Is anyone regretting coming back from Canada and thinking or planning to give it another go?
I think we are. And I start asking myself if we are doing a good thing.

I've done the yo-yo thing. Trouble is I now want to go back to the UK again and am very interested in why you think that you might give Canada another go.

Well,Do not get me wrong I still remember vividly all those things that used to cheese me off in Canada. But in a nutshell England we see today is not the one we left in 2001 and missed so much in Canada. Mortgage that we will never pay-up is another thing. Perpetual lack of money in your pocket.
Never experienced that so severly in Canada. In Vancouver it always seemed like I was earning peanuts converted into pounds, but at least every 2-3 months one could put by a .k or 2 to buy something special. Here taxes take it all. Next one is health. Food here in England and the weather pollution I do not quite know which one causes it but our 3 children are constanly unwell with something. When I look at the photos from the last summer in vancouver I can not believe how healthy we all looked. Schools are next. Competition and generally "bad feelings" between children is noticably worse here than in Canada where all children were happy without the English one-up-manship. That is not to mention the headlice which in U.K. is widespread and generally overlooked everywhere. And my youngsters go to a school that is very well regarded in the area.

You did hit a key point here about health!

I have been yoyoing in my mind all the time here in Canada trying to decide if to return to the uk or not.
Then after reading your thread it really made me think. Back in the UK i was always getting colds and different sicknesses. Kidney infections etc.
I have been here nearly three years and apart from a funny litle viral head thingy, i have been so healthy.
My mother has been in Canada for 20 years. At one point she returned to the UK for 6 months. Whislt she was there she could not settle as she said she felt old for her age and life was for living.
People do seem to live longer here and seem to stay fitter. My mother is aproaching 60 and is always traveling and on the go.
I do feel that when you reach a certain age in the UK it is almost expected of you to retire and wait to die. Sad really sad!
Although they may not hae the long holidays each year in Canada, they do seem to know how to retire. Most people work towards this and then you see them all take off with their newly purchased RV's. So i guess in the long run there are many benifits here.
Good luck with all you choose to do.

That probably has more to do with you changing, rather than England radically changing. Maybe you are just looking at things more critically since returning.
The cost of living has always been high, there was a recession in the early 90's, money was tight then too. High school for me in the mid eighties was the same as you describe for now. Can't comment on your children's health issues, were they often ill before you left England the first time?
Sometimes you see people complaining on here about illegal immigration, 30 or 40 years ago it was the West Indians and Pakistanis moving here people complained about. Not saying that's one of your complaints btw, just another example of nothing really changing.
My point is, when returning from another country, we have something to compare it with, and things can appear to have changed for the worse, when really they are the same as they've always been, it's just our outlook which has changed.

It's so difficult to comment as this is such a personal thing. We are returning to the UK as we are not Canadians, never will be and don't want to be. Also we will be better off in the UK (we have some UK qualifications nearing completion) that are just not recognised in Canada and so will never bare any fruit for us here.

There are so many factors to consider and they are different for everyone.

My health was always good in the UK...

You've got to be careful; We met in Vancouver a lady whose mother kept moving every 5 -10 years between Canada and U.K. in the end these moves had eaten all her life savings and she was quote: "peniless at retirement age" and hed to live in a rented flat in Vancouver in the end before she died.
Myself, having moved from u.k. to Calgary, then to Vancouver and then back to U.K. I can see that financially it is a very realistic scenario! And I really feel for that old lady. Its so sad!

Do they not have headlice in Canada, if so I'm off there! they are awful in OZ and the gov is now saying hotels campervans etc are alive with a plague :scared: of bedbugs.

Seriously, tho you have to compare things fairly, you say the kids in canada in summer looked great, then compare it to winter in UK. Not nit picking it might be easier to get a fairer picture if you compare like for like.

Oh god if you saw some people out here and what its cost them :scared: we know a english woman whos been doing that from OZ for 26 years and still cant make her mind up.

Cost is a factor, even just keeping in touch, we worked it out, if we went home once a year (its about$15,000) for our family of 5, over 10 years thats half the average house price, even visiting can send you broke.

cant reply about Canada. But I have been thinking since I returned to the Uk, how healthy people here seem. Especially the elderly. I think it has more to do with the fact that they walk so much more here than in the states. So many elderly in the states seem to be obese (not all of them) and get very sedentary very early. I regularly see very elderly here out walking with their shopping trollies and having nice conversations with their neighbours. I havent been sick at all this winter yet, or my family either for that matter. I think it would all depend more on the individual wherever you are. And the food? it tastes so fresh here, and even though the shelf life is shorter it's because of fewer additives to prolong the freshness. And its yummy!

How long have you been in Canada for the second time?

We always agreed when we moved here that if we decided to go back to the UK, then one of us would go and try it out before selling up and uprooting the children again.

Fortunatley, we really enjoy life here in Canada and don't wish to return to the UK.

Your comment about finances must be particularly close to your pocket. You mentioned in other posts that in moving back in 2004 you had lost 100K GBP in not being in the housing market in the UK.

Since spring 2004 the housing market in western Canada generally, and the Vancouver area specifically has gone through the roof.

It makes it more acute when you factor in the near 20% drop in the value of GBP.

I guess you really need to be sure.

Oh, and the only case of head lice we've heard about here was after some visitors from the UK left them as a "present" with some of our neighbour's children last year.

Ten years. The last four have been against my will. Its taken a while, two court cases and two lawyers (one on either side of the Atlantic), but basically now I can move. UK now beckons, with a good job offer.

By the way, to other posters, headlice are at epidemic proportions in some school districts, its no different here.

I am worried about the cost. I think I can safely say that I have lost about $50,000 with these moves, not least the loss last time of my home in SE London, that would now be worth a mint had I kept it. I know that I cannot stay in BC, it holds no future for me or for my children and I loathe it. So that leaves me with two choices - try another province (Ontario, has to be with the work I do) or go back to England to an area that I have never lived in. I will not risk my family's financial security however and ultimately any move means selling the lovely home I have now...for probably something quite grotty in the UK if I can get a mortage. My ex screwed my credit in the UK, as I have recently discovered, so I will have to start from scratch. Decisions decisions.

I know the opinion you have of Canada and I probably would agree with you on most points.During our life in Canada I have been often advised by the expats not to "up-sticks" straight away only spend the money on a holiday in England. This I did not do. Wrongly. When I returned I went througha phase when, believe it or not, I enjoyed being in England again. For a good several months. All those bits you and I miss whilst away. But now 2 years on we are on the fence again. It is really awaful: This feeling that this place is not right for you. I really think you should hold on out there. Why because same way as before you will find England crap after a year or so and realise the nice house you have today in Canada you can no longer, if not ever afford.
Please do not repeat our mistake.