[sykestykes]

I really hate to sit on the fence (but here I go again).

I can see the viewpoint of everyone who has posted on this subject on this thread and all the others that have gone before it. I can't speak for Earlswood but I do know he is a young single guy who doesn't yet have any kids.

I know he is desperately unhappy where he is and I think this has made him pine more for everything familiar and dear to him (friends, family, the pub, etc., etc). Being homesick must be dreadful, whoever it happens to and I think it must magnify what you are feeling.

However, we have several friends in Oz who do have children and they are always busy and tell us that simple days out cost nothing - in the UK it costs us £25.00 for the 4 of us just to go to the cinema and when one wet weekend is followed by yet another, funds rapidly deplete and it's a case of "Oooh, what overpriced indoor activity can we go to this week, kids?!"

I am sick of being indoors all the time or schlepping round the park with the dog in the rain in my wellies, day after day after day. I also feel the cold more because I suffer with an underactive thyroid, which means I can be freezing even when it's bearable for everyone else. I don't hate the UK, I love it - I just want a different experience before I go in my box.

As my nan would say, if we were all the same the world would be a very boring place - that's what makes life interesting!

Sorry for the ramble.

Mrs Tyke xx