British Expats - Our First year In Adelaide! (Bit of a long one!)

British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- The Update Forum (https://britishexpats.com/forum/update-forum-107/)

- - Our First year In Adelaide! (Bit of a long one!) (https://britishexpats.com/forum/update-forum-107/our-first-year-adelaide-bit-long-one-511150/)

Our First year In Adelaide! (Bit of a long one!)

Well yesterday was the official anniversary of a year in Adelaide, but to much celebrating & drinking going on meant that the thread would of made no sense at all!! :rofl:

We cant believe that a year has gone past already, and we have achieved so much as a family, I wont bore you all with the finer details and much has been documented on here but needless to say we look back on the last few months and see what we have achieved as a family and re-instates that moving here was the best thing we ever did!

As I always say to mates here in Oz and mates in the UK, we were happy with our lives in the UK, nice area, nice house, nice schools, and brilliant mates, but there was something missing, that made us both want a bit more out of life! I couldnt of told you what it was 12 months ago and to be honest I cant tell you what it is now, but we are so much happier here in Oz, with so many more opportunities for the whole family available!

It hasnt been easy at times all the way from arrival to here, and we had set ourselves some goals along the way, but the goals we wanted to achieve over a 2-3 year period we have achieved within a 12 month period, something we would never of been able to do in the UK!

My husband has taken the longest to settle out of all of us and that does seem strange as it was always him that wanted to come and me that said no for many years, but he has finally settled into his new life and he regularly says he wouldnt return to live in the UK now!

We were talking the other day and if we had stayed in the UK we would probably of just plodded on the last 12 months and more than likely been happy but they call Australia the land of opportunity and it certainly has been for us! Kids are both settled in really good schools, we have a lovely house with so much here, a very valuable pool on these hot days we have a fantastic new caravan which we have already had so much fun in exploring our new country, and finally we bought a company, met a whole heap of great new friends both English and Aussie, and now lead a much more sociable, friendly, de-stressed easy fun life!!

We have achieved even more than this, but it starts looking like a "Oh look at us and what we have type thread" and for those that know us we are sooooo not like that!! Needless to say we have done extreamly well for ourselves, far greater than would of been achieved in the UK!

My Nan always said to beware of the first person that rushes to be your friend in a new situation, and that has been very true, as our only bad experience has been meeting that "first" person on arrival, but in a way I am thankful for that experience as it made us make sure we were more selective with our friendships and now we have a fantastic bunch of mates.

I do have friends here that hate it and want to return to the UK, and I will always say that in this life to give something a go rather than let an opportunity go by you is far better, but to move to Australia without doing any research I find amazing, this and other sites like it are very valuable sources of information when you are still at the planning stage and also when you first arrive, but again it still amazes me that people take everything taken on here as 100% absolute truth reading some threads there are many that stretch the truth just a little!!

When we were still in the UK and I would come on here and read threads about Adelaide, people really slagging it off and it would really worry me, but digging a bit deaper they had never even been to Adelaide and had simply read someone elses comment and copied it, so what I am trying to say is dont believe everything before you get here, I have read many threads that have been stretched just a little!!

We love the lifestyle here, everything is on our door step, 20 mins into the city (if all the traffic lights stay green!!!) 20 mins to the beach, 5 mins into the country, huge entertainment centre, stuff on for the families every weekend everything is accessable. I do miss Next (thank god for UK Ebay) and also Tesco (NEVER thought I would say that, but it is the variety I think) but I would never in a million years swap everything we have here to return to the UK!

I hope this email helps someone I used to love reading others threads, but anyway I have rambled on for long enough, here is to the next 12 months being more of the same for us and for all those still here and those still to arrive!!