side

Hi All
OK well here goes... Husband and I spent an amazing 3 years in OZ yes of course we went through all the emotions when you first get there wanting to go straight back home etc but then time passed and before long we had good jobs, nice place to live and good friends. Then as time went on started to get homesick missed family and thought long term England is where we should be. We had the discussion and thought right we had got OZ out of our system we had some fun but let’s go back home. So we did!!

Well back home it was fantastic to be with the family being able to hug them but the recession has hit the UK really hard. We were both out of work for awhile something that I have never been through. Husband got a job and I eventually got a temp job but by this time I had started to feel so low. Going back to OZ kept creeping back in my mind and did my husbands. I hate not working!

We have been living in temp accommodation too so it doesn't feel like home. This year I have got so low which I have never done before and I just want to escape back to OZ! Husband has got an amazing job offer again so we are going back. Yes I feel happy because I feel like I have opportunities again but my god I will miss the family again but at least I feel alive in Oz. Husband was happy going back but is now is scared and just thinking we will be coming back again in a couple of years time.. ..I just feel like I am going round and round and I just want everything to stop.

For me moving to oz has been the best and worst thing. We had a great time out there and when you come back to England you think I’m home but then reality hits in and you constantly compare the two. Neither country is perfect but then they both have amazing parts to them. I just need to close the door on one of them but I don’t know which or if I ever will but I don’t want it to cost me my marriage which I never thought it would when we started this whole process.
Rant over x

Sherlock Holmes

Hi Side and welcome to B.E.

It's my pleasure to welcome you to the forum and give you a point of contact should you need any help with the site in general. You can contact me here.

A list of all the moderators and helpers with their relevant countries including Australia can be found here.

Any problems, dont hesitate to PM me.

I've been in Oz for four and a half years now. Okay, so I'm semi retired and there is nothing in the UK for me now anyway. BUT, everybody gets homesick. Where you are born makes you who you are and it ALWAYS will. I still have a few niggles about some aspects of Australia but they pale into insignificance against the good points. As you say, both countries have their good and bad.

Make a list of likes and dislikes of both countries. Which has the most likes?

You can't emigrate and try to keep a foot in each camp.

Enjoy B.E. and enjoy whatever comes for you in the future. All the best.

Alistair.

Sherlock Holmes

P.S. Would you like this moved to the Australia forum? - as this seems to be where you are headed.

quoll

Nah, it's called the curse of the expat - read some of the stories on here and you will see some serial pingpongpingers. I hope it all works out for you - at least you have a job to go to so that will allay some of your fears I guess. I suppose you had considered other parts of UK before you opted for Australia, it might have been cheaper and those things which drove you out of Australia in the first place are still going to be there so you will need to work out ways to deal with them. There is nothing in the rule book that says you cannot follow the opportunities and if, down the track, you get a better opportunity elsewhere then go for it - you dont have to live in one place forever. Good luck

Beedubya

Will it ever end going back and forth?

Mmmm well I am heading back to live in the UK in 10 weeks time after living in Australia for 28 years............

But who knows? Like Quoll says you don't have to live in one place forever...............gulp.........

Stick around this part of BE for some interesting viewpoints.......I just noticed that you said you feel alive in Oz, well for myself it's the complete opposite, I feel alive in the UK and slowly dying living here, see we are all different. There are no easy answers......

quoll

Yup, the converse for me too - felt alive when I was in UK, here just dwindling into a half life. Horses for courses!

Bee, would you be a pingpongpingpongpinger do you think?

Beedubya

Oh yes I do believe I have ping ponged enough for one life time, let's hope it's my last ping and not my future pong.

fulwood

quoll - serial pingpongers - luv it

Englishmum

I have no idea if you have children (or are planning to have children) but if both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are in the UK and you are living in Oz, it will definitely pull on your heartstrings

Good Luck!

cinzia

I have been back and forth for nearly 2 years now, when i am England i want to be in Italy and when i am in Italy i want to be in England!!!
I don't think it will ever end for me, but i am fortunate to be able to go back to England when i need to, maybe one day i will feel settled! Its not easy, and it must be even harder when live so far away from England, not sure i could do that, especially as in my opinion the older you move to another country the more difficult it is to adjust. Good luck to you.

Bevm

Side, you don't say how long you've been back, and when you started to feel low.

We have to take into consideration the lack of sunlight as the days get shorter. It has a physiological effect.

You also don't say where you returned to.

We came back from Canada and spent a year in Yorkshire. I got depressed over the winter and I knew it was the lack of sunshine. That was one reason we moved down to Devon where there's 40mins more daylight a day and I can feel the difference. Add to that, it's been mostly mild so it's easy to get out and enjoy what sun there is.

I suspect that when people leave the UK and go to somewhere like Australia and get lots of sunshine, their body adapts to that, so when they return here the short term effect is drastic. Over time I assume the body will adapt again.

Just speculation, but I think it's probably a factor.

Bev

johnh009

Unfortunately, culture shock can a realty when moving countries. Moving house is one of life's major stresses, moving countries is even worse and you have to give it time to settle. Like many Yorkshiremen, I believed that Yorkshire was the only place to be before I moved abroad to work and that living outside of Yorkshire would leave me vunerable to strange people with strange customs such as eating jellied eels and haggis. But, when we moved back to the UK after almost 30 years away, we purposely decided to settle in the south of England. This way, I do not feel my life has gone full circle and living in a new area is a new adventure with lots to do that I have never done before. Almost like emigrating. London is amazingly interesting, I have the Cotswolds and Wales on my doorstep, and am two hours from Devon and the south coast. Never a dull moment.