lamada

Back to reapplying for your UK licence on return; if you still have the paper part you just send that to the DVLA with new address details etc on and it is free to replace. If you don't have that you have to fill in a form from the post office with two passport photos and it costs £20.00 (this was the case in 2011 when I returned).

We have always used HIFX for all transfers both backwards and forwards, excellent service and no hassles.

You'll be great!!

hi Kerry SNAP!!!!!! I could have written the above myself! Have been home just over three weeks and am ME again! Don't look at the time spent there as a waste, it all adds to our experiences in life and has made us appreciate home more! good luck for the future and to everyone making the move home. ​xxx

I'm here too, been back two weeks tomorrow and am loving being me again! I have laughed more in the last two weeks than I did in the 11 months I was back in Oz. Most of my laughing has been with my parents who are being fantastic while I am staying with them. I just need to decide on where to be based and get a job! So far so good! Good luck to those returning x

Interestingly, one thing I really believe and I know not many will agree with me is that Skype/FB/Twitter are the tools of the devil for new migrants. I think it was much easier back in the day when you came, sent the occasional aerogramme, maybe called for 3 minutes on a birthday rather than this continual picking at the scab of the life left behind. You just had to get on with it without the constant reminder of what you were missing - so much simpler! I absolutely agree with Quoll on the above and have said this myself many times. I did my first stint of emigration at the age of 16 with parents to South Africa and in those days it was just air mail letters for keeping in touch with friends. The turn around if someone wrote straight back was about 2 - 3 weeks and by the time you heard about news and events they had been and gone. I think constantly knowing what you are missing does not help new migrants with the settling in process. However this new technology does have it's benefits too for keeping in touch!

I sent five boxes by UPS and found them fantastic, probably not the cheapest (about £80 per box weighing about 18kg) but arrived in Australia the next day. I am returning to UK and planning to do the same thing back again!

I absolutely agree. Immigration is a huge money spinner for Australia and the removal companies must be rubbing their hands with glee too with people coming and going. What I really do not understand is why professions are put on a 'skills shortage' list when people arrive here and find there are very few jobs!! That makes no sense at all. All part of the great Austalian PR wheel if you ask me. Mind you, they do a fantastic job at selling Australia, as everyone all around the world has the impression that it is paradise on earth!!!

Family of 5 - all from England, arrived in Sydney in April 2008. Children aged 14, 13 and 7 when we arrived. I disliked it from the start but made the best of it, worked made friends etc. Depression set in and I went back to UK with youngest son then aged 10 in February 2011. Loved every minute, being me again, came off antidepressants. Due to family reasons had to return to Sydney in April 2012. Tried really hard to look at it all with positive eyes, make a go of marriage again etc. Didn't work out, am back on antidepressants and aiming to go home this year.

When I landed at Heathrow, and the same for my two kids who landed too, the plane made up time, so was ealier landing and they were waiting for me when I got there to meet them! Of course you can't rely on that!

I have also found this at work here. I like to wear a nice suit with trousers (not pants!) or a skirt, but felt so overdressed compared to the others who wear cut off trousers and tops so stopped bothering!!

I flew with Emirates three times in total and was very impressed with them. They had a nice touch where they took a polaroid picture of my son and put it in a little card for him with the date on. Not had that on BA or Etihad who I flew with before.

Love this thread, sums it up completely! I was at work in the doctor's surgery the other day and to cut a long story short one of the other receptionists complained about a patient and said 'and he is not even Australian...' to me ... nice I thought and stood there in silence. Only to be followed by a later converstation how her neighbours don't really count as they are just tenants renting ... the previous conversation was about me moving into a new rental property!! Nice to be so welcomed here!!

I like the wide parking spaces to park my little Fiesta in! Errrrm, think that is about it! Oh and rainbow lorikeets.

Sapphire, I know exactly how you feel. In Australia I am not ME. I have a great sense of humour, play on words, funny comments etc but here I just don't have it. It is, as someone else said, like a switch is switched off. I went back to UK for 14 months in February 2011 and the switch switched back on the minute I got out of the Heathrow car park. I was ME again and stayed that way the whole time I was there. Then in April last year I had to come back to Australia for family reasons and I kid you not, the minute I got here the switch switched off again and I am back to that anonymous, non laughing, non smiling person again. Ironically I am waiting for my PR to come through and once that it through I will be going home again. Australia makes me depressed and I was on anti-depressants when I was here before. I have resisted going back on them again this time. It will be interesting to see if all of us, once back home, feel like ourselves again!!

And even if they do choose a sort of normal name, they they make the spelling really weird, my son has a friend called Riley (how I would spell it) but spelt Rhyley - why???? But I heard what must be the worst australian abbreviation today, and felt I must share with you all............... 'Chrissie' an abbreviation of CHRISTMAS - and this was on the radio!!!!!! Help me god and get me out of this bloody place!!!

I have been in a department store and I have heard them call over the loud speaker 'Someone from Manchester please', I was so tempted to say 'I'm from Birmingham, not that far away, will I do?' but they wouldn't have got it at all ... sigh

You are right about Afternoon Tea at the Ritz etc being English, more of an occasion though than an everyday thing when you get home from school!

I can identify with you - I am usually a bubbly person who makes people laugh and laughs a lot, here I don't even smile, it is as if the place just drains the happiness out of me. I felt like this very early on when we got here and it never got any better. I went back to the UK for 14 months and loved every minute, I was ME again, bubbly and laughing. Unfortunately due to family reasons I had to return here and am trapped at the moment, feeling just like I did when I first arrived originally. Don't stay here just to pay off the car ... my husband recently took out a car loan and to pay it off early is a penalty of about $700, so if you can sell the cars privately, cover the remainder of the loan and pay the penalty then you are free to go with no bad debt record! Surely it is worth looking into it in depth rather than sitting here for another three years. You said you are worse off financially here than you were in the UK, then there really is no point in waiting three years. Good luck and I hope you can make the move sooner rather than later. Feeling trapped here is a dreadful feeling - I know!

Lovely news! I bet you feel so much better already! x

Oh god and yes the Morning Tea and Afternoon Tea!!!!!!!!!! Never heard the likes of such things before!

Manchester!!!! Yes - what is with that?? and yes - a kettle is not a jug!

Just a bit of lightheartedness - what are the Australian expressions/pronunciations that drive you mad? I would say top 3 but feel free to list as many as you like! Here are mine:- Maroan - WTF?? It's maroon!! Adding an 'O' on the end of words, arvo, Salvos, ambos, rego, servo, reno ... need I say more?? "Going to the siddy senna to get twenny boddles of warder" - am sure noone needs me to translate! Come on, on this wonderful Australia Day let's all have a bit of a chuckle!

Welcome, you are anongst people who will not make you feel like there is something wrong with you for not liking Australia, it is not for everyone. Your story sounds very much like ours, we were here within six months from making tentative enquiries and I felt I was suddenly on this train that I could not get off and even think about whether I actually wanted to get to the destination!! I would say if you can get your daughter back into her old school in Year 10 (have teenagers myself) and you are all in agreement that it is not for your family then do it, why wait? Education wise it will be more difficult to leave as your daughter gets older. The younger ones will slot back in with no problems. Good luck and keep us posted! lamada xxx

What is it with people having huge flagpoles in their gardens??? Makes me sick!! No everyday person would be so pretentious in the UK to have a full sized flagpole with union jack in their front garden!