CHnJ

I've been putting this posting off since I should have done my "3-months-in" thread a year and a half ago. I was aware that everything was always in a state of flux, and I've never felt that I had a complete snapshot to give. Things have settled down now, so I'd best do my duty : ) I don't post all that often, as most of the stuff I offer or need has been covered umpteen times over and the search facility on BE is really good!

The executive summary is that I think we did all we could to prepare for the move, and to cushion ourselves for a rough ride through to stability. It's all worked out well, and we're now content and just living our day-to-day lives. We had no disasters on the way, but we needed every ounce of our emotional and financial resources to get to where we are now. There were a few occasions where if things had turned against us, we'd have been blown out of the water as we were struggling to get our balance.

Our path was:

Within all of the above there have all the usual domestic delights and dramas. Babies born, family tensions (too far away/visiting too often (that's the same family btw)), homesickness (to deal with but never obliterate).

OK, so now that I've laid out the bare bones, I'd like to flesh it out with the things that came as a surprise.

Australia likes the British, but is not like Britain. Or more accurately, the subtle differences trip you up all the time. You can get along with a common language, and in most cases similar systems and procedures, so you often find yourself making assumptions based on UK terminology and jargon (in the correct sense of the word being a shorthand way of describing a process or set of expectations). This can leave you in difficult situations professionally or financially. The first we faced was the difference between a JP in Scotland and in Queensland. One is a magistrate - often with a court to run. The other is anything from a blue-rinse equivalent sitting in a shopping centre alcove signing forms to the tea boy in a lawyers office who needs to sight documents. Needless to say the Scottish magistrate we found was puzzled as to why we brought piles of certified copies for him to sign on three separate occasions during the migration process. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to blurt "You're joking..." when I've been informed that x y or z can't be done/will cost a fortune/generates a collossal amount of paperwork because I've got the wrong end of the stick due to differences in vocabulary - especially during the house buying process. I'd love to provide you with a glossary, but I think it's more valuable that you just make a point of taking extra care in what you assume is obvious.

We clearly have a better life here in Australia using our measures. I may or may not have been able to make that statement had I moved elsewhere in the UK. I'm sitting with my feet up at the same coffee table I used in Scotland. However straight ahead of me I see palm trees and rain forest over our garden. I used to look out of the window across a potplant to another block of flats opposite. This seems to raise my general level of contentment disproportionately. I work slightly fewer hours than I did in the UK, and my wife is able to work part-time and online while looking after the kids at home. We have been able to get good robust health care on demand, but it has eaten in to our budgets - having a chronically sick kid is expensive. The kids are growing up in a good social environment in a beautiful setting. I think we would have had a similar social environment at home, but a similar rural setting wouldn't have had the glorious weather. We have been successful at finding friends - but mainly due to my wife's fantastic efforts at getting involved in the community.

A disadvantage we find is the distance from the old networks of friends and family and the way that webcams, email, phone calls and visits are really no substitute at all. What surprised us was how hard long intensive visits from family are. Having combinations of two families under one roof is wearing and even with the best will in the world on both sides, child rearing becomes ... erm ... problematic. Surprisingly though, having friends to stay for extended holidays has been an overall positive experience.

In our situation we feel a lot poorer than we did in the UK - but that is almost entirely due to the effect of having a young family. The overheads in Australia take more out of my paypacket here than they did at home. We find the cost of living cheaper here than in NSW. When the newspapers described ways of combating the interest rise we already knew that we were already doing the things that are advised. We are in a fortunate position in having a family safety net of financial food parcels every so often. Our family is supportive of our choice of spending more time with the kids now and we love them for that. If that wasn't there my wife would need to work full time, and with child care costs and two slightly above average incomes, I suspect that we'd be in the same financial position. We don't spend on CDs or nice clothes (which we'd like to), but weekends away or toys for the kids aren't a problem.

I concur with the view that most state pre and primary schooling is good, but that you need to shop very very carefully for a suitable secondary school and that not all private schools are better than all state high schools.

I miss pavements. Nature strips in front of houses just aren't the same!

The moon is twisted about 120 degrees round in the sky - I expected it to be upside down. The Milky Way is beautiful though.

I've also noticed something over the last few weeks. All the intangible things that I'd thought made Australia 'foreign' like smells, sounds and even the quality of the light have become 'normal' to me. I go back to the UK in December for a visit (it will be our last one in a few years as the costs involved add up to the cost of a decent second-hand car) Remind me when I get back to post my impressions of Auld Reekie (for those of you who know the city!)

[I'm running out of time here (I've a dead leg and a bored baby sitting on it) so I may come back and add to this later]

Hutch

Well done guys - glad you've found a bit of Oz you can call home - and totally agree with you re: family visits.

CHnJ

Yeah ... but my outlaws have made friends with the neighbours and there's a series of houseswaps being arranged for next year!

Hutch

I genuinely pity any Australian stupid enough to befriend my parents-in-law. They're the nightmare people you meet on holiday who you swap addresses with and who WILL show up at your door six months later. :scared:

CHnJ

Please tell me your inlaws aren't the neighbours my inlaws have met! lol

Plan B is to extend the house with a granny flat, but there's nothing in the kitty for the foreseeable future.

Hutch

Fortunately the wife's in-laws are in blighty. They are due out in March for a month though. I can hardly wait.

jothefw

Great post, informative, real and understandable.

Wouldn't be surprised if we're much the same and yep as Hutch said folks may be a nightmare at times too!

katsmajic

Great post. Thank you.

seasprite

[interesting and realistic, thanks.

ozzymaz

Really enjoyed reading your post...very well written and hope you enjoy your visit back to Aberdeen in December. We will be, at last, in Perth in September and REALLY looking soooo forward to it

BadgeIsBack

Mate remember you well and I meant to PM you.

You always striked me as being a switched on cookie.

Did you get that ute in the end?

Know what you mean about things being normal now - for me they always seemed normal and its one of the reasons I'd have a problem adjusting to the UK - I've just moved on.

Wol

Excellent!

CHnJ

Lol ... it's all in the email I sent you, but yeah I got an old diesel Hilux dual cab. It puts up with all the crap I throw at it and into it, and it allowed me to change its timing belt with minimum grief. One thing I didn't mention in my post is that I love the semi-rural way of life, I love the sense of community and having a measure of self reliance. I was out this afternoon with a blocksplitter having sharpened my chainsaw after helping clear a mate's property earlier in the week. I've been offered a shot at being a projectionist at the local theatre/cinema and my wife is constantly in demand for one thing or another. In Edinburgh I knew only three neighbours in my block, and that was usually tempered with the kind of forced politeness that you get with a lot of people living in close proximity. It's only lack of time and willingness to commit to much more that has stopped me getting involved with our rural fire brigade (and some of my more blokey pals reckon they're a bit up 'emselves ... having said that, I've been watching one of these mates build a bonfire for a year. It's about 4m high now and I've made a point of showing him the video clip of those idiot Germans with the bonfire and the petrol and the 8 inch fuse ... you'll know it if you see it, it's to the tune of Bowie's "We Can Be Heroes")

CHnJ

I think mine come again then. Is there a pub we can escape to?

mel30

Really enjoyed you post thanks X