Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Hi all,

Haven't posted anything here before, but have had great use of this forum over the last year or so.
Our(my wife and I) story is sort of a Ping Pong story (except that we aren't poms but norwegians). We spent two years in Perth about 5 years ago, and absolutely loved it. After about a year I got the stupid idea that Australia is great, but Europe is better! Don't ask me why, it was a combination of work amibitions, family and stupidity(except that this worked out really well for us, more below).
Anyhow we went back to our home country for a year and a half, but that was just a big disappointment for all the normal reasons. We decided to go back to Australia again, but in a weird twist ended up in Italy instead! This was mostly due to me landing a great job, but we had really high hopes and wanted to make it work. Italy and I didn't really get along, I never connected to the italians, hated the traffic, pollution, bureacracy, politics and bullshit conversations. Anyhow we stuck it out for three years (it wasn't that bad, lots of experiences I wouldn't miss for the world).
I mentioned the above as it has had a really big influence on how we have settled in Australia. The first thing is that we are now used to being distant from our family, so that wasn't really a change. The second was that after living for three years in a place that I really didn't fit in it instantly felt like home coming back to Australia!
It has sort of been a long detour, but now I see it as a highly effective bootcamp to prepare us for life in Australia. I've got some great stories to tell, I don't really take the Australian way of life for granted anymore but really appreciates it, I don't look up to Europe anymore.

I can recommend it to some of you ping-pong'ers, but maybe not for the faint hearted!

Having gone through all of that we had a pretty good idea of what we are looking for in our life. We like Perth, but were keen on seeing what else Australia has to offer. We don't like too big cities, but it's nice to be close to one so you can have good work opportunities, universities etc. We hate traffic, but love water. We also love being outdoor, going for long walks with the dog etc.

For some reason I had a soft spot for Lake Macquarie after reading up on it a few years ago, but we looked at other places as well.

Well, we have been here 3 months now and absolutely love it. We're not going anywhere! It doesn't have any star attactions like the opera house, Bondi beach etc, but what it has instead is just a brilliant everyday life! Great scenery (not flat and bland), can afford to live a few hundred meters from the lakes edge, great weather(of course say you, but we got decent rain and no water restictions and that means something to me), the hunter valley within 30mns drive, ocean beaches within 20mins drive. Newcastle which is a great city too is within 30mins drive in rush hour, which is very handy for work. Both my wife and I had no trouble finding work in Newcastle, the whole hunter region is supercharged at the moment due to the resources boom. That may or may not end soon, but it seems a lot of other investments are being made here too as people are just fed up with Sydney.

This all ended up a bit longer than I planned, but that can happen to anyone:) Got to go now!

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Glad you found what you were looking for! Thanks for sharing the adventures along the way.
Great read:thumbsup:
J x

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Thanks for that - welcome to the forum!

:beer:

Buzzy

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Great read. Glad everything is going OK.

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

yep - must admit i had looked at lake maquire too but was unsure of the work available. but it sounds as though you have found your niche. good luck :thumbsup:

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Great reply.

Glad you are enjoying your second chance at Australia.

Im in Europe so can relate to your working in another EU country. Knowing you have some great experiences but its not the place to settle for good.

We too are now used to being seperated from family. So hoping we can settle in Australia easier.

Going to Italy probably did you good. Got you used to being away from family and to appreciate your new life in Aus.

Well done great story.

Gems

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Good post mate, was thinking of L.M. for a while but ended up wanting Brissie area, hopefully we will be posting our update in DEC... cant wait to get there..

Good luck with your 'new' life.. S-j x

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

hi, welcome to BE. we are quite near you, port stephens actually. there seems to be a few expats in this area now. do a search on newcastle or lake macquarie and you will see who. what jobs do you both do?

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Great to see that it is working out for you. We are pinging it back too so its nice to hear a success story :D

Mandy

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

Port Stephens was very tempting too, but just a little too long commute. I'm an engineer in the marine field, my wife is doing desktop publishing

Re: Ping pong(sort of) + Lake Macquarie
 

:) We too are ping poms and I agree with what you say altho we haven't gone as far as living in Europe but it does make you really focus on what is important to you all as a family and what you want from life, just a bit of an expensive way to do it but does that matter in the grand scheme of things if every thing turns out right. Glad to hear all is well. we are looking at going Brisbane way. Babs:)