For a lot of my life I had this irrational, inexplicable feeling that I belonged somewhere else. It made no sense whatsoever. We had travelled a bit but never really felt like we had a 'travel bug'. I tried to ignore it but I got to a point where Mrs M and I sat down and decided where 'somewhere else' might be. We worked out several options and decided on Australia. We did a stack of research, liked what we saw and then on a drunken afternoon in York with a mate we hadn't seen for ages, he told us how great it had been to spend a month on the Gold Coast with his girlfriend (she's from GC) and how one day he planned to move to Australia with her. We came out for a recce / holiday, had a job interview and almost got the job, loved the place .......

So here we are

this

to this

???.

no competition in my book..

Yes it's hard to argue the other way. Who is the scary M.R. James-esque figure in the downstairs window by the way? A ghost! (Old man leans towards grandson) "there was no one in this house when the picture was taken" etc....

table thats our rented house,its not in a posh part of birmingham and you would not get much change out of £200k...

yes your right,,scarey...

For us it's a combination of things -

Politics - political correctness, regionalisation, unfettered immigration, education/health etc gone down the pan, low level crime (not the serious stuff that the government braggs about getting rid of, but the mindless vandalism and anti-social behaviour that seems almost to be condoned here today)

Finance - we work our socks off to pay the mortgage on our shoe box doing jobs we hate, all the time in the knowledge that when we do shuffle off this mortal coil the government will take half of it, if they havn't already taken it for our old age care - and don't get me started on the fact that the only people you see in the pub more than once a week are the ones on benifits!!!!

We loved Oz when we visited, Sir is Oz by decent and my brother emigrated there 15 years ago.

So here's to a new horizon, with options that are just not open to us here

Staff

Don't get me started on house prices. They're pretty outrageous in Australia too. In fact much of Australia now has a worse wage-house price ratio than Dear Olde Pommyland.

Unless, of course, you're shopping with good old-fashioned Sterling! Then a lovely house is still guaranteed. But we should spare a thought for regular Aussie dollar earners because house prices down under are just as much of a disgrace as they are in the UK, because of zoning inefficiencies.

Where will it all end? £799,950 for a crappy mid-terrace in Port Talbot, anyone?

Ast - Who is your new avatar? we have been arguing over it. I think it looks like Pete Waterman

cheeky bleeder..

It is peter waterman isnt it

no its me

oh no it isnt............C x

oh yes its NOT

I thought it was Edward Woodward??

Ast, is it really just about the size of the house?

ooo like thats the pits

For us it was a combination of things:

Parents moved to the USA 5 years ago.
We had moved to Belgium for 3 years and got used to having more space so the idea of moving back to the UK really wasn't thrilling. We at best would afford a 3 bed semi which with 4 kids was a potential nightmare.
We realised after living in Belgium that language was a big issue, so didn't consider elsewhere in Europe.
Ian has very little choice with his job so when a job was offered here we took it.
Mostly though moving here has allowed us the sort of life that we would have gone pretty much anywhere for. The kids are relaxed and happy at school, I am able to do my teacher training course (so I'm not relaxed and happy ) and we will afford a house at the end of this that will be bigger than anything in the UK and possibly will have a bit of land. The space here is a big factor and when you couple that with the safety, compared to the UK, you are quite able to forget some of the downsides.
Financially we are in the same boat as the UK, wanting to buy a house with no deposit etc but what we will get at the end of it will be much more livable and I am at a stage in my life where I want to work again anyway.
The kids here do not grow up as quickly as they do in the UK (I mean in our particular area others may be different) and they do not have the peer pressures that they would have had. This was the same in Belgium so we knew what we wanted for them after that.
Yes we are a long way from family but we have made loads of new friends and are more than happy with our choice.
Good luck to anyone still heading through the process.
Nicky