scutterUK

i know i'm going to sound like i'm still on the fence here but i agree with what both mike and kong say, yet i also agree with jill. if i could move over there for a year and leave my house in the UK unsold i would have done it. but knowing i had an easy way out would have affected the way i looked at the whole experience.

in a way i'll be doing a bit of both. i've sold the house here, but i wont be spending the money on a house when i get to auz. i'll be renting until i decide if i'm going to stay or not. while i'm renting the money from the house will be sat in a bank account earning interest and helping me to pay for the rent each month.

i wont say that this would be right for everyone, but for me going on my own, it's right for.

and for what it's worth i think gravyman's other half hit the nail on the head. for any of us to succeed you need support to survive. a circle of friends who you can rely on is essential and will make the whole experience easier.

fingers crossed for everyone eh?

Wol

I have nothing to contribute to this one except to say that it makes a pleasant change to see a subject debated in a rational, grown-up way - so many threads in the last few months seem to go absolutely nowhere!

scutterUK

couldn't agree with you more on that.

Marakai

Sorry, I promise I won't start any threads like that anymore. Please forgive me!

Mike

scutterUK

not to mention communicating with friends and family back home as well. (just need to get my parents to learn how to use the blooming thing now)

lucyb

Some people cannot afford NOT to sell their houses before emigrating, ourselves included. That said, we will be going out on a fact finding trip for 4 weeks before settling for good.

Marakai

I set up my entire family with IM. And am looking into VoiP.

I know I'll come to regret that.....
Mike

MikeStanton

See, it really wasn't that painful now, was it

MikeStanton

When I first arrived in Oz, I didn't have a house to keep back in UK. But, I knew that I could always get back on a plane. Would the house have changed my initial commitment to Oz? Nope. However, it would have made it easier, once I had decided to return.

As an aside, some people on this site treat emigration as some kind of macho hairy-chested trial. Emigrating isn't some sort of competition. It's finding out if your belief that a better life awaits you in your chosen destination is true.

And our adventures to Oz are a lot easier than the original £10 Poms - when a return flight to UK was very expensive.

seang

once we dont make a habit of it

back to Rog's point - I agree.Have said it the last few days .The forum has picked up considerably(even if my spelling hasnt).Bit of lively debate -not too heated- and some points been well "argued".

My reason for not wanting to or going to sell is purely because I would never get back on the ladder.The cost(s) of moving are considerable and worst case senario -I come back earlier than planned(with in x no. of years)- I would be starting from scratch and that for me is scarey.I know what I am going with - how long that will last me (roughly )and if by then things aint happening then at least I have something to come back to -and it took alot of graft just to get that.So in around about way I will be starting fron square one in Australia but have a fall back

Different for everyone I know and I respect that -the above is just my reasons

Marakai

Or as I like to put it: it's not a matter of the grass being greener, it's finding the shade of green you personally prefer the most.

Mike

anya4oz

Oh my Gaaawwddd, I can SO, SO relate to that. We are 2 geeks, too, and we did the same, went to Melbourne, set up the 'control', did the research, proved our thesis, built the spreadsheets...!

Like you - who knows if we'll stay there forever, but we feel better placed to give it our best shot (and now we know what we are letting ourselves in for, our arrival in early August feels more like 'going home' than casting loose into heaven knows what).

Good luck with your move - & see you in Melbourne sometime (I'm the one often found in a bar poring over an Excel printout...!)

Anya.

anya4oz

Tut, tut, Mike you've been peeking at my 'women's bits' again.

What's a gal to do....?

Anya.

scutterUK

i wouldn't necessarily agree with the way you put it, but to me it is a trial in a way. i'll be going on my own without support and i want to know if i can make a go of it. This i'm doing more for personal reasons than i am for personal gain.

If i have to come back to the UK i wont see it that i've failed, but more that it i didn't work. i would have only failed if i hadn't tried.

my goals in life are very few and i don't need much to be happy. what i need to be happy i know i can achieve.

one of the joys of being single i guess, nobody else to worry about but yourself.

Marakai

Must...set...up...meeting...must...geek...out...

As for staying: I've been joking to friends that our options are limited. Unless they finally open up space colonies.

For me, returning to the US is no more an option, barring major political and social changes to the better, than going back to Germany, where I'm originally from.

For my wife, Germany is also no more an option than it is for me.

Maybe we'll make enough dosh to comfortably retire in NZ. Uh yeah, and maybe pigs will fly us to colonies on Alpha Centauri...


As for your last sentence: PRINTOUTS? how quaint!

Mike