Mmmm...yes...I would have to read too many theads and posts to totally catch up but you are right some people seem to have unrealistic transfer expectations. Many seem to come thinking life here will be one long holiday if it was mine would be one of those Holidays from Hell.....if you are here to stay you just have to try and make the most of reality.

My stories a bit more complex in that I have lived a long while on the west coast of Canada and then moved here. I loved my life there and loved my life in the UK but I hate being here. I've learned that weather is not one of the keys for my happiness; it's good quality people. Not to say that good quality people don't exist here but it's more that I can't get away from the idiots like I could in Canada and the UK.

I think it's going to be split down the middle with respect to those that love it and those that hate it. I happened upon a page at the immi site that appeared to say that about half that come here leave. I find it interesting though, but I think it maybe a bit skewed due to the flocking phenomenon (people of like mind gathering together... it's an ego thing), but I find more immigrants admit to not being all that happy living here. Most seems to centre around the australians and their rough demeanour. I'd say it's about 7 out of 10 that have some reservations about living here.

Totally disagree with your sweeping statement.

I thought the UK was Ok, neither liked nor disliked it, I knew it had good and bad.
Moved to Oz to see if there was more good than bad and found I had travelled back in time 30 years.
I earned twice my salary in Oz, did this want to make me stay in a backward country no !!
Yes I whinged every day in fact, well lets be serious there is a hell of a lot to whinge about !!
I stayed true to myself and didn't buy into the sunshine and backwardness, my brain wouldn't let me.

I am back in the UK, I see it through different eyes !! Thank you Australia
for making me realise that everything that could make me happy is right on my doorstep and in the 21st century.

I agree with that but... it would be nice if some intelligence could be applied. I.e. lose the racism keep the family values... The family values here appear to be strong (relatively speaking). I went back to Canada to visit friends after 3 years here and was stunned by how many couples were getting or had gotten divorced, kids were going off the rails... It was disturbing.

Yea - well I totally disagree with your sweeping statements. Gee what an extraordinary thrill ride of a thread.

How very remiss of you. When you arrived here 30 years ago, did you buy any harbour-side property in Sydney? You'd clean up if you sold it now.

You earned twice your salary. But it's your salary, so how could you earn twice your salary? Doesn't compute love.

So, you know back up there, just now, when you said I made a "sweeping statement" and you "totally disagreed with [it]" - ermmm, you appear to be agreeing with it now.

Did you escape from Dartmoor prior to emigrating to Australia? Is there anything else your brain won't let you do? Like, I don't know, saying anything that makes any sense at all?

Does your brain let you see the UK? That's very nice of it.

Right. That place with the comedy double-act for a government, a national debt of a trillion pounds and only the certainty of complete austerity to back-up the near bankrupt economy. How very 21st century - if it means staying solvent, I'm happy to carry on living here in the 1980s.

There's no rhyme or reason!

Anectode:

Someone once gave the specific example that, essentially, moving to Australia because you wanted your children to cuddle a koala was crap. (And the very stuff of rose-tints). Personally I've always found the whole whale/dolphin thing crap. I can see that view.

But I suppose alot of Australian life is a bit different hence the initial attraction.

Then you get people who move back to the UK and talk about lambs in the fields, cowslip in the meadow, and glory in some quite ordinary settings which can be experienced in any country. People reflect on snow and winter settings the like only seen once in 10 years....Someone once said they missed the sounds of carol singers walsailing from door to door.. this is not country specific - this is just a case of whether people in your neighbourhood do this sort of thing...if this is not rosetints then I don't know what is(!) It's like people get into a situation of complete depravity and chaos. Some of the MBTUK forum sounds like a group of Daily Mail Mums. Yet they all resent and universally agree that the Mail Is Bad(!)

My experience with BE is that British expats are more than happy to embrace and take over for themselves the tall poppy/battler syndrome and do it better than the locals. BE has to be one of the most (at times) negative forums I have ever chanced on, with a common denominator at times leading south...I suspect it's because most forums I visit cater for a niche interest of fairly highly resourceful and focused people more interested in the subject matter than in personal life or needs. BE can be a sort of creche for unhappy people in the midst of personal crisis (whether outbound or inbound) and the subject matter is so diverse friction develops. That diversity though leads to an interesting forum...

Godzoner - religious zeal, I suspect, nothing to do with NZ. Never heard an Australian mention it, though.

I can't work out where people get their 30 year assertions from. Don't people know you can buy mobiles and stuff here?

But I see their point - genuinely.

I honestly believe that half the forum are IT geeks who really only want to spend all their time upgrading their PCs, playing games, downloading bittorrents and shopping (and researching) for gadgets - online.

That would explain about 90pc of all known complaints about 'choice', broadband limits, et cetera! It's a forum, many of us work in IT. Surely it explains alot of behaviour(!)

God you really are an idiot, I haven't made one sweeping statement.
I earnt twice as much money in Australia as I did in the UK.
I have a brain, hence I couldn't live with the backwardness I came up against every day in Oz,
I have agreed with absolutely nothing you have said.

Lets just cut to the chase and say there are people who love Australia at all costs. (this is you)
and people who couldn't stand it. (this is me)
no amount of chatting on a forum will make us see eye to eye.

You slag me off, I slag you off.
I am off for a nice walk in the countryside where I live.

Oh! can I just mention, if you all love Oz so much, why are you always on this forum justifying yourselves ?
Instead of enjoying this wonderful country you all are so grateful to live in.

Just a thought that always makes me smile.

Spot on! It's a bit sad coming on a forum and justifying your choice of country.....
I didn't whinge about the UK and I'm not whinging about living here, life is too short!

He laid into you this time, but Hutch has been quite capable of slagging off aspects of Austalia.
Internet usage is a practise utliised here too. I walked most of Sunday in the Australian countryside - as you would put it - infact I have tendered an interest in joining the state Bush Search and Rescue team which operates self-sufficiently in small groups with VicPolice. This will dovetail nicely with my vol firefighter activities...and after my daily trg session a bloke has to rest at home with his family of an evening you know!!

I am sure though that there are souls in both countries who are of weak and feeble mind and body.

Get kicked out of charm school did we?

Strange - not seen much evidence of it so far. In fact I'm staggered that you manage to operate a computer.

Backwardness or rude ingrates with a chip on their shoulder. Pretty sure I know which I prefer.

Thanks for telling me what I think, when you have absolutely no clue what I think or feel about Australia.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Make sure your minder knows where you are.

Well, three things. Firstly, you're not even a British Expat so what are you even doing here? Secondly, if you love the UK so much, why are you posting on a forum for a group of people you're not a part of? Thirdly, the only justification is coming from the Lord High Whingebag herself.

I'll bet - that and pretty plastic windmills - and balloons - and pink fairy dresses?

I'm justifying jack shit. This thread was about the fact that the world's full of whining babies who struggle to manage unless everything's handed to them on a plate. And all I've seen so far is a load of whining babies .... whining.

It could just be me but your last couple of posts in this thread don't do you any justice at all Hutch. You come across as extremely childish, not at all what I've come to expect from a former journalist
I hope this isn't the "new you"

Then you clearly haven't been reading the forums very closely. If I'm coming across as childish then I must have raised the reading age a decade, because compared to the usual drivel on this site I sound like a retired Oxbridge professor.

Still, I'll bear it in mind and just make shit loads of jokes about knobs and tits next time.

Well look who didn't read the post "closely" I clearly said "your last couple of posts in this thread"

However it's nice to see you have such a high opinion of yourself, unfortunately it's not your opinion of yourself that counts

Your sounding like a prat & from the feedback coming my way I obviously wasn't alone in that thought

I've left nice easy paragraph breaks between my sentences to make it easier for you to tear apart my post sentence by sentence

sadieb? is that the "i-hate-living-in-backward-australia-but-i'm-going-to-become-an-aus-citizen" sadieb?

ho ho.