BadgeIsBack

Interesting one mate. Don't know if I am in your sights - here goes.

Some of my posts might reflect the fact I am often somewhat perplexed by people who maintain that you are not allowed to be happy [in Australia naturally!].

People who maintain that because their life is not what they would like, mine can't be either - when I have dealt with, or managed the very things they haven't worked out, or haven't found. Naturally, if they prefer the UK good for them! If they don't want to work towards finding them, or missed, or found better elsewhere, that's OK too - but then don't blame this remarkable nation. There are a few massive gotchas with Australia and you have to be very aware of them, or like us, get lucky (thanks mate)! After the realisation, I am very happy to share...

As for coming over positive - you know me. There are people out there who just love living life - and life has always been often cruisy, or rewarding, if hard work. Personally, I can't stop having a grin on my face over many, many things. It has been this way since I was a teen. The one thing BE has made me realise is how problematic many people's lives are (which troubles me) - and how easy mine has been, despite a bit of hard work at times which was always fun too.

I'd also say that positive people generally don't need to bother detailing all the negative stuff. eg. The worst thing that happened to me this week was having to rush to Flinders after work to allow me to buy a ticket - having forgotten to get one on the way in.

Other negatives is feeling stuffed when the kids are hard work. A poor day in a good week. Being skint the week before payday. Mower breaking down. Still not managed to fix the light in the bedroom - but we have our sidelights. Quite frankly I don't think we have had to deal with any crisis or difficulty at all. I look back to my younger years and life in London and it was a lot tougher (if rewarding and naturally, nostalgic) but then I was less progressed.

xx

BadgeIsBack

And no amount of pointing this out makes them realise, (Hutch's snob thread targeted at them was lost on a few!) even when you queue all night for hours in the cold, to take a swipe at the nation yourself....annual ticket to complain about Australia - please.

BadgeIsBack

I'd agree. I have always confessed to having an affinity with Australians, there are some things you just gel with - but I also got on as an Englishman with people I shared interests with in the UK. Putting aside the contentious issue of 'selling out', as I have not rescinded my passport or background, adapting the local means and ways is not criminal.

I think Australia strangely cops it in this regard. There are many Francophiles who go to France and turn up with A level French and ways. (And cash in on their experiences with book deals too). There are men and women who have gone off to live with African tribes (with the Bedouin) and have come to love that culture - and had been attracted to that way of life from the outset. They are reveared as Arabists, but if you do the same in Australia, it's ridiculed. It might be that the Brit has a sense of guilt of wanting to live a bit 'easier'.

mrsridge

Its strange, you know there are people on here that totally dislike Australia and its obvious from their posts (and the amount of them) that they just sit on this site and find every opportuniity to bag the place. Some of them even go back to the UK for a holiday and still find the time to do it - I wonder why, if you love the UK so much, are you sitting on a website whilst in the UK, still finding the time to stare at a computer screen and voice your negative opinion? Surely if you are back where you "belong" and you "love it" so much, you would not be wasting your time still banging on about Australia's negatives? Maybe that is just showing your true colours - ie: a negative person... I am not meaning to offend but that is just what I have observed.

hevs

Obviously its about Australia and Uk, but is it not possible not to just like/ dislike things about both without seeming to be "on a side"? (for want of a better phrase)

I am the first to admit that the standards of driving here in Vic are shocking. However at least I get to actually drive and not sit bumper to bumper in the gridlocked town I used to live in. That said, said town was in a beautiful bit of countryside and I miss the churches and village greens, but could never afford to live in said villages because house prices in the UK were just stupid...

Get it now?

hevs

No, no noooooo I didn't need to know that

kporte

What? Spartacus and I wanted to have a good discussion about it.
I think we pulled it off

hevs

No one particular......but thanks for sharing

hevs

eeyyouuuhhh

MacScot

I spent 25 years in Australia and am now in Dubai..and loving it...just as I did in Australia.

When you first come to Australia from the UK...yes, there are many "things" you will miss, excluding the weather, such as your friends..but you make new friends, various food items, TV shows etc !

Now that I am in Dubai, there are many Australian things that I miss and that I had become accustomed to...e.g, SPC baked beans in preference to UK Heinz beans, Vegemite as opposed to Marmite, tim tams instead of penguins, good live bands nearly all the time in Melbourne vs. very few in central Scotland where I cam from...and of course the Mediterranean type climate of Melbourne !

It takes time to settle into a different culture...even though the language is basically the same...but you eventually become part of it !

viviennef

Sounds a laugh a minute round at yours......

<newconversation>
I have to say the same comments over and over and over and over tend to get on my nerves and there are quite a few things I find strange on here.

Not saying people are wrong to do it and not digging at any one person but the things I find strange are:

• people who were unhappy here and have returned to the uk still posting on an expat board when surely now they should have their lives back and be fraternising with the more cultured friends they have.
• people who arent british and who have no connection to britain posting - I welcome them and think the more the merrier but its weird.
• people who seem unable to read or write basic english spending time struggling to put a coherent sentence together when they should be watching aussie tv.
• The posters who sit there and suddenly jump in with and attack you with their "australians...... whatever" statements
• fixations with foamburst when I have never tried it.
• people who moan about the heat as if they didnt know Australia was hot. Its ok to moan its too hot, some days it is but when its in the context of "I hate it here, it has flies, its hot, I cant go out, I live in a shoebox, there are no civilised people, everyone dresses in rags"
• people whose dress sense is a bit suspect slagging off Australian high fashion. The clothes aren't like the UK, the shops aren't like the uk, I can never find anything I like but people wearing clothing with elasticated waists or too tight t-shirts and jeans are not allowed to have an opinion in my book.
• people with too much money
• anyone who keeps cockroaches in glasses in their kitchen to avoid using mortein.

I could go on but I think I should go back to bed. I feel grumpy.

</newconversation>
vivienne

spartacus

That's quite a list vivienne!

Had you just come back from a 'rave'?

Kooky.

kporte and sparty

My signature sums up how I feel on this.

kporte

[QUOTE=Seasider;7352613]kporte and sparty

My signature sums up how I feel on this.[/QUOTE


Sparty is a bad influence on me!

All that talk of mass debating, I just don't know what came over me

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I am becoming ambivalent. I've been here over three years now and the UK is beginning to move further and further into the past. I still think my part of oz is as dull as ditchwater, but that's another matter.