bluekipper

Been back near 3 yrs, we left Adelaide in 2007 intentailly for good (mostly my decision), reasons I left were:- job I hated and a feeling of not fitting in, all of which can & will be dealt with, nothing about Adelaide was wrong, it was all just me, not allowing myself to fit in and make it home. Done loads of work on myself,even became qualified in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which is about changing your thinking to change the actions/behaviour!!!

my girls are ok here, but they know they can do so much better as in getting out more,being more active & actually speaking to friends rather than facebooking friends, their mates cant wait to have them back over.

I will still miss the UK, the shops/pubs/family/friends & my job but lifes for living, challenging yourself and not staying in your comfort zone forever, thast my opinion, many other ppl have their opinions also.

Bluekipper

TraceyW

Ping pong? Not me mate!!! Its took me long enough to get my arse into gear and leave Perth!

A few folks are heading back to Oz, and good luck to 'em I say. It sometimes takes that huge move back home, to all the things you longed for and missed, to realise you didn't really miss them all that much after all....if you get my drift!

After 16 months of being back home in the UK, I can finally see things clearly about our time in Australia. I can see it as a lovely country with loads of positive atributes...yes, I actually said something uplifting about Perth guys! But for us as a family, Devon is now our home, we're very happy and have no thoughts about returning. However, I have learned to never say 'never' and should our children decide to upsticks and bugger off back there in years to come, we may well follow. As long as they go over East!

Good luck to any future Ping Pongers. I hope you settle there this time

bluekipper

When we 1st got bk the UK, I knew I had made the wrong decision, but put it all behind me, got house/jobs etc and tried to push it out of my mind, but after just a month or 2 or being bk I had to let it all out, and found that all the family felt the same, we even thought about changing our SA visas to WA ones, but after a lot of research we decided to go bk to Adelaide, everyone I have spoken to about Perth says its gorgeous but very isolated being so far from all the other states,this made me think I would feel even more lonely, however I am well aware many do settle in Perth, must take a special type of person!

I dont ever regret for a moment coming back here, I only regret buying a house again, I know we will all be fine werever we live, we are a very close knit family & look out for eachother, Im not looking forward to starting all over again,(we are not getting any younger,42 & 49) but it has to happen, you have to have the crappy bits to enjoy the lovely bits!!!

Bluekipper

ezzie

Blimey...what was it....the area, the grey skies, the people, schools....? Did the kids find the kids friendly at their school?

sfr09

Interesting how many do this? Its is really hard I agree we came back in Aug and have found it pretty hard, we did think about turning the ship around for a few days but we had been in Oz 20yrs so thought it was just a glitch and it would improve soon so we bought a house here but now at the six month stage and still feel so unsettled. Not a good way to live but maybe it gets it out of your system

bluekipper

The claustaphobia here in the UK, the weather, the houses on top of houses, loads of things, made us realise we had it good in OZ & didnt appreciate that fact. Got it out my system tho, ready to go home. BTW my kids were fine at school, they have lots of mates here & in OZ, but they just miss Adelaide more!

Bluekipper

collybabe24

Hi guys just been reading this thread and we too are heading back to oz, we left the uk in 2007 to live on the sunshine coast absolutely beautiful, kids were settled, we made friends, hubby's work was good he was doing lots of courses etc but wages were a bit crap only earning $42000 a year so was a struggle, in 2009 i fell pregnant and things started going down hill, i was quite ill so didnt go out anywhere so felt very lonely and had the tug of friends and family saying come home we will support you etc, i'm an only child and it has been hard taking the grandchildren away from mum as everyday she would ring crying but i stayed strong until the hormones kicked in, we sold our house in oz booked flights and came home in august 09 only to find the people that said would be here aren't and have just moved on so again i have been on my own with now 3 children, i speak to my friends in oz all the time and realise what a huge mistake i made coming back, i applied for uni to do my nursing only to be told as i left the country i now cant get funding everything is just so hard here, hubby cant get work we are rowing all the time life here is just way too stressful, i'd rather struggle in oz and have happy children and a happy marriage then be stuck here. Hubby's boss in oz e-mailed him saying there is a job waiting when we are ready to head back which is great news, so we hope to be there before the new school year. Everyone is different and i guess it depends on family ties and if you live in a nice area in the uk and that just isnt our case, but good luck to everyone on whatever you decide.

butterfly1234

hi, we are heading back to the sunshine coast in april, we left the uk at the start 2006 we were there 2 1/2 years but i too became home sick, we left the sunshine coast in 2008 and moved back to the uk. There are things here i love and there things in oz i love, its ashame we cant have a mixture of both, it would save us all a lot of time, money and stress or even better a shorter flights with cheaper prices.

ezzie

Thanks guys for sharing your stories...it's good to see a variety of stories and gives hope to those who see a move, in any direction, as a terminal decision.
Let's see some more stories...those who ping back to Oz seem to be driven by the economics of lifestyle. Better chance of employment here etc. I'm certainly not reading about coming back for better education or more interesting things to do.
Every day I wake-up and am aware that we're very well off here - fab house, nice neighbourhood, lovely friends, kids are so very, very happy at school - but even after 24 yrs here, there's an overwhelming feeling of discontent. I can't explain the feeling of 'belonging' I have when back in the UK, the sensation of just meshing with everyone else. Very aware though of judging many things there against how it's done in Australia and mostly the UK falls very short.

loubie

Thanks everyone for the stories.

We've been back nearly 3 months . I can relate strongly to all of the posts . It is true you realise that the things you thought you missed the most , aren't really that important after all .

People say you'll settle when the summer comes , it was the wrong time to move back . But there never is a right time . It's something we had to do , and to be honest I think we knew that we might end up returning .

Perth is isolated and that can come with it's own problems but I see it as a compromise , and in someways it can be a good thing.

My boys are 10 and 5 and are into sport . Perth was great for that , they belonged to Football , Aus kick , cricket and netball clubs . If they weren't doing that , we were down the park with a couple of balls - and it was LIGHT in the evenings.

I could go on but won't, I don't need the UK summer to settle , I now know where the better life is - Australia , yes ...even Perth .

( Now if I could just persuade Wifey

ezzie

Err...doesn't the Uk have sport - football, netball clubs? The football games in the UK don't get cancelled every time there's more than 3mm of rain, nor do they have to play 'safely' because if they fell on the rock hard ground they'd be injured. Nor do they have to play in hats or slathered in sun screen. I honestly spent far more time out of doors in the Uk than I do here avoiding the sun, heat, humidity, mozzies etc.

Now our kids are older, the sport if of no interest whatsoever. Even they get bored now (not that they'll admit too frequently knowing we want to go back to the UK!)

loubie

Everyone has a different story Ezzie.
I wish you all the best.

ezzie

Noooo...loubie, please don't be miffed, I just meant to point out that so many come to Oz for 'the outdoor life' and end-up after spending more time indoors.

I certainly didn't play any sports outside school when I was in the UK, so maybe it is more accessible and common over here in Oz. Mind you, I wasn't allowed to play soccer at school as it wasn't 'suitable for girls' (showing my age). I got a petition up for the girls to play football instead of rounders. The teacher relented for one game after school - girls vs. boys, and stuck me in goals with instructions to the boys to hoof the ball right at me, hard and laughed when I cried. I was 11 yrs old, quite shy and was just trying to stand up for injustice. I'm not so shy now and would love to kick a few balls back at that particular teacher...preferably his own!

I relished the sun when I first got here, but now looking at all the wrinkles wish I hadn't. We've so many of our friends now who seem to spend a good deal of their year looking like a partial mummy with all the bits of gauze stuck to them after having skin cancers cut out.

The football situation we know well having a son who's played soccer since he was 4. We knew if there was more than a slight shower, it'd all be cancelled in order to preserve the pitch. Drove us mad as the matches all had to be rescheduled and with three kids playing soccer (yes, my girls played!) it sometimes meant letting one team down which we hated.

We know more and more kids now who are opting to play indoors cricket, soccer, baseball, netball and basketball so they avoid the sun.

Still, today is a lovely mild cloudy day...perfect weather to kick a ball around. Pity I have to clean the shower really then!

stm1971

Loubie, how does your wife feel about being back, does she want to return??

Obviously you know her best but trying to pressure and persuade her too much, especially when you have only just returned could lead to more problems down the line. She has to want to come back to Perth as much as you do for it to work a second time round.

bluekipper

Adelaide has the perfect weather, yes it can get real hot in summer but mostly its just nice were you are able to sit out many months of the year. We definatley spent more time outside there.

I agree with the above post, you have to all want to go back, one person making that decision isnt enough, I was the one who wanted to come bk the UK, no-one else, look what happened there, were on our way back to OZ in April!

Good luck to everyone going bk the UK/OZ

Bluekipper