MARYROSE02

I remember you told me that before but I forgot so thanks for reminding me.

The mistake I made was not buying a terrace house as soon as I paid my mortgage. I might be able to afford a unit in Marrickville if I sold my flat but I doubt I could afford a house there. I'm trying to think of the sort of houses in Marrickville? Older homes, semi-detached, possibly terraces but not like the inner city terraces in Surry Hills. I imagine there's been a lot of development there. I recall seeing lots of new blocks along Canterbury Road. There was a one bedroom unit in my block which sold for $800K in September but I don't know what prices are like now. There are not many burbs in Sydney where I could buy a house for 800K now? Maybe adding the money from the UK house. Here in Surfers there are some nice units but houses are dear. Aside from London perhaps there are not many places where a home like mine near Southampton would buy you a nice home in Sydney.

The only possible thing I can think of that might be wrong with Islington is that it's close to Arsenal? I don't know London. I remember walking thru Southwark maybe and thinking I liked it I'm from The New Forest south west of Southampton. I think I should have lived in London before coming to Sydney to acclimatise to life in a big city. I do know some very ungentrified parts of Surry Hills but it has been done up since I first moved there. Sink estates rubbing shoulders with multimillion dollar terrace homes

My waist line? Let's say I don't turn the light on in the bathroom when I'm having a Pommie shower. I usually have breakfast and lunch at home but eat out for dinner.

I'm using Wise. They are much cheaper than when I just used my UK bank to transfer to my Aussie bank. Now I transfer the money from my UK bank account to Wise's UK account and they transfer it to my Aussie account, usually within 24 hours. The GBP to AUD rate has gone down!

I'm studying with the Open Uni and I use HECS to pay for the study. As long as my yearly income never goes above the threshold set by the ATO I'll never have to pay it back. I just checked the ATO website and the threshold is nil below $47014, then 1 per cent up to $54,282, and increases by 1 per cent gradually. https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/HELP,-TSL-and-SFSS-repayment-thresholds-and-rates/#HELPandTSLrepaymentthresholdsandrates201 I did pay about $3,000 in HECS about five years ago when I had a "big" year for income but usually I pay nothing. If you do have to pay HECS you do it on your tax return not when you enrol in a course/unit.

After rarely going to Macca, I've had two this week, both in the Cavill Mall Maccas at Surfers. On the other 47 nights I've been here (so far) I've been to "proper" restaurants. I managed an alcohol free night today too. In restaurants I always have wine or beer with my tucker.

When I first decided to come back to Australia in 2008 I should have been more "brutal" in "culling" what to store and what to chuck out. In my defence, I wasn't planning to come back to Australia for good when I left but I did get rid of all the furniture. Shipping the contents of the loft out to Sydney was easier than my going back to Southampton. Even if i had wanted to go back Covid was stuffing flights up. I don't suppose the cost of shipping the effects to Sydney is much different to the cost of flying to England. The house had no furniture. It was a nightmare moving the stuff up the ladder into the loft. This way I'll get everything into a storage unit in Sydney and, with my brother, I can go through it. I remember my Dad had a stamp collection worth two or three hundred quid (I had it valued) but I decided to keep it. There will be a few family heirlooms, maybe some other stuff. I don't know. It's been 13 years since I've seen it. Perhaps I'm just joining the ranks of the people who put stuff into storage and never take it out? I've still got stuff at the back of my garage which I put in there back in 1997 when I decided to stay in England. There's a terrifying scene in The Silence of the Lambs when Starling has to creep into a storage unit and check out an old car. My garage isn't like that.

My personal effects are on their way to Sydney. They left on 2nd March. I didn't see the email from the UK removals company (John Mason). I was about to reply to the Poms in OZ post and thought "I'll just search my emails." I don't suppose they will arrive in Sydney until some time in April but I'll contact the Sydney agent. I want them to hold my effects until I can arrange a storage unit. I've got the cubic measurements for my effects so that should aid me booking the right size unit. I'm still in Surfers Paradise and not planning to return to Sydney just yet. I suppose I could arrange to be at the storage unit address when it arrives but I don't know if that is necessary. I could ask my brother to do it. I've done everything else regarding the house sale and moving the personal effects via email so I guess moving the personal effects to a storage unit should be no different. The only other thing outstanding from the move is to pay my Capital Gains Tax to HMRC. I searched for CGT questions in PIO and found a similar query to mine and I added my question. I don't have a problem working out the CGT but I do have a problem opening a CGT account with HMRC. I just can't seem to figure it out using the HMRC website. I can log into self assessment no problem which I've been doing for years but creating the CGT account has defeated me so far. There's a separate "Gateway" which asks for two forms of ID none of which I've got - no UK passport, no UK home address. I may have to fill a form out to do it and I"m hoping it will arrive soon. I don't know if Covid is still stuffing up the mail delivery times? I'm glad I sold the house now but I was sad when I first made the decision.

Too late for me to recommend my own suburb, Surry Hills! You can walk to Wynyard from Surry Hills in 20 minutes, or two stops on the train from Central. Marrickville is OK though. I think there's both bus and train to the city? There's good Vietnamese restaurants there if I remember rightly.

My understanding is that you look at the price of a comparable property sold in 2015, not 2000 when you bought it. I sold my home in the UK in January this year and I initially used the purchase price from 2007 when I bought it. Then I realized that for overseas residents you use that date in 2015. I found a home in my street which sold in 2015 and I've used that value to calculate the CGT. However I've not paid the CGT to HMRC because I cannot figure out how to create a CGT account? I've got a self assessment account but that is no good. You can't create a CGT account from your self assessment account or use your signing on details to create the CGT acccount.I wi HMRC ask for different forms of ID but I've been thwarted when I try using any two of them. I don't have a UK passport. If I try to use the details from my last self assessment they ask for my UK address but I don't have a UK address. I use my Australian address which is where HMRC send me any correspondence. Signing into HMRC using the Verify Gov method via the Post Office is also no good because I end up at the same "locked gate." Hopefully, HMRC will send me a form through the post. Of course, I may just be thick and the means to create that account is staring at me in the face. I will check with my Aussie TA regarding CGT paid in Australia but I'm pretty sure the bulk of it will be paid in the UK.

Some good points there. Once you've emigrated you change your mindset from the people who have never moved. I envied those people who have never moved sometimes, who have never uprooted themselves. As far as the "Americanisation" of Australia goes I don't care I live here. End of. I retain some Pommie outlooks and ideas but I don't care or notice "difference". It's irrelevant to me. I love my English football but I like Aussie footy too. I don't think about English pubs, beer, curries, supermarkets, chocolate, being close to Europe, having four seasons. None of them matter.

I went back to England for 12 years. My advice to anyone going back to the UK (or for that matter to OZ) to live and work as opposed to visiting for a holiday is to be prepared for a possible period of adjustment. It may not happen. You might descend the steps from the plane, kiss the ground, and feel instantly and irrevocably "at home." When I used to go back for holidays my parents were alive and they'd meet me at Heathrow and take me to my "home from home." That does not exist now. I don't know where I'd go if I went back. I'd probably settle in OK but I'd have no family and I'd know nobody bar a couple of old friends. On the other hand I came to the Goldie and it's like I've never been away.

I've not been the the US for 26 years and the UK for 13 years so I've got no reference points. Sitting on the seafront in Surfers Paradise I suppose it's closer to Waikiki than Bournemouth but it could be Benidorm. Australia seems like a hybrid - American style roads but they drive on the left and the measurements are in metric. Part Westminster, part federal system of government.

I remember a funny line in a novel, possibly by the guy - Trevanian? - where he described the Aussies as Americans in training and the Brits as failed Americans When I left England I don't remember any Maccas, KFC etc, just Wimpy and burger/hot dog stands. What's the UK like now? Huge American style malls amidst the "death of the High Street?" Macca, KFC, Hungry Jacks?

The bluebells make me nostalgic - jacaranda flowers? Both bluebells and jacaranda are the same - invisible for 10 or 11 months then they suddenly emerge. But what I'd really like to see is some frogspawn!

I said to her, "The days are getting longer now, the hedges are greening up, crocuses(?) are appearing. I almost wish I was there to see it." I think she replied, "Surfers Paradise still sounds nicer than Manchester."

So, you will need to convert your central heating and radiators to air con. I spoke to a lady from Manchester the other night when I rang my tormentor de jour - HMRC- and asked her what the weather was like? Snow, sleet and rain.

If you believe in Global Warming then the UK will be worse than OZ for heat!

If you believe in global warming, not that I do, then there's no point in going to the UK to escape the weather because it will be just as bad there. I'm sure I saw on the news extreme weather in the UK?

The Eastern States' Undead or words to that effect - until today that is.

Life is full of those crossroads and in 1996, after 18 years in Sydney and 15 years in the same job I was made redundant. At the time I was devastated but if ever there was a cloud with a sliver lining that was it. I went back to England with a one year return ticket and stayed for 12 years. My mum died within a year following and accident. (She was knocked over by a dog in our driveway. ) My dad died 8 years later and I stayed on for a couple of more years. I'd got used to living in England and had a nice job with Royal Mail. Eventually, I came back to Sydney and I've not been back to England for 13 years. Life seems essentially the same for me whether I'm in Southampton, Sydney, or now, Surfers Paradise. I'm sitting on the seafront 300 metres from where I live. I could not do that in Southampton or Sydney but in Southampton I rode my bicycle every day and I've not been on a bike in Sydney. Wherever I live I find cafes, restaurants and pubs (or the Surf Club here) where I can become a "local". I don't distinguish between "Aussies" and "Pommies" as if they are different. They are all friends. I know what you mean about the new housing estates. One of my brothers lives in such an estate, brand new homes but 60 km from Sydney CBD. He says "it's boring and there's nowhere to go" but at least he's got a car. Without a car it can be like living in an open prison if you have to rely on public transport. Then again, my village in England had poor public transport, not too bad during the day but not at night. If I drove home from work at 2130 I was home by 2150. If I relied on bus and train it was 2250 after waiting 30 minutes for a bus from the station. Are you an Aussie citizen? I guess if you are you can always come back as I did?

Or a cold day with a warm beer!?

Even coming back to Surfers after ten months away and some places are not the same as staff and customers have moved on. On the other hand some faces stay the same and I'm sure there are some in England who are still there though I've not been back for 13 years. My fave cheese here is Mersey from, I think Tasmania, and one of their brands is Ploughman's. Actually, I do a light lunch here sans bread with cheese , tomato, cucumber, carrot, capsicum. I liked doing scampi, chips and peas in my local in England.

It makes for a boring and one-sided "debate" though. "This is how I feel and I only want people to post if they agree with me."