Would you Do it ?
 

Out of interest, who would have come out to Australia knowing what they know now.

If you could turn back the clock and never come here, would you and why?

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

me
loving it ;)

working hard and getting on ;)

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Without a doubt, only thing I'd change is that I'd have tried to get here when I was a lot younger.

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Without a doubt, only thing I'd change is that I'd have tried to get here when I was a lot younger. ;)

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Jinx :D

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Thats true, I seriously started looking at emigrating in the early 90's when in my early 20's, I think it would have been a lot easier to adjust, settle in and feel completely happy.;)

As a contradiction I dont feel in hindsight that I should have come here in my mid thirties, if I could turn the clock back I dont think I would have emigrated, definitely a long hard slog.
Still, over the worst of it and things in the last 3-6 months have got a lot easier , but there are still days when I feel like chucking the towel in, although I am sure England is certainly not the place I grew up in!

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

It's not that I have found it difficult to adjust, in fact I've (and indeed the rest of my lot) have found it really easy. I just wish I'd have been able to experience what it was like when I was young free and single :D

I do wish that we'd have been able to come across maybe 5 years ago, then my 19 year old would have had to come too. As it is he's got his own life, his Uni degree and his friends - all of which made him stay behind. That's is the only regret I have.

But he's not going to be at Uni forever, and has said he'll come over when he's finished, even if it's just for a year.

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life is too short - I try to view decisions were made for various reasons leading up until that point. (with Oz, if friends had not suggest I come & visit them, if I was not contracting I could not have gone, if I had had children by then, if .... then we would not have made the move)

If we viewed the decision to move here as a bad one, we would be on our way back (or maybe another part of Oz). Instead we are loooking to buy our little bit of Oz. Yes there have been plenty of times I have been down and many times in a worse state, which I put down to various situations but I don't blame Australia for them (ie most of the feelings I would have felt where ever we were)

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If I'd come out to Australia knowing what I know now, I'd have done it years ago.

If I could turn the clock back...I'd ban that clock.

Never look back, only enjoy the present and look forward.:)

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From my own personal experience, I have found the Work culture the hardest thing to adapt to. Outside of work I feel at home and I am happy.

I think I just find that there are not the same characters and there is a bit of a mentality of toss it off all day doing hardly anything, then stay late to impress the boss.

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Sounds like you're in the wrong job / trade...

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I don't work just now, but when I get a job I'll let you know what I think ;)

I know my OH said the job he's got is really easy compared to what he did before. Even though it's really the same job.

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I must admit I was self employed in the UK, maybe working for anyone again either here or UK was always going to be difficult?

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It was so easy to emigrate when I did in 1972 :) I loved it from the beginning and still do. I appreciate it all the more too as I have been back 'home' quite a few times and couldn't believe how my 'hometown' has changed :(
Still like to see my friends and rellies though :D

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I would have done everything exactly the same. I have no way of knowing if, had we moved out 10 years ago or 20 years ago, if we would have loved it all as much as now. The girls grew up in my home town, knew their relations, were very happy, as we all were and we are now living here as happy as pigs in shit. Had we moved out earlier they wouldn't have known their relations and would have had to take my word for the fact that they are probably better relations because they are 12,000 miles away:lol: (not all of them, but some anyway)

Never look back. Life is for living and for making mistakes. Without doing that you will never get the life you want. Yesterday is history, today is now and tomorrow doesn't exist.

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

I would have done it younger too

coz then some of my family may have joined me out here, but being the youngest (and 37) my siblings are all too old now (baring 1) and then my mum could be here too:thumbsup:

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That could be a part of it...working for yourself and then working for a 'Boss', plus counterparts is never the same.

The taste of autonomy might have you annoyed...

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Do you hope to have your own business again?

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Yes, but I will have to wait until my Wife can/wants to return to work, we have young kids and although we have nothing against people who drop very young children off to day care we dont feel it is right for us.
Will have to start the business off slowly, however as you are in no doubt aware there are a few hoops to go through with licences and such in QLD before I can do it.

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Don't have to tell me about licences :blink::D

I took 5 years off with my youngest, and it was great. I was never in a position to stay at home with the other two, and I can see a difference in the closeness of me and my youngest and the other two.

It's good that she has that choice, and if it means you need to work for someone else for a while, then good on you.

It will all fall into place, just take it one step at a time. ;)

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If we could turn back the clock we wouldn't have done a single thing differently. Our children got to know their grandparents while they were (are) still alive, they got to experience the culture and life in our home country, my husband got to progress from a very low level job up through the ranks of his former company to a management position and I spent a lot of years doing a job I really enjoyed. We came to Australia, Adelaide first, and experienced what could probably be viewed as hardship, but it was a great experience. We made some really fantastic friends there including Wendy and my best friend and her husband. We've now relocated interstate to WA and are very happy here. My husband has a dream job where he travels all over the state working for a huge international company with the future prospect of moving to Europe in a few years as a company transfer. I have not been out of work since 4 days after our plane touched down in Adelaide and I've never felt so appreciated and useful in my entire career. Our children have made really nice friends in SA who still keep in touch with them and are making some nice friends here in WA. My son has Tourrette's syndrome and in Canada was teased constantly about his vocal tics. Since we got to Australia his tics have all but disappeared. I think he's just so much more relaxed that his little body doesn't feel the need to be constantly moving. Whatever the reason, he's a happy healthy normal 11 year old boy now.
As for the original question of would we change anything? Not a chance.

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We would have liked to move years before we did but circumstances were against us. We came to aus as early as we could and in hindsight I have no regrets.

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We would never have come: but that said I'm glad we didnt know/think through all the negatives cos we are enjoying life out here despite the "downsides"

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Thats how we feel, now we have seen glimpses of a better life we cannot leave plus the fact we now would certainly struggle to pick up where we left off. And I sincerely believe that we did not realise how good life was for us in the uk.

What you gan in one aspect you lose in another, for example we had lots more money in the uk however, we found that life in the uk was hard to enjoy as not enough time.

Here in OZ its harder to earn decent money, and the costs of living are dramatically increasing and we feel its becoming similar to England in the respect of cant do what you want because the cash is too tight even though we have more time :frown::frown::frown:

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Definatly not.

I knew from the moment I got off the plane in Melbourne I had made the biggest mistake of my life I hate it here. I have been in Melbourne for 3 years now. I still know no one what so ever, and am spending yet another Saturday night at home.

My relationship is about to fall apart, my family in the UK have fallen apart.
The worst thing I ever did was come here.

I wish it had never happened.

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

Without a doubt, only thing I'd change is that I'd have tried to get here when I was a lot younger.

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On not too frequent visits back home ......I couldn't believe how much my old friends had changed :eek::eek::eek::eek:

Andrew Flintoff's dad Colin was my best mate ......... or rather I was his best mate; we were plumbing apprentices together in Preston........... we did Karate, shared guitar lessons......... had the same musical interests, used to go fishing together. Colin never drove in those days...... always used my car.

I scored a job in Bermuda and Colin came round to our place on Brookfield to see us off. Later that year I was 'home' on holiday and in a position to offer him a foot in the door re going over to Bermuda........ but he declined as he was set in his ways at Courtaulds.

We kept in touch over the years. I offered to put him and his wife Sue (we were in the same class at Holme Slack Primary school) up at Carramar rather than them waste money on hotels if they were coming over for the Ashes. No response.......... didn't want to know us. At the time my dad worked at the same school Sue taught at and he had watched young 'Freddie' grow up over the years.

I had a reunion a few months back in Preston with a few other former apprentices who worked with Colin ............ they said the same thing; there is an arrogance about him and he doesn't want to know them either.

Never forget where you have come from......... my old man once drummed into me!!!!!! Doesn't matter how successful you become......... never forget where you come from. :thumbdown:

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:thumbup:Interesting reminiscences Bobcat. It's a shame when folk forget their roots.:thumbup:

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That is so sad. I can't imagine how hard it must be for you. Hope you don't mind me asking but presumably there are major hurdles in the way of you heading back? I am interested (nosey actually) as to why your UK family have fallen apart because you're not there, or maybe you didn't mean that, just one extra thing added to the burden of being somewhere you don't want to be.

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

No its got nothing to do with me, its more of an "even if I went home everything would be different now" sort of feeling.

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Good question, but a very difficult one . Been here for over 20 years, well settled and very happy here , but every once in a while we ask ourselves the question, ' What if"?

Only human nature I reckon.

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That really sucks. I think from reading on here and the MBttUK site that it's a 50:50 split on those who go back and it's like they've never left and those that go back and find it's all changed (or the people have) that they don't feel right there either. Hope I'm never in the position to find out which side I would fall on. Hope also that you find something or somewhere that's right for you.:)

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I know exactly how this feels. 16 years ago I followed my husband to the other side of our country for his job. On the way to the airport I started feeling a little twinge of "is this the right thing for me?" By the time our plane started taxiing down the runway for take off I was sobbing so loudly that a passenger across the aisle asked if I was ok. The crying didn't stop for the entire 5 hour flight.
We made a deal that if I didn't feel settled after 2 years then we would move back home. Just as the 2 years was coming to an end I ended up pregnant and my OB wouldn't let me travel as I was high risk. Once the baby came we stayed for another 8 months, so our original 2 years turned into 3 1/2.
We did move back to the area we came from and stayed for 11 years. We've now decided it's again time for a change, so came to Australia. We're all settled nicely here now, so things are good. Maybe in a few years it won't be so good but for us it's the right thing.
Perhaps you can suggest to your partner that you give another country a try for a set period of time. It doesn't have to be where you came from, but somewhere you can agree on. If you are suffering, then it's time for you to do something about it. Being unhappy is a terrible feeling.

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Knowing what I know now, the only thing I would have changed is when I came out ten years ago, I should have bought a little plot near the Coolum coast for the future, to put a wee beach cottage on it. I wont get that now until we retire.

Like Moneypen said, I love the fact that my kids know their family in the UK and have an established relationship with them. I would not have changed a thing.

Happy as.

Re: Would you Do it ?
 

No