JoolsB

In the UK we drove around London at the weekends looking at the architecture, historic buildings, visiting museums that contain worldwide exhibits not just the history of the town you live in (all Melbourne's museums seem to be about Melbourne and nothing else).

We went out 3 to 4 times a week to charming pubs where we were known & made welcome and which were buzzing with life & cheer-here our local is empty by 8pm apart from the pokies grandmas

Shops had a wider (& often cheaper) variety of food, shoes and well, everything really.

It took me 13 years to feel a bit bored in London. I have only been here 3 months and am already feeling it-oh dear-and I am an Aussie (tho I left to live in UK when I was 4)

I read this in other posts several times before we came and didn't take it seriously but if you love English pubs, history & charm then Aus may not be the place for you..

I guess the main reason we came was for a better financial life which we do have so I mustn't complain but if I won the lottery this weekend I think I would probably be heading for Heathrow shortly after

tictac

Writing>Reading = FACT

tictac

Apologies for my poor attempt at wit. It's been a long day and my suburb has gone to sleep.

mattmc

My suburb has never been awake.

Margaret3

totally agree with these points, we liked 'holidaying; in England because of the 'family friendly' pubs, i remember one sunday afternoon, watching a big group of english friends and family and kids all meeting in the pub, and wishing i had that. We never visited Europe, couldn't afford to, and were delighted with package holiday week in spain, and dont mention Alton Towers, we had one of the best weekends as a family we have ever had there, stayed in the Caribean Creek hotel, felt like luxury.

We never had a 'big social life in scotland' and certainly have little or virtually no family to speak of there, but i just miss being somewhere i belong, i miss glasgow so much my heart aches, and my hometown killie even more, (sad i know, lol), i miss Edinburgh and its general excitment and the childhood memories i have of being there with my dad. I miss the fact everyone talks like me, the general banter in the shops. I miss the girls nights out from work. I even miss the 2 hr trip to Dundee to see my bros, even though he made little or no attempt to see me in scotland.
I miss the excitement of getting a penny flight from glasgow to london ,(even if you had to leave and return at the most bizarre hrs) lol.

I ....miss........where i belong.

manc1

This should also be posted in the coming to Australia thread. It would save some people a lot of time and money.

onceinalifetime

"I was just wondering what everyone did that was so exciting in the Uk or what you are not doing in Australia that you imagined you would be doing ?"

I think for us the UK had so many more options for things to do on a weekend, where we lived in the UK, within a half hour drive, we had the choice of going to the beach, walking in the woods, going into town (with a proper town centre etc), popping into see friends, walking on one of the many footpaths in the countryside. We could get to London by train in an hour, and we would regularly go to visit friends and family in other parts of the UK for the weekend, and France was close enough for a day trip.

Here in Northern NSW, within a half hour drive, we have the choice of several beautiful (but v similair) beaches. The nearest rainforest walks are at least a 2-3 hour drive away. I love the rainforest, but if you're just wanting somewhere quick to go on a Sunday afternoon then it's not close enough to do. Also, as my daughter points out, it looks exactly the same each time you go there, whereas British woodlands change with the seasons (and they don't have poisonous snakes).

It's the limited options that make it dull at times, stunning as it is to look at (and I never take that for granted).

quoll

How right you are!!!!

For the time it takes me to drive to Sydney I could be pretty much anywhere in England I would want to be from my home town. For the time it takes me to drive to Melbourne I could be in any one of several European cities. You only have to drive for half an hour to get ten times the variety that you would get in half a day's driving here. I think a trip down the Hume from Sydney to Melbourne should be mandatory for any aspiring immigrant - it epitomises Aus for me - boring as b*tsh*t!

melbournegirl

That's what happens when you live in the most isolated city in the world which has a country town attitude.

If you were in Melbourne it would be a completely different story. Have you every visited Melbourne? It is not bland, it has plenty of character, beautiful historical buildings (albeit more Victorian era) , heaps of diversity and culture and there is so much to see and do in Melbourne that you could never be bored. There is always something going on with arts festivals, music festivals, food and wine festivals every month of the year. It is a much bigger and more interesting city.

The same goes for Sydney too with a more outdoor/beach lifestyle but can't speak for other cities.

I don't think your 'Perth' experience means that the same experience would be true of other places in Australia.

ThomB

Set as a "point 0" any of european capitals and start driving from your point 0, one hour, 2 h, 3, 4, 5 h, you can see castles, historic buildings built in various styles through ages, museums, etc. In australia you can drive for long hours watching the same scenery, finally you reach your destination - any rock or whatsoever, "attraction", you enjoy it for a while, take picures, walk around and see nothing great, and you go back home through the same boring scenery. and historical building in Melbourne? I reccomend to see historical buildings in northern africa or middle east countries and compare.
I miss cheap european flights - within 1-2 hours I could go to any nice destination on Saturday morning and be back on Monday morning, and this was cheaper than in Oz any weekend trip.
I do not see many pubs in melbourne, where do the Aussiess spend their time? I see them stuck in traffic jam at 6-8pm. - I didn't expect it is australian lifestyle, i heard Australia is cheaper, uhmmmmm, where? what is cheaper here? and I heard about low taxes, low cost of living, well paid jobs, where is it all?

Fleaflyfloflum

As I was only back in UK fairly recently, I have quite a few things i can compare I dont do here that I know i can do there right now or tomorrow (not living in the past)

Spend an hour in the supermarket and not be bored. Not just with the array of interesting things in there, but the willingness of the people to have a chat or a giggle. I cant wait to get in and out of the Aussie supermarkets. Bloody rank dump holes most of them

Go into a pub and feel like the people are alive and kicking. Along with a sense of cosiness and belonging unlike the sterile Aussie pubs. I dont think i have ever been in one that had any form of atmospshere.

People... lots of them and interesting too. I loved sitting in the high streets watching them all toddle by. Maybe its just me but the people just LOOK more interesting.

Men who do not look at me as if i have 2 heads because i wish to have a conversation about current affairs, politics, worldwide events or anyhting else that is more improtant than sport! But I can still talk sport with Brit guys. Try doing that here if you are a woman over 40 and they dont want to shag you... a glassy look befalls their face as if they are wondering where the voice is coming from.

Bored at the weekend? Hop on the eurostar. In france in a couple of hours can even come back same day. All of Europe on hand at drop of a hat. Sydney? Most exciting Aus gets for me. No where else worth bothering with anymore.

In London last year i amused myself just taking a drive through different parts of London. SO many different lanscapes communities and contrasts. Central Sydney is so small i can do the lot on 20minutes!

Betty Boot

These are just my opinions and I am not trying to put anyone off returning, I have been in the same situation and anything anyone said would not have stopped me returning, I dont regret it at all, it was definately something we needed to do so please dont think i am being negative, just explaining how i feel at this point in time.

Maybe as mentioned previously it is all to do with which part of Oz or the UK you live? I felt perth had become boring and that we had seen and done most of it, but after being back in the UK for 2 years I would rather be "bored" in Oz with 2 young children than here in UK. I thought we would be off seeing more of europe - with 2 children that is just too expensive, just to get to spain for 2 weeks self catering in July we are paying almost 3000 pounds and its not cheap when you get there either. I also thought about the quaint english pubs and thought this is how we would be spending week-ends - wrong, with two young children why on earth would i want them to sit in a pub all night even if they wanted to - which they dont! I may have been dreaming of the life i had before kids when i longed for the UK but things are different with children and i feel we do much less here than we ever did in Perth. It is the bank holiday week-end today and guess what - its pouring down we had planned a trip to a farm and again our plans are hampered by the weather! We do live up north where it usually is grim, perhaps if we lived in the south we would get the better weather, cheaper holidays and easy access to france etc.

As one OP mentioned it is nice to be close to family but we cant spend all our time with them, I personally get fed up just sitting in peoples houses all day looking out at the rain. Even the supermarket shopping bores me now, i did find it great at first but now it is just another chore - and one that is becoming more expensive

So now our plans are to head back to Oz but as we found perth was getting a bit dull we are heading over east. Who knows maybe in a few years we will find that dull, maybe we are just the type of people who are always searching for more But at least we are giving it a go

Fleaflyfloflum

I very much agree with you Betty. It certainly does depend on WHERE you live in any country. It also has an effect what phase of life you are at as to where would be best to live regardless of which country.

For us the kids are grown up and the world is our oyster. I have lived in several places in Aus and also in NZ. I was back in UK last year and know 100% that is where i want to be, but as you rightly say, we also need to decide which part of UK would suit us best.

Ms_Fi

I've never really lived anywhere long enough (in the UK) to have any kind of roots, I've been where I am for 2 years now and already I'm itching to move!! I've always moved around the UK from childhood and my only real connection anywhere is my family.

To me moving to Australia isn't about a huge adventure or about changing my life, it's about going where I feel comfortable, going to the place I fit in. My girlfriend is Australian and has been in the UK for about 18 months now and we're moving over to be near her family. Whenever I've been out there I've felt like I truely belonged, we've never done a 'tourist' type holiday as we always stay with the inlaws and just fit in around them and their lifestyle so we (me and the kids) have already experienced the realities of living in Australia rather than just holidaying.

The only thing I'll miss about not being in England is the lack of online food shopping (!) - I hate supermarkets at the best of times so having to shop in Woolies will drive me nuts and the ability to pop round and see my parents whenever I want to. That will be difficult as my parents are fairly elderly and my dads not in the best of health but I know that that's something I'll just have to deal with.

We already know where we're headed (Raymond Terrace - NSW) and can't wait to get out there - for us this is just another move, alebit a pretty huge one - and we're positive it'll work out for us.

I wonder sometimes if people have too many expectations of what Australia can offer as a country and what they can get from it? I know a lot of people who've emigrated to various parts of Aus and returned within (in most cases) 6 months and those are all people who thought it was the country that could turn their lives around and would make huge differences in their relationships.

quoll

I think there is the potential for real problems when one of you is an Aussie and the other isnt. If you are the kind of person who needs to move about a bit and the other is "home" there is the potential for real family stresses. I think some of us are by nature a tad nomadic and inclined to boredom. If you have been "bored" after a couple of years in UK then chances are you are going to be bored witless after a few months in country NSW. When you get to the age where you want to settle down and one wants to be near their family in their familiar places and the other wants to be near their family and their familiar places then you get real trouble.