Originally Posted by JaneandJim

Speaking personally, I missed-out on all of that 'how to kill a man with your bare hands' training, so I guess I'll never be able to appreciate the finer things in life...
Something queer about a bunch of blokes out in the woods, all alone...

Originally Posted by woodyinoz

I know my mind and hearing his attitudes just make me want to be on that plane sooner - he will do well here and I wish him and his family the best of luck!

Originally Posted by Lizzi

Now now. Let's not forget that 'us lot' must be in awe of macho he men who are 'intellectual at times' and who are able to sustain a 42k walk and a 1200m ascent as well goddamit amidst lots of creepy crawlies and snakes and things us wussy Brits would faint at the sight of. And then to jump into the pool on the 2 acre lot with the chicken farmer and the senior academic! Wow!
We are not worthy.

Originally Posted by kendodd

Are you still undecided about returning to Oz HP?

I have a friend here who lived close to the CBD - they had a great social life as a young couple. She got pregnant, then they came home to be nearer family and friends.

After 3 or 4 years in the UK, and with 2 young children she yearned to be back in Oz.

Now she is here, she said it's not like it was before, and with a young family the social scene she had before isn't possible!!!

So now, she is hoping to go back to the UK!!!

Originally Posted by HiddenPaw

Hi KD, well, we thought we were decided but things are up in the air at the mo due to husband's new job. We will just have to see. I still see no hurry to move, but with only 13 months left on the visas, time is not on our side!

Re the social life in melbourne, yes, there is definately a lot going on and no end of bars, clubs, etc. To be perfectly honest, I found a lot of the time I was socialising for the sake of it - to make friends, integrate, etc, - and it got tedious. One of the harder sides of emigrating I guess, if you are a bit of a home bird like me, and you feel like you've moved on from the endless partying of your twenties :D . I have a bit of a tame outlook on socialising nowadays!! I realise it would be different going back to Melbourne with two toddlers in tow, but I don't think I would miss the city nightlife at all. The people I have stayed in touch with in Melbourne also have young children so I would have people I could relate to. My biggest fear is committing to go back and then realising that I've gone for the wrong reasons. Mr HP, as you have probably read, is itching to get there now. How about you?? Any more thoughts on coming back?

Originally Posted by TouristTrap

That's interesting Hidden. I have two online buds whom I've know for ages, even exchange Christmas gifts with their families, and they're ALWAYS out socializing together with friends - just the gals, or at least once a week the pictures, or this or that or the other. They're in their 40's, with kids and one has a husband, and they lead pretty busy lives. They live gosh..forgot the town, it is near Bendingo or whatever it is called, they're both ozzies, and don't seem to have probs getting out and about.

Originally Posted by HiddenPaw

Hi KD, well, we thought we were decided but things are up in the air at the mo due to husband's new job. We will just have to see. I still see no hurry to move, but with only 13 months left on the visas, time is not on our side!

How about you?? Any more thoughts on coming back?

Originally Posted by PADDAD

Most of what you have said pretty much sums it up for me as well.

Socially we're dead in the water here. I'm in my thirties and I feel like I've retired!

I had a great job here as a bookkeeper but it turned into a monster i.e. I got paid $20.00 an hour to do an accountants job!

As for going to bed early, I'm knackered by 8.30 pm. Why is that?
Is it because:-
a) Aus telly is uninspiring/dead loss/a load of old bollocks.
b) The heat of the day takes it out of you.
c) No daylight saving so it's dark early and your body clock says it's time
for bed
d) however U.K. wintertime it's dark by 4.00 p.m. in the afternoon
but then there's a lot to see on the telly....
e) and oh you had a social life i.e. friends/family who would pop round or vice
versa or would phone you or you'd be out on the town for a meal with
one of your numerous girlfriends or perhaps catch a movie or you'd
have people round for a meal or even better, you'd have a meal at theirs.

Movies - this leads me to my next point i.e. we seem to spend a great deal of our time at the cinema here - something we did very rarely in the U.K.
I suppose my reasons are as follows:-
a) It's too hot to be outdoors (4-5 months of the year)
b) Bored of driving miles to get anywhere i.e an hour and a half to the beach
and other places every weekend
c) No friends/family to visit or visit you
d) An outing/weekend focus thing/something to look forward to :confused:

And another thing - We can't seem to save any dosh here and we don't have a mortgage - hubby is a principle civil engineer so earns what is deemed a top salary and I bring in a little over $1000.00 a month with my part time job. :confused:

We get screwed with tax on our investments that we have back in the U.K. which is classed as income i.e. we pay something like 22 % tax in the U.K. but then we have to bring it up to 50% tax which is the Aussie tax which means we pay the bloody Australian government 30% tax! :mad: :mad: It's a blinking scam!

Dare I say it but jeez I feel that we've turned into really sad people. I am truly bored living (dying) here.

Having said all this, the lifestyle insofar as having a nice house with garden, pool, neighbourhood, tropical birdlife etc is incomparabley better than the U.K. but for us it is so lacking in the 'essentials'. I think for me Australia is a wonderful place to travel but I refuse to live without 'the essentials' for the rest of my life.

Gosh I hadn't mean't to come out with all of that and I've really worked myself up into a frenzy, :o maybe I'll feel better now.

I'd better go and calm down before I say something I shouldn't
hmm a glass of red perhaps ;) Anyone care to join me?

Originally Posted by lostpom

Joining the thread a bit late here, but some honest words there.

I totally agree with many of the comments from posters on here. I left a really good and very well paid (but stressful) job in London with UBS and a vibrant and full lifestyle living in Brighton to come to Australia and try it out here. I guess I was really sold by my Aussie GF's enthusiasm for her country, and I really thought that I had had enough of the 'rat race' in the UK and wanted a more chilled way of life. Two funny things have come from this :

1. I actually totally miss the rushing around and stress in my lifestyle ! I feel drained of energy somewhat here beacuse theres nothing to drive me and keep me on my toes and active. This is not a joke, but in our 12 months here, I have actually started to go a little grey. Quite a few grey hairs on my head coming through all of a sudden and loads on my chin. I feel a bit like Australia has sapped some of the life out of me, and like a chameleon I've started to go grey to try and fit in with my surroundings peers here.

2. My GF has actually been the driving force in us GOING BACK to the UK (despite her sort of getting me out here, which she feels quite guilty for). I've been the one pushing for us to stay and work it out here. After her living in London and Brighton for 6 years and making full use of all the things going on there, and meeting a wide cross section of all sorts of funny/gay/extrovert/travelleing/odd people (most of who have become her lifelong friends), she actually now finds Australia a bit stagnant in this area. By her own admission, she's come to realise that she doesn't like the 'Aussie mentality', and doesn't really get it anymore. Poor girl - this is her home country she has grown to fall out of love with.

Our experience so far hasn't really given us a proper view of this great country as we have spent all of our time in Gimpy (second head optional) and the Sunshine Coast, we realise this. Our plan after renovating her property here was to get ourselves down to Melbourne and start a proper life here in a more cosmopolitan city, but we know that whilst this will give us some of the things we pine for (restaurants, bars, clubs, people), we still know that we are going to have a hard time meeting 'our' kind of people. The guys we left back in the UK are all lifelong friendships that can never be replaced, purely through all the slightly crazy times we shared with them.

Melbourne is off the cards now anyway. We have spent most of our months here trying to be positive, working hard on the house, looking forward to what we plan to do here, and then every so often we have these drunken meltdowns where it all comes out about how unhappy we really are and how we miss our mates and how we miss Brighton and how we'd go back tomorrow etc...etc... After each of these we would return to our normal optimistic selves and try and get on with life here.

But I can't do it anymore, I'm tired of trying to make myself think that its going to be alright here. I'm tired of waking up each day and thinking of myself as a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. In a way, I think we have been a bit spoilt with our previous UK life, in getting to have excellent well paid jobs fall in our laps, fantastic friends who are like our soul mates and a really good lifestyle full of all the things we love (travelling, eating, drinking, socializing). To try and live without these just seems too hard - of couse we will get fragments of these back over time here, but why should we have to waste 2 years of our lives trying to get back to something like this (which won't be the same anyway).

Sorry if I'm blahing here, but this has been on our backs for ages driving us a little bit mad, and is why we are planning to pack it all in and go 'home'. The only thing I really wanted to do before we go is to pack the ute up and take it into the red centre and then drive up to Darwin on a 6/8 week camping trip - to see some of what this amazing country has to offer. I feel like I owe it to Australia to see what it really has to offer before leaving. And I also don't want to leave the place with grumpy memories !!! We're off in about 4 weeks when the house here goes on the market, and we can't wait.

Originally Posted by Pollyana

but I am defeated in some way at every turn. I swear that it seems this country hates me, however hard I try.

Originally Posted by arkon

I've found this thread well late sorry. Tried to karma you for an excelllent post that I could have written about our feelings now for Oz and home. We too were seriously considering Melbourne to try and get back some of our previous life but I think we've now decided theres no point. Tonight we watched the Full Monty and I can't believe it had us pining for the UK again.

Originally Posted by goldcoastblue

Common thing here, most ppl seem to be in their 30's

is it me, pass me another beer while i wait for reply