Bobths

Lol I have to disagree that the temperate English climate is more conducive to outdoor activities. The last time I took my daughters outside to the park and it was a pleasurable experience ie not cold/wet/muddy/windy/raining was back in August last year. We got our daughters bikes for Christmas, total waste of money, they’ve been out on them twice. Due to constant flu, coughs, colds, viruses every weekend for one or more family members we haven’t been on a family outing since Christmas. Meanwhile, I get daily photos in social media of my Aussie friends and their kids at the beach/zoo/splash park/cycling. All the local outdoor attractions here (children’s farm, adventure playgrounds) shut down from Sept to March whereas Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Zoo and all the awesome playgrounds of Melbourne stay open year round. UK might be better if your kids are older but for the littlies I certainly miss the daily playground and park trips.

Yes, we are defo v lucky to have the choice between the two countries. I know my opinion on the UK is clouded by the fact my mummy friends are all in Australia (having had both our children there) and I’m a total sun worshipper, love the great outdoors but only if it’s warm and sunny. Primary schools are a big factor too, as we have a 4yo & 2yo - nursery applications for the 2yo open on Monday along with applications for reception for my 4yo. Crazy crazy. I’m pulling my eldest out of nursery because it’s just been an unpleasant experience all round so far for various reasons. I went to see my GP yesterday and she’s put me on anti- depressants so hopefully that will help get me through until we can get back to Aus. I hope you get the clarity you need and it’s an easy decision for you to make when the time comes xx

And yes, I totally agree 6 months isn’t long but we have a 4yo due to start school in Aus in Feb 2019 so we need to start the ball rolling on getting transferred back so she can get into one of the good schools near our house in Australia. We partly chose our rental here because it had 3 good schools nearby.... turns out we only stand a chance of getting her in the closest one, which isn’t oversubscribed because it feeds into one of the worst junior schools in the county. From everything I’ve heard at work and witnessed for myself, the schools are pretty bad around here hence I want to get her into the school system back in Aus - plus my 2yo is a late July baby and I don’t want her starting school when she’s only just turned 4yo (she’ll be 5 and a half when she starts school in Aus).

Hubby has to work in London and his family & friends mostly live in and around Manchester. My parents live in France & my bro moved to NZ - my parents visited us for 6 weeks every year so they never wanted us to come back to the UK. We do live 20 mins drive from hubby’s sister (the only reason we moved where we did in the UK!!) but she hasn’t really bothered to see us or has cancelled on plans we’ve made to meet up - I feel v sad for hubby as he pictured Sunday afternoons at each other’s houses, all our kids playing together..... and it’s just not happened, not for want of trying on our part.

We moved back to the UK in April this year after living in Melbourne for 6 years - hubby was homesick and missed friends and family. 6 months in and he’s concluded that the UK just isn’t as good as he remembers and all the friends and family who “missed us like crazy” mostly haven’t bothered to visit or only see us when we trek up north to visit them. So now we’re starting the process of him transferring back to Melbourne (thankfully his employer paid for the move to the UK and they’re happy for him to transfer back when a position becomes available). Despite all the upheaval and costs it will have been worth it because now he says he knows for definite that Australia is the best place for our family. Needless to say, I cannot wait to move back, I never wanted to come back to the UK, just hope the transfer happens sooner rather than later as I really don’t want my kids to go to school in the UK and I’m very depressed here as we have no friends locally.

I miss my mothers group soooo much! It's been so hard having my 3yo in tears because she's lonely and has no friends - I feel so guilty ? I also miss the adult conversation, coffee catchups and breaks from constantly entertaining the two of them. I ended up applying for a job at the end of May and got offered the position yesterday - the plan was for me to be a SAHM but daily life without my mothers group and mummy friends isn't much fun for me or the girls :-( Hoping the job will be a chance for me to make some friends and for the girls to do the same at a childminders. We'll give it a go anyway. Hope you have a great last few weeks in Aus and it doesn't get too crazy. Oxford looks lovely - we would've looked at being over there rather than where we are in Herts but we're closer to hubby's sister here x

Lol, same re weather. The recent heatwave was awesome! I swear I have Seasonal Affective Disorder or whatever it is. Just arrived in the South of France today ? So going to soak up some more sun hopefully. I honestly looked at whether we could feasibly live somewhere in France.....I adore France....but not possible. I'm sure the goodbyes will be difficult but at least you know which is the best country for you now xx

There are many reasons why we chose to move now, way too many to list. I don't think it would be fair to my hubby to wait until I have no longer 'have that itch'. I love Australia, it's quite possible that I would never scratch the itch completely.

Yes I agree totally, that's going to be a big one - whether my eldest settles in nursery or not and whether they make friends here.

It isn't all about the weather - esp in Melbourne (4 seasons in one day and all that). Plus my parents live in the South of France so if the weather gets me down we can just hop over there from here - not something we can do in Australia (doing that exact thing next week in fact lol). Lots of factors, like I said.

Thanks Cal. I'm sure we will adjust, just hard finding our feet with the house and two young kids. I'm sure with a glass of wine in hand, kids in the paddling pool and the smell of charcoal going later, things will be looking up :-) Yes we did apply for compensation and they gave us a heap of air miles - we now have enough to do business class flights within Europe somewhere so hubby and I will do a city break without the kids later this year. Big plus, Europe in the doorstep again :-)

Lol, we've been back two months, one month of which was in London - I'm not making my mind up yet. Initial thoughts are not great but then I've left behind a great job, fab friends and a lovely beach/city lifestyle. It will take time to build up a similar thing here, but I can see the potential in Hertfordshire. Like I said, lots of factors to consider eg my husband likes being closer to his family but time will tell whether we actually see them much more as they are up north and because of his job we have to live down south (his sister does live nearby however). House prices are a big issue. Schooling is an issue. We're going back to Australia for a friend's wedding in February so maybe we'll be able to decide then.

The Plan is we make a call on it before our eldest is due to start school properly (so September 2018/January 2019). On paper (if we weren't shelling out on our mortgage in Australia) we'd be better off here financially. Buuuuutttt, it depends on lots of other factors too.

It's supposed to be beautiful today (26 and sunny) and for the next couple of days, think we may even break out the barbie! It's just the greyness that gets me down - it's grey interspersed with sunshine rather than the other way around.

So we landed back on April 19th, here is an update for those interested...... (background: We're both Poms, been in Melbourne for 6 years, hubby got a transfer to London because he's been homesick) Preparation to leave Australia We decided to rent out our house in Melbourne rather than sell as we don't have any fixed plans to stay in the UK long term and I think if we sold our house now we'd never get back in the market. Unfortunately we couldn't rent it out for what we (and the estate agent) estimated - so much for a tight rental market in Melbourne! - so it's costing us $1,200 a month to not live there :-( As we've got two young kids we decided to go stay in a hotel whilst the house was emptied and cleaned prior to departure, which worked out ok. Allied Pickfords did a great job of packing up the house and Jetpets collected our precious furbaby to stay in kennels for a few days before she flew. Hubby's relocation package included 300kg of airfreight and I think the rest took up about half a shipping container. I think the biggest pita was selling the car, excess furniture & excess clothes. I also found it very depressing giving away the contents of my pantry :-( Although it was fun using up my stash of cake baking supplies (the Allied Pickfords guys were fuelled by many many peanut butter cookies). Very emotional saying goodbye to my mother's group, work colleagues and other friends we've made over the past 6 years - I don't think I've ever cried so much. Journey We flew with Qantas to Singapore and did a 2 day stopover there (hubby's work wanted him to do a meet and greet at the office there). Qantas was great and the stopover was just about right, we spent a day at Gardens by the Bay which are just a-may-zing! This was followed by an utterly cr@p flight with British Airlines to Heathrow. 14 hour journey with no TVs (!!). Hubby had to break out the laptop to entertain the kids and we just got very, very bored. It was an A380 but gosh the seats were uncomfortable - I had to go and sit with the cabin crew at one point as I'd tried to go to the bathroom but I'd been so screwed up in my seat I was feeling faint and they took one look at me and bundled me into one of their chairs with some iced water and an apple. Our kids were asleep when the meals were served so when they woke up I asked for some food but the was told there was none - in the end the stewardess ended up raiding business/first class for some more apples and a few bread buns. Arrived at Heathrow at 6am, 4 degrees, grey and miserable :-( Took ages to find the taxi driver hubby had booked and then it was nearly 3 hours drive into London - with the cabbie farting intermittently and opening the windows to let the stench out and the freezing cold air in. Fun. Not. Arrival in UK We spent the first 4 weeks in some serviced apartments in Southwark, London (organised by hubby's employer). I never really liked London (being a Lancashire lass) but I actively dislike it now. It's so dirty and noisy and smelly!! As soon as we stepped outside the apartment building I could taste the exhaust fumes and smell that gross combination of litter and urine. Bleurgh!! Woke up every morning and had to go and clear my nose of the accumulated cr@p from breathing in the pollution the previous day. Makes me appreciate the clean Australian air a whole lot more. Trying to get around London also made me appreciate how flat and accessible Melbourne is - waaaay too many inaccessible places in London. We got set up with phones relatively easily and we still had our old UK bank accounts open so none of that was an issue. Our air freight arrived within two weeks so we had plenty of clothes to wear - which was perhaps as well because it was miserable weather. 7 whole days without actually seeing the sun - my 3yo kept asking "Why is it still raining Mum?" :-( We decided to get out of London and spend a long weekend in Hertfordshire whilst we looked for houses to rent. We looked at 6 houses on one Saturday and applied for and were accepted on our preferred house within the week. That's where the good news ended however..... within 3 days of moving in, a water pipe in the upstairs bathroom leaked so we had water pouring down the walls :-( As a result of this (plus trying to live in a house with two small children, no beds, tables, chairs or much of anything) I moved back up north to my parents house whilst hubby stayed down south. Spent a pleasant enough two weeks up north, however whilst we were there both the Manchester & London Bridge terrorist attacks occurred. As hubby works right between Westminster Bridge and London Bridge, I'm really quite worried about him going into work (thankfully that's usually only a couple of days a week). Our sea freight arrived on 30th May (which I think was pretty speedy) and so far everything appears to have been transported without breakages. Our dog weathered the trip pretty well and pick up at Heathrow was quick and straightforward, although the FIL totally overfed her whilst he was looking after her so she's now on a diet and exercise regime which she is less than impressed with. First impressions of being back England is so green! Every shade of green - it actually hurts my eyes a bit! But gosh the weather is grey. Grey, grey, grey. I forgotten about the weather forecasts for days being "bright" ie relentless cloud cover but still quite, erm, bright. Shop assistants are mostly miserable and service is non-existent compared to Aus. Our new neighbours are so friendly though - one side even bought some books for our girls as a welcoming present. It's lovely to see daisies and buttercups again. Vastly disappointed in M&S food; maybe I'd built up the expectation too much in my head but some of their ready meals were either tasteless or just plain inedible. Food prices are weird: Milk, bread, butter, fruits are cheaper (yay, Lurpak!) but oats, yoghurt, tinned veg/fish/beans are more expensive. Going to have to change our eating habits again - we lived on chilli con carne in Australia and I could get a kilo of capsicums for $2, here a single capsicum is 50p! Ouch! And tinned tomatoes here are cr@p. Good quality meat seems comparable/more expensive than Aus too. Bit worried about the local schools here, my eldest is due to start nursery in September and I was looking at the curriculum and it seems quite basic and the facilities don't look great , plus we have no choice in the school due to the zoning and all the good schools being oversubscribed (in Australia we had a choice of two good schools). Rent is so expensive!! More than we paid in Australia (and we always lived inner Melbourne). Travel is also expensive - petrol and train fares. England is seriously lacking in birdlife - I've seen blackbirds, a couple of robins and a few sparrows and tits and one kestrel-type but nothing compared to the squawking cockatoos, chortling magpies, crows, pelicans, mudlarks and squadrons of lorikeets and crimson rosellas we used to get in Aus (ok, so maybe I don't miss the squadrons of lorikeets trying to find a tree to roost in every evening). Double glazing is awesome. Roads are too narrow but drivers are way more polite. Coffee is cr@p. Water tastes awful. Kids activities (ballet and swimming at least) are cheaper here. Pizza Express is still awesome. So there, that's our experience thus far.

Very true re life and livelihood. Not a problem for us though - we're going back because hubby misses friends and family (I miss my UK friends too, but I've had two babies in Aus so I've built up a great network of mummy friends here and my parents visit us regularly for 5/6 weeks every summer (they spend their time mostly avoiding the UK and flitting between France, Melbourne and Christchurch (where my little bro lives)). I am looking forward to long summers in the south of France - Melbourne's uber changeable weather this past summer has been really irritating. Hubby assures me Cambridge is one of the driest places in England so hopefully the weather won't get me down too much. Going to miss the beach though, we live 5 mins walk away and the girls love it. Farm sounds lovely, all that green space :-)

Unless your hubby is getting an all expenses paid and organised transfer there by his Aussie employer:wink:. He will only be doing 3 days in the office and working from home for the other 2 days (hopefully). I wouldn't ever move back to Manchester - even the thought of all the rain depresses me.

Ba ha ha ha ha! I read that story too.

Lol, I'm getting the opposite reaction - we're moving back to the UK in April and everyone is like "Wow, awesome opportunity!" and I'm like "Noooo, I love Melbourne too much!". I'm sure it will be nice to see all our old friends and for our kids to spend time with DH's family but I'm going to miss my mummy friends over here. Been looking at rentals in Hertfordshire/Cambridgeshire and we are defo going to have to downgrade from what we have in Aus :-( And I nearly fell over at the cost of a rail season ticket to London :-O I'm consoling myself with the fact I can stay home with the kids and if the weather gets truly awful, disappear off to Europe for some sunshine.

So, hubby has scored a transfer from Melbourne to London with his current employer. Happily his employer is taking care of most things but I would be grateful if anyone could give some tips/advice on the following: > We're going to have to rent as we still have our Aussie home (plan is to return to Aus once our eldest is due to start primary school) - we've had a look on Rightmove and Zoopla, are there any other resources we should know about? > Been looking around Hitchin/Letchworth Garden City/Royston/Cambridge for places to live - are these areas ok/not ok for a family with pre-school kids? Hubby needs to be on the Kings Cross/St Pancras line and we'd like to be close to Cambridge as his sister lives near there. We're from near Manchester originally so haven't got a clue about the SE. > Finding a car - Autotrader? Anything similar? > I understand 3 year olds are able to access 15 hours a week of free pre-school/kindy; in reality are we going to be able to get that? Where we are in Melbourne you have to put them down for 4yo kinder when they're about 18mo to have a hope of getting a spot :-( TIA for your help xxx

Looking for advice from people who may have done something similar: Hubby's work have said they can give him a secondment back to the UK for 18 months/2 years, but we don't want to sell our house here as we fully intend to return to Aus before our eldest daughter starts school. Obviously we could rent it out long term, but being Poms we're aware that getting accommodation when you first land in Australia is difficult (or at least it was 5 years ago - we arrived in Melbourne during the Australian tennis open and ended up staying in university halls! Lol). So we thought about letting it out short term to new arrivals; our house is a modern 3 bed townhouse in Melbourne, 2 minutes walk to the local shops, 2 mins walk to the train station, 30 mins on the train to the CBD and 5 mins walk from the beach :-) Our problem is that we don't have anyone who could do key handovers, inspections, organise cleaners between stays etc. Are there people/agents out there who could do this for us? How does it work? Is there no point doing this now because of the rise of Air BnB and suchlike? TIA for any advice/tips xx

Thank you. My parents are both retired and come over here for the Australian summer every year so I've said if the 143 isn't fast enough they can do the tourist/visitor visa in the meantime - my bro lives in NZ so they could always hop over there when/if it looks like they're going to get the 143 visa granted. They can live with us no problem and they don't need to work. The uncertainty is the big problem - my Dad is umming and ahhing about planning everything out and then submitting the visa application - whereas I'm trying to get them to put the application in and do the planning/preparation afterwards. They emigrated to France nearly 10 years ago so they know what they're letting themselves in for, sort of, in terms of relocating etc. My parents just like to have water-tight plans and unfortunately the Australian visa process is anything but, as I well know!

Thank you :-) I've told my Dad its roughly GBP3,000 to put the application in. Is the second amount payable once the visa application has been approved?

Hello again. So, my parents are definitely thinking about submitting a visa application. I would be super grateful if someone could answer the following questions: 1) Is the initial 143 visa cost GBP £2,775 for two adults? 2) How much is the second instalment and when is it payable (this bit is definitely confusing me)? 3) Are medicals only requested once you have a case officer ie about 2 years after submission of your application? 4) Is there any faster way to get them out here, other than the 143? Cheers :smile:

At the end of the day, my home is where my hubby is. We never thought that we'd ever feel so differently about the UK/Australia - Australia was my dream, he was up for an adventure and we were both sick of our crappy jobs and inability to get onto the housing ladder or do something with our lives in the UK. We honestly thought we'd both love it/hate it whatever. Well I love Australia, but he's still in love with England so we've got a bit of a menage a quatre going on. We definitely wouldn't sell the house or anything - temporary is temporary.