Crystaltipps

G'day British Expats, long time no see.

I tried to re-post on my last thread but it has been closed (I pasted it below).

The gist of it is 3.5 years after leaving Australia we are applying for PR in case we want to ping/pong back in the foreseeable.

Life has treated us well back in Blighty. We bought a house in the lovely Cotswolds, kids are in a top state school, we see lots of friends & family, husband set up a new company which is thriving BUT we will be forever cursed with that expat affliction: feetus itchius.

It exhausts me just thinking about another international move but DH feels Aus will be a ripe market for his consultancy business. He wants to set up a Sydney branch to add to the 'London office'...which in reality is a tiny box room above a post office 100 miles from London!

I don't know if we'll ever use the visa and it'll be an expensive plan B just to have on the back burner but the whole process reminded me of this forum and
I thought I'd drop by.

Sure I'll be posting regularly with visa application stresses.

Bye for now.

Cx

PS. Here's my previous post:

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Hello again,

After 2.5 years in beautiful Sydney we have decided to call it a day and move back to the UK.

A number of reasons contributed to our decision : the removal of LAFHA and the general expensiveness of the place, my son needing to start school (necessitating a long term commitment to a place) and the difficulties of raising 2 small children without family to hand. It'll also be easier for me to return to work in the UK with more flexible and affordable day care and employers.

It's a 'sensible' move at a sensible time for us but we will all be leaving with heavy hearts. As seasoned expats (we've lived in various Asian countries, the Middle East and Italy) I was never excited by the idea of Australia. It just seemed like a sunny Britain with little to offer culturally, but it has blown me away with its natural beauty and the open, kind nature of its people (not to mention the food!) The ferry ride across the harbour (which my 5 year old says is "filled with diamonds") gets me every time.

Many things have irritated me about the place though. The supermarkets are dire, internet shopping and the general online revolution seems to have passed it by, the fashion is at least 6 months behind the rest of the world, the TV is awful (I haven't even switched it on for the past year), public transport is woefully lacking for a major world city, the lack of heated and insulated homes, despite some pretty cold winter temperatures seems stubborn and martyr-ish.

But it's a beautiful, wild and happy place, despite its 'backwardness' and I will miss it for the rest of my life.

ozzieeagle

Great to read....

I'd not seen the original post and I think in that last sentence of your original post you summed up for me what I really missed about Aus when I visited the UK last time around over Xmas this year.

It's Happiness, in comparison it's everywhere here..... for me at least.

Good luck with your move.

blondiefee

Hiya... ha hah a.... well, all the best with your move...
Love the fact that you are happy to put your previous post on.. did make me giggle.. I guess it's like everything - down to individual experience and we make our own life and memories. Life is what you make it (even if the supermarkets are dire ) all the very best.

Crystaltipps

Me again,

Almost a year to the day that I posted this and we're at the last stage of the PR process, the endless 'assessment in progress' status - yawn. Nobody could accuse Australian immigration of rushing things.

Been trawling Domain and depressing myself, our preferred school (a public one) has shrunk its catchment to the size of a postage stamp, combined with refusing non PRs. But after a damp, dull UK winter I'd probably live in a Sydney garage.

Husband says the likelihood of us ping-ponging back is 80/20 in favour of going. All depends on whether he can get freelance contracts to rival the UK ones (and the visa, obvs).

Hope my March 2018 update comes with some kind of certainty about where our future might be!

x

xizzles

Thanks for the update - kinda makes me feel I'm not the only one who've dillied and dallied on making the move, and pinged and ponged after having made it. I'm not if anyone's keeping track of such things, but 2 previous visas came and went and I'm now down onto the (for all intents and purposes) third and final one has to be a record of some kind.

Here's wishing you and your family all the very best with your visa application and impending move!

Still Game

Hi there

All the best for your future, wherever it may be. So many of us have ping-ponged and totally understand where you're coming from. I suffer from rose tinted glasses A LOT so am currently trying to make myself live more in reality

I say it's a blessing to live in two countries but also a semi curse as I think you may never feel truly settled again. The whole thing tho is having choice. You're applying for choice. It's good to have a plan A, B and otherwise and to be able to actually execute it.

I keep saying to myself that Australia is a big country. If it doesn't work out where we move, we have the choice to move again. Or back to the UK.

Hope whatever you do works out for you all.

Crystaltipps

Thanks Guys,

Got our grant letter this week and have to enter before mid October - earlier than I was hoping but at least we can make plans now. Watch this space :-)

garyp

So true, I always tell people I wish I never went because I am now constantly comparing. Always told myself if I don't go I will live to regret it.

In Like Flynn

Very true, on the 'Wish I never went' comment. We are very much in the same camp. Once you have lived there, it is impossible not to judge and compare everywhere else against the benchmark that is life in Australia.


After 5 years in Brisbane, we returned to Ireland in 2014. We had legitimate reasons for returning at the time. However, we are also now in the process of planning our return next year.


I guess sometimes it takes more than one attempt to reach a state of contentment.

midgetjan

Well we're 10 years since we moved to WA and Nov 09 we moved back to Scotland.

I enjoyed Australia but Scotland, crap weather and all, is home.