yeah but then again

I know what I want to say to that comment....but I wont!!

yeah well, but that's how your mind works you mucky mare!.... oh.... sorry i thought you were thinking something else! doh!

How do you know I wasnt???

ya flirt.

And you LOVE IT!!

Bloody good question Hels, I've been here more than half my life now, probably about 60 pct of my life. There isn't much that comes by that I havn't heard of before. The one thing that does come up now and again that I wish I knew more about, I think it's something to do with the Generation that I'm in, Is "Sunbury" I've got no Idea how many concerts that was, In fact for all I know it may have only been one. Other than that, especially combined with my recent visit to the UK, which was the first in 16 years. Confirmed for me, that I really am probably 60 pct Australian. I really did feel like an Outsider looking in, when I went back to the UK.


Not many people talk about major topics beyond the time of the Americas cup here anyway, save for things like conscription (i'm too young for that topic anyway) and sharpies and that kind of thing, Pascoe Vale and Glenroy being mostly paddocks etc etc, at least I know what people are talking about.

When you've been here 25 years, thats when ones Identity becomes really split. Mind you I'm happy this way.

Agree with Ozzieagle - been here for over half my lifetime too and regard myself as Australian, if anything. Though, to be honest, I don't really think about nationality much - I'm just someone who lives here, the same as all the other people who live here.

After this length of time, you lose the intense interest in you had in where everyone comes from. In the early days if I met another English person, I tended to interrogate them as to why/when/how they got here and felt some sort of affinity with them.

Nowadays, that doesn't happen. I have much more in common with Australians than recently-arrived Brits. When you think about it - I never lived in England during the whole of Mrs Thatcher's reign or Princess Di's years and Next shops didn't exist when I left - that's quite a long time to be away!

Do you have any idea how lucky you are? !

This is just the thing the bloke and I were talking about last night.

We were wondering when the influences of your birth country (if you lived there long enough, obviously) were squished enough to not feel a foreigner in your new home.

Because Australia is English speaking and has close connections to the UK, it is easy to think that the two are very similar. But I think it might as well be Peru for the first few years you are here.

The way the two peoples approach work, play, etc etc are completely different. I've been watching the 20 to 1 programme on Thursday nights to try and increase my historical cultural knowledge - really useful for those drunken evenings with Aussies when you haven't a clue what they're talking about. The Whitlam thing is a case in point here.

Will I always be an expat, I bleemin' hope not - but I can see, that however settled in a place you are, it can be years, decades maybe before you feel "a local".

I have said this before, I was born in the UK but when I was 8 my folks emigrated to South Africa. Growing up there I never felt south african as we had no history there, no other family. All my friends had family and history which made them sort of different to me (of course, moving around the country loads didn't help the integration process).

When my husband and I decided to move back to the UK, I was really excited at the prospect of going back 'home', even though we had lived in South Africa for 22 of my 30 years. I was in for a shock - I had a different accent and a different way of looking at life and felt even more foreign than i did in south africa.

Having said that, I think the key thing is to make local friends and work hard at your relationships with them, which we have done, and we have enjoyed being here. Our experience has taught us that we are all individuals and (for us) it is not necessary to feel 'australian', 'south african' or 'english'. Our life experiences thus far mean that we bring a lot to the table of friendship and whilst we may not be able to identify with a lot of their experiences (and this is felt more in social situations where long standing friends are grouped together), we are comfortable in the fact that we may have to work a bit harder to feel like we 'fit in', but that's ok.

Take care everyone and have one helluva weekend.

Sarah

No, I don't think they can, but equally I think that applies to moving around within a country. The true long term locals have history and experiences of the place which naturally will mean they are looking at things in a different light.

Not a good or bad thing either way really though.

I mean take shagging. Its much the same here.......but hotter and steamier

Okay everyone put ya kids to bed Bix is posting....

ZX......

In real life I suffer from a wife beater.