Hi guys,

Been back to the Uk for just over 2 weeks now. We landed in Heathrow with the help of snowplows! It was a real shock to the system to be back here surrounded by snow and some serious minus degree temperatures. Coming from Melbourne where it had been 45.2 degrees the day before - it was quite a shock to say the least. A shock - but very beautiful to look at!

We have based ourselves in York and took out a 6 weeks rental in a furnished holiday let. The plan was always to settle here and hubbie had a job lined up in Leeds while he was in Melbourne which seemed fairly certain. We'd been to York on weekend breaks and with work on many occasions and always liked it.
HOWEVER, the job promised has now not come about and specific jobs in the Yorkshire area are certainly few and far between. The recession is hitting hard - no question about that - be prepared - and we are having to consider jobs which offer less salary than what we've been on. We are also seriously considering moving further south where there DO seem to be a lot of job opportunities for my husband. Me, being a nurse - can go just about anywhere fortunately.
I am happy to move to anywhere that will give us a good lifestyle. I've always wanted to live in the quintessentially quaint english village!
Or at least somewhere I can walk the dog without bumping into people who drink in the street at 11am or are collecting their Methadone!!
( a side to York I hadn't seen before now!! And has been more dissapointing to us than you can imagine. )
We have also had to move from furnished accomodation to hotels and back again as it's all we could get booked as we have a dog. So lots of packing up and moving around initially which isn't ideal.

All of this has all meant that we are not able to settle in the Uk just yet. There will be another move before we can do that. I'm just glad we have the security of the holiday let here in York for the next 6 weeks as that's all bought and paid for.
Hoping to at least have my husbands job secured within the 6 weeks and I will
look for work once I know where we're going to move to.

It has not been easy, and the news always seems so bleak with recession topping the headlines every night.
I would say it's a hard time to move back here from Oz folks. At times I have imagined our life back in Melbourne but for 99% of the time, I am definately glad to be back.
Life will sort itself out very soon I am sure. We just didn't forsee our initial plan not coming about, and a whole new plan and a whole new move being in the equasion!

I will update you as soon as I have other news.

*pearly*

Hiya Pearly, thanks for the update. Sorry to hear it hasn't all gone quite to plan, but I'm surethings will 'come good' soon. Keep the faith hun and catch up soon xx

Good luck to your Dh in the job hunt. I hope it turns out well. I'm sure you could find some nice village life farther south, somewhere right?

Hubbie has applied for jobs in Reading,Guildford and Gloucester so we'd be looking at small villages outlying those areas.
Fingers crossed!

Good luck with Guildford, some pretty places to live

Hey you

Nice to see you have survived the long boring flight, that's the easy bit i guess. I suppose the hard work is yet to come and the only thing annoying us is that we have no credit rating, so we keep getting refused finance.
Stay positive, it is harder to come back and we must think positive. We are glad to be back too, 99.9% lol...it's just having no furniture, cars, house etc that is a pain in the ass!!!

To new beginnings Pearly

Lots of options for villages around all those areas. Good luck

Hi Pearly, it's early days and it WILL get better honest! Remember my first few weeks here? OMG, I could've jacked it all in and caught a chuffing flight back to Perth hell hole we were so fed up and disappointed

Now, four months on, furniture landed, job secured for me (I'm an NVQ tutor/assessor now) and OH almost finished his training, kids settled and very very happy, we can finally see the wood for the trees....phew!

Keep on going, it'll pan out in the end and just remember when you have those days where Melbourne all seems so rosy and comfy because life was easier, think about the gut wrenching thud you'd feel most days because of homesickness and not belonging there.

All the best and keep smiling

Keep your chin up Pearly. It will get better. Bad time to go in mid winter so yep, it would have been a bit bleak. At least spring will be on the way soon. That changes the colour of everything then.

Despite all the gloom and doom, the news is still shouting about 1.97 million out of work. That's funny. I could have sworn they predicted 3 million unemployed by the end of 2008!

Remember that prior to the 1.97 million, there was already 1.70 million who had been long term unemployed.

Fight back, don't buy a paper and don't get bogged down in the gloom. It's like a disease, it's spreads. You'll find your own little place somewhere and it will start to feel like home again.

Hi Pearly

So sorry you are having a bumpy ride so far. I know the Guildford area and it has lovely outlying villages. Fingers crossed for hubby.

I am sure you will have no trouble finding work down there as a nurse. Are you still trying to stay in the sexual health field? I would imagine there would be more of that type of nursing down south.

Big hugs and keeping fingers crossed for you xx

Sorry things aren't perfect, Pearly, but I'm sure it'll all be sorted soon and you'll be in your village.

Best wishes,

Bev

good luck pearly, the recession won't last for ever and it's biting here too anyway.

Welcome home pearly - the snow was a bit of a shocker eh?? We even had loads of it on the south coast - take each day as it comes and I hope a job comes along for hubby soonxx

Nu shooz and Tracey W - so glad things are looking rosey for you both now you are 'home.'

As for me 2.5 years back in the UK now and Perth just seems a distant memory now (thank God!!) - every now and then I drive past the medical centre where we had our medicals for our visa and I still get a slightly sick feeling when I see it!! Still all's well that ends well - we're home now and that's all that matters.........

Hi Pommybird..i have been doing that of late, driving past places such as the post office where we had our photos done for our visas, medical centre etc...i look at them and think 'what the hell were we thinking'

Oh well, we learn from our mistakes and all i can say is that i drive around now and think how lucky we are to be back lol.

thanks for your update...sorry to hear you've hit a bump in the road...best wishes for you both getting back into the work force, and we all know its going to be hard for the first mths back...so thanks for keeping it real. I've taken off my rose tinted glasses awhile back! LOL

I worry about making too many plans myself. Was it easy to get a holiday let? we have 3kids so there is 5 of us...its seems the way to go, can't imagine putting down 6mths rent out, and not knowing exactly the area we want to move too and having our money stuck in a rental!