Broad Shoulders

The country lifestyle in France is sublime, but my point is, that if you are looking for a lifestyle of fun and mischief then that side of France is not for you. City lifestyle in France I have found to be quite oppressive and one dimensional. As I said, their cities are amazing places to holiday and visit, I love Paris! But I hated every minute of living there

Officer Dibble

Well, nobody knows what goes on in her head but if shes looking for 'action'......she need look no further.

Broad Shoulders

you'll get your turn, don't worry. "D" comes after "C"

kporte

She's still working through the a's just now but pencil yourself in for february

Officer Dibble

Fair suck of the sauce bottle.

Broad Shoulders

I hear she does do special requests....

kporte

Interesting on a ping pong thread.....

Officer Dibble

Im Ping and BS is Pong.......doesnt wash you see!

ABCDiamond

Being a fully paid up member of the ping pong club, my view is that I had a totally different attitude towards Australia on my second time around.

I stopped comparing and decided it was a different country, with different ways of doing things, and that I was the one to adapt to a new life.

With a different perspective it actually became a different place, in my eyes.

Reading fan

We too are ping-pongers and unfortunately I think it is a life long condition!

We had moved numerous times in the uk before trying ireland - oz - uk - 0z -uk (3 yrs ireland, 5yrs oz, 3yrs uk and then 3 mths oz ) we have now been back in the UK for 6 mths. The really scary thing is that my husband said at the weekend that he has been dreaming about things in Oz and NZ !

This is it for me though and I have really set about settling into our life back in the UK. It was me who wanted to move back to Oz in the first place but within the first week of going back this time I knew we had made the wrong (and expensive) decision. We just think of it as an extended holiday

We definitely shouldn't have moved back from Oz the first time but we did and now we have to just get on with things. I cannot go through the process of moving our stuff and getting to know people again. We will probably do a six month split in our retirement.

For us personally Uk & Oz both have good and bad points as has been discussed to death. We live in a nice part of the Uk and seem to be doing ok but we had the same situation in Oz (probably more materialistically - if it floats your boat ). We seemed on a pretty even keel. The main thing for us was travel - we did see a lot of Oz - we camped every month practically and have been to Fiji,Tonga,Bali,Malaysia etc but we love going away for weekends here & into London if we want to. We feel fortunate to have lived in Oz and have undoubtedly had a great time but we decided that unless our life was improved considerably in Oz then the Uk was for us - and it wasn't.

It is definitely a strange feeling torn between two countries so far away from each other when we left in Nov the couple who rented the house we were in had just returned from Melbourne swearing that was it for them - 3 mths later we got an email to see if we fancied meeting up in Oz - they were back there !

scottishcelts

Only if it's worth my while.

sr71

Many times on this forum I've seen comments mocking Australians that have never travelled thinking that Australia is the best place in the world and that they are deluded by this.

In some way they are happy because they have never experienced life in other countries. The problem when you travel or live somewhere else is that nearly every place has something good about it and then when you are not there you will always yearn for it.

So personally I think I will always be unsettled, and different emotions and periods in you life can play havoc with your mind, especially in times of sickness or when family members are going through troubled times.

Kath & Graham

Never thought we'd be ping pongers!! mind you OH and kids never wanted to come back to UK we came back due to family. We are now just in the process of going back but this time to Brissy. Shitting myself, we are gonna be a lot worse off and no jobs lined up at the mo scary stuff. Excited and nervous all at once, just wish our eldest came over from Perth think I would feel so much more happier.

Dogs ready to go and kids and OH packing their stuff as we speak They cant wait!!

Kath

goingforit

Thank you all for your comments

As you noted, our attitude is critical, I would hope if we return that we are able to overcome any homesickness and take it for what it is, there is good and bad everywhere but on balance we think Oz may offer us a better lifestyle.

We found it hard to settle before due to our family circumstances, which have now changed, family in the uk will be still be a big factor as we will be leaving a 19 year old behind.

It's ceratinly a curse being an expat, but we wouldnt have turned down the experience and certainly feel our lives have been richer for it. It is harder to go back than it was to go in the first place, no illusions this time.