Retired & moving back to UK after living overseas most of my life
 

I first left England as a child when my parents migrated to South Africa in the 1950's.Then I lived in Glasgow for 2 years after I married but the transition from Cape Town to Glasgow was more than I could handle so migrated to Australia only intending to give it a try for a few years but stayed 32 raising children & running a business. Eventually after a extended tour of France, Spain, Portugal I decided I had outgrown Australia so started living in various parts of Europe for a year at a time. Being semi retired it was easy to do & I figured staying in one place for 12 months would reveal the pro's & the con's, it was enlightening, had some good times & bad experiences but all in all I never would say I regretted it. Then the call of down under beckoned but as Sydney House prices had escalated beyond reach Auckland was very doable. Ended up buying an old house in a great location which we tweaked & lived in for 12 years minus another 2 year escape to Cyprus & Tenerife. Then return to Auckland to fix the damage our tenants had done to our house & decided it was time to leave Auckland we sold up taking our profit & moved to Hawkes Bay (Napier). Great climate, beautiful scenery but 6 years on restless again & realising both Australia & New Zealand are so remote the long haul flights to get somewhere interesting are a problem now we are in our 70's.
So out of the blue my husband dropped the bombshell "let's move back to England" At first I was aghast it would mean being so far away from our children in Australia but then I realised I presently only see them once a year for a few days & often speak to them on Skype etc so being further away would not make much difference. I could manage a flight back or they could come visit.
Suddenly the prospect of England was exciting. After all I had spent so little time there & I know from prior brief stays & TV shows that many parts of the country are so rich in history & beautiful. Then came the big decision of where, wanting the mildest climate, scenery, convenient to transportation when the need to get away for a break & affordable, think its been narrowed down to Dorset but that could change knowing us gypsies! Only spanner in the works now is the election & hoping Corbyn does not win. Would not want to pay to support his generous schemes from the savings we have accrued away from UK. So it's now a matter of wait & see & hope the currency exchange rates are kind to us.

Re: Retired & moving back to UK after living overseas most of my life
 

Do you have to go all in? Could you not just give it a try for a period of time, say 6 months or a year before committing to a full on move?

Hello

You sound like you have had a very interesting life so far.

Given the right area, there are many lovely things about the UK.

I would love to walk through an ancient wood that is carpeted with bluebells and not have to worry about being bitten by a snake, or swim in the sea without the worry of being eaten by a shark.

Actually I have never missed the UK at all, until I made the mistake of watching "Escape to the Country" on telly and I suddenly realised how pretty some areas of the UK are.

I would love to go to a thatched cottage pub and sit in the beer garden again.........Australian pubs are pretty bad and they don't do beer gardens well.

The only thing that really puts me off is the cold. I hate the snow, black ice and frozen pipes. Quite how I survived childhood I will never know. I adore the heat.

It would be interesting to hear of your experiences when you go back.







.

And how did you make that decision?

Personally myself I would choose one of these areas :

Isle of Man
Guernsey
Devon
The Lake District
Lytham St Annes
Woburn

Anyway Dorest sounds lovely

:)