backagen

For all those who, like me, are living somewhere other than Britain and really struggling to decide whether or when to return, what I would like to know is, what would be the IDEAL solution to your current problem.

I'm talking of course about the problem of not feeling settled, or not being near family, or having to choose between some members of your family and others, or having to choose between lifestyle / career benefits of UK versus the country you are in, etc.

If you could wave a magic wand right now, and have everything exactly as you want it, what would the solution / situation be for you?

backagen

Mine would either be
1. When I waved the magic wand, I would go back to 1988, before I first moved to Australia and when all my family were together in UK. However somehow I would have the knowledge that moving to Australia was NOT the right thing to do, and so would my parents).

OR

2. When I waved the magic wand, I would find that I was still here, but I had at least a couple of million dollars in my bank account. That would enable me to immediately quit work, invest a bit of the money in a nice enough house here, go to UK and buy one there too, and put most of the rest of the money in a couple of high interest term deposits and live off the interest for the rest of my life, whilst having a home in both countries and travelling between the two (probably at least business class) as often as I liked.

Unfortunately the first solution is impossible as far as I know, and the second one whilst theoretically possible is highly unlikely to happen anytime soon. No harm in dreaming though!

MTPockets

A magic wand? I'd kill for a magic wand.

Pretty similar to you - I'd rewind time and realise the sydney of 2001/02 was just a backpackers bubble; would have found this part of forum before I resigned and left; would have listened more to my best mates wondering what the f#ck I was doing; oh and just for once not be somebody who gets bored so quickly.

OR

2. If it didn't work properly I would still be here but job hunting a year or two earlier before the finance industry blew up. So at least i could just stay a couple of years, put it down to experience and wouldn't be stuck between choosing whether to throw away a career by taking any job or move back to the uk where there are no finance jobs either.

But back in the real world...and from reading this forum there are so many people with problems so much more significant than mine that I shouldn't grumble. Good luck to all.

Keep dreaming heh.

Celtic Princess

For us house prices would need to drop by about 80% and science courses would need to become more popular than media studies at universities.

backagen

That's not really an ideal solution though. That's just 2 things you would like to change about Britain isn't it?

Celtic Princess

You asked what would be the ideal solution for our problem. For us, that's it. If those things changed we'd be back faster than you can say Stena Line Ferries.

backagen

Fair enough then.

cally49

Hi there backagen.....Mine actually would be to have enough money to have houses in both countries (same as you said really) so that i could spend 6months in NZ and 6months in the UK that way i'd have the best of both worlds.

DO you know though i feel that i can be happy anywhere if i am with the right person i spent yrs in the backblocks of NZ just me my ex hubby and the kids and we had very little money and not much contact with my family for a very long time as they had no telephone. We just got on with life then and i wonder you know that all this skype email etc makes things easier but i possibly settled down very quickly because there was non of that in those days.

It took over a week for a letter to arive and that was it and I know theres lots of reasons things dont work for people but i wonder if its the fact the world is such a small place nowadays we want the best of both worlds and we go to a new country and never really leave it behind which i guess is exactly what i have described above.

I am sure other people will be along with other solutions but i think that nowadays people dont give this emigratation thing time maybe, and maybe there are other areas in their lives/relationships that need some attention. We all have this website and sometimes although these sites are very good it can start to swing your thinking in a different direction every day.

If i had still been married to my husband I would'nt be even questioning about going back to live in the UK even though i have always been homesick its just that my circumstances have changed and im a real family person where as my lads are not so much and they have their own lives to live. I have struggled with this for 6yrs now lol and am slowly starting to see that i need to do what i feel is right or me and not for others.
I hope this all makes sense ive probably gone completely off what this was all meant to be about.
Crikey i do go on dont i lol
Cally

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Magic Wand...

Get Australia moved to somewhere between Portugal and the Caribbean.

quoll

Easy - a brain transplant for the DH so that he would be prepared to spend half a year in UK and half a year here (I would compromise on that!). Add to that rising interest rates and a healthy stock market so my savings and super fund would be able to support me in my idyll (can I have two waves of the wand?)

backagen

That's another good solution, although personally I would prefer to put Britain right in the centre of Australia (bringing just a hint of the weather with it, so that there would be some water there of course!)

backagen

That's a very interesting point. I don't really know how I would have managed if it hadn't been for phone, email, internet etc. However I have to say unfortunately my family in UK almost never use these things anyway, even my grandparents never phone me even though they get free landline calls to Australia.

That causes me a great deal of distress, and I have told them that many many times, but they just won't. If I want to speak to them, it has to be me that phones.

Nevertheless I am extremely grateful in a way that there is that ability to communicate.

islandergirl

I don't think I would want houses in both countries (unless I won the lottery and was seriously loaded, perhaps. It would still mean 2-3 days a year on a plane...no thanks.

I would be happy with a nice but modest house in the UK (with an Aus style bathroom and surrounded by 6 foot colorbond fence heh heh)and a holiday in Aus every 3 years, that is my plan and I don't have to win the lottery to achieve that.

backagen

What is this "Australian style bathroom" business? A bathroom can be any style you like in UK or Australia surely, and I have seen many styles of bathroom in both countries.

It just depends on the owners preference for style.

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

You're not putting Britain the middle of Australia! I'll snap the wand!