Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

things are fine thanks Bix, seems we might be coming back as well so i would take cover if i were you, was thinking adelaide but might join rooksie and come and annoy you instead is that ok :thumbup:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

i havent slept for weeks mate and its not all down to the baby - my head is up my arse!! :blink:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

just relax knowing that this is the last time you will have to do it.


it is isn't it. your not gonna decide to go globe trotting somewhere else.

i often wonder if i will feel settled anywhere ever again, once you have done it once it demistifies things and you think your invinsible and can do anything. will have to see if i am in the poor house after retirement ;)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

It would be my pleasure :)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

nice of you to say, you might change your mind later though when all the kids follow us (where the bloody hell is the old scared smilie, i liked that one)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

:eek: :eek:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

So is someone going to put the barbie on for us then, and a cold beer would be nice ;) And if all you ping pongers could just move over a bit cause we wanna be the first to board :D

Mandy

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

HA!!!! catch me if you can!!!

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Yeh I will if I tie your shoe laces together :rofl:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Bix looks like we heading your way..jed.

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

You will love Cairns! We don't know where we will be heading yet, a girl can't make 2 decisions in one day you know :eek:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

would you not go back to cairns mate. if not, pray tell why!?!?!?!

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

:thumbup: we are in similar position but we went to Adelaide, not knocking it but we couldn't settle for a few reasons, some nothing to do with adelaide and returned to UK after nine months,very unsure about everything and every one. like you we found family were no diff. to before we went away, goodbye parties etc give you a false impression of your life. i also left a daughter here and elderly mother but coming back, my daughter still has her own life with her son and my mother bless her is 84 and set to live till 104.What point do you decide is right to return?
coming back has sorted problems for us, we know we don't want to stay in UK, no offence to UK but life was better for us in Oz. We know we were in wrong part for us and know we want to be in Brisbane, more what we were looking for. We also rushed out with wrong visa, SIR and so are having to apply again for 136 so costs are expensive as we feel we need an agent but hey we can't have everything and if it means we can go back then its worth it.Kids have decided for themselves this time that they want to be in Aus,3 sons 12, 13 and 17.I don't regret coming back to Uk as it has really sorted our heads for us and we've faced the whole situation and decided what it is we want from life . i know people joke about ping pong poms but i don't care, getting it right is what matters and yes it will still be a wrench leaving my daughter and my mum.i will just have to deal with that as it happens same as many other people on this site have had to.
i think it is true tho, that once you have done the migration bit you are not the same people and can't settle back into old life again. i can't say i am unhappy but I'm also counting down till we can return.Just got everything together for the agent to send off for the TRA. This will be the decider for us coz if it is a no then we will have to rethink again but i don't think we could stay in UK.Didn't mean to bore you with all my details, just to let you know you are not alone.:confused:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

RooksieJ,

We may or may not head back to Cairns, we haven't made our minds up yet. The only reasons we wouldn't head back that way is because if this is a new start it might be better to starts somewhere completely new.

Hubbie would like to head back out that way so it is a good possibility but I suppose it depends on jobs. I have nothing against Cairns, in fact I think I prefer it to Brisbane and the Gold Coast but we are just looking at all our options.

Babsw

Welcome to the ping pongers :thumbup: I think that most of us that are returning are doing so for similar reasons. Since being back I don't feel like I have really settled and feel abit 'removed' from family, like I love them and everthing but don't feel the need to live in their pockets. I'm glad to see that your kids are up for the move cause that makes it so much easier.

Mandy

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

its a killer isnt it. we have cocked it up once so cant afford to make any more mistakes!!! my head was all over the place trying to decide whether to give it another shot and now him indoors has thrown a new location into the equation - oh fekk!!! :blink: :blink:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

We told our son yesterday about the move :(

Didn't go that well, all we got was 'I'm not going, I'm going to live with nan'. He didn't cry, rant, go into a sulk, he was very calm about it.

Anyway we went to the cinema last night and when we came back I came on BE to get my fix. It was late about 11pm and my son had already gone to bed. Anyhow, next minute he comes in crying his eyes out saying he cannot get it out of his head :(

I felt so bad, he doesn't want to leave his mates or his family and asked all sorts of questions. I was so proud of him because he understood alot of our reasons for wanting to go but was scared.

Anyhow, by midnight, we were talking about where we should live (he had this thing about perth and we had to look it up on the internet). He doesn't want to go back to Cairns.

We got him signed up on the youth forum and he seemed quite happy about that cause we read a few of the posts together.

Anyhow, it's early days and he said he will talk to his big sis and her boyfriend about it today. Fingers crossed!

Mandy

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

RooksieJ forgot to say I was half way through answering your pm when he came in last night so had to abandon it.

I will answer again in a bit as we have someone coming round about doing a few job on the house ready to put it on the market.

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

so you are going for it then!!!! i am so happy for you - you got to give it another go mate or else you will never know and that will totally do your head in!

YAY you x :D :thumbup:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Jed, I think you will like it here, not a little but a lot :thumbup:

Nice small city but with plenty going on and loads to do and see.
Lovely place to raise kids.

I would have thought work for you will be no problem with all the house building and development going on. Plumbers jobs are advertised every week.

Aircon is also very big if you ever fancied doing a retraining thing.

PS
Sorry I missed your post.:(

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

he is all happy again now mate!! we are on google earth so go and moon us in your garden mate!! :thumbup:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Google Earth is about 2 years out of date so you'll have to check the fields as that's all my house was back then :lol:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

oh poop!! :o :o

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

:confused: its a funny old world isn't it but nice to know we all feel the same, we felt really isolated in Oz when we couldn't settle and i really wanted to be like the other brits we met who were just getting on with it but then coming back to UK was worse because we really didn't fit in here either.i still keep in touch with my family but its not the same as before and we just can't wait to go back but feel it will be for the right reason this time. there's so much we miss and sometimes you have to go back to get it straight in your head.just wish it didn't cost so much!!!!Anyway, here's to success for us all whether its first, second, third or eighth ping pongs!!! One thing, i bet none of us take as much furniture back the second time as we did the first? i've cleared loads out since coming back and still keep finding things wondering why on earth i took it in the first place?Babs.:thumbup:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

with you on all these points, still, at least we haven't been bored for the last couple of years. and hey, who needs money with this excitement we have :o :rofl:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Absolutely first class school, very difficult to get into (especially in the younger year levels) these days due to its popularity. Fees are a quarter of those for TAS (puportedly Cairns 'Best' school) and yet St A's facillities are ten times better than TAS (The only thing TAS has that St A's does not is a pool and that will be built within the next 5 years anyway...). Teaching staff are excellent, academically sound program for all year levels and a nice 'holistic' approach incorporating the Catholic faith. Can't sing the schools praises highly enough. :)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Hi you!! i have emailed them but no reply so will give them a ring tonight *yawn*!!! all baptised catholics but if there aint a place available, there aint a place available :( suck it and see i guess :)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Hello!:)

actually being a practising Catholic will put you towards the top of any waiting lists they may have and I believe they prioritise with Catholic families first...but they are very good at accomodating non-Catholics, if you support the 'ethos' of the school (that'll be us).

Which year levels are you needing?

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

come Jan 2008, Grace will be Year 8 and Daisy will be Year 3. we also have a new addition, Eve, but she's got a few years to go yet!!

so do yours attend the school mate - that would be pretty cool!!! :D

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Steandleigh,

How's tricks? Last time we spoke you were just moving/just moved into your new house. As you will have read we are thinking about making the move again!! It's a bugger cause the house prices have gone up a bit but hey, hindsight is a wonderful thing eh?

Hope you and yours are doing well.

Mandy

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

ahhhhhh! Sorry but my son was logged on and the previous post was not from Snakemanjake but Scrawni 2. :rofl:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Hello again!

yes, our two tiddlypeeps attend St A's and we are really happy with the school - more than happy actually. Have you spoken to them at all yet? Cairns can be fairly transient, so families moving in and out of the area all the time, so if you don't get the girls a place straightaway, theres plenty of time. I'm figuring that year 8 would not be too troublesome for them to place Grace (it's the early years that are pretty full, from what I know) but therefore Daisy would be placed in year 3 as they always like to accomodate siblings. Prep facillities and staff are great here too, so Eve will be well looked after one day...:)

Although we are not religious, it's quite nice to see the kids experiencing a spiritual element to their education, as the morals and values are basically the same as we hold ourselves and at the end of the day, our kids will make up their own minds and they have the option to do that.

Let me know how you get on and good on ya for giving it nother go - I think you're very brave!!!:) :thumbup:

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Hi Mandy!

Yeah, we are all fine, I've had some ill health recently and have been in and out of hospital (which is a bit inconvienient when you have two kids, a working husband, uni study and no family support) but we are getting there.

Yes, we moved out of our rental and into our new build which we're really happy with - a few minor dramas with the builders but nothing major really. Just lovely to be in 'our' home and not a rental.:thumbup:

House prices have shot up a fair old bit but if you look on:

www.realestate.com.au

you'll see there are still nice houses to be had at a reasonable price...I'm sure you have already been looking! Good for you all for giving it another go - it can't have been easy for you all with having a daughter back in the UK. You obviously have an adventurous spirit and thats to be praised, IMO.

Good luck and let me know how you are getting on, Leigh. x

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

just for the record the google earth pics of cairns are less than 10 months old.

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

thanks matey. have received email from them to say they are sending out enrolment package and when i receive this and return it with relevant docs, they will arrange a telephone interview - YIKES :eek: Fingers crossed - i feel very positive and looking forward to eventually getting over there! :D Cant wait actually :D :D

Yep, gonna give it another go - total disaster last time although Eve was TOTALLY worth it :D :D

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

That's the attitude Rooksie.........good on ya mate:D :thumbup:

After all the uncertainty it's great to hear such positive, fighting talk.

Michelle :D

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

thanks mate!!! wanna buy a house in torquay!!??!! ;)

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

If I was in the market it could be very tempting!!!!!

But, don't forget we havn't ruled out returning to Oz ourselves, so we may just be joining you and Scrawnie2 on the list of recent returnees to be :D

Be rest assured you good people of BE will be the first to know of our decision when it is decided once and for all:thumbup: :eek:

Best of luck with the house sale mate, everything is crossed for you and Scrawnie2 and any others who are in the transition :D

Never a dull moment eh!

Michelle

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

you are outvoted 3 to 2 mate so you might as well jump on the band wagon!!! go on, you know you want to :D :D

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

All in good time my dear, all in good time:D :D :D

Michelle

Re: Scrawni and her life Oz-UK
 

Hi Mandy, my sister in law felt just as you did when she settled in cairns, the didnt have children but still missed home a lot. They did settle and have been there for 5 years now. Im applying now with my family too. Ive done lots of soul searching but we both feel we need to try it before its too late. Was there anything in particular about cairns itself you didnt like weve visited many times now and love it but its different living there isnt it. My son is 15 and daughter 12 we are both 37. Can you offer us any advice, maybe if you do return we could support each other. Good luck Trudi