LKC

Hi Libbye, it's a spam post which will have been reported and removed I should think, if there are any moderators around.  It happens from time to time, but they're usually removed pretty quickly.

2 minutes ago, sarah harmer said:

Thank you so much for your honest and heartfelt opinion.

We have been trying to get close again, relationship wise, and it hasn't worked.  We just irritate each other now and we have discussed separation.  It's horrible, but thankful that concerns are out in the open and that its all come about in the UK.

I will let you know how it goes and what is decided.  I will just make sure that our kids are protected.  My husband still says that he should come first and the kids second!

 

My husband and I separated about a year after we returned from nine years in Australia. That was about eight months ago, and things are good now. Please PM me if you want a friendly ear to talk to. We have kids too, but honestly they’ve been fine (and one has autism).

The Shire for sure. We lived in Woronora Heights (next suburb over to Engadine), and were very happy there for the most part. Kirrawee I would probably avoid (very busy with traffic), and Cronulla you might find a bit out of reach on your budget, but Engadine and around that area (Loftus, Heathcote, Woronora Heights) are all lovely. There is a sticky post that I wrote aboiut Sutherland Shire at the top of the NSW page.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions - I've been back in the UK for a couple of years, but I still know quite a bit about the Sutherland Shire area.

Similar to Amber Snowball. Relief, calm and peace.

I will never forget how the man at Edinburgh airport, on explaining that we'd move back for good, looked at our (expired) UK passports, made a little joke about us needing to get them renewed, and then said "Welcome Home". It was the best feeling in the world, and almost 2 years on, having gone through quite a time separating from my husband, I am still 100% sure that we did the right thing. This is home, and I love it!

Not sure how I missed this thread, but I absolutely agree with the others. If your relationship isn't 100% solid, please give it some serious thought before moving to Aus.

We moved out in 2009, loved it at first, but after a few years the shine wore off and we moved back in 2017. Husband and I are now separated, and the kids only see him two nights per week. I shudder to think about what would have happened had we split when we still lived in Aus and he'd refused to let me and the kids return to the UK. In fact it would probably have killed me. I'm not saying this to put you off or anything, just to illustrate that two international moves is a massively stressful thing to do, and it broke what I thought was a very strong relationship.

We had no trouble at all when accessing the NHS in Scotland. Just filled out the forms at the GP surgery, I think we may have provided our tenancy agreement, and that was pretty much it. The NHS were pretty quick to remind us about things like smear tests and vaccinations for the kids, so we must have got back into the system pretty quickly.

We moved to Scotland from Aus almost two years ago, despite having never lived in Scotland before (we were from England) and it is absolutely the best thing we've ever done! We have found a really lovely village, near to Kinross, where we have settled well and made heaps of friends. We're all really involved in the community, and despite OH and I having separated since we moved back, I am so happy we moved here! The kids both settled really well, made loads of friends, and are both doing well at school. We've enjoyed exploring our new home, we love the weather, come hail, rain or shine, and have really made a home for ourselves here!

Any questions, just ask!

4 hours ago, Toots said:

According to friends in the UK a very warm summer is forecast.  

That’s what I heard. I’ve a slight tan at the minute, we’ve had some absolutely beautiful weather up here in Kinross!

33 minutes ago, s713 said:

Been back 6 weeks and loving it, have crammed so much in. Joined the National Trust and done a bit of travelling, had forgotten how beautiful the countryside is, and there is so much of it. We can take the dogs everywhere, buses, trains, in pubs, it's brilliant. Lots of local walks too. The weather has been fairly kind, about 3 or 4 days non-stop rain, the rest OK. To be honest, it isn't the issue I thought it would be, we just dress accordingly, pooches included. It was 17 degrees the other day and I was sweating cobs, definitely a different heat! Not really applied for any jobs yet just easing back in, the job market looks fairly buoyant though. There is a sense of 'home' about it, it feels a bit more natural to be with similar people, I used to feel like a bit of a neanderthal at times in Oz, here I come across as a semi-intelligent northern bloke, which I am very happy with. All in all, we are 'stoked' at the moment.

Pleased to hear you're settling back in! We've been back 20 months now, and I don't regret coming back for a second. That's not to say that I regret moving to Australia at all, we had a great life there in the main, but Scotland is the first place I've felt truly at home.

6 hours ago, Janey V said:

Thanks so much I will have a look there as well   we don't have to be by the beach (at those prices haha) but would be nice to go at the weekends and 25 mins isn't to bad

 

When we first moved over we thought we'd be at the beach every day, but the reality is, when you have work, school and so on, you really only go at weekends anyway, and even then not every weekend. We really loved the beaches in the Royal National Park, and also a bit further down the coast towards Wollongong and beyond.

You could also have a look at Sutherland Shire. Rents (and house prices in general) tend to be a bit lower, particularly if you're away from the beachside suburbs. Even in the more inland parts of Sutherland Shire you're still only 25 minutes or so from the beach. It's a nice area, easy to commute to the CBD by train, family friendly, good schools, all services and so on that you'd need. We lived near Engadine, and really enjoyed our time there.

I got my Aussie insurance company to write a letter stating that I'd had no claims in the five previous years, and my UK insurance accepted that as proof of no claims. Could you do something like that with the company that your work went through?

ETA: We were with AAMI in Aus and are with Aviva here. No problems for either company to do this.

I’d echo what Marisawright says about the climate/humidity in Sydney. The air isn’t really fresh at all, particularly inland, and it can feel a bit like trying to breathe soup if it is humid. I have never had respiratory troubles until I lived there, turns out I’m allergic to mould spores of which there are plenty, being a damp place. I used to get two to three colds a year, and would be plagued with a chronic cough for weeks on end after each one.  That said, we were slightly inland and surrounded by bush.

As far as I can see, yes you would have to pay school fees. You need to look carefully at the schooling, because the curricula between the UK and Australia aren’t directly comparable, which may cause difficulties with your eldest son in particular, given that he would be starting year 11 on your return. Our girls grew up in Australia, we moved to Scotland when they were 11 and 9. Scottish children start school slightly later than English children, so ours went into P5 and P7 - in England eldest would have gone straight into secondary, where here she had almost a full year of primary first. This gave her time to fill in any gaps in her knowledge (of which there were many - simply because the two countries are out of sync with each other, not that one is better than the other) before she hit high school. With year 11 being a very important year, I would very carefully consider your choice of schooling and so on.

We left Aus 18 months ago, so I don’t really know what the rents are like now, but finding somewhere decent for $700 per week would most likely be a bit of a challenge in many parts of Sydney. If you look at some of the southern suburbs, for example those in Sutherland Shire, it might be doable, but you’d probably struggle to get anywhere on the coast for that. Sydney became extraordinarily expensive in the years we lived there. We were in the Engadine area, which is a nice family-friendly part of Sydney, about a 20 minute drive from the coast. 

No, not too far from there though. Crook of Devon area.

8 hours ago, Pollywaffle said:

All very valid points.  I'm 57 so I know what the implications are...have spoken to my super and also contacted the English Pensions.  They have worked out an amount based on how many years I worked in the UK - apparently I get it when I'm 67.  When I take my super out, I won't be taxed on the first 200k, but after that, I believe so - unless we stay until I'm 60.  Husband is seven years younger than me, but he doesn't care (if that's the right way of putting it) about the money.  Yes, all be very tight, but sometimes you have to balance things up ...fortunately we have enough for a home and then we'll have to work...but hopefully reduced hours and not in an office any more!!

With the sitting in our home..husband and I have tried everything to make a social life in Brisbane..joined clubs, volunteered etc....never worked out!  I think it's harder here if you don't have children...I realise that a lot of people get their social lives from things they do with their kids and their kids' friends parents - when we were back at Christmas we seemed to have a social life....albeit briefly.  I don't want to question any more whether there is something socially 'wrong' with my husband and myself.  We are both friendly and approachable..but that doesn't seem to matter and I don't want to feel that's our 'fault' any more.

Said enough..thanks for your interest...we'll get there..

 

We felt a bit like this in Aus, even with children. It wasn't that people weren't friendly, but we were continually held at arms length, even by the parents of our kids friends. I thought that there was something wrong with me, and then I just stopped trying. Since we moved to Scotland, where we've not lived before and have no family, we've all made a great group of friends, many of whom I would consider to be '3am friends' - the ones you could call at 3am in an emergency (and who you'd be happy to have call too). It may well have just been as simple as the fact that we were in Sydney (albeit an outlying suburb), where here we're in a village, but I really did struggle with the lack of friendship.

Completely agree with Marissa! We weren't close to our parents, and we didn't move back because we missed them, but if this is a worry for you now, then I wonder if migrating is for you. I saw my mum (dad died 20 years ago) twice in nine years. My ex's parents (we separated when we got back) came out to see us about every other year, so we saw them a little bit more often. We certainly didn't see them often.

We looked at Bath and Bristol as an option before we moved back, and liked what we saw. We ended up moving to Scotland though, so I can't be more help on the Bath/Bristol front!

Completely agree with the couple of people who've mentioned not trying to go back to your old life.  It's easy to forget that whilst you were away, people moved on, so your old life doesn't exist any more. I would definitely explore the possibility of moving somewhere else. We did this when we moved back, moved to Scotland, where we'd never lived before, and it is honestly the best thing we've ever done!

4 hours ago, grizzly111 said:

That's essentially what I'm after. Any pointers?

Well we ended up in Scotland, and absolutely love it here. We are a bit to the west of Kinross, in a lovely village, and have it all! Great friends and neighbours (we've not lived here before, so they're all new), great community, great schools, easy transport links to Edinburgh, Glasgow, down into England, up north into the Highlands, reasonable housing costs (there are houses in our village worth almost £1million and houses worth £150,000 - everyone just mixes together), great facilities in nearby towns...you really do feel out in the countryside, but so near to everything that Edinburgh and Glasgow have to offer.

We looked at what we didn't want first (near London, Kent, Midlands, East Anglia, South West, Wales) and then looked at what we did want (in terms of job prospects, housing affordability, transport links, good schools...), and then looked at actual areas and narrowed those down based on our criteria. I did a HUGE amount of research, and it seems to have paid off!

Just now, VERYSTORMY said:

Agree with the rural living comments. 

We also moved to rural Scotland. 

We live in a very picturesque village in a very rural area. We have no shop or anything, but do have a village hall. The hall has a cinema where movies are shown and we take our own snack and drinks. It does a range of parties such as Hogmany and others with traditional Scottish music where the entire village basically drinks too much and dances the night away.

We are surrounded by amazing countryside with an ancient woodland with spectacular waterfall. 

At the same time, we are only two miles from a very pretty nice market town that has everything (a small sainsburies and a small Aldi, two excellent craft butchers, a excellwnt fishmonger and a amazing greengrocer, oh and a special mention to the maddest iron monger. We are only half an hour from Glasgow, which today is a brilliant modern city. 

Sounds similar to where we are, in terms of facilities, VS!  We have a village hall, and I have spent a good few nights drinking and dancing frantically there! I'm actually on the village hall committee now, because I've loved how welcome we've been made to feel here, and feel like I want to give back to the community that has taken us in its arms. My OH and I have actually separated since we moved back to the UK, but I wouldn't consider moving away from our village for a second, even though my family are down in the Midlands. It has been the best move I've ever made. The kids are settled and happy, I'm settled and happy, ex is settled and happy, and life couldn't be better 

Completely agree with Bunbury61! We moved to rural Scotland, which is absolutely perfect for us, but we are in easy reach of good transport links (roads, buses, trains) to both Edinburgh and Glasgow, and of course beyond by air.

Work out EXACTLY what it is you want (in terms of lifestyle, jobs, affordability of housing etc), do your research, and you will find the perfect place.

1 hour ago, Toots said:

My sister (from Edinburgh) has been staying with us since before Christmas.  She will be here until later next month.  She chose to come at this time of year to escape the Scottish winter weather.  She might not need to do so in the future if it has improved so much.    

We're near Kinross, so a bit north of Edinburgh, and honestly don't find the weather a bother at all. It is glorious again this morning, and I'm looking forwards to having a nice long walk down to the river. I suppose we're all different, like different things, and find different things enjoyable/a bother. The evenings and mornings are noticeably lighter now too 

14 minutes ago, Toots said:

Round about Easter time in the UK has always been very changable weather wise.  I think I've said on this forum I have photos my friends and I sunbathing on Good Friday and by Easter Monday it was snowing.

Happy birthday to you (on Wednesday) LKC.  

Thank you 

2 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

When you live near the beach you just go for a dip. Loved the weather in Perth since we've been here.

I see everyone in the UK  conveniently forgot the beast from the east last winter and it's climate change because of one decent summer and winter. There's a good couple of months to get over yet.

I literally mentioned the Beast from the East in my first post! I haven't forgotten about it, and neither have other people I know. We just treat it for what it is - an unusual, once every eight years or so occurrence. I also mentioned that it could still snow, which it might. It's my birthday on Wednesday, and I can think back to quite a number of birthdays in my 44 years where we have had bad weather. But spring is coming, then summer, then autumn, and then winter again, and with those seasons comes all sorts of weather, good and bad. THAT is what I like about the weather here! The good days are SO much better because they are contrasted with the bad.

When we told people we were moving to Scotland, the overwhelming opinion was that it'd be grey and drizzly the whole time, but I can honestly say that we have plenty of beautiful bright blue skies with sunshine days. Sure, we have rain and wind and snow and everything else in between, but on the whole it is fine. We've got the kit for whatever the weather throws at us anyway, so even the odd days of bad weather don't stop us going out.