landv

Going home and need to sell. Hyundai Getz, 1.4, 5 door, 2010, manual. New tyres, full service history, tinted windows, REG until August. 67500 km on odo and in excellent condition. $ 7500 Perth NOR

What makes you think that your daughter will benefit from growing up here? What will she become and/or gain by living here? As a mum of a two year old girl, I'm genuinely interested. I have thought about this a lot since my daughter was born, and by looking at the bigger picture and long term, I think ultimately she will benefit more ('more' being the keyword) from growing up in the UK. But I understand, it's a very personal decision.

The question should be who annoys you most rather than what annoys you most on PIO :laugh:

That is so true

They aren't just insecure, but have a huge chip on their shoulders too. Some of them are quite frankly, just simply arrogant. Not so much the women, but the men. In actual fact, Aussie men make my skin crawl... the macho attitude they're trying to exhibit...little do they know it isn't clever, it isn't big, and it certainly isn't impressive... it's just pathetic.

I bet... I'm getting some really disturbing mental images right now..:laugh:

Funnily enough, my hubby mentioned exactly the same thing the other day.

Same for me, I had only one cold during my four years here, back home I used to get nasty chest infections on top of bad colds too at least once a year. Interesting isnt it? It must be the dampness in the air.

Oh yes.... chavs! I did think of putting chavvy towns with dreary council estates on my list, but I did mention postcode snobbery....:mask: And yes, will avoid the home counties this time.

I really hope it will be the same for us too.

I know we are all immensely looking forward to moving back to good old Blighty including myself, but occasionally I do a mental reality check what I won't be too keen on to see/experience again. I only do it, so I can prepare myself and won't have a massive wobble in the first months or the first year. I'll start off: - getting up half an hour earlier in midwinter in the freezing cold and dark to scrape the car - foggy, damp, drizzly, dark days that seem to last forever - parked cars everywhere... and I mean everywhere and having to stop every meter to let the traffic flow - paying council tax and whingeing about the council (yet again) about not collecting the bins for weeks and not filling in the potholes on the roads (amongst many other things) - the price of petrol - looking for parking spaces - driving on the motorway - postcode snobbery and toffs - working for the NHS again (I'm very apprehensive about that) - getting payed monthly - January & February May I add that the reasons for going back far outweigh all the above, and this thread is also meant to be a little tongue-in- cheek.

I don't hate Oz.... only occasionally (depending on my mood):cute:, after all, I chose to come here, made my bed now lay in it and all that. It's OK to hate it sometimes, occasionally we hate other things in life too... jobs, the boss, paying bills, the world, cleaning the house... you get the picture.

I agree with Verystormy, I think it mainly depends on someone's mindset and individual perception of the place and/or people. Personally I find this place very superficial, lacks depth, crass and harsh on the eye.... and at times, 'in my face', and these are some of the many reasons I loathe it here.

Absolutely. In the end, I just couldn't fight against that yearning anymore and I had to accept the fact that I can't settle and immerse myself into "forever life" here. The realization was hard and it felt like some kind of defeat at the time, but it has also been a life lesson to remain true to myself.

:biglaugh: Also, getting a happy meal from Maccas........... awesome maaaaaaaaate (and they're all nodding in agreement) :cute:

I'll never be a True Blue Aussie..............:cry::cry:

AWESOME- drives me mad :mad: I'll think of more...

An honest and lovely post Fizzybangs, I think you're taking on a huge emotional challenge moving back after 30 years in Oz, and I admire your courage. I guess (and I'm just thinking out loud here) it would be so much easier choosing to stay here, to remain within the comfort zone, subconsciously shying away from another massive challenge of moving back to uncertainty and to the 'what ifs' .... but ultimately that could make someone becoming unhappy and resentful in the long run IMO. And the possibility of it happening scares me more than the challenges I'll have to face of trying to rebuild my life back in the UK.

Bloody hell! First class ar@ehole! As for Australia Day..... CBA :dull:

Well I've done the unforgivable thing and been on Facebook to 'spy' on my old workmates back in the UK. I wish I didn't. It has left me feeling very unsettled and upset and I'm not sure why. It's been over 4 years since I left the UK and the pain is still very much there... the grieving for my old life... the realization that things will never be the same again when we eventually move back. And TBH I don't want it to be the same, because my life has changed so much, I've changed so much, I've moved to the other side of the world after all. Right now I feel like I've been living a parallel life in the past four years... that someone who I once was, is no more. It has also scared me. I'll have to change my life again and have to start again in the near future and although many people like friends and old work friends have drifted away, I really hope that my family, our family will expect us back as we were.... if that makes sense. And somehow, I can now understand why some expats who are not entirely happy here still choose to stay here... perhaps because they feel they cannot face those changes again, it's too painful. Sorry for my ramblings, but I needed to put my thoughts into words as hopefully some of you can identify with those feelings.

I so agree with everything you said, especially your last paragraph.... we should have done exactly that, move to a different area in the UK and improve our life. Looking back, there was nothing wrong with our life as such, we could have made those changes in the UK and move out to somewhere like Norfolk, Suffolk or the South West. I was extremely fed up with the rat race, we lived in one of the Home Counties, I worked in London for over a year and the commute to London got on top of me.... so I had this "lightbulb moment"... lets move to Australia where life is quiet, laid back, no traffic, no stress....LMAO. I now find myself in a different rat race.. that is Perth and the commute to the city.

The cost of groceries are simply outrageous, a total piss take. I've just done my shopping this morning and I'd kept grumbling to myself all the time, apricots $12.98 a kilo, they can keep them and let them all rot on the shelves, mango has gone up by $1 each from $2.68 to $3.68 - I thought they were in season (?) - why the need to increase the price then, tomatoes $6 for a kilo, nappies have gone up by $2. I used to love duck pancakes back in the UK, I used to make them a lot, here we only have it as a treat as it would be roughly $20 for the ingredients to make them.... I could go on and on. We don't have Aldi here in Perth, so I have no choice but to shop at Coles. These days, I'm doing my shopping with a calculator, I simply cannot go above $200 for a week's grocery shopping, if it goes above that figure even by just $2, I put something back, and the only way I can keep the cost of shopping down is to cook a big meal and eat it, plus take it to work for lunch, for 2-3 days. Living the dream..... yeah right, our living here consists of constant budgeting, sacrificing, penny pinching and sometimes I don't eat so my daughter can have the left over meal or a special fruit, so I don't have to go out and pay more for an extra days meal to keep within the budget. Rant over.

OMG, Kerry I'm so sorry to hear this, I can't really offer any advice other than what has been said before, and just want to say that please stay strong, stand your ground and seek legal advice. :hug:

She is one of the main reasons I don't go on the open forum anymore, I've had enough of her... I had quite few run-ins with her in the past, both on the open forum and privately. Sorry to hear about what happened to Mygirlies:no:

Hi there and welcome to the group. I have just read your other thread where you've mentioned that you'll need to save up to move back, my advice is to start now., even if you don't have any firm plans right now to move back. What I personally do is I put a certain amount in a savings account every fortnight when I get paid and I don't budge on that, it has to go in the savings no matter what, and is a term deposit account therefore I cannot be tempted to touch it. In the meantime I try to put my moving back plans in the back of my mind and try to enjoy it here... it is difficult I know, but the thought of the savings are growing whilst I'm kind of getting on with my life makes it a little bit easier. It also gives me peace of mind that if my mental health cannot take it any longer, there will be some money to go back with at that time. You can still plan, but it doesn't have to be active planning, at the same time you can still go with the flow and if in 2 years or whatever time you decide that you don't want to move back after all, you'll have a nice lump sum in the bank :biggrin: