Alfresco

We joined a South African meet-ups club (since we are South African) when we first arrived and now have a great bunch of friends and we go camping, visiting, BBQs etc... We don't have many or any Ozzie friends yet apart from the Ozzie partners / spouses.

If you lived in Brisbane, I would be your friend.

spouse of scouse

From this particular Aussie psyche, I don't understand the desire to spend your leisure time with people you work with. No matter how nice they are, 5 days a week is enough for me.

ROMFT_WO2RN

don't feed the woo's ego any more FFS

di90

HI Guys,

thanks for taking the time to post your experiences! Its comforting to know that some others feel the same...

One of the problems i find is that as a single parent, i can't just leave my 12 year old on her own in the evenings, during the week and go out and join clubs/volunteer. Childcare isn't cheap either and i don't know any young people/neighbours to help out - only been at the current house 12 months and moving house again this year.

I go to the gym and often exchange pleasantries with people but none have become friends. I'm on several meetup groups AND joined eharmony a couple of months ago and both have not been a good experience, apart from getting me out from time to time. I have met alot of people on meetup, swapped numbers ect and nothing comes of anything. Eharmony - a huge disappointment as nearly all ignore my request to communicate with them....i'm an attractive woman with alot going for myself and eharmony is giving me a complex and making me think I must be ugly!!

I think i'm just feeling that it must be me doing something wrong, or not interesting enough, not pretty enough....

thanks for the PM's and the offers to meet up. I'll be in touch...xx

Petals

My friends have been around for a long long time and we three of us actually came to Aus together a long long time ago. So we have just stayed friends. I made friends through work and reading this thread I have a couple of friends I need to water, as they are like flowers, grow with care.

I think don't try to hard, just go with the flow and you meet people. I met one of my best friends doing a working bee at the school and we took it from there, shared interest I guess. Just stayed friends. Another was a neighbour who lived over the road.

Is your daughter into sport, netball or tennis this is another way you get to meet like minded people.

Being a single woman can be a problem though as people often don't invite us unless we are a couple, I do know why but never understand it myself.

Margaret3

I agree with Petals, when i first arrived i really put myself out there, going to lots of meets (BE and other types), for me it didn't pay off. (except for one meet through Britvics in Mornington, where i met me besties). Also going to these meets was making me feel REALLY OLD! and often the meets said 'single people, people under 30 or 40, or people with young children, so that was me out straight away, lol. I stopped going and just carried on with things. As time went by (been here 6 years now), people at work got to know me better and I got to know them, i began to get lots of offers of social stuff and now most of my friends now are through work. (Infact off to queensland on Monday for a week with the work girlies , 2 of them single, 1 married with a 16 year old boy. I am married and taking my 14 year old daughter with us, as i would feel too guilty if i didnt take her. The girls are delighted she is going as gives them an excuse to do the 'theme parks, but as i said it has taken quite a few years to get to this stage. However being a nurse in a big hosp it is an advantage for meeting people. People on here know that in my heart i would love to return to scotland (its complicated!), but one of the many reasons for not returning is i know i would miss my social life and my friends here (especially the girls at work!) like crazy.
Although i am married, i definately have my own group of friends, and my OH his , we only really socialize with one other couple together.

paddyo

Oh I understand that but again it depends on your industry. Some work environments are great because of a teaming approach and that teaming can lead to great social interludes. If you are not so happy and just want to get your work done and get out of there then that's cool. There are many factors, the size of your company and how many people you interact with can affect it is well.

[/QUOTE]Holy crap! You're over 50? I always had you pegged as in your 30's.[/QUOTE]

lol....well as you have never seen me then I can only put that down to my immaturity..guilty as charged m'lud!

[/QUOTE] don't feed the woo's ego any more FFS [/QUOTE]

So says the guy who wants to be one...yeah....I saw the signature!!

RedT

Plenty! My best friends in London were Polish, Finnish and American, all immigrants to London. It was irrelevant where they were from, we met because we had mutual interests or worked together. Work is where I've met most of my friends up to now which is why I think I need to go work in a bigger office.

Also I've just booked an audition for a choir....AGH!

astera

Same here, most of my friends are from those countries mentioned as well as many others.

I realised a long time ago that as a person you have more in common with similar people from other countries than dissimilar people from your own country.

OzTennis

'People like to like, people like themselves'.