MY observations.
 

All I can share are my own personal observations, it really doesnt matter to me if others dont agree as it is what WE are seeing with our own eyes.
Stuff is cheap, groceries are VERY cheap. Fresh fruit and veg seems amazingly just as fresh and as tasty as in Brisbane, of course there is no real real reason why that shouldnt be the case.
Driving is a joy, the drivers generally are courteous and appear to know what they are doing.
Petrol is expensive, we have a Prius so together with 20 quid road tax against rego we are paying roughly the same here overall to run a car.
We arent seeing the rubbish on the streets that others have mentioned (in other areas maybe ?)
People are friendly and helpful and dont appear to be obsessed and scared for their jobs and futures.
Get off the main roads and there are literally thousands of wonderful little villages and hamlets.
Even our born and bred Brisbane kids are having a ball and are only missing their friends and permanent broadband :)
The weather has been crap with a few really nice days inbetween but we didnt come here for the weather.
So far so good, we are all having a ball.

Re: MY observations.
 

Pleased it's working out for you

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Ah Chris, you are lucky you are in the equivalent of godzone country, being in the west country. Lots to enjoy and a slower pace of life than frantic surburbia in London.

I still get my nature notes from the Berks Bucks and Oxon wildlife people, and I still miss the British countryside spring, though from what I hear it has been fairly miserable after a mild winter. It is so beautiful when the leaves first come on the trees, followed by the huge candlesticks of the chestnut trees- we don't have that out here,although there are other compensations like the amazing purples of the jacarandas and currently Tibouchinas.

Enjoy- hope the honeymoon period lasts for you.:thumbup:

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Is that all? Food, weather ...do tell us there is more!

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I woud agree with most of this and add that utilities and BB are very cheap compared to Sydney. I'm from Somt originally but now live in Surrey. The driving is much more courteous and safer for me as a cyclist, but I find the attitude to parking grossly inconsiderate in the sth east a lot of the time. It's the only thing that really disappoints me with being back in the UK. (well that and those freakin Wonga ads;) )

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As you moved from a city of 1 million people I presume you have moved to a similar sized city so that your comparisons are valid? Oh wait, there's no cities that big in Somerset.....

BB

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I'm off for a stint on Guernsey in a few weeks,i'll report back on the difficulties of island life and the dog shit;)

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I hear packs of dogs run wild over there, tis a shocking place, best take yer wellies :D

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Cool, I lived there for a year.

I used to drink in the Wellington in St Peter Port. Don't know if it is still there but it was/is an Irish pub, rough as hell. I was told the IRA used to send blokes to the Channel Islands to lay low when the authorities were on to them in NI. Don't know how true that was but there was quite a turnover of hard Irish blokes that I made sure I didn't get into a fight with.

Also the Jamaica Inn in St Sampson, used to hang out with Oliver Reed there - true story.

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We went to Guernsey on holiday twice when I was a kid. We used to wander along St Peter Port and watch the lads fishing for garfish off of the breakwall (might have been a lighthouse, I can't remember).

Guernsey is famous for tomatoes and one day we went to see the fishermen and they all had boxes of soft tomatoes ready to throw at boats from the annual sailing regatta if they got too close.:lol:

I remember going to an underground hospital museum, I don't think I liked it as I was very young and a bit freaked out. Took a day trip to Sark as well, that was nice. Can't comment on the pubs as I was only about 8yrs old:rofl:

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I once had a pint of Guernsey Gold Top. Other than that, I know foo kall about the place. :)

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2 million now thank you ;)

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-1 .....yeeeehaah :)

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Brisbane suburbia would not be anything like Somerset...nowhere in the UK really can be.....to me it's as clear as mud....

you can of course make literal comparisons : I compare rural counties and London with semi rural Melbourne and Melbourne itself and I like what I see...

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Aha!!!! the biggest difference between rural UK and rural australia... Is that most people can't afford to live in the rural bits of the uk....where as rural australia can be dead cheap...

I think I have the answer!!!!!!!!

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really? not sure I follow you there? sorry Eddie...

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The beautiful picturesque RURAL villages in the uk are inaccessible to most first time home buyers.... Look at average wage/house prices.... I lived for a lot of my teens/adult life in rural suffolk...

Unless things have changed hugely since we left... ?

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:) You off to Texas ? :lol: We seem to lose quite a few bayside dwellers :sneaky:

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Nah ! But if i change my mind i'll be sure to let everyone on here know about it ......several times :lol:

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Yeah tell us about the dolphins and nice beaches

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well of course after bringing in loads of AUDs he is now rich by UK standards.

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Yep very true mate, no way could I have afforded a house in the village I was born & raised in. The flash city commuters that wanted to live in the "countryside" drove up the price of workers cottages to the point that the farms couldn't get any locals to work for them. Six of one & half a dozen of the other though as it was the same farmers that sold off the tithe cottages in the first place.

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We certainly appreciate what the UK has to offer & Europe for that matter second time around ...

We miss Australia often, but only the friends we made - not so much the place. Then again, I think Perth was a bad choice ...

If we had our time again, we'd be all over Melbourne like a rash.

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Yes. When I tell people I want to live in the country they think I mean the bush. There is a big difference...

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pmsl:lol::lol:

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I feel a ping pong coming on!

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I'll check the Welly out:thumbup:

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That's interesting you should say that as I remember my dad and my older brother on returning from a long weekend on the piss from there;not being at all happy that they had been pulled aside and detained for questioning.

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Not in the '10 year plan' ;)

After that, without doubt ...

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That's because the rural bits of the UK are heartbreakingly beautiful with quaint villages, windy country lanes, green green meadows. country pubs, stunning views, etc. it's expensive because you get what you pay for.

The rural bits of Oz aka "the bush" look like a nightmare scene out of Deliverance, I would sooner stick pins in my eyes than live there. :lol:

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To me, there is bush: outback, semi-outback and there is country.
So, there are country towns that are quite nice, especially in Victoria. Down near the Grampians etc.

Probably true. I say it depends where you are though. Just outside the captial cities in Australia you get Uk style villages...they are not common and if you find one - stick there! Where we are is nice...and I love walking to the post office with my kids. Even in the Melbourne autumn and winter it can feel very much like the UK - but it's still 'old Australian/UK' culture.

I couldn't live in suburbia.

I love the outback, and the real country - I like the harshness - but everything I've done with the bush has been connected with agriculture so I am closeted from the real mundane, or poverty of the bush in some ways...in fact all the people I know who are out bush are sort of 'wealthy', really. What I like is the fun things to do - even just hooning down a dirt road in a farm ute with the dogs on the back. 10k to the next little farm and a bite to eat. It's sort of isolating but also fun at the same time. Very hard to explain the draw - and it takes an interesting man or woman to be able to do it.

Now I see where you are coming from. I think there are exceptions though because Chris was telling us you can buy a 3 bed place for 250k and I checked up and there are corners of counties far from the madding crowd:p where there are bargains to be had like he says. Depends what you are after..

We would want an acre/half an acre and a run down 3 bed place too....and then build out the back to make it big enough to live in. It's only theoretical because why would we need to when we have it here - and a city like Melbourne to fall back on.

Funny you should say that...

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Badge

"I like the harshness"

That is what I did not like about Australia and I love the gentleness of the countryside here.

My friend who wants to go back to Oz also loves the harshness and the wildness, funny old world, wouldn't do if we all thought the same eh?

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hmmm...but I bet I would not like the harshness if...
it was true boganville in Deliveranceville....or a tv theatre room in the suburbs of outer Melbourne...
- as apposed to hooning around on a property with people who I get.

I have come to the conclusion that it only works on my terms...that's the reality.

I have mentioned on these forums a couple of times, that now I get out walking in it - I do find some of the forest overly harsh. That's why I llike the high country and the Bogaine plains.
How the eff do you spell it...

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I have been driving around with my mouth open most of the time, I really cant get over the sheer beauty of these places. I have never been attracted to Australian country towns but I know others are.
We have found many beautiful affordable houses, it certainly isnt fair to say that you have to go 'far from the madding crowd' to find a lovely place for 250k.

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I believe you...I looked into it around the time you mentioned it.

I think that some people are focusing on the really flash places, or they're elsewhere. Certainly the 250 GBP places rarely come up on 'Escape to the Country'. But the Uk is not the size of a postage stamp.

Here we go:

http://www.findaproperty.com/for-sale/property-10695729

http://www.findaproperty.com/for-sale/property-9744155

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Not surprising really, the whole Empire, especially Americans, are envious of our sleepy hamlets and magnificant rolling hills.... To be anything other than awestruck by the magnificance and sheer oppulance of that Sceptered isle, England, would be churlish.. Nothing compares.... God Save the King, land of hope and glory... Scones for tea and dark satanic mills

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Watch out for the flies :D

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They are certainly attractive properties, and for around £250k you would have a lot of choice in a lot of places.

However, the fact remains that a large proportion of the UK population cannot afford £250k. While it may be affordable to Chris and others, it does NOT mean that 'in general' UK property is affordable etc etc

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Absolutely... For example

If a new police officer married a newly qualified nurse and they decided to buy... With a combined income of around 45k pa pre tax, how much realistically would the banks be prepared to loan them.......??????? How much could they afford to borrow?

And not everyone is in comparatively well paid jobs like police and nurses ... In fact there are a lot of people not in jobs at all.....

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Most of Manchesters "dark satanic mills" and it had a lot of them, are now 'trendy' flats in an area that has been rebranded as the "Northern Quarter"