British Expats - 5 years in Sydney

Only posted on here a couple of times but I thought this one was worth mentioning, this weekend we have been in Sydney for 5 years. :)
Leaving our family behind in the UK, it was a big step for us and it's been tough and we still miss our family loads, we have been lucky with having family visit us on numerous occasions over the last 5 years.
It was all a big rush 5 years ago, I had a telephone interview in the March, came over to Sydney on my own in the April for a visit, got offered the job and asked to start 1st week in July, we flew out of the UK on June 20th 2008.
As you can imagine our feet didn't touch the ground with sorting everything out, house, car, school, bank, etc.
We were very lucky how everything started for us in Sydney. A rent-free apartment for 6 weeks, a hire car for 6 weeks, private medical insurance and lots more. It wasn't all plain sailing and after nearly 3 years I decided it was time to leave the company I had come over to Sydney to work for. I gave 3 months notice and started to look around for something else.
It was the best thing I did, I found another job after having a month at home:thumbsup: Looking back that was one of the best things I did now I am working for a smaller company which is local and no travel, I have more time at home to spend with my family.
Have we ever thought about going back to the UK? Yes, after 3 months arriving here we all got sick and the only thing we wanted to do was go home, but we persevered and never looked back.
We love the weather here, we love the lifestyle and we have made some great friends, we even have friends here that we knew in the UK. The next step for us is to buy a house, that is proving to be the hardest thing we have had to do since arriving in Sydney :ohmy:
The last 5 years have been a great adventure for us and the places we have had the pleasure of visiting in Australia have been fantastic, we have met some great ozzies who are the most friendly and down to earth people we have ever come across. :D