Cal B

Hi ! Would appreciate any views on this subject as currently feeling very disillusioned with this country.Is the grass greener on the other side?

Bix

Hi Cal

The answer is really a question.

It may or may not be greener on the other side but that will depend on what you are looking for.

What is it you want from life that you feel UK is failing to give you ?

Once you can answer that, then you can investigate if indeed Aus can offer you better or different.

renth

You've just opened a big can of worms with a very valid question and you'll get lots of different opinions.

You can ignore anyone who isn't actually living here for a start and don't forget many forum users stop posting, for various reasons, when they arrive.

You'll be amazed, if you follow British Expats for a while, to see the number of people arriving on this site all bright eyed and full of optimism then a few months later you see the same names on the returning to UK forum.

Anyway, back to the original question, is the grass greener on the other side?
Again it all depends on what you've left behind and what you achieve here.

Personally speaking it's loads greener for me, I've got a better job, the weather is fantastic and the family can do loads of exciting outdoor activities and I just like living here generally more than in the UK. From my wife's perspective, probably not greener - about the same, missing her friends. From the kids educational perspective they' had to leave an excellent school in rural East Sussex.

In a year or two, and posssibly after a trip home to remind us why we left, I'm hoping everyone with all agree it was a good move. :lecture:

Cal B

Fed up of the rat race,Bix.Always chasing around.Hate all the congestion,weather,high petrol prices and paying through the nose for everything,high crime rates etc.Feel there must be a better life somewhere and wondered whether that may be Aus?

hevs

Nope! Its brown most of the year.

Aus has the same problems as the UK. It has high tax, crime, drugs, extortionate dental fee's, heavy traffic in the cities, and graffiti, so if you are disillusioned with this in Uk, you will be the same here only possibly homesick aswell!!!

However Aus offers IMO a cleaner enviroment, a very diverse set of flora fauna and climates AND a unique lifestyle and outlook that i have never expierienced anywhere else on my travels.

So it all depends. What are your expectations????

hevs

LOL!!

We posted at the same time Cal B, its your call

I forgot to say, i love it and have NO desire whatsoever to return to the UK. (couldn't afford to even if we wanted too )

Bix

Overall I think we gave a similar reply Renth but this bit was poppycock.

There are a lot of people not actually living in Australia who have a lot of experience of the country and therefore a very valid viewpoint.
A lot of them being Australians some of whom want to return home.

I don't qualify in either category which is why I didn't try to presume anything in my reply.

renth

Former backpackers or Australians who have been away for a long time aren't going to know what Australia is like, now, to live in.

Bix

Cal,
You are at the point where most of us started.
A discontentment that has made you search for something new or different, or better.

Some will look at your post and consider you a very naive person; someone wearing rose tinted glasses. Of course at this stage it is correct and that's why you asked the question wasn't it ? We learn by listening and researching as well as by making mistakes. Stick with it.

Remember the people on this site are not just the middle ground. We are also the extremes in both directions. For every ecstatic person there is a miserable one. For every positive there is a negative.

Remember too that you are an individual and what suits you may not suit any other person here but it does not make you wrong. As a small and pretty irrelevant example lots of people bemoan the lack of a "decent" English style pub in Aus. Personally I don't give a rats arse about them so although in the minority am I wrong ? No, of course not.

Most things have already been discussed on the forum so use the search function to look up particular items but also ask any specific questions. Don't worry or get upset if the responses are not always as expected.

Good hunting

Bix

Conversely Britains who have been away for a long time aren't going to know what it's like to live in Britain.

Therefore misconceptions in both cases.

scoobydoo

Hello Cal!

Having moved to Australia I have realised that you need to look at what YOU want from life and whether the UK or Australia can give you this....took me a while to work this out And you have to be very selfish when you think about this as you will not be happy anywhere if you are not fullfilling your dreams.

Australia gives us that lovely feeling of space, even living near the city we don't feel as hemmed in as we did in the south east of England. People are friendly and open, although that could be because we have become more receptive to people as we have had to make a new start.

Crime,congestion,high prices etc are here, don't expect that to change. If you are close to friends and family in the UK it will be very hard not having that network around you.

Wherever you are in the world the grass does always seem greener elsewhere.
Life is what you make it and if you've got determination you can make it anywhere IF the country you are in has the resources you need.

Think carefully!!!!

WheelsOfSteel

Sometimes the details can sort themselves out.

In hugely simplistic terms. I like to sail and go trout fishing, so I live next to the sea in the South Island of New Zealand...

On the whole it suits my purposes better, but I also love the UK for very different reasons. NZ and the UK are both great places.

Try to weigh up what it is YOU want from life...

I don't live in OZ but the principle is the same.

ABCDiamond

I must agree with that. I spent 10 years in Australia, and ended up missing the UK that I had left. But when I went back, it wasn't the UK that I had left anymore. Things had changed. It would be the same for an Australian returning to Australia after that amount of time.

I spent 4 years back in the UK, but then came back to Australia again, and changed my attitude to what I really wanted, dropped my income to accomodate what I wanted to do, and found time to find myself again.

renth

Too true, our friends over here left Bradford 15 years ago and realise that they haven't a clue what it's like now.

They know it's gone downhill though.

Peter

This is true; it's why I ask questions here. I can only present a view of Australia pre-1998 (and what my sisters and my Dad tell me).