kathymarie

Hi all

Been here is Brisbane 3 years now. Had 2 trips back to the UK which helped a lot. I returned on holidays and not due to being homesick at the time but I really do feel that it helped me not becoming as homesick as I feared I might. Anyone having second thoughts would benefit from a visit back just to check it all out again. We become complacent with time and take things for granted. We also spend a lot of time thinking "the grass is greener on the other side". I think that people who have really strong attachments to people in the UK and have not moved homes and jobs a lot will find it a lot more difficult that others. It is never really the place that keeps us here, it is the life. We need to be able to live with it and be getting something out of it. For all you lovely people that have been back and forth, just enjoy and remember...... even when we think back at times to some of the decisions that we have made and think they were the wrong ones, thay wouldn't have been at the time otherwise we wouldn't have made them.

bluekipper

Totally agree,, ppl say to me `arrhh you gutted you came back the UK and bought a house again`? I always say no, because I have had 3 yrs back whereby I got more qualifications thru my job, my daughter got her driving licence and my other daughter had her braces on her teeth which are all sorted now in time for our return. There are no wrong roads to go down,,because you learn from each one.

Glad you are feeling settled.

Bluekipper

kimandken

deborahjg

We lived in Perth for 6 years and made 2 journeys back to the UK in this time.
Still felt homesick and moved back to the UK last January. People thought we were mad to come back.

Bought a house here which we sold after 3 months ready to come back to Perth but then changed our mind and decided to try another 6 months or so here!

Now all in agreement to go back to Perth and hoping to move over in September this year.

Things have changed here some for the better some for the worse but we feel we would be better off back in Perth and miss things there quite a bit.

We haven't regretted our time here though. Also the same for us one Daughter has passed her driving test here and one had braces on sparing the $5,000 we had to pay back in Perth for the other Daughter's!

Son, now 10 has been able to see Grandparent's etc which he really missed and has had a great time at primary school here.

Going to enjoy the Summer here and visit places we haven't visited here before before we leave for Perth once again.

Hope we are doing the right thing as staying put after our next move!

Anyone else preparing to ping pong back in the next few months?

billabongbunyip

I have pretty much never felt homesick. I arrived in 1995 and never been back to the UK since. Although would like to. Home is where the heart is. I moved here for love, so Australia is now home. I made it official in 1999 when I took out citizenship.

But I certainly agree with your comment......”I think that people who have really strong attachments to people in the UK and have not moved homes and jobs a lot will find it a lot more difficult than others”. And I have met many migrants like this.

I had moved around a lot and changed jobs a lot both in the UK and backpacking overseas before I was 25. So I lost my connection to my UK home in the four years prior to settling here. The only thing I regret is not seeing my beloved Aunty before she died.

I don’t hold out much truth to the saying "the grass is greener on the other side". Life is what you make it. Being poor in London was the absolute pits. But being poor here different for me. In myself I feel happy and joyful and still after 15 years really appreciate the beauty around me.

Little things all add to the sense of joy in me. Watching the sun rise over the valley. Having a cup of tea on the balcony whilst a kangaroo hops around the garden. Driving up to the Hunter Valley for wine tasting and lunch (the back way through Wollombi with the convict sandstone bridges is very peaceful and beautiful), swimming in free ocean pools as the sun rises or sets over the horizon, seeing humpback whales in Sydney Harbour (there are not many cities in the world where you can sit in your office and watch whales frocking), taking the train over the Harbour bridge with the sun reflecting off the Opera House and over the harbour always fills me with an intense sheer joy at just being alive. Within 30 minutes of leaving the CBD you can be in a National Park that is thousands of years old. In winter I can drive up Bells Line of Road into the Blue Mountains and go tobogganing in the snow............a bit bloody different from freezing to death in a damp unit block in the London suburbs.

But I am not rich. In fact, very poor. Still renting. I have also been ill and had to reduce work hours. Often have weeks where ends don’t meet. But it is the little things like above where I think “my God, I am so lucky to live in this beautiful part of the world”. I never think about returning to the UK to “get on” in life, as my little bit of paradise is here.

***

billabongbunyip

I could be wrong, but I think an important way of reducing homesickness and settling in a new environment is by fully embracing your new life.

When I was growing up in the UK I could never understand why English people went on holiday overseas and complained about the local environment. They would stay in English style accommodation, mix with other English people, drink English beer in English theme bars and demand eggs, beans, sausages & chips (whilst calling paella, risotto, mousaka or whatever the local food consisted of as “foreign muck”).

I could never understand this attitude – what is the point of wasting money to go overseas if you are going to mix with other English people, drink English beer in English theme bars, eat English food, and so on.

You may as well save your money, stay at home and hire a sun bed for two weeks!

I met an English lady here once who was terribly homesick and after speaking to her it was hardly surprising to me. She lived in a gated community with other ex-pats, she only socialised with ex-pats, she arranged for her family in the UK to post her English food. She only watched English TV shows, she only read the International Express. I asked her why she had bothered coming here in the first place and she said to “make a fresh start”.

Sorry – but to make a “fresh start” you need expect and welcome change and then embrace the adventure.

Hutch

lol - I know someone exactly the same. Does my head in.

Buzzy--Bee

Me too. Australia is a different country. The fact that you can understand the natives is what throws most people. But in many ways it is as foreign to the UK as a non-English speaking country.

Buzzy

jond

I Agree.

I have often said that they only thing most British people have in common with Australians is that we sort of speak the same lingo

Pollyana

...often with the emphasis on the "sort of"!!

squeezzii

couldnt agree more!

humpy

We have just returned from our first visit back to the UK, we have been on the gold coast for 16 months. It really made me appreciate what we have got in oz. My wife went back on her own in December for a wedding and it did wonders for the small bit of homesickness she still had, We call it peoplesick, you miss family and friends but not the place. The town where I'm from is going downhill very fast, not a place I would like to live in anymore, more of my friends are moving away, some over here to add to the 7 friends who have already taken the plunge. I would recomend anyone with homesickness to go back, see how things are on your return...

Pollyana

I went back six times, each time was amazing.......friends were as good as ever. Seventh time, the friends had moved on and after 2 days they were bored with my presence, we were just too far apart.
The friends I have now are here .... or on their way here....so......

Cheetah7

I think you have far more friends than you realise and not just in QLD. You have helped many of us on here and I am sure that most would return the favour.

I know the chances of you coming down my neck of the woods are probably zilch but you would be more than welcome round my house anytime.

Pollyana

Thanks, I do have a lot of friends over here now, not just in Qld, and I do vallue them all, very much But friends back home? The people I used to think would be there for me if I went back....now thats a different matter.