Paul and Steph

Hi Dudley

Hear what you're saying. In a very minor way, the last 2 years have bought severe flooding and storms in our sleepy corner of the UK. Unheard of before! We have had people killed by falling trees and mini tornado's ripping mobile homes in half.

Guess nowhere is perfect.

Steph

pommie bastard

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Wolfen
Negative me never I just have yet to find this Utopia that only lives inside of the dreamers heads here , many posts on this question are pointing out that the reality of Austrailia does not match your dreams.
Happy always but bored with Australia yes ,there are positive aspects but in my opinion out weighted by the backwardness of a country at the arse end of nowhere.
All I hear on this site is BBQ, weather and beaches thats all Australia means to you so when it pisses down for weeks on end it whats left?

Perthguy

Maybe ppl talk about those things cos they are things they would enjoy and they don't get any of them in UK.
And as for it pissing down for weeks on end.....I'm sure ppl can put up with that so long as they can enjoy the other 9 months.

pommie bastard

When we went back to the UK for a holiday the dreaded BBQ was thrown at us , everywhere we stopped with friends and family its a plague world wide.
The Weather is a mind thing I enjoy seasons day after day of baking sun and a brown landscape does sod all for me .
Beaches in Wa are great to look at but lacking in things to do , went Florida they put everything on the beaches including sun loungers and waiter service also things for the kids and adults.
WA has a not in my backyard mentality all beach side devolvement is knocked back thats why people holiday on the Gold Coast , this state has got a lot going for it but is kept back by old money that refuses to move with the times.

Houdini

You banged the nail on the head there - living like an ex-pat in any country will always alienate you from the locals. Make an effort to fit in to the local lifestyle, culture, traditions etc. and soon you will feel more at home. Sadly I think there are a few people on this forum who choose to live like expats in their new country and then complain when things don't work out as they'd like them to, or they get offended for being a called a pom.

Remember, their land, their rules. If you don't join in you'll always be on the sideline.

Perth Helena

Don't know why some think the bbq is "dreaded". It's just another way to cook things - meat, veg, tofu, etc. Rather than get spatters all over the cooktop, or heat up the kitchen with the oven, or have cooking smells throughout the house, or have pans to wash, just put it on the barbie. We had one right outside our kitchen door in Vancouver, under cover of the overhang. Even in pouring rain, we'd frequently barbeque. Some things just taste so much better done that way, especially lamb (marinated first in dijon mustard, garlic, lemon juice, white wine, rosemary and soy sauce). I've tried it in the oven, it's great too but the grill imparts a nicer flavour. Seems less fatty too since most of it drips off.

I agree with you to a point. But I don't like ALL beaches to get like the Gold Coast, Miami or Waikiki. Problem is, how to keep it from getting that way all up and down the coast. It'd be okay in small pockets to have hotels (low-rise preferably), with the beach lounge chairs and waiter service, but not everything. I wouldn't mind more cafes and restaurants where you can sit outside and eat and drink, versus all houses. I'd like to see wider paved boardwalks where more people can walk, cycle, run, rollerblade. Undeveloped, unspoiled beaches are quite popular as more places get spoiled with overdevelopment. Nothing uglier than clumps of tall hotels right on the beach. Just doesn't fit.

And as far as things to do, get off your butt and use your imagination. Seems like you're the "sit back and entertain me" type. Beaches should be about doing stuff. Snorkel, bodyboard, surf, build sandcastles, run along the beach, swim laps, or just bob around like a cork. I'm not a fan of all sorts of entertainment on the beach, since it will all cost money. The beach is nice because of its low cost factor. Start making it like Disneyland and there'll be no low-cost options for parents and kids will get even lazier & useless when it comes to entertaining themselves.

Houdini

Yeah what's wrong with the odd BBQ or 7 each week? If the weather was better here, everyone would be having one!

sashimi

More or less agree with you?! If people want room service on the beach fine, but it's definitely not what I'd go there for. A beach, in my opnion, is for swimming, snorkeling, walking etc. Gold Coast development up and down the west coast would be a nightmare, not to mention the pollution from dozens of huge hotel complexes. It IS nice that there are places left that are not paved over, developed over and fenced off and off limits to the likes of us with a more normal budget. If PB wants entertainment and waiter service on the beach there are still enough places in and around Perth where he can spend some of that hard earned cash the taxman didn't steal off him!!

Sashimi

cresta57

WE have recently returned from Oz (Sunshine Coast)and we were amazed to find barbacues dotted about the area what a fabulous idea. They were cleaned daily by the council and it was a great way to meet people. We returned to Grimsby near Cleethorpes took a look around and realised just how much of a rut we were in. I could never imagine barbies being set up along the promenade as some moron would come along and abuse it or turn it on and sit a "victim" on it for kicks. The council would never clean them and they would become rendezvous points for druggies as do most of the children's parks in the area. I realise that Oz has it's problems but you have a choice to make and we made ours we need to get out of this hell hole, life is what you make it and we don't like the one we have at this time. We don't expect utopia but just a new beginning if things don't work out then we will rethink. Hopefully we wont become one of those wingeing poms.

Debbie

Ps we love barbie food!!!

gle

In aussie people probably say
...spending most of your time indoors cos in either too hot or too humid

record Low unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates, 'free' healthare

house prices are increasing so if you are lucky enought to have a house you probably quids in, besides mortgages are the same in aussieland.

most children are in danger from their own family members rather than strangers


More people die in car crashes than train/plane crashes - its official


life is what you make it - it is your outlook that needs amending rather than thinking geography will sort thing out for you

wolfens_wife

Well lets just say hopefully we will find out whether its my outlook, not the geography that needs changing. We can always come back if we don't like it!

Lets face it though, where are all the Australians that want to migrate and live in the UK????

If you read the OZ news, most aussies can't believe how much we pay for items ... ie. petrol, and think our train service is comparable to a third world country! Lets just take the awful news about Holly and Jessica being killed last year.. it was in the OZ news for several weeks. It wouldn't have been if it was an everyday event in OZ.

Yes, we all moan about it constantly, but its the people who are emigrating and part of this forum that have the guts and determination to try and do something about it!
You say mortgages are the same in OZ... most of us have worked out by now that we will be able to buy a house outright!

I think Britain is a beautiful country with heaps of history and I will miss seeing the wonderful castles and the countryside. Our children will be brought up to be proud of being British, but also know that we have tried to make a better life for them in OZ.

If you think its so wonderful here, why dont you stay!

tinaj

You should thank Australia for one thing - educating your children!, if you live in the S.E that is.
The longest and most popular reason for them coming over here is to earn money fast and take it back with them. There are so many Aussies and Kiwis working in London schools that the education system would collapse without them.
They have the right idea though, London is for earning high and leaving quick. They tend to stay around 2 years and save as much as poss, enough for a nice deposit on a flat back home. I don't think many of them are keen to stay here permanently, unless they marry a Brit that is.

Herman

Oh how I laugh. Sunshine sunshine sunshine. Dream dream dream.....
Give me a hot meal on a cold day and an evening of English TV after a satisfying day at work any day over a boring evening of drinking crap beer and eating charcoal flavoured meat, being bitten by mossies and attacked by a myriad of giant insects whilst nursing ever growing feelings of resentment after having been exploited by a good old Aussie employer for yet another 12 hours that day!
Just an alternative point of view.

denhim

i totaly agree with everything you have to say wolfens wife.

from the research ive done and this includes visiting oz and browsing 100`s of sites i can honestly say that for ME its the place to live.
i`m a welder and i look through job pages here and can i see any welding jobs around where i live? NO. i would have to go to holland or belgium (which i dont want to do). yet i search the ozzie job sites for Perth and dozens turn up.
i hear people saying that the wages arn`t as good in oz. well the wages ive seen been offered to welders in perth match my wage or beat it.
ive read tax is high in oz, well its just as high here.
i could go on and repeat all the reasons everyone has been putting on this forum about why we want to leave the u.k and resettle in oz, but i tell you the way things are right now in this country, the amount of people wanting to emmergrate(not nessessary oz) is only going to rise and rise.

Herman

One quarter of professional Australians, or 1 million of them, aged between 25 and 40 are in Europe, mostly the UK. Every year approximately the same number of Australians emigrate to the UK as came the other way. The numbers are restricted by visa allocations so who knows how many there could be wanting to make the move. Since I arrived in Sydney 2 years ago 5 people from my team of 30 have moved to the UK. In the last 4 years I'm the only one from a similar sized team in London to make the move the other way. Almost everyone I speak to here wants to go to the UK to earn some money and to experience what it has to offer. I also come from Bristol so I know why you ask this question since not too many immigrants head to the south west, but let me assure you, London is absolutely chocka block with Australians, some of whom are good friends of mine and they love it there. One of my Australian colleagues here in Sydney came back to Sydney a year ago after 5 years living in London because they had a child and wanted to bring it up here. He told me at the weekend that they want to move back to the UK and think they made the mistake of their lives returning to a "dead end country". His words, not mine.
Your perceptions are so far from the truth they are laughable!