I like the what would you do if you could not fail approach, very articulate. Thank you for that. And agree about the other parts.

I don't know ... but if it helps we're in pretty much the same boat. In BC for 12 years, oldest now 14 - thinking it's now or never. We've gone as far as school places in UK, getting shippers etc, but still our hearts aren't really in it. We love it here, but feel we should be there mainly because of family - we don't really miss UK as a place. Sound familiar? I think we've probably over analyzed this.

If you really love it here (we don't) i would not go back !!!! I know family are a pull,but if thats the only reason i really would stay where you are.
We miss lots of things about the UK and family are a little part of moving back.But we said to ourselves "do we really want to stay here for the rest of our lives?"and both answers were NO ! We want to give our son a chance to experiance some of the culture etc and we can always retuns at a later date ,if things dont work out.
When are you moving back?
good luck

Hi Everyone, kind of new here, but we are going through the exact same dilemma. We are also in Alberta, Calgary to be exact and we know for sure that we do not want to be here when we are older. We are originally from UK, N.Ireland actually, but have been here for 4 years. In the beginning we loved it, but as time passes it is starting to lose some of its 'rose colour'
We like it in the summer because of the weather and thats one of the reasons we are hesitant about moving back to N.Ireland.

I would love to be with my family again; bump into people I know; just have familiar things around, everything that we don't have here, however the reason that we left are pretty much exactly the same. Sure we could go back and easily buy a house due to the plummeting prices but if we can't get work that is kind of irrelevant.

We are torn between going back home or trying Oz, the Gold Coast. We went there for 6 weeks in June and loved it, the beaches, the mild winters, the outdoor lifestyle, but will we just feel the same about OZ after a few years ???????

Such decisions, it would be great if someone could just tell you what to do!!

Cheers
Karen

Oh we are just talking about it yet AGAIN......a daily topic in this house.
We dont like the winter either or the mozzies,nor the fact we can bump into family and friends.
Reading the expats,there seems to be more people moving back from Oz.So i dont know what i could suggest there.
Today we are thinking of renting our home out here,hubby keeping his job here and doing 2 weeks on and 2 off,and renting a house in a different part of the UK from where we once lived.Phewwwwwww..........dont know if this would work!!!!!!! but we really dont want to loose money on our home here,and if things dont work out,we still have our foot in the door.
Sent me a private message Karen.......we might be able to get together,we are close to Red Deer.Would be nice to share our views

HI CL,

I'm probably repeating myself but I so identify with where your head and heart are right now. I too was terrified as everyone had told me I was living in paradise for years but I was never truly happy. I had beach, lakes, skiing.....amazing.....but so boring and I felt terribly disconnected from it. I couldn't feel the place nor the people.

Now I have returned to the UK, to my Mum's, I realise how miserable I truly was. I feel so happy to be back and smile from the inside out. I can arrange to go away for weekends to see amazing friends, travel to a million villages with ease at the weekends, go to fab pubs with friends, see my nephews and look after my Mum...the list just goes on.

It has had it's challenging moments (like getting a bank account sorted) but we've had the most amazing time so far. The UK is all about the area you live and the literature you read. Choose a lovely area, see your friends and family and you won't look back!

I am pleased it has worked out for you!!
We have had YET another change of heart and after a trip back this xmas, we have decided to stay here!!! My heart isn't here, but i hope we can make it work!!
My sister is hoping to move out too and will be near us, so that would make life much better!!

Hopefully we won't be changing our minds in 5 years time!!

enjoy your life back in the UK.

Hi Karen, I don't live on the Gold Coast, but I do live in Sydney, Australia, maybe you saw Oprah on TV this week at the Opera House in stunning Sydney Harbour?

I am returning to live in England after 30 years here, the beaches, the weather, the "outdoor" lifestyle are not home to me. Only one place holds the key to my heart.

Here is my advise, get out some photo's of the last time you were in the UK and really get into the photo if you know what I mean, how did you FEEL then? And now look around at what you have now, maybe a lovely home, car, job, whatever, does it make you FEEL as good inside as you felt then?

Like Lillybilly I didn't realise how miserable maybe even slightly depressed my life has been until I recently spent a year in the UK, I felt so much more ALIVE living there and did so much sight seeing and family visiting. Here in Australia I do nothing much and since coming back have found that the "post holiday blues" that I used to get after returning from the UK previous times weren't post holiday blues at all, they were/are my feeling of being disconnected and detached from everything around me, in the UK I feel an almighty connection hard to describe to others, but I am sure some people on this thread will know what I mean.

The answer is inside yourself.

Barb

Great bit of advice Beedubya!

I've got one of those LCD pic frames and one of the pics scrolled over is one of my brothers, me and my nephew having a snowball fight back in the UK a few weeks ago.....certainly makes me realise what I am missing out on!

I live in paradise here with a boat that gives me access to a stunning lake....but the way that picture makes me feel reassures me that I' making the right decision to return in a few months once my residency is permanent.

Exactly! You could live in a mansion but if you ain't feeling it, you ain't feeling it.

My biggest worry about returning is the lack of money I have, so like somebody on here said what would you do if you won the lottery? I would run to the airport right now and jump on that plane LOL!!

Off to buy some milk as my carton has gone off (1 day before due date), yes Karen it was in the fridge, the hot weather is not all it is cracked up to be LOL!!

Thanks Barb.

It's not that I miss N.Ireland so much, its my mum and dad and familiar things, my past I suppose.
There are things however that I know if we went back would really bother me. Would I end up resenting the place again????? I don't know. We are going back home for Christmas for 3 weeks in the hope that it might help us make up our mind. It will be the first time we will have been home in 5 years.

The heat in Aus I know would get to me during the summer months and living with all of the insects migth take a bit of getting used to. Nothing survives here in -30.... Mossies are the worst we get in the nice but very short summer.

We will keep an eye on the housing, the jobs and the economy in both Queensland and in N.Ireland. We would definately be quids in moving back home now with the exchange rate.

Karen

I know it's all in the mind, but living here I personally do feel sooooo far away............and it's not just a few hundred $$$ for an airfare or maybe 10 hours of flying, you are talking approx. $2500.00 return airfare and 24 hours of flying.......

Depending on your own financial circumstance trips home might be few and far apart. A point to consider.

Man alive! I couldn't do 24 hours of flying. I get really antsy on my 7-hour flights.

Absolutely! I was looking at photos from my trip back in September and I look different in them. I couldn't put my finger on it, but then lillybilly's post summed it up for me - in the photos, I am smiling from the inside.

I am generally quite a happy person, but I didn't realize that I wasn't as happy as I could be until we went back. This will sound really silly to those cynics who don't like the UK, but being surrounded again by my friends and family, I just felt like I was glowing. A bit like this old Ready-Break ad!!

Not silly at all Sally by any means, great ad I remember that one, my daughter LOVES Readybrek I usually smuggle her a packet into Australia and she hides it from her kids LOL!!

Thats exactly how I have been all these years Sally, generally quite happy and just getting on with it I suppose, then in the UK I had so many WOW moments, so many warm fuzzy moments, so much more ALIVENESS inside of me, like Lillybilly says smiling from the inside. And then being on such a downer since I came back last April has been pretty hard to handle but the light is at the end of the dark tunnel!

All these years and I never knew it!!!

It's definitely something that we need to think about long and hard.

I suppose the way to look at it is even if we did decide to give the Gold Coast a try, as Bon Jovi so eloquently said 'Who said you can't go home'

My dad has always said that you regret the things you don't do, not the things you do. I don't regret coming to Alberta at all, it is all experience. My husband has been able to retrain as an Electrician, something he never would have been able to do at home.

Lots to think about.