achanginglife

Here are the percentages of reasons from the 'Main Reason for Moving Back' thread, if anyone wants to know:
Miss family - 27%
Standard of Living better at 'home' - 23%
Climate - 23%
Miss 'home' - 14%
Misc - 13%
Isn't it interesting how similar these are to reasons for emigrating in the first place, with the exception of missing family.

I would like to ask those wanting to move back:
1. Thinking back before you came, would you still have done it, knowing what you now know?
2. What do you wish you had known before you moved?

Nu-Shooz

In answer to question 1.....i definately would not have come to OZ, knowing what i know now. We gave up alot to be here, so knowing things aren't any better here (apart from the weather) makes it all seem pointless.

2....wish we had known how boring Perth was, how expensive it is here and how much we would miss our friends and family.

You live and learn.

JoolsB

Q1 - no, if I'd had a crystal ball I would have looked at ways to improve or recify the things I didn't like about my UK life rather than running from them.

Q2 - I wish I'd known that to live in just a decent (not wealthy) suburb with some 'life' & atmosphere would mean having a mortgage equivalent to the one we had in the UK.
I wish I'd known that to live anywhere near a normal (not extravagant) life would mean my husband having to re-enter the industry he left behind (that he hates).
I wish I'd known how hard I would find it to get a job compared to in London.
I wish I'd known how out of place & alien I would feel-not because anyone's unfriendly-on the contrary I have met & made some lovely Aus people & friends but because I just don't feel any sense of belonging here.
I wish I'd known I would end up on anti anxiety meds due to missing UK so much

I never in a million years thought I would be posting here and I feel like a prize idiot after waxing lyrical about Aus for years (my family left Aus for the UK when I was 4 and have always wanted to return but I think it's just too late-I am now just too "English")

Fleaflyfloflum

1. No, I think I would have moved to another part of UK

2. That my family would need me more than I ever imagined.

quoll

Well, yes I probably would have come anyway but knowing that it has turned into a life sentence would have made me think twice about taking the steps that effectively bound us here. I would have moved back when we had the chance to do so.

rabsody

1. Yes I would still have come (well, you only ever learn through experience and I don't hate Australia, just hate being trapped here).
2. I wish I had known to leave with the kids to go back to the UK when I first left my husband instead of trying to do the right thing and having to hack it here for 15 years (which it will have been by the time my kids are old enough to leave legally).

Desire

1. I would have made a few life changes in the Uk

2. That my family would need me more than I ever imagined.[/QUOTE]

Glasgowlass

I would like to ask those wanting to move back:
1. Thinking back before you came, would you still have done it, knowing what you now know?
2. What do you wish you had known before you moved?[/QUOTE]



1.Absolutely not.
2.That there was so many shite people about to cross my path and that my mental and emotional health would suffer as a result.

troj

Q1: No, not a chance.
Q2: How strong an emotion like homesickness can be. Wish we had known about all the rip-off merchants.

Lionda

1. No - definitely not, but you have to experience the place and the life change before you can actually know if it is for you. I don't regret it though, life is an experience, make the most of it.

2. How boring it would be. I would have moved back to the place where I was born and brought up and where my family still live. That is where we are moving when we return (from Spain)

kericare

hi jools b,my god you sound exactly like how im feeling now where abouts are you living we have only been here for 2 months today to be exact,i do like it here but all of what you have said thats how im feeling kerrie

Cornelius Wankstaffe

1. Yes, because it always would've been on the back of my mind. But then I tend to jump into decisions feet first and moved there without ever having visited the continent, so probably I should have taken a two week holiday there, from which I think would've changed my mind.

2. How isolated culturally/socially it is, how over rated it is, how it's not "cheap", how everybody who swears blind it's paradise are not entirely happy and are trying to justify their decisions in their own minds.

Cornelius Wankstaffe

Damn right, I lost thousands (close to £20K)
I had no regrets doing a runner from my apartment and posting the keys through the estate agents door. They emailed me a very long itemised bill of costs I would have to incur for breaking my tenancy agreement.
I had a laugh at the final line of the email which states they will...and I quote:

"....place a lodgement of breach on the National Tenancy Database, which would greatly jeopardize any chances of finding tenancy again in Australia or New Zealand..."

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

1. No, but had i not done it I would not know what I do, and I think one of the greatest things to come of all this is a far greater appreciation of what I had.

2. That love would not conquer all. The biggest shock was the intense grief associated with the loss of 'my life', I think maybe that's the one thing that would have stopped me going.

Jerseygirl

Fully agree with you. If we hadn't made the move to the US we would have always been wondering 'what it'. We have had the opportunies and experience many won't have in a lifetime.

That was the worst part for me...I just missed my life. I used to sit back and close my eyes...I used to relive walking from room to room in my 'home'.