I'm back.
 

Morning everyone. It's 5.00 a.m and I can't sleep...don't ya just love jetlag! So, I thought I'd write up my rekkie report from my two weeks in good old Blighty.

Landed at Birmingham international at 7.00pm on the Saturday to be met by my Mum and her chap. Now, I was a bit worried about meeting this chap for the first time (background info; my Dad died nearly three years ago, Mum met 'chap' about a year later, he was a widower and had lost his wife, after 45 years of marriage, at the same time as Mum had lost dad) well, needn't have worried at all. What a lovely friendly bloke he is, great sense of humour, and treats my Mum like a queen. They're so very happy together :wub: All is good there then.

It was indiscribably wonderfuly to cuddle my Mum again after such a long time. I felt like a little girl again back safely in my Mums arms. We cried a lot!

We left the airport and as the doors opened, oh the sheer bliss of that icy cold air hitting my face was exhilerating after the stifling heat of Perth. The journey down to their little village in Herefordshire took about 1.5 hours and soon passed.

First day in blighty. I threw open the curtains to this;

Re: I'm back.
 

Hya! Looking forward to your posts and lots of pics!

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We spent the first day down in Hereford city mooching around the shops. Now, I will point out that the whole purpose to this trip was to find out as much info as poss on cost of living in the UK, compared to the cost of living here in Perth. So, purely for informational purposes of course, I went completely mental in the shops! It was like Supermarket Sweep for me! Like a kid in a candy store I was. I was amazed at the prices of clothes, especially kids stuff. They are now fully stocked up with clothes and undies for the winter!

Food prices; Morrisons - I found NOTHING more expensive there than here (apart from petrol which is at 1.04 a litre). I found some things priced roughly the same; meat, some fruit (apples), loo rolls. On the whole, things were cheaper than here; salad, vegies, milk, bread, sauces, deli stuff, tinned stuff etc.

A great few days was had at Mums, then it was off to Devon for the really serious rekkie on Thursday.

We drove to Gloucester and met MIL and FIL at a lovely garden centre, had a cuppa, then off I went to Exmouth in Devon. All the way down the M5 I was struck by how green everything was. And there were cows and sheep in the fields! Haven't seen cows or sheep for yonks. (more about sheep in a little while).

So, having based most of my research around the mid Devon area of Uffculme, I was sorely disappointed with the place when we arrived. I went around the primary school and whilst it was very nice, I felt it lacked in the basics (like a well stocked library for starters) and the class sizes were poor; 35 kids in two of the classes. The village itself didn't float my boat at all, neither did any off the other villages in the area.

Feeling a bit diflated, we decided to go a take a look at Ottery St Mary because one of our esteemed members of this section of the forum had asked me to find out info about the area whilst I was back there if I had the time. Driving through the Otter valley was the turning point for me. It is an incredibly beautiful area and one of stunning scenery and natural beauty. We arrived in Ottery and took a little walk by the river and up into the town where we looked around the church, which is an exact copy of Exeter cathedral, then we had lunch at a lovely old pub;

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Morning! Wish I could bloody sleep...I'm going to be knackered later! :lol:

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Right, where was I? Ottery St Mary, that's it. This town dates back hundreds of years and has the most glorious surrounding countryside and villages. I fell in love with Alfington and Tipton St John....gorgeous....and they had pubs...always a bonus. The town of Ottery has some lovely customs; take a look at Tar Barrelling here; http://www.tarbarrels.co.uk/

Mental, the lot of 'em. Bet the fire station has a dickey fit every year. They also have a great tradition each year where the kids of the town get to dress up as pixies and chase the church bell ringers out of town. Why? Because that's what the original pixies, who ran the town, did back in the 1500's of course! Duh!!:rofl:

Found out about the local schools too and they look great, especially The Kings high school which is a sports college, so our eldest will be very chuffed with that.

Property prices; exactly what I'd thought. We will be able to get a descent 4 bed detatched for around the 280 - 300k mark,(http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai...a_n=1&tr_t=buy) which is what we'd expected. It's also a buyers market over there at the moment, and there's no sign of the prices rising. Bit like here really.

Ok, enough of Devon, let's talk about Cornwall and my adventures there;

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Awww mate... a bus stop. I wanna go home WAAAAAAHHH!! :cry_smile:

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:) Awesome post keep it up...How long have you been away from the UK?
Oh and i thought this may interest you http://www.propertysnake.co.uk/ i wll post it up on a post by itself also as others may find it interesting.

All the best, Cally

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North Cornwall,where my oldest and bestest buddy lives, is a wonderful part of the world. The drive over Bodmin Moor, with it's haunting windswept trees deformed and lopsided from years of sea gales, and it's expanse of patchwork quilt fields occupied by sheep and their offspring was wonderful.

Oh, talking about sheep and their offspring, look what I did. (for the squeamish...turn away now)

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HOW FRIGGING COOL IS THAT????!!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I've been there for dogs and cats giving birth, but never "helped."

That must've been wonderful.

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How lucky are you to be there at the right time :thumbsup:

What a lovely experience (well I think it is anyway :o)

Pleased you had a wonderful time back here in the UK. Hope it's helped with your decision.

Lynne :)

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Yes, I delivered triplets!!!!:thumbsup: I always knew I should've been a midwife!:rofl:

Cally, I've lived here in Perth for 3.5 years. 3.5 loooooooooong years spent battling homesickness, desperately trying to fit in and make this place work for me. Thanks for that link, that'll be usefull :thumbsup:

So, how do I feel after my whistle-stop tour of Blighty? I feel really positive that going home will be the best move for me and mine. Yes, it'll be hard going I'm sure and it'll be a trying time having to start all over again...again. But whilst I was there, I felt alive again. I felt part of the real world for just a brief period of time. It was like I'd slipped on a comfy old pair of familiar slippers and it just felt oh so right. To be a part of family life again, spending time with my darling bruv (whom I was incredibly impressed by as he's learnt how to play guitar whilst I've been farting around here! He seranaded me with rock classics from Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Led Zepplin. Bloody marvelous! Good on yer bruv :thumbsup:) It was wonderful to step outside to cold and frosty weather, no flies attempting to enter my bodily orifaces, beautiful twittering birdsong filling the air and sunshine that wasn't threatening to fry me alive.

Of course there are negatives still in the UK. The UK media for one, crikey they're so negative it's silly. Perhaps if they took a leaf from the Aussie media P.R machine, then British folk would be a little more positive about the place. Oh, I just have to tell you this - conversations were had with a few people about my impending move back. They went something along the lines of;

Them; "So, what do you want to move back to this shithole for? It's crap and going down hill by the day."

Me; "Well, if you think Perth is so much better, why don't you move over? How do you fancy months of stifling heat, swarming flies, high cost of living, expensive health and dental costs, low wages and high cost of houses?"

Them; "Crikey, is it that bad? It doesn't look like that on those telly programmes"

Me; :eek::rofl:

So, only 7 more months of Perth life to endure. The home opens are going well and hopefully we'll have a buyer soon. I return to uni on Wednesday for my final 'year', then that's it. Homeward bound.

Here's a few more pics for you of our beautiful country;

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Tracey honey!! Hiya! Just logged on before going to bed 'cos OH has insisted in watching some crap on the telly and just seen your thread.

I'm so pleased the rekkie went well - so decision made, yes??!! That's it once and for all, yes?? Good on ya girl!!

Look out England - Tracey's coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Oh Tracey, you lucky thing, getting to do that. How cute are they:)

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Thats the first thing that hits you after Perth:thumbsup: If only they could bottle it over their.

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Oh, and just as a little post script;

During my time in Blighty I didn't get mugged, shot, stabbed, robbed, car-jacked, hyjacked or offered any dodgy substances (mores the pity ;)). I encountered teenagers hanging around in the city, they didn't mug me either. I heard Polish (I think) spoken my respectable looking people in town just going about their business.

I have finally sussed out that the British people are quite reserved on the whole. They will more often than not speak if spoken to, smile if smiled at and treat you with curtesy if they're treated with the same respect.