I like that......I feel exactly the same! In 2.5 years here so far - I have only once refused to go to a gathering because it was being held by cult die-hards and I knew it would be full of "cult" members. Its funny isn't it....it seems to be one side of the fence or the other. With our friends in England.....there's no "fence" - we're all on the same side, there's none of the crap that you have to deal with here!!! No-one asks you "how you like it here" etc etc

It's true, reading some of that stuff on the Oz forum (and occasionally on this side) makes me want to hate it here, even when in reality I don't. Some of the wannabes annoy me more than anything about Australia itself. You can imagine them practising their g'days and howya goins while they deny themselves and the place that made them what they are.

To me, this forum makes it easy to get the two things mixed up. Australia is what it is and that is not going to change, and I have no problem with that. Just don't ask me to love everything about the place.

At the end of the day, I don't want to feel like I'm selling out and not being true to myself. I think it is possible to be here and like it without doing that, but the polarized nature of the forum can make it much harder.

of course you don't ask people at home whether they like it because its home for everyone. I am sure that if you had a 'foreigner' start at your UK school/workplace you would ask them how they liked it in the UK. Its only natural don't you think??

I can stick my hand up to being one half of one of those couples too. The visits home is the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, but it would be much better if the compromising wasn't so one sided at times. As you say, you get used to living the life but I'm not sure I'll ever truly accept it.

great post Exile and btw we absolutely loved Japan I didnt want to leave and if there was a way I would quite happily live there

A trip home every 2 years - sounds like a smashing compromise

Suits me My dad didn't leave me much, but I'm eternally grateful to him that he left me enough cash to do the flights

Wehey mackinnon i didn't realise you were going back. I fully understand, although I was born in Australia after living in Scotland for 3 years I know that Scotland is 'home' and all the other things ppl have said about belonging and being at peace and just simply, being happy.

I have been back in Australia (not by choice, my visa ran out!) for 2 years this month, and I have thought about Scotland every single day, a hundred times a day. I have applied to a million jobs, I have researched a million ways to get back. I nearly blind myself reading over the UK immigration latest news and the BBC pages, trying to find a glimmer of hope.

It is one thing to say, why live here if you're unhappy, but for some of us, it really is JAIL! I can't escape without a work permit, and with all that EU talent and the complaints from teachers about lack of jobs, it feels like I will be old and grey before I get back. My latest plan is to get a loan to finance studying in Scotland for a year...but it might be too risky and a bit hardcore! (I have a toddler!)

I'm so glad ppl who aren't happy are heading back in the next wee while! I wish to God it were me! Think of me whilst you're enjoying the cold and I'm sitting up til midnight every night on the computer looking for an immigration loophole!! Best of luck sorting it all out!

Hey matildaskye,

I hope you get everything sorted.

Pardon my ignorance, but I didn't realise you would have so much trouble getting residency in the UK! Your hubbie & kid are both British citizens?

Is it Skye in particular you want to get back to or anywhere in Scotland? I really feel for you, I know what it's like! (Got dragged over by my Aussie missus!)

I don't dislike Australia, it's like the UK, got its good points, got its bad points.

It's just that the lure of home is too strong to stay here for too much longer.

THERE WILL BE A WAY FOR YOU TO GET BACK ACROSS

He he, I like that! Yep, my bub is Scottish, but although partner is British, he is unfortunately 'former' partner , and yep, we did look at staying together longer to get the visa/residency rights but it (at the time) appeared MORE complicated than me going back as a teacher or on a student visa. We both want to be in Scotland (he's actually just gone back 2 months ago so we are a bit more anxious to sort me out with visa now!) but didn't want to make things personally/emotionally complicated (and possibly risk being busted) by faking it. And there are simply no visas for separated families to be in the one country.

Would love to go back to Skye, but to be honest, at this point, I'd live in Cessnock, or even Aviemore (not my fave place!) if that's what it took! I'd go over and live in a barrel...nobody likes me here, anyway, because I'd rather be "living over in the rain with a bunch of poms" and I know/care more about Alex Salmond and the SNP than Kevin Rudd and all that guff.

I'm so glad you're heading back. I remember you PM-ed me ages ago when I first joined BE about your folks coming from Skye and wondered if the pull of Scotland was going to win out for you in the end!! Happy days! Hope I'm on the next cargo over!

Great post Exile. The Aussie wannabes just make me laugh too - what complete and utter saddos. I'm not usually a horrible person and really do try to see the good in everyone but these folk just get up my nose so much. The majority of them like you say make their money in the UK, then swan off over to Oz with their pounds and slate the country that they were born in at every opportunity.

By all means embrace their adopted country but why deny what they are? Shame on them

I'd love to know why it's so important to them that other people like it? Is it some kind of insecurity do you think? For Aussies I think that there is so much emphasis placed on Australia being the best country in the world, it's a kind of reassurance that everyone else thinks that too. For immigrants who love it, I think it must be for confirmation that they have made the right choice

I suspect a lot of it's to do with the Aussie cultural-cringe thing. ie, we might have started out as convicts but look at us now aren't we the greatest etc. Pretty much every single Australian I met at some point wanted to know what I thought of Aus, or more specifically, wanted me to say it was better than the UK. I think they need to hear from a "pom" how great Aus is, it seems to give them a particular sense of satisfaction. One of the great things about being back in the Uk is that when I meet one of the loaf-stealers at work and they ask the question, I can be honest and tell them I thought it was rubbish. The look on their face is always a picture.

Loaf-stealers...love it!

Insecure I believe is the reason. The British just don't need to.