Imapla

On 25/11/2019 at 09:14, Cvarney said:

Can anyone recommend an overseas removal company who can deal with out move from Brisbane back to the U.K please?

Hi We just came the other way using Grace Removals and Doree Bonner in UK - highly recommend - they provided an excellent service.

On 12/03/2018 at 10:03, Marisawright said:

If you can't face the rest of your life in Australia, what's stopping you moving back?   If your brother is in Australia, your parents won't be alone.  Your children are old enough to manage without you now.  Why not seize the day?

I do not advise moving to the other side of the world from your kids - its different if they move from you and I think its good for them to be independent but not the other way round - I know cos I've done it .  I did have a conversation with someone on here about house swapping - if you can get leave from work (if you work) and find someone who is in a similar situation in the UK - you never know it might be something you could do on an annual / bi annual basis.  Also please come back during the winter - not the summer ! England is so lovely in the summer but I bet the winter is longer than you remember and the days are darker than you remember.  Good luck with your decision - its not easy !

I left the crate at Heathrow as it was very large and I figured they would put it to better use than me (ie sitting in the garage).

On 17/02/2018 at 07:10, Booma said:

we ping ponged back to oz & it's the best thing we ever did. its a massive waste of money going backwards & forwards but we don't regret it & I feel especially lucky that I could come back. we have friends in uk who are stuck there because they didn't get oz citizenship & now they can't get visa. I'm much more settled this time round & got to pinch myself sometimes at how happy I am now. our kids are growing up spending most of the time outdoors & we all live a life other people go on holiday for. good luck with your move. you won't be sorry.

Glad to hear your story - So looking forward to ponging back soon !! - I also love to visit the UK but can't wait to be back in the sunshine and the outdoors, beautiful sunsets and scenery, clean streets, wide roads, sitting outside have a beer after work - will still miss my family a lot but that's what holidays are for!

Hi 

Its a long shot but you never know   

I am thinking a year or more .............

We are in Kent - soon to be in Brisbane so if anyone here is looking to return to the UK and doesn't want the hassle of renting their house out and then having to rent a house in Kent please pm me.

Thanks for looking

On 28/01/2018 at 19:40, Newstart said:

8 months.

Here is a link to the calculator ( scroll down the page) will give you a timeline of what needs doing from the leaving date you enter. 

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/cats-dogs

Thanks - that's very helpful

Yes you have to wait 180 days after your rabies blood test result before they can leave - if you are talking UK to Aus ?

12 hours ago, ali said:

Of course they wouldn't know any different - but they have lived in two places - my daughter half her life in UK, half in Aus, my son, slightly longer.  My children are well travelled and whilst holidaying isn't the same as living, they have experienced different countries so are able to make a comparison (which was the point of my post really).

Ha ha mine are in the same situation and they also couldn't live here (UK)

Hi Does anyone have experience of house sitting websites.

Do you know which is a good one to use?

Thanks if you can advise

HI Bob when they get to melbourne - does the quarrantine kennel keep their crate for when they are subsequently shipped to Brisbane?

On 15/12/2017 at 06:47, MelT said:

Yes I do have to agree. We have lived in Australia for nearly 13 years.. 6 in Victoria and then 7 here in Qld (which is like a world to its own anyway). We are tired of being here for many reasons... No sense of belonging, racism (from Australians, more so Qld) to us.. the unrelenting heat.. skin cancer... Isolation (social), lack of professionalism in the work place.. Lack of support in schools...Cost of living.. culture... To name but a few.

We will be retuning to the Uk by Sept 18 - have a planning trip booked for Jan 18 visiting schools etc.. It. has been a tough decision as my parents want to stay in Qld (love the heat) and have health issues. But, I just can't just merely exist anymore. I have discussed it with my parents until I am blue in the face, and just cannot do it anymore. We are so unhappy.

Hi You have been out of UK for 13 years - you will find lots of changes here .  A lot of the things you mention may not be an Aussie problem - they may be a 2018 problem eg lack of professionalism in workplace, lack of support in schools.  I also think as a migrant you will never really belong in either country - especially if you leave family behind in one.  You will always be hoping for the best aspects of both countries and when thinking about the unrelenting heat (which lets face it is very pleasant most of the time - there are just a few months when humidity is uncomfortable) have you thought about the unrelenting cold !  I put my winter coat away in June last year and it was back out again in october - ditto with the heating.  Its not the rain that is an issue to me as it really isn't that bad but its the cold and having to wear so many layers of clothes - and being stuck inside for so many months with windows closed.  And the dark nights and dark mornings ........

You may even have the added emotion of guilt if your parents are aging.

Have you thought about doing a long term stint over there - say six months/1 year  (over the winter) and the do a rain check at the end of that ?  I wish we had done that instead of fully pinging and now soon to be ponging !!

or going back to Victoria 

Good luck with your decision - it is so hard to make.

Probably 2-4 months - do you remember how much you paid a month for that and who it was with ?

Hi 

Wondering if anyone has any experience of long term car rental on arrival in Brisbane?

Thanks if you have any advice

On 03/09/2017 at 13:37, Angelpie said:

Hi I've called them am still waiting for a quote off them - the lady wanted my dog to be in her kennels for three days previous to flying though which I'm not keen on that idea , had other quotes aswell but am hedging towards petair xx

Hi Did you go ? / choose a shipper ?

I think I will go with Petair - I see Golden Arrow are having a sabatical as at Sept 2017 and Petair seems highly recommended on this forum

5 hours ago, FeralBeryl said:

I hardly watch telly anymore, as the ads drive me crackers. I limit my internet use too. Not on Facebook or social media time wasting sites. Instead, now I live near a beach, I go for walks along it, or swim in the sea most evenings.

Bit confused as to how this post has gone from have we made a mistake returning to the UK to what TV we watch   

For the sake of 3/4 months I would be looking for a dog sharer - it is much easier (and cheaper) to fly from Aus to UK as no quarrentine and no 180 day period that you have to have when going UK to Aus.  It is such a long flight and with the 10 days quarrantine too it really might be more fun for your dogs  if you could find someone who loves dogs but doesn't want to commit to a full time one you would have the best of both worlds.  

On 17/10/2017 at 15:03, Anna833 said:

Hi All,

We returned to the uk in July this year after living in Melbourne for nearly 4 years. We returned due to a mixture of missing family, friends (although most have drifted and moved on now), the countryside and of little things but the main reason was that I felt like my 19 month was missing out on building a relationship with his grandparents and cousins. It was also the isolation and a little bit of homesickness which was a major player as well. See, we have been back over 3 months now but I'm wondering whether we have been too hasty and instead should of come for an extended holiday rather than shipping our belongings and 2 cats back to the uk to live in a completely new area (only place my husband could find a job with his skills). As we don't know anyone nearby at the moment and I'm a stay at home mum I feel a little isolated even though we are back in the uk with family/friends an hour or so away. It's horrible having the thoughts of did we actually do the right thing!! Luckily we waited until we got citizenship in June to make the move back so we can always go back but how long do you wait before thinking that life is actually better in Australia? I think my husband is missing it slightly more than me. I'm just thinking now we are back, maybe we are looking through rose-tinted glasses at oz again and forget all the bad experiences we had over there. (mostly good though apart from missing family)

We came to a decision that we will see how things go over the next 2 or so years and make a firm decision of what we want to do prior to my son beginning school in 2021.

Has anyone else who has returned had these regrets and do they pass and or is anyone planning over relocating back to oz in the near future?

HI I knew the day I arrived back it was a mistake - I am still here 2 1/2 years on but going back sooooooooooon.  I have given it a couple of years and UK doesn't work for me -(I've had some great times over here but I just miss the lifestyle and weather too much - the big skies - the scenery - being outside - I can't handle being closed in for 7 months of the year)  you will get people in all situations - those who returned and are glad - those who didn't return and are still wondering if they should have, those who return and wish they hadn't and those that return and then go back to Aus (ping pong) - it all sounds easy 'just go back' but it is not - especially if you have animals and children involved !  But you have now experienced both places and are completely in a position to make the decision.  At least you tried returning to UK life - good luck with your decision.

IMHO I may well be able to do the paperwork but I prefer to use an expert and am happy to pay for that service - it is not just a vast profit for them - it is paying for their knowledge, experience and support in what is quite a stressful thing to do to your dog.  It is all about value for money and I personally wouldn't want to risk doing it myself - in a few years time it won't make much difference whether it was £2k or £3 to ship him - either way he has cost us a lot of money but he is totally worth it.  (I am also no sloth when it comes to paperwork having done our immigration application myself without an agent).  I think the pet shipping companies do a great job and certainly wouldn't expect them to do it for no profit/income. 

Hi

Has anyone ever done a permanent house swap between UK and Australia?  

I am wondering if there are any websites or how you would go about finding a suitable swap.

You would be looking for someone in Aus who is moving to the UK and someone in the UK who is moving to Aus 

Houses would need to be on a par.

Timing would need to be right

And how would the legal side work?

Seems like a lot of planets would need to line up but you never know I guess ?

Any thoughts ?

Hi - is there any talk of another quarrantine facility opening for Queensland at any time in the future or is all only happening in Melbourne?

We went for 4 days to Port Douglas to do the Barrier Reef (I wanted to go to Uluru too but we couldn't do both) - it was lovely and this is a good time of year to go - not too hot.

That's very hard  - my vet put the wrong age on the form but I noticed and he reissued with the right info - there's so much to think about - you would hope that you don't have to follow behind the professionals making sure they have got it right.  Good luck hope it all turns out okay for you.  Have you thought about http://join3.borrowmydoggy.com/?headline=A+New+Kind+of+Dog+Care&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIodDTjO331AIVI77tCh308w2hEAAYASAAEgJYpfD_BwE to find someone who can look after them (or just the one)?

5 hours ago, simmo said:

Do you think you may have a chemical imbalance? is it lady problems maybe.? 

and its as easy as it was before the brexit vote to get to the s of france.  London direct to marsielle.

Chemical inbalance - because I like hot weather ?  and why do you assume I am female 

Yes Sir - obviously its just as easy to get there - what I meant was to move over and live there .......

HI 

Interested to hear from those who struggled to sell their UK house to coincide with their move over - the market seems very slow at the moment and we don't want to rent it out.

Do we leave before its sold ?

Any top tips welcomed

On 6/17/2017 at 08:41, Bobths said:

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. 

 

HI 

I concur with everything you have said (except the M&S food part - I love the choices they give).  Its so hard when you have one foot in each country - you want the best of both worlds and will forever be comparing.  We have been in UK 2 long years now ....... going back by the end of this year - definitely, hopefully, maybe, absolutely !! Will be so hard to say goodbye to the parents and sisters again but It this has made me realise I need to be in a warm clime - in fact the other day on the hottest day since long long ago when most of my colleagues were wilting and complaining about the heat,  I almost thought I could stay here and then I realised it was because I was warm to my soul again !

Good luck - hope it all works out for you - dogs and children make to ing and fro ing harder to do - maybe you should think about joining your parents in South of France ??  Although of course with Brexit that might not be as easy as it was.