Not many of them around...

Only a couple of weeks in but we are enjoying it. We have probably come out at the worst time financially given the exchange rate but the weather is great, people are so nice and there are so many new experiences. We only live once and it is better to have tried than to sit there down the line and say what if we had.

Glad you are enjoying it.

Go on then...

Ooh this thread is my forte but sadly, nothing to report. Medication must be working. Give me time.

Wait a minute.............Bought a new fridge and washing machine the other day and wasnt ofered a complimentary coffee and wasnt eligible for a free iron and washing powdre as I didnt purchase a front loader. Normally, wouldve made a scene but as Ive stated......medication doing the trick.

I agree. I'd rather lose 4k on a Visa application that didn't make it and knowing for sure than to sit here in 10 years time wondering what if ...

I was just not prepared for the difficulty and bureaucracy ... and considering we are both skilled people with lots of quals we thought we'd be fine - we were so wrong!

You learn early on that the norm in Aus is to do the opposite of sensible. It wouldbe sensible to take skilled people so let's put every possible obsticle I'n place...

That's pretty much my philosophy - look at my signature

My OH is more sensible and less impulsive than me. He is insisting that we don't sell our house here, so at the moment we are saving like mad to make the move.

If we don't like it we'll move back, but at least we'll have had an experience.

Of the 110,000 Brits who immigrated to OZ over the past 5 years only 11,000 went back home. So perhaps OZ is'nt as bad as some of the negative posts make out or you would think alot more would be going back then only around 10%.

Oooh, I love your signature!
Been 100% set on making the move until the last year when I've umm-ed and ahh-ed and spent far too long on the Moving Back to the Uk forum! The visa and settling in costs seem like a huge expense but being sensible isn't living my dream and I don't want years of 'what ifs...'

exactly and the reality is that the majority of people who move here, probably 80-90% don't even frequent these types of forums and just get on with it. So you'd probably find most Brits are happy. Out of about ten families I know who are British, I was the only one who had reservations a few years ago after ten years in Aus and felt unsettled, everyone else was happy, settled and making a life, and I was the only one to come onto this board, none of my other british mates wanted to know, they were happy enough and didnt see the need to post here.

yes Maybe its people who are unhappy in OZ are more likely to frequent these forums and make regular posts then those that are happy in OZ. But one negative thing l agree with is that you need alot more money these days to be able to afford a good house in a good suburb of the large cities, as OZ house prices keep going up alot as OZ is not in a recession while the UK is , also the exchange rate has gotten worse for people moving.

Owning stuff doesn't make you materialistic.

Yes it does. In its simplest terms it means being concerned with matter (ie physical things) rather than the spiritual. So the need, desire, compulsion to own "stuff" in the belief that it makes your life 'better' is being materialistic.

Surely you have to separate need from greed. Owning things because they are needed is not really considered materialistic. I wouldn't say I was materialistic just because I own some pots and pans.