Take care with your C of E; I lived in Australia for 3 years and flew with my CAA PPL (CASA will automatically grant a PPL(S), the s is for special). Like in the UK, there is a requirement to demonstrate competancy every two years, called the Biannual Flight Review (BFR). Now when my C of E was close to running out, I went to the place where I rented my aircraft, spoke to the CFI, and he told me that the BFR was sufficient to keep me flying. Well he was was right, in that I did keep flying for all my time in Australia, there was never a problem when I was asked to show documentation. However, when I returned to the UK, the CFI at Cabbair opined that I had been flying illegally for the past 3 years. That said, it wasn't a problem as I did an hour with him, and he gave me a new C of E stamp. I imagine that the solution would have been to find a JAA instructor and get a stamp from him. Bit hard to find in Australia, but would have stopped the endless logical conundrum of (i) PPL(s) valid on basis of current CAA PPL (ii) BFR sufficient for everyone in Australia, that PPL(s) is current (iii) CAA PPL not validated by BFR (iv) PPL(S) invalid. Now I'll dissappear in a puff of logic!