a Serious Question?
 

For those now in Australia, do you find that you are the one contacting family back in the UK?

Or do you find its a 50/50 thing?

or do you find you simply cant get rid of the bludgers, even contemplated going X directory ?

We find we are the ones always doing the chasing.. must admit pisses me off

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Yep..... just done the calls back to the UK to friends and family - AGAIN.... they keep saying we must call you...... been here three months and only had two calls from family!!!!

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Its a 50/50 for us.

Mainly my parents ring me every 2 weeks. But i do find that we run out of things to say. Always nice to speak to them.
But i use MSN all the time and speak daily to different people on the net!

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yep.. withya on that... must admit.. in 3 years we have had:
1 accidental phone call from my dad
2 from Debs old fella
6 from her mum

Thats it, not one mate called, or other family..

Was chatting to a couple of them on a chatroom a while back, and its oh we must come over and see you, to which i replied, phone us to arrange it... we can find some cheap accomodation foryas !! ya cheap bastards !!

lol

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50/50 however we do speak everyday on Skype. I ring my Brother on his mobile in the UK from Skype but he does ring me sometimes!

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My mum and sister it's about 50/50 but OH's family - he does all the phoning, they hardly ever phone here. They don't send birthday cards for the kids either- it's like we've dropped off the face of the earth :mad:
Bet they'll ring when they want to come over for a holiday though ;)
Like you say Nu-Shooz, I find I run out of things to say to my mum - our relationship isn't the same as it was before. I could be round at her house in the day and then we'd speak for an hour on the phone that night. Think we've forgotten how to talk about cr*p ;)

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I agree at first it was 90 % us calling Uk and now 3 years down the line it is still qpprox 75% us calling.

I am aiming for zero - apart from calling the people that call us - my mum and his dad - that's all that matters - oh and son Turtletom !

Distance makes the heart grow fonder??? not really - I think people move on with their lives and that is all.

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My mother phones at odd times - changes the length of time between calls just to catch me out:mad: In laws we speak to about every month, either us or them call. My brother and sister - go for months with nothing and then spurts of activity - oo er missus but at the moment not spoken to my brother for about six months but then we didn't in the UK and only lived five minutes away. Hubby's sister lives in Perth. Not spoken to them for years. Last time was when she rang her mum to say happy birthday and rang us by mistake. She didn't half ring off quick :lol:

Friends - up and down. Generally us that initiate it.

At the end of the day we were the ones to leave so I guess the UK lot think it's up to us to keep in touch. I see their point but it still bugs me.

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How true is that !

I really think, with being so close to relloes in uk, you can be complacent, but then you contact each other more out of necessity and expectation..

In Australia, I get the feeling.. well you MOVED there if you expect me to pay high international rates to listen to your voice, think again... attitude lol

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Totally agree, well I don't have family left over there now, but it is always the missus ringing the relo's back there.

You've started me off now :frown: last week was her sister's 40th birthday, she was feeling guilty not being there so she phones the next evening (9ish their time) to speak to her mum. Guess what she only shouts down the stairs, to her Dad "I'm not up yet tell her to ring back"" can you believe it!!!!!!!!
:mad:
Anyway only throws petrol on the fire for me, shows how much they need to speak to us back there.


Rant over now!!

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I ring them.

My son - well he's a student and 20. He doesn't talk much when I ring him, so wouldn't think of ringing us anyway. If he wants something in between, he e-mails

My Brother - well he's poor. He can't afford to ring us, so we ring him for 0.01c per minute.

My MIL - She rings us occasionally, but I tell her I'll call back. It's cheaper for us to ring her than her to ring us through rip off BT.

My FIL - We always ring him. He text's if he wants us to call. We don't call too often though as my OH isn't all that close to him. Not going to say too much more as he has asbestosis and is very ill. He'll be lucky to live until xmas.

My OH's Brother - haven't rung him at all, and he hasn't rung us. We get the odd e-mail at birthdays, but nothing else.

My Aunties - I text, or e-mail them. Will maybe call them at Christmas.

There's no-one else that I want to ring :D

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I foned my dad..

He says , mate wait a minute, dogs barking..

15 minutes later.. he returns and says .. you still there??

I am like WHERE THE FOOK ya been????

Oh he said, dog wanted a piss, so took him a quick walk !!!!!!

Thats TRUE i swear !!!!

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Your kidding!:lol: cheek:ohmy:

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that's cheap wendy, 0.01c a minute. who's that with? cant think what we pay with AAPT (they have a 30min plan). i think it depends of which family member/friend we are talking about, some its all one sided, others take turns.

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Were completely different to you guys. We never call back home we said its cheaper for you to call us as they only pay half pence a minute!!

I hear more from my mum and brother now more than i ever did they ring every other day (It was every night at first!) Its really funny as my mum rings and says the same thing "Theres nothing going on here, we lead a very boring life" Its so funny she says it without fail and runs out of things to tell me so ends up repeating herself.

My other sister i hear from emails and she rings every couple of weeks and my other 2 sisters i hardly here from them except on the odd occasion a text message. So our phone bill is very very cheap.