I refused to do the goodbye at airport thing - if you don't need to screw with your head, don't do it. I have also never said goodbye to any one back in the UK. I've only said 'see you later' either when leaving originally, leaving after a visit last year or when I'm finishing a phone call. Goodbye sounds terminal to me so doesn't get said.

You could change your outlook, slowly, without realising.

After more than 4 years?! Doubt it!

And why live in the hope that, after another dozen years or so, you don't mind it so much anymore?!

well we have been here 18months and yes so far we love it, never say never thats my motto. Don't get me wrong Oz has its ups and downs but we like it so far xx

More like it becomes very difficult to live somewhere else.

Melbourne has more levels than I've managed to unravel in my 30 years of living here. Gets better every year.

Some do. It took me a lot more than 4 years. In my first few years I would have agreed with you, but now, after I changed, I can say it was worth it.

Why though should I become a different person in order to feel less unhappy in a place I essentially don't like all that much?!

Seems weird to spend several years being miserable only to eventually get to the same point in Australia that you were at in the UK before you left.

Maybe, although the kind of thing I'm talking about means that you find it difficult to feel comfortable in the UK again.

It happens to a lot of people.

Pretty soon we'll have you chanting "one of us" .....Dont go to sleep LOL

As long as you keep an open mind about experiences, unless you are determined not to like the place of course.

Not determined not to like it. But am determined not to spend years wasting time waiting to suddenly wake up and think ''oh! now I get Australia! I love it now''.

Funny how some people just can't accept that some don't like it. I wonder if it raises a few insecurities for them.

YES 1,000,000 times.

Not for me at least, there are plenty of things I dont like about this part of Australia. I really hate the brown and the dry heat we get in February. Today suits me far better. As a City though Melbourne really can get to you in a good way.... Depends if your a City lover I guess. I always have been.

With a bit of luck the Wife and I will have a few drinks with friends down one of the bars in Sydney Rd Brunswick tonight, dozens and dozens of really great pubs and bars within 3k's of my house. It's got to the stage where we can walk into any bar down there and probably bump into someone we know. Basically I'm saying I feel like a local and therefore belong n a very large cosmopolitan area. I'm not just talking local pub here.

Everyone finds their own way, I'm just saying what I've found here, I cannot imagine finding anywhere else now.

It took me a long time to *get* the culture in Aus. Whilst I haven't changed, I have adapted.

No where is perfect, but overall we love it

You can only do what is right for you. For some of us it's all worked out perfectly while for others of us it's been a total disaster. The vast majority of us are somewhere in between those 2 extremes just getting on with our day to day lives. Do what makes you happy and don't worry about what anyone else thinks.

You never know mate.... two years ago we would have been stood shoulder to shoulder arguing against all these nutters who can't get the fact that Australia is a bland, boring, dull as ditchwater existence.... but now, while I'm not quite on the other side of the fence I am at least sat on it. I have obviously changed in some way, because Australia surely hasn't, so you can never really be sure.

I said this to you some time ago and it's still true... get the Hell off this board. Arguing about the relative merits of the UK vs Australia won't help you resolve how you feel and will probably only make it worse. Try and walk away from BE. I did for 12 months and came back a different poster (well in some respects anyway)