve from the crowding or perceived expensive cost of living is only temporary given the huge influxes of people in recent years. And the Govt are aiming to get us up to 35+million. While that may sound modest given the size of Australia, bear in mind that only a small percentage of Australia is desirable as residential area and there is less and less of that left. Most new estates are horrible. Small blocks, high fences - in our heat, they are just stifling so need air conditioning - and the govt is asking us to not switch our air conditioners on as the power suppliers are struggling to cope with the demand. Please be under no illusion concerning standard of living, it's very expensive and over crowded here as well and rapidly getting worse. In the major cities the peak hour traffic well exceeds the carrying capacity of the roads and this is even true of some of the toll roads. Housing has been all but priced out of reach of a single income earner on a decent wage. Public transport is overcrowded for the most part and expensive. It is also crowded here in the cities and if you're looking for IT work, that's where you'd need to go. Further, if my experience is any indication, trying to migrate here on a skilled visa is not easy particularly in fields such as IT and understandably, most employers/recruiters won't even look at you unless you are on Australian soil and have permission to work - still the number of CVs that cross desks from people pretending to reside in Australia boggles the mind. Having said all that, do your home work and definitely crunch the numbers and don't come here if you're trying to get away from over-crowding or escaping a high cost of living. Lastly, it's hot here for most of the year. It's not a nice oh let's go out in the sun heat, it's damned hot. If you recall the heatwave you had a couple of years ago - that's a relatively moderate day here. In summer you can expect weeks on end of hotter days than that.