Tragic incident today

**motherof2** · 30-09-2006, 08:06 PM

A girl was stabbed on her way to work this morning ten minutes from where I live today. It just confirmed yet again that this country is going down the toilet rapidly. What with big decisions to make re work colleagues lives to make next week I'm so glad hubby and I have made a start to migrate. Yes some people may say we're running away and maybe I should stay and try to make a go of it, but I've been doing that since I started working and nothing in the NHS is getting any better. I know Oz has it's problems too, but I'm fed up with the have nots wanting what the haves have but not wanting to work for it. We as a family deserve a better life.
Sorry about the rant but I'm p****d off sorry.
The young girl in question is stable, police now need to catch the b****** who stabbed her all for her handbag.

**spray21** · 30-09-2006, 08:15 PM

I hate to say it but I think things like that happen all over the world, including in Australia. I can't wait to move there myself, but I know it is not some crime-free paradise, nor is the UK a crime-ridden dump. One event doesn't prove anything - I could just as well say that a man smiled hello to me this morning and it just goes to show what a friendly country England is. Also it was sunny when I woke up, proving that the weather here is brilliant.
Without wishing to be patronising, I hope you were just having a bad day and have some other reasons for wanting to move!

**motherof2** · 30-09-2006, 08:34 PM

Spray 21 you are not being at all patronising, just a bad day. Don't get me wrong I don't make a habit of ranting on forums. I know that the majority of the UK are great people, but just got annoyed that one handbag that probably had very little in it almost lost someone their life.

**fatpom** · 01-10-2006, 02:23 AM

I too don't want to be patronising but I keep reading negative comments about the UK & it worries me a bit, not for Australia (or the UK) but for the authors. Its very wrong to think that Australia is a perfect crime free society because it's not. Maybe not quite as bad as the worst parts of the UK (& only maybe) but don't forget its also a country with a recent & continuing gun culture here. Legal ownership of guns is very common, as for illegal - who knows? The druggie wanting a bit of cash for his fix may easily be carrying more than a knife?
There are also a lot of 'have nots' here too & they carry as much resentment as anywhere else. I've been to some country towns which felt like Belfast at the worst of times - two tribes in total & unrelenting hatred of each other.
I'm not writing this specifically to 'motherof2' but to the general aspiring immigrants. This is a great country to live in - no doubt about that. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else (that I know of). All the ills of western society exist here in (I'd say?) equal proportions but there are great advantages to living here too - a personal thing but generally, the climate, the outdoors lifestyle & easygoing society just for starters.

**Alison1967** · 01-10-2006, 02:49 AM

Originally Posted by fatpom

I too don't want to be patronising but I keep reading negative comments about the UK & it worries me a bit, not for Australia (or the UK) but for the authors. Its very wrong to think that Australia is a perfect crime free society because it's not. Maybe not quite as bad as the worst parts of the UK (& only maybe) but don't forget its also a country with a recent & continuing gun culture here. Legal ownership of guns is very common, as for illegal - who knows? The druggie wanting a bit of cash for his fix may easily be carrying more than a knife?
There are also a lot of 'have nots' here too & they carry as much resentment as anywhere else. I've been to some country towns which felt like Belfast at the worst of times - two tribes in total & unrelenting hatred of each other.
I'm not writing this specifically to 'motherof2' but to the general aspiring immigrants. This is a great country to live in - no doubt about that. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else (that I know of). All the ills of western society exist here in (I'd say?) equal proportions but there are great advantages to living here too - a personal thing but generally, the climate, the outdoors lifestyle & easygoing society just for starters.

Excellent Post FatPom

Ali

**ali** · 01-10-2006, 06:30 AM

I'm fed up having to justify to people why I want to emigrate.(Not people on the site I may add but colleagues, friends etc.)

Hubby and I want the opportunity to live in another country, for us the biggest chance of success would be to move to an English Speaking Country as I would want to continue my profession as a nurse. There are bits of life in the UK we don't like and lots we do.

We've visited US several times and Aus and chose Australia. We're not going for the sunshine, we don't think it's a perfect place, we don't think we're going to be on huge salaries, (in fact we're going to be on less) but we would like to try something different before it's too late and we're looking back saying "remember when we wanted to live abroad I wonder why we didn't do it".

Not everyone is leaving the UK because it's a bad place, and I'm sure everyone who highlights negative points would also list a number of positives too.

**IanL** · 03-10-2006, 12:00 AM

I'm fed up having to justify to people why I want to emigrate

I know what you mean. I get just as fed up telling people here and there why I want to move back to the UK

Horses for courses and all that 8)

**ali** · 03-10-2006, 05:50 AM

I've started feeling a little like a petulant child saying "because I want to"when people give me that shocked expresssion and say Why. Are you going to move back to the UK Ian or just make a visit. I guess you maust get a few glazed expressions when you say you want to come back. What part of the Uk were you from?

Ali

**IanL** · 03-10-2006, 07:49 AM

I've started feeling a little like a petulant child saying "because I want to"when people give me that shocked expresssion and say Why. Are you going to move back to the UK Ian or just make a visit. I guess you maust get a few glazed expressions when you say you want to come back. What part of the Uk were you from?

Ali I've been back about 6 times since '89. I am from Somerset (Wells to be precise)

I stayed here too long really, especially after my painful divorce in 96. I'm now re-married, to a lovely lady who is from Korea but been here 11 yrs. Last year I took her to UK and France and she loved it. So we discussed it and decided that to move to the UK in Feb this year. Moving home is something I've wanted to do for ages, but to be honest my parents encouraged me to stay here because they felt there were more opportunities. Which may have been true, but they've never lived away from home so I think it was hard for them to relate to what I was missing.

Anyway we packed up and went to the UK (I obtained a 2yrs Settlement Visa for my wife). Unfortunately though my wife couldn't settle. She wasn't very well when she arrived and I had to find a job ( I ended up getting offered a great job, with slightly higher pay than here). Things were slowly coming together but adding it all up my wife confessed she was very unhappy, and wished we'd stayed in Oz until her degree was finished (another 2-3yrs part time) so I turned down the job, broke the news to my family, and we came back to Sydney.

I've never been so unhappy (well I probably have but can't remember) as I was when I had to return here. But I love my wife dearly and couldn't see the point in one being happy and the other being unhappy, and I can deal with Oz, easier than she can deal with the UK. She actually liked it a lot, but couldn't equate working so hard for what appeared to be a lot less in terms of lifestyle, open air etc. But of curse she doesn't have the emotional connection that I do.

Loads of things, to me, are better in the UK than here but I can see how a 'neutral' person would have a hard time seeing it. So as much as I want to, I know I'll never really live there, unless I score an expat package, which isn't impossible in my line of work, but wouldn't be easy.

My wife knows I'm here for her and she has basically said that although she wouldn't like to go to the UK, she certainly has no qualms about leaving Oz. We're checking out Canada next year as she has extended family in Vancouver. If that doesn't happen we'll look at NZ as the cooler climate is much more agreeable.

While it looks like I just capitulated, I know my wife well and she puts up with a lot with my triathlon and cycle racing. Early starts, treking all over the place for races, waiting on the course for an occasional glimpse, not to mention the mountains of washing from training and never ever complains about the $$ that go into bike purchases. She is amazingly supportive so I support her. But I won't lie, it was bloody hard coming back here.

I think we'll hit on a location where we're both happy in the near future.

But you're right Ali, everyone says 'why do you want to live there/here', it does get tedious

**fatpom** · 03-10-2006, 10:30 AM

Thanks for your support Ali from SA :)

Ali from Preston I was struck by one of your reasons for wanting to emigrate "remember when we wanted to live abroad I wonder why we didn't do it" - because this was one of the major reasons we decided to give it a go. Fear of the regret you didn't more than the regret you did.
I wouldn't be so conceited to suggest it's a perfect premise for emmigration but I do believe its nearer to the ideal (whatever that is?) than any disillusionment with 'Blighty'. By the way the major reason for us coming here was after spending four months travelling around Australia we decided we would very much like to live here. In fact it was a delusional thought - I certainly had no idea. Living and working in a country is vastly different to visiting it but never the less it turned out good.
Try not to get fed up with people asking why? Its probably just genuine curiosity mostly. Some of course will be envious of you having the guts to give it go.