Beedubya

Very well said, I am rejoicing in my half life being over for good now.

fulwood

Menschlein, very well said..

flbrit59

l think that's spot on ! I dream about going back home to live again after 13 yrs in the U.S, l miss so much about the U.K. yet l also wonder would l really be happy if l did manage to go back..l'll probably never know,as it's highly unlikely to happen

Menschlein

The best thing for you to do, if your heart is aching for all that which cannot be found on foreign shores, is to go back home for a visit before making any further decisions. Choose to go home at a time of year not particular to your liking and if such visit can rekindle an overwhelming joy of standing on your native soil, walking down familar streets bathed in the sights and sounds of your native land, no matter the exterior conditions..... follow your dream.
I wish you all the best ! Remember.... The longer you wait, the harder it gets.

flbrit59

Thanks. Yes you're right about the longer l leave it. It would be very difficult to go back now, after 13 years here. It's not really an option, realistically. I'm married to a wonderful woman,who has no real desire to move to the UK because she has children here,all adults in their 30's,but she still wouldn't want to be that far away from them. I'm in my mid 50's now so getting a decent job back home would be very tough,and l'd be starting over from scratch, with nothing. So really l'm just gonna have to grin and bear it, at least until l retire,then maybe l can spend a little more time there.

Basil Brush

Spot on Menschlein - it's like living life in a haze!!

Going back to UK after 10 years in Aus and we feel absolute relief at making the decision. We are around 40, so we hope we will manage to find work. It is true that the longer you stall making the move, the harder it gets.

brits1

It will that time before you know it...our friends in Perth were for the most supportive of us returning home but there were some who use to comment but we soon realised they were not true friends anyway. All the best....have to say when the sun shines here in blighty it is a beautiful place to be..it is anyway....AND no flies like we had in Aus....thats a bonus in my book anyday...lol

Squirrel

It's funny how some people fail to grasp the concept of the very real GLOBAL recession! Lol. Like it affects the UK but in other counties the streets run with gold.

macadian

Or visa versa....

Menschlein

True to a point. However when the ecconomic hardships you left behind are now overtaking the very country you chose as your second home, the very reasons for immigrating in the first place have now eroded. If you must suffer through escalation hard times, layoffs, downzising , lack of medical / dental Insurances, lack of local Transportation, vaste unsurmountable distances etc. you may as well do it back home. Besides your British Pensions will be unfrozen as well.

Dashie

This is part of what we're finding in Canada. Granted, there was a much better exchange rate (pounds to dollars) when we moved, but on our last visit we found that the only things more expensive in the UK were houses and fuel, and most of the cars there used significantly less fuel than cars here, which cancels a lot of that out, as well as the cheaper car tax and insurance. There are also vast social differences which you don't even realise exist until you've lived somewhere for a while.

Menschlein

Oh yes, those wonderful social differences. The humour and tenacity. The easy access to some of the best sights on the planet. We can leave our country, but our country never leaves us. It's ancestral, it's in our blood. Even though some of us are still haunted by post war memories we were not raised to hunt with crossbows, club seals to death, slaughter moose and deer en mass and fewer still ever get used to -40 or +40 temperatures. Life is short, make the most of it, live were your heart is at ease and all else will fall into place.

shane71

Hi there been a while since been on here , well ill get straight to the point , we are waiting for a job offer to be finalized and are moving back to Perth . 1 year ago i never thought we would be doing this but we both finally feel that we can now put our life in the UK to rest . Coming back has made us both realise were we want to be . From my previous posts (and i have read them over and over) and the time we have been back has given us the opportunity to finally realise were we belong . Our memories of the UK should stay that way , life has moved on over here and we do not like what we see . Before emigrating we had well paid jobs and a very good lifestyle , unfortunately we have not been able too find that since being back . Our families are all here and when we tell them of our decision to return i dont think it is going to go down to well .
I dont want to say that Perth is perfect but it has more to offer us than the UK (there is no utopia) . I have my views on the UK and am not persuaded by others opinions and feel that if we dont make the move now we will have missed a great opportunity to live our lives for the better .
We came back and thought we were doing the right thing but over the year have come too realise that , yes we made a mistake and a rather expensive one at that too, but we had the opportunity to do it and it has now put our minds at rest . The rest of our lives now lies ahead of us and we will not be reflecting on the past (we , more so me) have been doing that for too long . So with fresh enthusiasm we await our destiny.

Isabel_7

Good luck to you both!

Menschlein

Best of luck on your return. You are certainly not the first to have done such a move. Here in Canada this venture is referred to as the Ten Thousand Dollar Cure. Costly yes, but often the only way to pacify a restless Spirit.