celine_uk

Well for Canadians they are converting from the CDN$ so it when you do the math it looks likes you would be paying more in the UK, but their thinking in Canadian terms on a Canadian salary….

blowfly

This is true, people really do think that everything is cheaper and we know that it isn't so.

snowbunny

Ah, the old Canadian insecurity complex. It DOES get old hearing the comparisons to the US, which are usually that Canada is better, or if not, that the US is in some way cheating or using force or worshipping devils in order to be better and that Canadians don't really want to be better in that category anyway.

And then there's the CanCon rules about things like radio content.

I think one of the reasons Canada is not hyped as an immigration destination is that it's cold and dark in the winter, much like the UK. As someone who lived briefly in Canada I can say that one major factor in not living there permanently was the weather.

In some ways the constant bitching and comparisons in Canada about the US are much like the arguments that go on in Australia about the UK. The difference is that it is much harder to differentiate between an American and a Canadian: the accent differences are far more subtle, so an American in Canada isn't as readily identifiable as such, as a Brit would be in Australia. So personal insults wouldn't happen as often. Some Canadians view well-paid Americans working in Canada as leeches, but as an entry-level worker, I wasn't resented; more like "why the hell do you want to live *here*, it sucks!"

As a young person I think that Canada could definitely be boring simply due to less choice in terms of career and culture. As an older person, though, the lower rates of crime, better behaved youth, and universal health care would be very attractive vs the UK and the US.

I do wish people didn't feel they needed to apologise for returning home, nor do they need to 'rationalise' it by coming up with a list of negatives about their host country. Comparisons between countries are apples and oranges and what's more, everyone changes during their lifetimes so that what was a good fit at one point is no longer a good fit.

Lord Pom Percy

Perhaps your biggest problem is that you live in a crap part of OZ, you should try somewhere else. Most of the crime and burglaries in your area are probably down to a certain minority group.

blowers

Hello Mogwai

I just want to wish you good luck. I was in a very similar position - single, good job etc in Sydney and your post really struck a chord, as for me the main reason (as well as some niggling things) for returning was as you put it, the overwhelming sense of isolation, and I have travelled a lot on my own to far flung places etc, so was not at all prepared to feel like that.
I'm back in the UK, but am planning to return to Oz soon to give it a second go, but I still haven't quite worked out what to do, as regards that feeling of isolation. Good luck to you

SuzieB

celine_uk

Great way of putting it Snowbunny! I agree to when I first moved here, Canada provided me everything I needed at the time but now it seems to doing the opposite, your right everyone changes and what was a good fit isnt so much now

Irish Guinness

ditto ditto

dunroving

Don't feel sorry for them, they're perfectly happy to be back in the UK

Dracula

I am wholeheartedly sick of people who have NEVER set foot in South Africa telling me (who used to live there) what a crime infested dump it is and that everybody lives there lives in 'prisons'.

I am also wholeheartedly sick of the ex saffers who cannot seem to stop themselves twisting the knife at any point imaginable, for example, if somebody says they are going to Cape town for a holiday, the eyes roll, the horror stories come out and before you know it, the tourist is scared witless...

As somebody once said, South Africa is not for wimps but it is a beautiful part of the world.

The point I REALLY want to make is that : I live in Fortitude Valley and trust me there is plenty of crime here to keep me busy!! A suspected murder last weekend, people bashed on regular basis, a massive police prescense (on horses etc). Does that suggest a crime free paradise to you?

Anyway rant over....but it really makes me MAD!

arkon

Errr, not sure if this was aimed at me, but just incase, for your information I have worked in SA, and had a few of my drivers killed there, and another stabbed. In fact it was so bad my company pulled out of oing business in SA, there were just too many other better countries to do business in and safer too. So From my time there and my business dealings there I can whole heartedly stand by my comment that the crime rate is worse there than here in Oz.

Geordie George

Would you like a bit of my wall to bang your head against?

St.Georges Girl

Where is Fortitude Valley and are you in the police force?

marktyler74

Fortitude Valley is in Brisbane. Brisbane CBD has a bit of a problem with drunk people knocking the living daylights out of each other.

nun

My only experience of Australia is meeting Ozzies when they are travelling. Some Ozzie women are very nice, but the majority of the guys I find to be loud, uncultured, misogynistic and racist and that's from the perspective of a lad who grew up Middlesbrough

iused2liveinflorida

i used to live in florida for 15 years and i recently moved back to england. this was a major mistake. england had changed a lot since the last time i visited, and mainly for the worst. its involvement in the EU seems to have flooded it with immigrants. i hope to move back to florida.