megansmummy

Great post!!

Could have written those myself!!

Its great seeing familiar things isnt it! I went to tsecos on monday & i was like a kid in a candy store!! there was just so much choice & even better to see alcohol on sale too. Hated thoe bloody beers shops in Oz!

Cant beieve how many of us actually hateed it there so much! I know i did & im just so glad to be home even though im on my own. Rather that than be bloody miserable anymore over there!

granma2b

megansmummy i enjoyed reading your threads and i am glad that you are happy. What a terrible emotional struggle you went through. You are very brave. I have lived in oz since i was 17 when my family moved out here, and i am now 44. I have three kids in their late teens and i have been married for about 24 years i think now, to an aussie. I can relate to everything that people have said on these posts about the boredom they feel in oz. I have felt it my whole life here. There is something about this country, maybe the laid back lifestyle but it is boring. I have developed a homesickness which is quite severe at the moment and i spend hours on the internet eagerly reading anything about england and in that i can escape. I would love to hear from anybody who has lived a long time in oz and is experiencing homesickness. The sad thing for me is that i never felt aussie and i dont fully feel english, after all this time, sort of in between.

Jerseygirl

When I go back I could spend the whole day in Tesco or Sainsbury's. I buy a dozen of everything...I always have to explain to the cashier that I'm not really off my trolley.

Nu-Shooz

Must admit, i prefer to get the beer form the supermarket instead of the beer shops. Pain in the butt really.

alicecat

Granma2b your story sounds a little like my dad's. He came over here as a seventeen year old in the early 1960s with his parents and siblings. He eventually married my Kiwi mother and had a family etc etc. The whole time though Dad never really felt he belonged. The whole of his family struggled when they first arrived in Australia. My grandparents even went back to England for a couple of years with the youngest siblings. However eventually most of the extended family settled here and made lives for themselves. On the surface my dad did too. However I never knew that my dad still wasn't settled and was bored with Australia. Looking back the only hint I had was sometimes he would suggest to my mum that maybe they could try living in England one day. We just assumed it was Dad being fanciful!

Anyway fast forward a few years and my now widowed dad at age 53 was still in Australia but jobless and missing his daughter (me) who was at that time living in the UK. He made a trip to visit me and it was the first time he had been in England for 36 years. Even with all the changes that had occurred in the UK since the early sixties it still felt like he had come home. He decided to take the plunge and sold up in Australia and moved to the UK. He is now completely 'made up to be back home'! My brother eventually followed him and he too is never coming back to Australia.

At first I was a little dubious about it all. I saw Australia as my family's home and when I moved back here I remember trying to convince them both that Australia is home. However now I have lived here in Australia I can see why my dad was unhappy here (although he did a great job of hiding it all those years!) and I can see what a happier man he is in the UK. He has been back in the UK now for almost ten years and is loving his new life and I am so excited about rejoining my family in the UK very soon!

megansmummy

I know what you man about the boredom! I spent half my life on the net too! In fact one site im on, they were more friends to me than the few id made in Oz! How sad is that!

I think though if you are deeply unhappy then you should consider going back! What does your OH think? Would he go back? I suppose for you its a hell of a step after being in Oz so long. I was lucky that id not been there long. It didnt make the decision any easier though as it meant the end of my marriage, something that upsets me all the tme

Im strong though & will get through that & move forward. i have to for my daughter. its my hubs loss at the end of the day!!

Goo luck to you though in whatever you decide!

pomijean

I have been here over 40 years,been home several times,had to come back for my animals.Aussie husband and I going home net year,renovating house,as we are pensioners and can,t get a mortgage in uk so we have to get enough to buy a house in Dorset.
Taking dog 12 years old,cat 17 and cat 5,he has just been diagnozed with diabetes,has anyone taken a diabetic cat,how do they do the insulin on the journey,its worrying me but we will get there hail,snow or shine,good luck Megan
Keep up your British fighting spirit.

LouiseD

Wow what a story!! Your dad sounds a great guy and I'm so pleased that he's so settled and happy where he belongs.

It just goes to prove that despite being away for a long time, people still return and love it here despite all the changes that have taken place in their absence

brits1

I have just read your thread and I am so please for you, we have just made our minds up in regards to returning home, we have ex-pats here who are saying it's dirty, grim, etc and they are getting on my nerves (we were back in March 07 for 10 weeks and we just loved being home) after 8.5 years hre in Perth we have seen,done everything we can and 10 times over, it is just people seem to put thoughts in to your head and try and change your mind...I just want to be back home, shopping in Sainsbury's (well at least having my cuppa tea and toast with my dad and brother etc) and shopping at Morrisons....I just love their bakery section, I liked Tesco's as well. We are amazed at the price of homes, we lived near Manchester in a very nice area and we are talking $265,000 for our old home!!!! but we still want to do so much and reading your e-mail makes it all worth the earache we are getting off people we know here in Perth (99% of those moan about the place everyday....we were not every that bad!!!)

Anyway thanks about the removals advice and pets, we have a small dog and we know she will just love the fields and weather.....she is only young but part of the family.

Good luck with your house hunting.....wish we were in that position already!!!

best wishes from
nearly there but not quite

pfmckinley

hi there! really enjoyed reading your post, as we are counting down until our return to fab blighty (there is nothing like living away to make you appreciate it again!). i also felt for you as our poor babies will have to go into quarantine on our return (much like you, we never expected to move back and by the time we did, the rabies shots etc were not done in time etc etc...) they will have to be quarantined for 21 weeks! it makes me sick just thinking about it.

i was wondering where your dogs are, and how are the facilities? is there any tips or advice you can give me as to how to make the experience easier for them... for me? they are both real home bodies and always want to be cuddled and walked, so i can't imagine what it's going to be like for them...

your post gave me a little hope though...