KAO

Sounds a bit loopy, and is probably a very mad idea but here's the plan in a nutshell;

We don't see a future for us in the UK and certainly DO NOT want our two small children to grow up here in this alcohol fuelled culture (the irony of this statement as I type with a glass of wine in my hand!... )

So...

we're going to see how we get on in a hot climate

we're going to see how we get on being in a different country to the friends and family

we're..... going to move to Spain.

Like I say, sounds a bit mad and is not really a step towards my long term ambition of moving to Oz, but until I 'move away' I won't know how I'll cope.

One thing that's been holding us off applying for a visa is my mother in law's poor health. Moving to Oz would mean we wouldn't be on hand to help out and it would be expensive coming back and returning to Oz when the inevitable happens. Where we live currently we're an hour and a half away so a 2hr flight isn't too much to add to that if we were living in Spain.

Does anyone think I've lost the plot? ...

(I'm thinking being a fluent speaker of Spanish would help with the visa too)

Hutch

I can see your logic - but I suppose the obvious questions are, do you speak Spainish and will you be able to find work okay? Also, assuming you cope with living away from the UK and friends and family - that still doesn't mean much in terms of Oz, which you may still move to and hate.

KAO

I agree with what you're saying as moving to Spain is nowhere near on a par with moving to Oz, but the way I see it, if we can't handle being away from friends and family there's no point in us moving anywhere - least of all the other side of the world!

We're looking into taking Spanish evening classes in a couple of months. My partner doesn't have much experience of languages but I've got a-levels in french and italian so I find that I get by anyway even without any knowledge of spanish. I can usually work out what's on a spanish menu and what different shops and products are just from knowing italian. I'm hoping I'll take to it easily. I think it would be great for the kids too as they're so young they're still learning english - learning another language at this stage would be very easy for them and a great asset.

Workwise we're not sure where we'll stand. We're pretty optimistic as there's lots of brits in Spain so there's always an option of locating where work is virtually guaranteed. We do however like 'Spanish' areas as opposed to the tourist areas - after all it is drunken swearing brits we're trying to get away from! Commuting wouldn't be too much of a hardship as we've both worked for at least a year commuting an hour and a half each way every day.

In the short term it's also much easier to move to Spain - you just decide to do it and then go! We are going to save for up to a year before we do it though.

JAJ

It won't help unless you have NAATI accreditation or a bachelors degree taught through that language.

And bear in mind that moving may mean you don't have "recent, skilled" work experience any more, so you may find yourself ineligible to migrate to Australia in the near future.

Be careful.

KAO

ah. Must admit I did overlook the work experience side of things.

For myself it makes no difference since I've taken a break from work to look after the kids, but for my partner this certainly does make a difference and that you for bringing that to my attention (rose tinted glasses)
Well, since we're not planning to do it for a year we'll have to see where things stand at the time.

Hubby is planning to take exams for networking qualifications he's been studying for, before we go, so as to get a better paid job in Spain so this might make a difference.

Hopefully we might be in a position to apply for the visa before we go, if not it may be put back a few months

kevinbloomfield

I'd say there is more alcohol consumed here by young people than there is in the UK. Probably much worse if you decided to live in an outback town with bugger all for the kids to do.
Don't get me wrong, I love it here and have no plans to ever go back to the UK to live, but it's not perfect down under

KAO

I'm not under any illusion that it's prefect in Oz or that Oz's problems aren't even near the scale of the UK's.
There are lots of reasons for me personally but where the kids are concerned I feel that if they have more of an outdoor life they won't be quite as drawn into the social habits of teenagers here. Every teenager experiments but over here there really is very little else to do when it does nothing but piddle down outside.
You're too old for a lot of activities and too young for others. I'm not saying there are no choices but I feel they'd be able to do more in oz. Even simple things like going out for a walk in the evenings as a family which we don't do here largely because of the weather and partly because of the oppressive atmosphere of the uk

If we don't try it we'll never know. If we go to Oz and decide to leave due to the problems being worse then at least we'll have tried.