Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

actually I meant supermarket food in general and baby supplies.
Eating out is a different story.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

the thing that amazes me about US supermarkets is how everything is so .... clinical. never seen so much shrink wrap packaging in all my life.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

tha packaging bugs me - everything is double wrapped, which is really wasteful. And a lot of people rave about having your groceries bagged for you here, but I prefer to do it myself - if you let them do it you tend to end up with about 2-3 items in each bag and 36 bags to carry out/find a home for/recycle.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

me too! I have a system about what I like and how heavy I want the bags to be etc.., them packaging for me drives me mad

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

Yes the UK is expensive per se, but it certainly isn't in comparsion to most of the major cities in Australia, if you take into account the wage to cost of living ratio many areas in the UK are probably cheaper than many areas in Oz, you only need to read some of the posts on the Aussie forums to see that many migrants are struggling financially out there.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

100%, I could only just manage to live in Perth working 6 days a week and 3 nights a week in a bar, soooo bloody expensive that I came home with £350 after working over there for 18 months.:thumbdown:

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN... weather
 

Quite true, we were in Gosport :)

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

but is that due to the drop in wages?? what I see from the forum is that quite a large percentage earn less than they did in the UK creating the problems and the struggle. So it isnt that the items are necessarily expensive, more that the wage to cost gap gives that effect. Yes Australia is more expensive than it used to be and its effect is felt much more by the population as they centre around a small number of cities. The UK has the advantage of being almost totally habitable with as many people living outside the city areas as within.

Oz definately suffers from the polarisation effect and therefore the prices just rise and rise.

Our friends have just sold their property 3 hours north of Adelaide, in the countryside, 4 bed, 3 acres, BEAUTIFUL house, pool, for 160,000 ASD! I nearly fell over. Shows how if you're in the rural areas the prices can just plummet

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

Same here. When I first came here, I didn't realise they pack for you. I just got a bag and did it myself, then turned round to a funny look from the cashier, lol!!
I don't like it, I want to pack my shopping myself, I'm not an invalid, I'm quite capable. I got it from the shelf, I'm sure I can put it in a bag and then the cashier can go just that bit faster instead of taking her sweet time while the person behind me's frozen shopping is defrosting.
Now, how do I go about putting that in a polite way? Haven't figured that one out yet. Maybe I'll just keep my mouth shut, lol!!

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

It may be expensive, but it still very desireable for others to want to move there......also we were better off financially in uk than here, as we were paid our worth for our skills. House prices maybe high in certain areas but at the end of the day that is the same wherever you are in the world.....we have found house prices in the area we are to be unrealistic to the earning potential, another reason to go home. We also find food extremely expensive here.......so we have less spare money for quality family days out or to fund hobbies.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

For those incapable of regulating their exposure to sunlight, I would agree the sun could be a problem. But those who know how to use a hat and sunblock and stay out of the high-UV part of the day will be OK. Presumably you exhausted other parts of Australia before leaving? Perth is a pretty hot part as I recall from my childhood.

And for the record, last year where I live in the south had 4 weeks of sunshine, and 48 were overcast, I kept a record of this in a journal, among other things. They were the first two weeks of April and also in August. There were other isolated sunny days, but these were the only prolonged periods of dry & sunny weather. Our town flooded and we watched people's furniture float down the street. It flooded again a few weeks ago and this looks like a long-term trend for Britain. My observation with Poms moving to Australia is that they will not change their lifestyle to meet their new climate, just like back in the day of pith helmets and coolies. Perth is the same distance from the equator as Iraq - and not many would move to Baghdad without radically changing their lifestyle to deal with the new climate. Not so when in Australia.

I accept though that some can't deal with the heat. Although as you bring up health you might be interested to know that lack of sunlight is a scientifically proven cause of depression, osteoporosis, rickets, certain types of cancer and also MS. Even heart disease has been linked to a lack of sunlight. There is no doubt that sunnier countries are healthier - so long as you are sensible with the sun - and Australia has a significant higher average life expectancy over Britain in support of this.

Finally population. I agree that there are isolated pockets of countryside where on certain days at certain times you can be alone, like Dartmoor for example, or the Brecon Beacons. In these places, when it's not raining, you can walk for hours and usually only see a few people wandering about. But generally the lack of personal space in Britain as a whole is what is affecting people's moods here. The streets and shops are packed. All the time. The car parks are always packed with people circling them like vultures waiting for someone to leave. If you like this sort of thing then be my guest.

It would be remiss of me not to mention though that the British population continues to climb by about 500 a day, and it won't be long before central government sees the problem in the south and moves them to places like Derbyshire. Good luck when that happens.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

Lots of interesting points there Tableland.

I dont think it is quite as clear cut as you would have us believe. Australia has already surpassed the population that most "experts" agree it can sustain. Although there is obviously a lot of it, most of it, as you know, is uninhabitable with the population being increasingly cramped into the rapidly decreasing habitable areas. Water continues to be a HUGE issue - although La Nina has brought us some rain recently, we have been in drought for a while and some areas came perilously close to having to truck in water to sustain them. Now we have La Nina and some of our northern areas have been flooded in the last few weeks - one expects this will be a feature of the Aussie landscape for a while too. Last year it was Gippsland, this year N Qld. Who knows what the next disaster will be - we have been lucky this year with bushfires (thank heavens) but we are still very vulnerable to them right across the country.

It is easy to criticise from a distance the impact of living in a hot climate - most Aussies, born and bred ones too, lurch from airconditioned car to airconditioned mall and then aback in their aircon car to their aircon home. The heat is not easy to live with regardless of how you adapt - it is easier to cope with the cold because you can protect against it but heat is enervating. I dont think it is the domain of immigrant Poms to fail to manage the impact of the heat. The incidence of melanoma is increasing due to overexposure from the sun especially in childhood and some of us parents still beat ourselves up because on at least one day we didnt quite cover our kids with spf30.

There are a number of other issues that Australia sort of sweeps under the carpet whereas they might be emblazoned all over the Daily Fail in UK - adolescent mental health is a HUGE issue here, the increase of self harming behaviour is positively scary. Childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions and you dont see kids out playing like you used to even 10 years ago. I suspect xbox and play station may have something to do with that. There is a great deal of organized sport and wonderful facilities but much less spontaneous activity.

Our record on indigenous health is an utter disgrace and substance abuse both in the indigenous community and increasingly in the towns is a real problem.

Obviously there are pluses and minuses for both countries I dont think one is a clear cut winner over the other.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

Australia has a drought of this length about every 50 years.

As do Americans and even Canadians. I have lived in and travelled in several hot climates, and can't say I ever felt overwhelmed by it, as a child or adult. What does get me down though is the constat dark and damp of a British winter. In all these opinions one solid fact shines brightly: old people hate the cold, and I'm sure I will be no different.

Yes it is true that all forms of skin cancer, and cancer generally is on the rise. Part of this is because detection techniques have improved, part of it is because many old people today have spent 50 years in the sun before we really became educated about it. I would speculate that rates will start dropping soon as the education programmes kick in and take effect. Your child won't get skin cancer if you didn't cover him up on the occasional day though, because the damage caused by sun burn is cumulative and while childhood damage is the worst, we're talking years of careless exposure here, not one afternoon.

If people understood the difference between ultraviolet and infrared rays we wouldn't have a problem - it's just education. I recently spent a few weeks in Australia and during that time I was outside every day. I am extremely fair-skinned and burn in minutes - yet I didn't even so much as turn pink because I respect the Aussie sun and know how to handle it.

You could make this point about indigenous Brits....

I would agree that there is no "winner" but my final analysis is that aside from issues of career progression, Australia generally offers more, especially as we get older and don't fancy being stuck in front of Corrie every frigging day because it's too cold to sit outside.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

LOL this old person hates the heat! In fact I find it more unbearable the older I get. If we could sit at 22C every day I would be much happier. I can wrap up warm against the cold and turn the heating up but I cant cope with the blast of a hairdryer in my face whenever I walk out of the front door.

Of course a single sunburn doesnt necessarily lead to melanoma but it doesnt stop parents feeling guilty about being negligent even just once and with all the sun awareness campaigning I think that one of the side effects is that parents are not encouraging their kids to go out to "play" nearly as much as maybe they once did with the result that we have a generation of xboxers growing up now. I rarely see kids playing in their gardens and riding their bikes around the place.

Aussies do forget that we have droughts like the one we have just had every 50 years or so. Unfortunately the impact of those droughts is magnified with an increase in population and we are beyond the country's capacity to sustain the population we have grown to. Rural Australia has really taken a beating this time and it's a sad looking land. The drive between Sydney and Melbourne passes through some of the most dismal scenery for mile after mile.

I dont think any indigenous Brit has it as bad as our indigenous communities even in the most deprived parts. Our urban aborigines may have a UK counterpart but those still living out in the settlements have it very tough with appalling living conditions and negligible services.

As one at retirement (albeit with a part time job), I would much prefer to be in UK even in winter. I must admit that my dad hates it when he cant play golf because of the weather (at 84) but he wasnt playing golf when he was here on days of 30C+ either. I want variety in my retirement, I want to travel to different places not more of the same same - grey nomading would be better than sitting here and watching the cockatoos swoop but I yearn for more history, culture, variety of landscape, theatre etc than I can get here. I want to live in a place with a sense of community - not much of that around here and I compare it with what my parents and their siblings have in their places and I am envious. I also compare with what my close friends have available to them and without exception I would say that they all have better outcomes for their old age than I can expect from mine - having been here for almost 30 years has not been kind to us in relation to the rest of the world although the dollar is doing a bit better at the moment. I would love to have the luxury of a state pension without means testing, to have free prescriptions and medical appointments and not have to pay through the nose for private medical insurance, to have access to a dentist that doesnt cost an arm and a leg, to have the in home support that is available to elderly Poms.

I am finding that a number of my friends are also regretting their impending old age in Aus as well - I have quite a few long term expat friends here, all of whom appear, on the outside to be happy and settled here. It is only recently that we have begun talking about life here and many of them are talking about either going home or wishing they could go home - I was astonished to say the least! Like me they have become very disillusioned with living here.

Re: Sum up GREAT BRITAIN...
 

Hi Quoll

I think the kind of person who has the will and courage to move from the UK to Australia usually has lots of wanderlust, and thi smeans he/she will never be happy anywhere.

I read it every day: people whining about Australia and wanting to go to the UK; people whining about Australia and wanting to go to Canada, people whining about Canada and wanting to go to Australia, people whining about Britian and wanting to go to Australia/Canada. It never ends. Some people on this forum are on their fourth country now.

We are cursed with wanderlust. We want to travel and as we grow older we want other things, naturally. I presume you have an Australian passport? If so, you can move to Britain with impunity because the slightest sign of problems you can hitch a 747 back to Tasmania, etc. Spare a thought for those who havn't got this option!

All th ebest with your move anyway and I hope you find what you're looking for!