LKC

Do you know, this is something that I've thought about recently because of our experience and also because I've been looking into my family tree/ancestry. I've always considered myself to be northern, despite having been born in Birmingham. Half of my family on both mum and dads side are from Leeds area, and more distantly Northumbria and Scotland. There is something that is being researched at the moment called genetic memory, and they are starting to think that some memories can be passed down in the genes. It seems funny that I feel more at home here than I did in Australia, Suffolk or Birmingham, even though I've not lived here before, but I wonder if there is something in this genetic memory thing, having ancestors from northern England and Scotland? I can't really explain why I feel like I belong. It is really difficult to explain. It's kind of like I'd be happy to die here and be interred for all eternity in the ground under my feet or something. Like my bones have come home to rest. I feel like I've always been here, and my body has just caught up. It's a very odd yet comforting feeling, and as I said I don't really know how to put it into words or why I feel like I do.

We returned to the UK in September 2017, so a little over seven months ago, and it has absolutely been a success! We were in Sydney for a little under nine years, having moved over with my OH's company. We lived in Sutherland Shire, and in the main we were happy. The kids were tiny when we moved over, so Australia was really all they knew. They were in a great school, OH enjoyed his job, and I was pretty happy running my own small business from home. However, in about 2014/2015 I started to feel a bit unsettled. Not homesick or anything like that, and it wasn't that I missed family in particular, just that I started to feel intense loneliness, and like I didn't really fit in or belong somehow. I can't really pinpoint any trigger in particular, and it is quite a hard feeling to describe, but I started to feel like I shouldn't be there. However, everyone else was happy so I put on a smile and got on with it, probably at great cost to my own mental health. In September/October 2016 we visited the UK for a holiday. My mil had had a breast cancer scare, and hadn't been able to visit us the Christmas before, so we decided that we'd go over and see everyone. It was our second visit in the time we were living in Australia. While we were there, I realised just how unhappy I had been in Australia, and finally told my OH how I felt. He astonished me by telling me that he was a bit 'meh' about Australia too. Getting back on that plane to go back to Sydney was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and OH agreed that we could at least talk about returning to the UK once we were settled back after our holiday. We spent three or four months talking about things as a couple and with the kids, and just after Christmas 2016 we finally made the decision to return. The next few months flew by in a whirlwind of job hunting, research, renovation of our house, and decluttering and packing our belongings. We had decided not to move back to where we had come from in the UK, and instead we chose and researched several areas of interest, including Bath/Bristol, York and Harrogate, Durham, Newcastle, and various bits of Scotland. As luck would have it, OH was approached by a practice a bit north of Edinburgh, who created a role for him and left it open ended in terms of start date, so in early September 2017 we and our cats arrived at Edinburgh airport. Seven months on and I am absolutely certain that we have done the right thing. Reading VS's story above, I completely understand where his wife is coming from. I feel 'complete' here, like I belong and like I should be here. I know that OH and the kids feel the same. I hadn't quite realised how unhappy eldest kid had been in Australia, but now we are settled here the difference in her is astonishing. It is almost like there are sunbeams shining out of her face, she just radiates happiness! She is absolutely blossoming, as is our youngest, they both just belong here. I can't explain it any better than that! We live in a gorgeous village, out in the hills on the southern edge of the Scottish Highlands, but within easy distance of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. We recently bought and moved into our own home, which is on the middle of a farm. There are six other houses here, and all the kids go off and roam and play and explore together, which our two love. They often 'borrow' a dog from the neighbour and take it off for a walk, and two of our neighbours have smallholdings so there are lots of other animals around the place! The village school is small, which seems to suit both of the kids very well. It is a lovely school within walking distance of home, and the teachers have really gone above and beyond to help them settle in. They have both made some good friends, and eldest has made some friends from other schools who she will be starting high school with in August. She has Asperger's, so I was worried about how she would cope with the changes, but she has been magnificent! OH is enjoying his job, and it will be a very good career move for him longer term. It has taken a while for the mental repercussions of me being so unhappy for so long to leave, but I am pleased to report that I am getting there. I am not working just yet, I'm still unpacking from our two moves, I've got to completely design and landscape our garden (it is a building site at the moment), and I want to get eldest settled in at high school, in case she has any wobbles with her Asperger's. After that though I will start to think about going back to work. For now I am enjoying getting out and about, walking in the beautiful countryside, making new friends, and just taking some time to breathe after the madness of the past couple of years! It takes a huge amount of courage to take the leap and move overseas in the first place, and in some ways it can take more to admit that it is time to go home. I don't for a second regret either move though. I love the UK, I love Australia, and I love where we are now. Life is good!

I think we're going to Edinburgh tomorrow. We're more towards the east than the west, so we're having the good weather at the moment.

We had a gorgeous day yesterday, and today is showing promise too. It really is a beautiful part of the world! We're just at the southern edge of the highlands, and the sunrises and sunsets are gorgeous! We live on a farm, so there are lambs and calves frolicking about in the fields around our house, daffodils blooming by the roadsides, cherry blossom just starting to appear on the trees... truly gorgeous! I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed seeing spring coming in!

It's a bit unnerving! Having had almost nine years in Sydney, where it gets dark by 8.30, it's very odd having it so light so late! Particularly since we did a winter there, then moved here to another winter. I feel like I should be up and doing things in the evenings, rather than settling down to watch tv!

It was gorgeous here yesterday too. My car registered a temperature of 23 degrees when I went over to Kinross in the afternoon, and I didn't have to put a coat on when I went to pick the kids up from school. There's promise of another lovely day today too, although it's a bit cloudy out at the moment. I spent most of yesterday making blackout blinds for the kid's bedrooms. It doesn't get dark until almost 9pm already, and it starts to get light by 5am! There's quite a difference between here and where OH's family live in the south of England.

Same here in Scotland. A couple of weeks ago we had 'The Beast From the East Part 1' and were snowed in for a few days. Great community spirit, neighbours getting together to organise snow shovelling, communal shopping for human and animal feed, and the kids playing out with the neighbours kids, building igloos and sledging down hills. The 'Beast From the East Part 2' struck last weekend, and unfortunately we ran out of gas. Offers of hot showers from the neighbours were plenty. On Monday and Tuesday I sat outside on a chair in the patch of mud and builders rubble I call my garden, and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on my face whilst having a tea/coffee and reading a book. Today we were back to low temperatures and a biting wind, but I know that spring is around the corner. It is so close I can almost taste it.

We used Seven Seas Wroldwide. I've just checked the invoice for you, and it cost $820 for four large boxes (they were tea chest sized). If you go on their website you can put in what you want to send and it will give you an immediate quote. It was fairly expensive, but it probably saved us a bit because it meant we didn't have to buy toys/games/books/bedding etc when we first arrived.

We actually had a rental place set up before we went, simply because OH's employer contributed to a relocation agent who did everything for us. However, most people would do exactly what you plan and rent a holiday home for a few weeks. We actually ended up not liking the original suburb we rented in on the relocation agent's say so, but of course we were stuck with a six month lease. I think if you can rent a holiday rental that often works out better because you can take your time to get a longer term rental. The trouble for us was that OH needed to start work because his company needed him ASAP, and with two small kids in tow we had to hit the ground running. When we moved back to the UK, although we had a rental sorted out, we were in a holiday house for about a week or so, which allowed us time to get some bits of furniture and so on. It gave us a bit of breathing space, and meant that we had a functional kitchen, washing machine etc to use until we organised some things and moved into the rental.

Yep, house prices in Sydney are mad. We sold our house in the Engadine area (right at the southern edge of Sutherland Shire) for $1.52 million. It was a gorgeous house, but it went for way more than we were hoping for. It wasn't even a potential development site for units or anything, just a local family bought it.

Probably not helpful, but get a cat or two! We had cockroaches (in my oven gloves amongst other places), but once we got our cats they were no more! We didn't get spiders in the house either once we got them!

School is still closed, and OH's work is closed too. OH has spent the morning digging out two 4x4's and the lane down to the road with the neighbours, so that one car can go and get animal feed (we live in a small development on a farm) and one can go to the supermarket. The neighbour who was heading to the supermarket has just got back with the things we needed, so I have milk and so on that I was running a bit short on. The people who needed to get animal feed have given us eggs from their chickens, in return for OH helping to get them out. OH is still out clearing snow somewhere, the kids are out building igloos with the other kids who live here, and I am rugged up in the warm with the tail end of the flu/cold/cough thing I've had for a couple of weeks. The snow drifts are massive, some up as far as OH's shoulders. OH will need to try and get to work tomorrow I think, so hopefully it will ease off a bit.

Yep, we're right in the middle of the red area. OH came home early yesterday, it took some of his work colleagues three or more hours to get home, but thankfully it only took him an hour (usually takes 30 minutes). We've had a whomping overnight, and this morning have no water. The pipes inside the house seem okay, but the pipe to the house appears to be frozen somewhere. It's a new house (new build), so we'll phone the builder in a bit and hopefully it'll be sorted out. Kids are off school again today, and OH will have to stay home from work depending on the plumbing situation.

It quite often snows at this time of year, or at least it did. My birthday is on the 27th Feb, and I can think of numerous times where it has snowed on or around my birthday, growing up in Birmingham. The Met Office has just issued a red weather warning for our bit of Scotland, so OH is on his way home. It is too bad for the kids to play out in it, the wind is too strong.

We a little bit of snow yesterday and more overnight. It is going between blue sky and sunshine, and blizzard conditions at the moment. This was the view out of my back window earlier. OH got to work without difficulty, although he took my car because school is closed (so I don't need it with the kids) and it is a 4x4.

It was gorgeous here too. I spent the day cleaning our new house ready for us to move in next week, this is the view from the kitchen window...

We're the same. We went to Australia for an adventure, to experience something different. We returned to the UK, but to a (very) different part (Scotland) again for an adventure and to experience something different. We are closer to family, and will be able to see them more often, but returning to be closer was only part of the story. Before we left for Australia we lived in the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire area, and moved something like 8 or 9 times in 10 years, like Quoll we are not settlers. Having said that, we did settle in Australia (same place for almost 9 years), but were content with exploring our new country, and we've now committed to settling here until the kids are out of high school/uni (another 10 or so years) but will spend time exploring the UK and Europe with the kids.

Congratulations on making your decision. The next few months will fly by. We made the decision in December/January and spent until September finishing the renovation on our house, de cluttering, and putting it on the market. It was a very intensely stressful time, but we survived! We've been in Scotland since the beginning of September, and I am certain it was the right thing to do. So much so that we're moving into our own house next Tuesday! We love it here, the kids love it here, and I am happy we had the courage to turn our lives upside down. I do miss some things about Sydney, but in a way that all feels like a dream now, like I am finally awake and living life.

We had those experiences too, everyone was friendly and interested in where we'd come from and why we were there. What we found though, was that deeper friendships didn't follow, even with people we saw every day. People who we'd thought would become friends over time, such as people from playgroup and school, held us at arms length. They already had friendship groups, and we weren't in them. The more time that went by, the more apparent that became, and it was only when we'd had some UK friends to stay that I became aware of the difference between the friendliness we'd been shown and had mistaken for friendship and true friendship.

To be honest Toots, people have been so friendly that I had a little bit of culture shock when we first arrived! I felt a bit overwhelmed to start with, and it did take me a few weeks to get used to it! The new house is on a small development of six houses, in the middle of a farm. There are a few other kids already living up there that the kids know from school (it is a very small school, so they know everyone), and I'm hoping they'll be out and about as a group.

I've been thinking it's more likely to be location-related. We were in Sutherland Shire in Sydney, and although it was a lovely place to live with great schools etc, it was very insular. People there didn't seem to be very well travelled or accepting of outsiders. We tried so hard to fit in and live as Australians (hence why we moved to a more Aussie area rather than one with lots of migrants), but we were totally kept at arms length. I did worry that we'd not be accepted here in Scotland, being English and having moved to a small village, but in actual fact it has been great. People are very friendly and we've already started to make some friends. We're moving into our own house in a couple of weeks. It is on a small development of houses on a farm, and I'm hoping that there will be a real sense of community spirit up there.

From memory, there was no fee providing we paid in a certain amount per month. OH's salary went in, so that was fine. There were no fees for cash withdrawals from certain cash points (Westpac, St. George and some others I think), but there were fees from other machines. We used to get cashback in the supermarket most often, because there was no fee involved. It was a Westpac Choice account.

We used Westpac, no trouble with them at all. As the previous poster says, you can open the account from the UK, and cards etc will be waiting for you on arrival.

If I'm completely honest, I felt settled to start with, but the longer we were there the more unsettled I felt. I've never been one who has needed lots of friends, and would rather one or two good friends. That said, I never had any trouble in making friends in the UK, and had quite a reasonable circle of friends from school, uni and my working life, plus a few from childbirth classes etc. In Australia I put myself out there, tried to meet people at playgroups, school etc, but I never really made any friends. There were a couple of people who I was closer to (both migrants, funnily enough), but even then our friendships were shallow and I've not heard from them since we moved back to the UK. In my experience in our part of Sydney, people tended to stick to groups of family and friends of family, friends they'd had since school, and church groups. If you weren't in those groups already, you had no chance at all. At the school gates there was lots of bitchiness and two-faced behaviour which I didn't want to be involved in. I got taken advantage of by people (looking after people's children in school holidays if their childcare arrangements fell through, picking kids up to take them to school and dropping them home etc.), but even trying to be kind and helping people out in that way didn't help. Most strikingly, the behaviour kind of filtered down to our kid's friends. My eldest daughter's best friend (of six years) used to come over to play, for sleepovers etc. frequently, but she was only invited to their house maybe three or four times in the six years they were friends. The kids were rarely invited to birthday parties. The kicker for me, was having a visit from some friends from the UK, who were on holiday in Australia and came to stay for a few days. We'd not seen them for something like nine or ten years (just kept in touch via email/Facebook), but the second they arrived it was like we'd seen them yesterday. That made me realise how isolated and lonely I was, and triggered a huge depressive episode which pretty much lasted until we moved back to the UK. We've only been here (Scotland, which isn't where we came from) for a few months, and have already made better friends here than we made in the nine years we were in Sydney. I don't really know why, I've not done anything more to put myself out there than I did in Australia, just done the school run. We have moved to a small village, though (and always lived in villages before), so that may be something to do with it. Perhaps if we'd gone to live in London or another large city our experience would have been different, and more similar to our experiences in Sydney.

There is quite a lot of water about here too. I woke up in the night and it was absolutely tipping down, and this morning the snow has completely gone. There are lots of flooded fields, and the river is almost spilling over.