Bungle Bungle

I feel very lucky to have had some wonderful opportunities in my life but sometimes having opportunities and choice can spoil you and make it hard to settle! Does anyone else feel like this?

I've been back in the UK for 8 months after living in Australia. Life in the UK is great in lots of ways but something is missing! The weather never used to bother me and was not a factor in my original move to Australia but after the extremely long and cold winter we have just had I am not sure I could cope with another one!

On a positive note I had some NHS dental treatment today that cost me £45, certainly wouldn't have got that in Australia!

Bye for now,
BB

ElizabethK

what was the reason you moved back to UK? There must have been reasons why you chose to move back, was Australia not what you'd imagined?

quoll

Curse of the expat! It's so easy to look back and see only the good bits, we all do it! (Even me!!!!) You've probably forgotten the stinking hot days when the flies buzz around trying to get into every orifice and you don't go outside because you'll turn into a Walkers potato crisp in 30 seconds and you lie there at night bathed in sweat unable to sleep or you have a minor apoplexy at the sight of the power bill because you had the aircon on all week!

I think it only takes one little thing to be not quite right and we tend to go to that nostalgic place in our minds for when things were different and we focus on the better bits. As for the English weather - could be worse, it could be Canada!!! But if the hot weather is the most important thing in your life I guess you could move on (or make sure that you take a hot weather holiday in mid winter next year) to where the weather is going to be what you want it to be.

Hope it gets better for you!

Bungle Bungle

Thanks for your replies. We moved back as my hubby was struggling to find employment and my job was insecure.

I actually don't like it when it is steaming hot. What I miss particularly is the QLD winter and being able to get out every weekend and go bush walking.I see hikers over here with all the gear on battling the elements to go for a walk and it just doesn't have the same appeal to me!

Australia is far from perfect and there were things we didn't like but we did love the great outdoor lifestyle. Before we left we had an outback adventure through Australia in a 4wd campervan and had the most amazing time, which I think is partly the reason for being unsettled.

I want to be a grey nomad when I retire but in Australia and not UK!
BB

Almo

Yes, we are unsettled after leaving Australia 5 months ago. We left the UK for the hell of it, basically, in 2007, with no plans on how long we would be away. We never hated the UK before we left and we never hated Australia before we left.

It is clear to us that there are things we have in our life here in the UK that we couldn't have in Australia, but the same is true in reverse. We are staying in the UK for the forseeable but I'm pretty sure we will live elsewhere at some point in the future.

SUPERCAD

its probably this feeling that turns people into ping pongers... I reckon its all down to the mighty dollar the more you have the easier it is to settle or not settle and move back or on to another place.

NiHao

Bungle Bungle,

I feel like that is the downside of having been an expat, you end up wanting to put together the best things about one place with the best of another. Of course its impossible and so it can be that whichever country your living in you are wistful for the best of the other.

I don't know the answer but I think maybe all we can do is remind ourselves of our lists of pros and cons for the living in the two countries and see which one "wins". I think we have to make sure we give the correct weighting to everything on the list. If the weather is really important to you then it might be enough to out weigh several pros on the UK list?

In your situation I'd want to wait and see if the summer is enough to make up for the terrible winter (might not be!) and as someone else suggested it would be good to try to arrange to have vacations in the winter so you can get some sunshine somewhere else.

Please keep posting its so helpful to hear how others find the adjustment and whether it ends up being a permanent move for them or not and why.

scot47

The curse of the expat is that after a while, you feel like a stranger wherever you go - even "back home" because that is so different from the way it was !