Re: 2 week update .
 

Dan have to second what St.G said....we have been here 12 years....saying maybe next year.....off now...but wish that "next year"....was a few years ago...lol....another hot week next week here in Perth....yipee...NOT..lol

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I didn't know you'd actually set your date for leaving Perth J. You lucky, lucky thing! Have you sold your house?

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Oh yeah...we were well on form when coming to selling our homes...as per usual we sold last year (after nearly a year on and off on the market) sold it for much less to an overseas buyer (Malaysian) just so we can put plans finally in place and also soooooo siiiiiiiick of home opens.....we missed the start date for High School for our youngest though so decided to stay until he completed year 11 (is in year 12 now though as we could not get a rental for less than 12 months) he is doing tee's but still wants to leave asap and just go to college in the U.K....so we are off in april :blink: it has come around so quickly....

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Do you know what part of the UK you are heading back to?

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We are heading back to the Northwest....near Manchester....although today..not too sure!!!!! just walked our dog and a visitor from the South West of England who is here staying on holiday (just told me this info while walking the dog!!) asked me how long we had been living here in WA....the visitor said a fantastic place to live...we were so lucky to live here....etc (they have been here so far for 4 days) when I said we were going back...visitor sad we were mad,mad,mad...lol....just so not fair I keep meeting people like this...lol...I should just keep quiet......

Re: 2 week update .
 

Just wait till you get home. When I was back in the Midlands and I told strangers we were thinking of coming back for good, they raved on about how nutty we must be and they'd swap any day. But I looked around at the people in the shop, who all knew each other well enough to chat to, had big smiles on their faces, full of jest and character and knew they'd curl-up and die quickly in Oz, starved of such community.

Re: 2 week update .
 

Oh I so know what you mean...if I tried to start a conversation up here in the shops..I either got...blank looks...a quick smile and an even quicker walk away OR..the your mad look...lol....I remember having a good old chat about the English Bake Beans in Woolies here to a much older English Lady...we had a "right good natter" at the end of it she said "love you have just made my day...it's been like old times back home and I have missed that everyday since I came here...40 years ago"....I think there and then I just knew Aus would never be home, when I arrived home (along with my can of English Bake Beans lol) I said to my OH....."ok lets go home".....

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It's interesting. I'm based in the South West for now but have been speaking to people and had appts mainly with people close to London or the Sth East (professional types) and not one of them has made any comment about moving back, in fact one of them had an Aussie passport and grew up in St Ives and said he had no intention of ever going back to Oz.

But that's in stark contrast to a lot of the people I've met in the Sth West (mainly retirees/ Daily Failers) who have given the 'mad' speech a few times. I cut them off mostly and carry on shopping, walking, or what ever I was doing (stealing cars, mugging :lol:).

Generally I avoid the papers and tv news (as I did in Oz) and give a wide berth to anyone with a face like a depressed St Bernard that's had icy cold thermometer shoved up its jacksy.;)

One thing Oz has taught me is how 'city centric' I've become. I love Somerset and Dorset and its beauty and in my 'escape from Oz planning' I had visions of living down here (although I knew it wouldn't be to Mrs T's taste) but I've realised that I'm a different person to that now. Not better or worse, just different.

Of course the advantage to being city centric in the UK as opposed to Sydney is the countryside is never that far away. :thumbup:

Re: 2 week update .
 

We had the same thing in South Carolina. My US wife would say something and the conversation would go on. I would open my mouth and they would just stare at me ...or respond, looking at my wife. Made me feel as though I was not there!

The in-laws were just the same. Nice people but very wary of outsiders.

Back in the UK now, where I don't think twice about talking to someone. Although my wife may get the same treatment I got, over here.

Re: 2 week update .
 

Howdy TriBoy...hope your not stopping to long for a chat...remember your training....lol.....as from today...the "oh your mad" comments are going to be water off a ducks back so to speak....I'm just going to have to find my backbone again (I seemed to have lost it these last couple of years...my Backbone that is!!)..lol...and tell whoever where to go...etc...etc...I'd make my Pop's proud...he always use to say..."you stick your chin out way to far"...and no I don't look like..."oh now...that's done it...loosing my marbles as well now...." the Engish guy with a rather large chin who use to be on t.v. on one of the football shows....oh heck.....I have not even had a drink honestly.....might go and buy a bottle now though....
I think that is what I enjoy about the U.K, most major Cities is you are never far from the countryside...or anything else for that matter....okay off to make the evening meal....a bit cooler this evening so the boys might get something decent to eat.....

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I hope your wife has a friendly experience in the U.K...if anything travelling as we have been lucky enought to have experienced we have found the British to usually be very friendly...ofcourse other countries we have visited especially in Malaysia ofcourse that is just our opinion....heck I even have Aussie friends...so we must be a friendly race..cause that is not an easy thing to achieve....lol...

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Thanks for that Brits...you've had me going 'aaghhh, errrr, ummmm...." - so I looked it up - Jimmy Hill was the sports presenter with the enormous chin.

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Thank you....Jimmy Hill....oh those where the days...my Dad thought he was rubbish though..lol...

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Australia is dreadfully dull.

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You know if they did not have the weather (and some of that is just too extreme) I am sure people would not come to live here as it does not really have anything else to offer.....and I don't mean that in a horrible way....some lovely coastlines but I have seen nicer....some nice countryside but I have seen much better....culture...just too young a country for that yet and the way the knock old down for new all the time it will remain forever young.....my problem and I have a few..lol...is that....you can wake up and think a nice morning outside weatherwise but then I start to think where can I go today.....been there and done it so many times it makes me feel soooo closed in....because there are not many choices on offer....a friend said the other day..you can do all of W.A in 6 months...I laughed at first (this was a few years ago)but a friend came over to visit on a year ticket but did everything she could here in WA in 4 months so she went off to Malaysia....then the Middle East.....for the rest of the year.....

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It's boring - why people can't accept that there is less to do/see here than UK/Europe is beyond me.

Sure, you might like it here cos it's sunny and you live in a bigger house but at least admit that it's pretty dull.

Everything just plods along in Australia.

I'd rather have economic crashes and arguments over the EU than the monotony of Australia any day.

Re: 2 week update .
 

There is less to do for sure but for some that isn't boring. Boring is subjective. I am a plodder so it suits me.

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You're like a dog with a bone! You just won't let go. :rofl: Why does does it bother you so much that lots of people like Australia ? You're getting very tedious:ohmy: ... have you got nothing else in your life but to repeat the same line ... yawn.

Sorry to repeat the obvious line ... but if you don't like Australia what are you doing here ?

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Been talking about plenty else as it happens. But you are doubtless too busy enjoying Australian life to have noticed all of that.

What are you doing in front of your computer? Is it raining in Perth? Go and get yourself out to a park or the beach man.

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Perfect weather in Perth. Sunday was 28 degrees with sunny blue skies. Today is 33 degrees with sunny blue skies. :thumbup: For Sunday lunch had a sausage sizzle on one of the free BBQs. Then played football, basketball, etc etc. Had a good fun time. The park was full of people having a good time.:thumbsup:

How about yourself Creepy ? Did you have a good weekend ?

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Well, most of the time I think there's plenty to do here, well in Sydney anyhow, but they're all things that you go to with friends or family and that's it. Whereas I find in the UK, when you go to events, places, countryside, you tend to interact more with people. I think for this reason the big Australian cities can be lonely places.

The balance is of course, the UK has some pretty iffy areas, a lot of street violence, general yoof 'what you looking at' attitude and a woeful gov't/economic forecast. So I would imagine that if you had kids who'd already left home, the UK would look a lot more enticing than for those with kids who hoped to give them a better future.

I think it's definitely a 'safer' future in Australia, but whether it's 'better' then who can tell.

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I am agreeing with you....we do find it very boring have done for years and as NB has said some do not find it that way....I wish sometimes I could wake up and just be a plodder and be happy with the small amount of what WA has to offer but alas I was not born that way and we are heading home this April...after 12 years of giving Aus a go....and boy oh boy do we appreciate all that the U.K and Europe etc has to offer....even more so after spending all these years just trying to kill time...

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Ezzie,not sure where you are refering to in "general"about people looking at you sideways?I've lived in quite a few places in GB(OH was a relief farmer)and can honestly say I've never been looked at "that"way!;)

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I think Ezzie the safer version is just sometimes down to luck and where you live and not a country....were we lived and family still do we do not have the problems you have staked about iffy areas etc and was a little bit insulted to think that a stranger to this site who has never been to the U.K would be put off by that paragraph....mine and my OH family who all still live in the U.K were upset that you tarnished their children and area in the context that you wrote...as I said we have had nothing but great friends with children who have done really well, lovely neighbours who we are still in touch with who have not had any violent incidents.....if I was you I certainly would not want to live in the U.K and I would definately stay put once and for all in Australia as the area you are describing you would be mad to return to.

Re: 2 week update .
 

I don’t think that it is necessarily safer in Australia than the UK. You only have to read the news from the last week to see that there is serious crime all over Australia against young children and adults.

Yes there are iffy areas in the UK, but there are also iffy areas not far from the part of Australia that I live as I am sure there is Australia wide. You just avoid them and teach your children to do them same. I think it is too much of a generalisation and an affront to tar all the UK “yoof” with the same brush, there is just as bad a small minority of “yoofs” in Australia.

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Sunday lunch had a sausage sizzle on one of the free BBQs.[quote]

I am sorry, I can not resist . I have lived here since 77 and for the life of me can not stand eating out doors fighting with flies for my food. Did you not have any problems with them?:unsure:

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The balance is of course, the UK has some pretty iffy areas, a lot of street violence, general yoof 'what you looking at' attitude and a woeful gov't/economic forecast. [Quote]

This is an interesting one. I think we have many iffy areas too but spread over a wider area and with a lower population. This weekend I spent it in Toowoon Bay, collected a young man that had just arrived from England, from the railway station (Tuggrah) at about midnight. Our car was surroundered by 13/15 young people from 15 to 18 because we said no to cigarettes and booze. They damaged the car and smashed the English guy we had picked up in the face.Now this area doesn't look to iffy, but hells bells I was more than surprised! The longer I live here the more I wonder about the safer here. I mean is it really?

I can see that it may be to those in Britain with the media that they have ( a lot of Mr Murdoch ownership there).

Re: 2 week update .
 

[QUOTE=ElizabethR;8366720]Sunday lunch had a sausage sizzle on one of the free BBQs.Nope, there were no flies ... and generally there have been very few flies in Perth this summer :thumbsup:

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[QUOTE=ElizabethR;8366731]The balance is of course, the UK has some pretty iffy areas, a lot of street violence, general yoof 'what you looking at' attitude and a woeful gov't/economic forecast. ...collected a young man ... did you know this man ? :confused: :D

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[QUOTE=ElizabethR;8366731]The balance is of course, the UK has some pretty iffy areas, a lot of street violence, general yoof 'what you looking at' attitude and a woeful gov't/economic forecast. Crikey that must have been scary.
We have a big city 45 minutes from us, we used to live there and crime is quite bad, it actually has made the top 5 or so of worst places to live or something like that.
Yet I have and still do drive downtown and through the bad parts with our daughter I go to a large thrift shop that is fantastic and have picked up from the downtown greyhound bus station (notoriously bad areas in most cities) I've never had any problems, I ignore the drug dealers and the hookers and get on with what I'm there for. But I'd never go in the middle of the night. :eek:
I just looked it up, it was number 1 for the nation of worst places to live, beat out detroit.

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Oh no! That must have been terrifying. Is he ok? Are you ok?
[quote=ElizabethR;8366731]The balance is of course, the UK has some pretty iffy areas, a lot of street violence, general yoof 'what you looking at' attitude and a woeful gov't/economic forecast.

Re: 2 week update .
 

[QUOTE=BAY;8366738]:lol: well it sounds better than 'Pick Up'. Yes a cousin of oh.

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[QUOTE=ezzie;8366746]Oh no! That must have been terrifying. Is he ok? Are you ok?
It was scarey and to be honest it makes me mad, because if you mention this to some Aussies as of course I have, some how it seemed to be just one of those things:confused:.

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[QUOTE=Mummy in the foothills;8366745]
It was scary on so many levels. I mean they were just told no cigarettes and no booze. It was like the word 'No' unleashed so much anger and violence bloody new ute too bastards:frown: Not a very populated area to be honest and I hear people tell me all the time about the how much better it is here than anywhere else(we have beaches don't you know lol):eek:

Re: 2 week update .
 

[QUOTE=ezzie;8366746]Oh no! That must have been terrifying. Is he ok? Are you ok?
Sorry ezzie I did not answer you. we are okay the car is damaged and the young man in question is okay but said "I thought Australia was the perfect place". I thought that was a shame to be honest, first impressions and all that.

Re: 2 week update .
 

I've sorted out the dodgy quoting. Can't stand it when you can't see who quoted who and get bits of peoples posts all over the place.:)

Did you watch 'Gangs of Oz' on tv last week? Now there was an eye opener, even for the most devoted 'oz is safe' campaigner.

Sorry to hear about the trouble you had E.


:lol:

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Didn't quite understand what caused the fracas...did they want booze/fags off you.

Glad you're OK, what a welcome for that poor lad! I told my kids about it and they refused to believe me.....well, they are Aussies!

I was reading about the safety of transport in Sydney this morning and I must admit I thought, well I've always felt incredibly safe in Sydney. Then I was reading the comments from readers about sexual assault etc, etc that they;d suffered, and I just thought, but I never read anything about that!

Talking of attacks...who read about Norman Tebbut kicking a kid dressed in a Chinese New Year dragon/lion outfit up the arse outside his house? Brilliant stuff. My God, I wish Australian politicians were half as interesting as the British. Which politician was it who liked having sex with prostitutes wearing his favourite team's soccer scarf? The name escapes me - unfortunately the image doesn't!

[quote=ElizabethR;8366908]

Re: 2 week update .
 

David Mellor and the lady in question was Antonia de Sancha

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I thought Aussie politics was great when just shortly after I arrived in Oz some MP was caught sniffing a seat where a female MP had been sitting.:eek::rofl:

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That was Troy Buswell and what a creep he is too.