Zen10

I can see the logic here. I recently spent many weeks in the UK and to be honest I was disappointed by what I saw, and found little to recommend the place over Australia in any material or logical sense. However, the pull of family is intense and for me this alone makes Britain just as viable a place to live as Australia. Family is the most important thing to consider, and it won't be around forever - its fleeting, transient nature makes being divided by 16,000 kms all the harder. If I had much more money I would move back to Britain to be with family. If I had much, much, much more money I might stay in Australia and fly back annually for a couple of months.

TheEmperorIsNaked

I have to admit Roary, that anyone who can decipher our last two posts, as you seem to have done has just got to be 'right', ergo: I am 'wrong'.

I hang my head in shame. I am an utter disgrace! :

...................

Flowerina

I think a lot of countries have similar problems to the UK, they just speak with a different accent. Plus for us in the UK is friends and family so we're heading back.

There are problems with immigration, the NHS, travellers and a bloated and abused benefits system which seems to have created a class of "won't work" rather than supporting the "can't work" people it was supposed to support and tax paying Brits are in general fed up. That said, I believe the very threat of UKIP is beginning to make things change albeit very slowly.

Good luck with whatever you decide

chris955

Thats the thing, we found the opposite as we see little in the way of material or logical facrors that would see us return to Australia. My family are in Australia so that pull is obviously hard but tuere is just so much for us here and the kids love it. All it shows is that we are all different.

roaringmouse

Sometimes being in a different country can make the pull to family seem stronger than it actually is. For example, I felt quite a pull when living in Australia even though I knew my family wasn't exactly the closest of families. It's taken a trial of living in the UK to fully realise that the pull of family isn't really that strong at all for me.

There are a couple of other things in the UK that could keep me here, but at the moment I'm not convinced they will keep us here. So we may return to Australia next year. The UK economy is a major factor in the possibility of returning to Australia, as it still doesn't look great in either the short or medium term in the UK.

Bud the Wiser

Care to elaborate on that Zen10 ? Oddly enough it's family ties that have been established here in the US since we emigrated that are making the decision to move back more difficult, and as time passes the difficulty increases.

Zen10

I thought about writing a comparison/experience post, as others have done, but I'm worried it will turn into a 500 page rant and descend into the usual slanging match. In (ultra) brief, I thought it looked tired and run-down, the traffic was awful, and we were treated very rudely by the handful of people in public service/tourist areas that we ran into. All of these things were problems for me before we left, and seeing them all going strong disappointed me because I was planning on using the trip to persuade my wife to return. I had many other issues but like I say - I'm not sure I'll post them.

Bud the Wiser

Fully understand your reluctance. I ask because I have followed some of your posts on different parts of the forum and value your input. I was back in February and considered writing a review, in which, I must add there were as many positives as negatives, but like yourself, I decided against posting for similar reasons.

Thanks anyway.

TheEmperorIsNaked

You know, this is interesting. Does this only occur with the UK/Australia comparison (because of course it does...in spades!) ?

The fact that there IS this sensitivity tells a story in itself I think...

Zen10

We had positives too, but for us they were outweighed by the negatives. I wasn't smug about this - I was disappointed. My wife is very pro-Australia and I was hoping to use the trip to persuade her to return, at least temporarily. By the end of the trip the only real argument I could make was that we would be closer to family and Europe for exciting weekend breaks.

sile

I have just read some of the most recent posts here, and as a person who is planning on moving to Britain shortly, I read with great interest, especially when ppl are saying negative things. It would sure be helpful if those who are being vague be more specific if you can.

chris955

Isnt it strange how we can have such vastly different experiences? I came back to the UK a few years ago on a sort of reccie but was also work related, it was to help us decide if moving back was the right thing. The trip overwhelmingly made me realise that yes it was indeed the right thing and has proved to be right now we are here.
More than once my wife has said words to the effect of 'so much for the apparent bad customer service etc' as we have found 99% of people to be extremely helpful, friendly and anything but rude. We live in a beautiful area and dont see this run down, tired country mentioned. We also live in one of the least populated counties in the country so traffic is rarely an issue. Lots of others have mentioned how friendly people are so it isnt rose tinted glasses. We have had so few negative customer service experiences they barely register and the people that have gone well above and beyond have far outweighed them.
I do know from experience that (some) Australians dislike hearing anything good about this country, a friend who visited us years ago when we lived here before was almost lynched because of his attitude.
There is no way in the world we would have bought our young children here if it was a bad choice or that this was a horrible place to live. One told me recently he has doesnt ever want to leave.

Zen10

As you have said, Chris, you don't need to commute and you work from home and run your own business. If we had these things I would probably move back, but I can't countenance a regular commuting existence there. Too stressful compared with sleepy Adelaide.

chris955

Well on that we agree, my commute in Brisbane was hellish and I wouldnt want to go back to it. My wife 'commutes' to work along 7 miles of country lanes so it really isnt country dependant but area dependant.

yozzernz

My wife can't even get work over here so getting a job back home would.be.an.improvement in itself. The traffic in Brisbane is hideous