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Vast areas of Tassie are already turning that pleasant shade of brown, and that's after the wettest Winter on record for some places here! The great wilderness of the Southwest of Tas remains green but the southeast and the midlands in particular are brown for much of the year.

Sam

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It does sound like that doesn't it, no, I work on the railway for a firm based in Italy, sweet:)

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absolutely right, gotta get to a point where you're satisfied with your lot in life or happiness/contentment whatever you wanna call it will always be out of reach

and i think I'm getting my threads mixed up

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From the posts here most people who had it good in the UK say their lives are even better in OZ.

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Not always - majoprity maybe, but certainly not everyone.

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I think having a nice house and a nice car... are well a bit boring... we worked our b***ocks off in the Uk for 20 years and achieved a fantastic lifestyle, fabulous house in the best area etc etc but it was very hollow. I think as long as you have a reasonable roof over your head, (ie one which doesn't leak) and enough money to live on, anything else is what the advertisers tell us we want. We gave up a life which many people would aspire to, because once we achieved it, we realised it was a trick with smoke and mirrors. Life is for taking chances and having fun - so long as you can support yourselves that is. If Australia doesn't work out, what the hell, we can go somewhere else or back to the UK, I have feeling we won't be going anywhere though... :thumbsup:

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That is so true Quoll.

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I think for some working to live isn't enough.
My husband (here in the UK) lives to work to pay for everything, when he had a really good job here about 6 years ago it was very different he worked and we lived, good holidays, money wasn't an issue and he had plenty of days off. Now yes we are incredibly lucky that he has a well paid job but what sort of life is it when on average you work 6 days a week, and juggle having a life outside the home too with spending time with the kids and me?
He's constantly exhausted and unhappy because of it.
He was very happy last year working alternate 3 - 4 twelve hour shifts a week, no night shifts, no evenings at work unless its overtime, at least 3 days off a week and more money.

We don't have the happy wonderful life that some ppl have when they leave here, i'm close to my dad and get on ok with my mum and her husband, but we don't see much of Mr JenJen's family (and probably will never see them again when we emigrate back to Oz) we have some ok friends, I don't think I have any that I will cry over when we leave.
I think the things I will will be the familiarity (I missed that last time) we've lived in a 15 mile radius nearly all our lives up til last year), I will miss my dad and just being able to ring him up and chat, but luckily for me PP has promised me her number when we move - think she might change it after a week LOL.

I do think for some of those that find it hard when they initially move over to Oz you tend to look back at the UK and remember things with rose coloured glasses I even missed my in-laws and my relationship with them has never been good, they've made me miserable for years.
I think it will be very hard until we settle in sort furniture and get kids in school etc

Sometimes I think it's easier for those that are happy here and have this 'picture perfect' life to say hey lets try something new, I yearned for the life back here that I wanted but in reality i'll never have that so we'll be better off out there where we start a fresh.

We are blessed that hubby has a really understanding employer out in Sydney who still considers Mr JenJen an employee as though he never left, they are very supportive and understanding.

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I just needed a change like Obama ;)

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I've never worked my bollocks off for anything, just cruised basically and I've done okay - I earn a very good income and have a nice house with no mortgage.

I love it here.

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To be honest, only the ignorant or the depressed really believe this. Possibly people who consider themselves to be 'sunshine' people (raised on a diet of mediocrity, Med holidays and 80s Aussie soaps)? Can we implicate the producers and the media for those awful migration programmes? Are they as much to blame? Why do people watch them in the first place..

For me, it was the chance to have a bit of an adventure and last hurrah before I settled down. I had a year off from the buzz and work of Europe - I was too old for a visa the next year. It would be fair to say I got sucked in....returned with a new wife and found a niche. Not the niche many find. It helped that we've lived a particular life compatible with the way we now live.

For many it's a move from one, perhaps rather dull existence to another..a move out of a comfort zone they should never have departed..and which is then craved for after all...'you don't miss it until it's gone'..for others - the best thing they ever did...for now - or for the long term.

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I think it is possible to like Australia and recognise a different, and good life in the UK.

Interesting your comments on the city..and working life in London. To be honest I knew a lot of people in the City who were doing very well - in work and socially - infact people on this board would probably find them somewhat elitist in that very reverse snobbery fashon we find in here from time to time. For some, a lot changed in about 98-00 and whilst they were doing very well, house prices rocketed so that there were people with very good jobs who had missed the boat perhaps even through laziness, through being absent overseas (my excuse). Circa 2000-1, some of my privileged public school friends - or rather those who went to the better schools - were moving to areas of South London which they didn't really want to live in because that is all they could afford on their high city salaries - some sectors pay good salaries but not high bonuses...not everyone works for Goldman..or JB Morgan or is a player. Nor does everyone have wealthy parents - the school fees put paid to that.

There is a part of me that loved those old bachelor days, but I can't compare as I have a wife and three children now. Some of the people I know moved away from London and aspire to live how we live out here so it's not so different. (This is the biggest laugh for me- how Australia seems to whip out the horse from under some people, yet in someways, it's business as usual for me. In fact it was always my plan (made 14 years or so ago now) - to move to Gloscestershire after London in any case). So, infact after 6 years, I feel in some ways I'm fairly established here and wouldn't really want to go back to the City and the M4 as I've short-circuited the hard work and have the equivalent over here.

Funny how things work out! I find more parallels here than I ever expected to find, as it turns out. Makes me giggle.