jimmyay1

i feel you . its also a "living in Sydney" issue as much as anything. No doubt about , it quality of life has decreased for many except the already pretty asset rich, over the last few years, it is a worldwide phenomenon but particularly pronounced in places like Sydney. I love visiting Sydney, and go there a few times a year.... but would i want to live there and have the daily grind to contend with as well? Probably not, unless it was for a year of "living in Sydney" just for the experience. With the big increase in the demand for / cost of rental, or house prices, and other factors, it has become a bit of a rat race like London, albeit with an amazing lifestyle IF you have several million $. The only people i know are happy in Sydney, but they have no mortgage and live in the eastern suburbs. The pressure is then somewhat off, access to the parts worth living near is easy, and they don't need to climb the greasy pole or work all hours - which kind of defeats the point for many of living there if all you do is work, particularly if you are a "lifestyle migrant" like many Brits are. Why make life more difficult for yourself? Other cities are easier. Its a bit of a myth that Sydney's the only place where you can have a good life. In terms of whether you find somewhere "boring" or not i think this depends to an extent on your outlook on life, and what you can find pleasure in, and how you can relate to people. Culturally, compared to say European cities or the UK, i have always found Sydney to be relatively conformist / immature in terms of it's youth subcultures / outlook on life. So many people look like clones of each other, dress the same, same haircut / talk about same schools, money, way past the age where people do that in say the UK. This isn't AS prevalent in other cities in Aus, which have more alternative scenes, and are genuinely more relaxed, but it is a little bit of an Australian city thing. Because many people don't leave home until their late 20s/30s and stay living with parents, go to local Unis. continue to hang out with school friends, it lends itself to a tendency towards a more inward looking, and "conformist" culture (with exceptions of course). When i first started working in Melbourne, i found all the talk of "what school did you go to" quite baffling (after 15 years working in professional office jobs in London where i don't think i'd heard anyone's schooling been mentioned once) ....... until i realised the men in my Melbourne office and, many of the ones in senior position had been to the same couple of private schools, lived in pretty much the same suburb as they'd gone to school in, had been to the same Unis, in Melbourne and had lived at home whilst they had studied, were mostly all friends, all followed the same football team etc, and helped recruit others with the same background etc. It was pretty much a closed clique, and felt like i'd walked into a time warp. This in the Melbourne office of big international company too - not some small suburban office. I had to just laugh it all off and ignore, move on and find my own space . You're never going to win or really join in fully in a situation like that, you just have to find your own groove and not give a **** about the other rubbish. It means as a migrant, to an extent you might always be viewed as a bit of an outsider, and have the few struggles which come with that. How you adapt to that is key to making a go of it. As for climate.......as a resident of Melbourne it's certainly not hot all the time and we get very little of the east coast humidity. In fact the biggest beef by many about Melb in terms of weather is that it is pretty changeable and cool to mild for a good chunk of the year.

Exactly. I’ve always been a tradit kind of person but nowadays to me it’s such a blast having Christmas - and then a long summer. Too good

the first Christmas in 2012 was weird - 2 months after we’d arrived, living in Melb in a rental, far from family and friends, no furniture, odd seasons. I shed a few tears on Christmas Day. However we now smile at the memories of the strangeness of the first year and what we did, and have embraced and created our own “no real set rules” Christmas which is very freeing. We mostly do something different every year - never bound by many rules. Obvs we put a lovely tree up , presents etc. There’s just the two of us usually so no pressure to prepare or expect a particular meal for guests - we did do a turkey breast last year alongside some lamb but it was the first time as we had guests, and actually we needn’t have bothered l. despite having a barbecue in our house, we’ve never used it - at all - since we moved in 3 years ago! In fact I think I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of barbecues I’ve done at home in the last 10 years We make sure we use quality ingredients but aren’t fixed to any dish. we’ve had mousakka one year, had a beef pie one year, we’ve done lamb cutlets, one year I roasted a picked pork, another we had some salmon - and a couple of years whilst on road trips at Christmas we’ve had an esky full of cheese and cold cuts, tapas style stuff. this year we decided to have baked lamb chops and potatoes for Christmas lunch. Fabulous butcher in Prahran market. For starters we did dips and crudities, including some nice smoked salmon, fresh fruit for desert and a slice of Christmas cake. Some really good Aussie wine always features. I usually get a few treats like special uk cheeses or a pork pie or bottle of beer. we love just doing what we like, and love Christmas in Oz, it’s the start of the summer and usually go on a road trip just after Chrissy for a week or two. the only christmas cards we got were from estate agents who manage our rental properties. Seems most people have stopped sending them ( I do still send to friends and family even to uk every year and despite visiting family pretty much every year I still don’t get any back!). went back to uk for a couple of christmases since I’ve lived here. Meh. It’s nice feeling pre Christmas there and the day itself, but as soon as you get past the 26th what I’d forgotten is that everyone sinks into a boring winter depression, skint and watching the rain. Found other than enjoying seeing family I was very glad to return to Australia and the summer.

I just bought a 75 inch Samsung Frame for around $3,500 dollars - the same model in the UK goes for about 3,500 pounds. much cheaper in oz.

Cost of living? not that bad here despite all the talk, Residential rents have barely increased in Melbourne in the past 10 years. high immigration but high supply and development of property has meant there are a range of choices for tenants. i could find a 2 bed apartment for rent at the same price as my first rental when i moved here 10 years ago, around $450 a week. i also own an investment property and the rent has not increased since it was built in 2015 - middle ring suburb - commutable to city, quite nice 3 bed , 3 bath townhouse - $570/ week. it may be different in other cities but for renters, melb has never been ( relatively speaking ) cheaper to start out in. cost of living in aus i firmly believe is comparable with the uk now for food and groceries and consumer items like electronics - if you want to compare with same quality. i was back in the uk in april and whilst you can still get the bargain basic bad quality groceries at lowish prices, of course, but prices have really gone up if you want quality meat, fruit etc, it was around same price as melbourne. i also just bought a 75 inch samsung frame tv , the cost was $3500 all in here - in the uk it is roghly $3,500 pounds. we checked and compared. it was also cheaper than same model available in the USA! we have found this before with some electrical goods, computers etc. and salaries are generally higher than uk.

i guess the winters in Canada are brutal and long and people are snowbirds that fly for warmth in the winter as you mentioned. coming from the uk, which is much more temperate admittedly i felt the same....... however unless you're a huge beach or water sports fan, you may actually spend less time there than you think, as you do tend to adjust and get rather fussy with regard to what conditions you think are "beach weather" . Nice to have that luxury i guess In Vic you generally don't see many people on the beaches much outside of December to March, as it's perceived as being too cold ; the water isnt warm ( bay water is currently sat at 10 degrees - gets to around 19/ 20 in the summer) . The ocean itself south of Aus near Geelong and Melb is around 18 degrees in summer - it's refreshing. Sure, it's all relative - you do acclimatise. We actually tend to take our summer holidays away from Victoria to enjoy warmer water and more reliable weather.

Actually my only real regret was moving in late 30s & i should have done it 10 years earlier to be honest as it would have probably been a bit easier to adapt perhaps. Moving aproaching middle age - we had to adjust to a different kind of life from the uk in terms of the social aspects . It is hard to make new long term friends. fortunately we do have a few now. They are other migrants from other countries - which is of course totally fine and absolutely love spending time with them and go on trips together, stay at each others houses, even been overseas together. but we actually don't have any native born Australian friends at all after 10 years. at the beginning i felt sad about this but it is not at all uncommon a story so don't feel bad about it if it doesn't happen. I second the post which said take up a sport (or any other social activity hobby or interest that gets you out and socialising with people even casually, ). even if the folk you'll be with won't be mates, at least not right away, it gives you a focus to life and something to be " involved in" and generally makes life more pleasant. You do learn to become extremely independent / self reliant as a family so as long as your relationship with your partner is rock solid and you can work as a team that is the main thing. Don't assume your family or friends will come to visit in Oz much unless all the stars align - in most cases they simply won't bother to at all as its too much effort or too expensive or too far. even if they can afford to do it regularly. they probably won't. And .......you will also have to make the effort when you go back to the uk to meet up with them. You can travel 10,000 miles just to pop in to see them .... they will of course be glad to see you, it'll be like you've just left the room....... but don't expect many of them to make a special effort to get in touch and may even be hesitant to drive an hour or two to see you whilst you're there. It's just the way it is. get comfortable and at ease with these concepts as soon as you can and it's less stress all round.

lol - "the Mandela effect"

Its interesting how our perspective changes over time depending on our current reference points and our experiences. The first time i went on hoiday to the USA in 2000, travelled to the West Coast, California and how exotic and different from the uk it obviously was, went back to California in 2018 and actually felt more "like home" i.e Aus and i see why so many Aussies do feel quite at home there. The gum trees and climate, mediterranean / australian plants everywhere, the large freeways, car culture, and so on. All things which have become familiar by living in Australia for 10 years. It doesnt feel nearly as "foreign" as it did, visiting there from the Uk. On the other hand ,visiting New York over Halloween 2019, the culture and feel of NYC ( which i've also visited before i moved to Aus and since ) reminded me in many ways of being closer to London or Europe in culture, lifestyle, aspirations, rather than Australia, and actually made me miss the UK a bit and felt more like "that" home. In some ways, some Americans particularly in the North East, are more like Brits than they are like Aussies or Californians in their worldview and attitude. The North East also has at least a couple of hundred years head start and more European history than Australia does - and this is quite noticeable to me now when i visit East Coast US, in a way that it wasn't, when i lived in the Uk. Another reason we once can "never go back" once you've emigrated and spent time living abroad. Even if you physically move back , the experience of living overseas absolutely changes your perceptions, and perspective.

How funny. When i emigrated in 2012, i took two small cuttings off a treasured Jade plant that had itself been a cutting off a much larger plant my grandmother had owned - it had sentimental value. I wrapped the tiny cuttings stems in my luggage amongst clothes and they survived the journey ( hardy things jades as the cuttings can survive easily without water for days and days if needed ) and have thrived, i've had them planted out in the garden, dug up and moved several times with me around Melbourne since. But no, you're not meant to bring any plant material over. At all. but there was no way they weren't coming with me. i gave the main plant away to friends as the cuttings were enough to start fresh and still keep the memory and link alive.

I noticed on my last couple of viists to the uk in 2018 and 2019 i felt more Aussie in some ways than in times past (i have been in Aus 10 years, am in mid 40s ) , just the general way people speak and carry themselves, it felt a bit alien to begin with rather than the familiar of " ah, i'm home". Always happy to get on a plane back to Aus now, and that it is home. The first few years weren't easy at all and of course I still miss uk based family, but otherwise very settled now. Some things i notice with frustration when i go back to the uk after being in Aus ( specifically Melbourne - food , cafe culture, hospitality etc) and go somewhere like Manchester or even London it all seems a bit second rate and not "together" and poor quality in comparison - or at least there's more of a search for quality rather than the overall standard being high. It always seems so crowded and many areas run down too . Aus is a heap load more shiny - and clean - in general. Also find now that i increasingly get frustrated with the indirect British way of talking about everything, having to read people's minds to know what they are thinking, not upfront, the perceived "class" behaviours e.g which supermarket you go to FFS. that's sad and tedious but it permeates uk life and all races and ages, even if they dont see it themselves. . I still love British humour of course.

Mostly Bayside from Hampton through Sandringham to Black Rock and Half Moon Bay. The bottom ones are down at Chelsea / Bonbeach and Seaford. Don't agree that either the sand or the bay is generally "dirty". We've dolphins. whales ( last weekend) all manner of bird and sea life. The beaches are pretty clean and also mechanically regular cleaned. The water is often crystal clear particularly in summer. I avoid St kilda beach. Anywhere South of Middle Brighton is pretty awesome in terms of cleanliness. After storms like anywhere it gets churned up, but to say we have a city of 5 million people around its shores and a river flowing into it, i think it's pretty good. If you want the ocean its only an hour's drive. I really love the bay. its moods and light are absolutely fantastic and ever changing. the sun sets over the bay from bayside suburbs and its honestly as good as santorini at times. Sorry to derail the thread!

more rubbish melbourne beaches

Yeah the beaches are really rubbish in Melbourne