normad76

Hope all goes well with house sale keep thinking positive and do what you have to do. Regards normad76

It is not easy now and it certainly wasn't easy 40 years ago when we came,after years of being a sewing machinist i was told i hadn't experience in that field by various companies ghat only employed Euopeans straight off the boat. Mortgages for homes were very high 18% every cent i earned paid for it and 4 of us lived on husbands pay. I would have went home to UK then but with two teenagers we didn't want to disrupt things again. Good luck to you glad you are happy and i'm sure your parent are too.

Hi Dell how are your plans coming along?, i get a bit of pension from UK as i worked for approx. 12 years before coming to Australia, like Pat, i only paid married womans stamp for some of it.I get $166 per month which set at what it was when i left UK Aussie pensions as you know are means tested but you are allowed to earn a certain amount before anything taken out. I don't think you would get a full pension from UK i do wish you luck is there someone in the UK that can find out for you.

Hi, Yes it is a bit like England here i have my special bit of England i created in the garden with a Hawthorn Tree and underneath are Daffodils, Bluebells and a couple of cowslips. My friends in the UK are forever going on trips to Europe, there are also great weekend offers for our age. Reading about the lights at Christmas and the markets sounds lovely, nothing like that when i lived there. As i said i wish you luck i hope your dream becomes reality Have been to Southport on a couple of trips back lovely spot. Would love to know how you get on.

I wish you luck i too live in a very quiet small town in Tasmania, plenty of things to do for young families but not a lot for the oldies. apart from baking cakes for the Auxilliary. I wanted to go back years ago but afraid my husband loves it here. Not sure about how you will go money wise but good luck to you.

Not easy being old here in Australia the pension is not that good and if you want to travel it costs an arm and a leg, when i see all the lovely trips on offer in the UK i feel very envious, my friends in UK have 3 0r 4 trips a year, ok you are not old yet but it won't be long. If you are going to go do it now.

Not only do you get skin cancers but the sun ages the skin and makes it look leathery as you age. Always wear a hat.I have had 3 basal cell carcinomas cut off my face, the one on my forehead needed 11 stitches, it has left a dent, i call it my lobotomy. So do be careful with your children and yourselves.

Take Orange, Shepparton, not good, out in the sticks and a lot of unemployment

I say go and enjoy it, i am elderly now and have regrets although i have had quite a few holidays in the UK my dream was always to go back one day to try my luck, too old now, time marching on and holidays are becoming difficult with expensive travel and insurances not to mention the journey, things get more difficult with age, so i say do it now.

Beautiful Ham that is not slimy like here. Pork Pie Gammon Bacon and Mushrooms. Fish and Chips. Kippers Sausages that have taste. Fab curries, haven't found one here that comes close English strawberries, so sweet. And DECENT CUP OF TEA.

I live outside of Huonville and have ADSL Broadband, no problem.

Hi, I live close to Huonville, not far from Cygnet, Woodbridge is lovely but for facilities i would recommend Cygnet, it has a great community feel always things going on, sorry i can't help anything about the schools except to say that St James is a Catholic school in Cygnet and by all accounts very good. Good Luck with the move.

Looks like all the people on here are young, i can tell you from a pensioners point of view, if you don't like it now you will definitely not like it when you are old. I know some pensioners have it tough in the UK but most of my friends over there are able to do far more i do, always going on holiday or trips out. Hope you all have a good pension fund because you will need it. I was the one who wanted to come here so i have myself to blame,we could really never afford to go back to live as the dollar was so low but i always wanted to. Too late now.

Don't do what i did and that is live from year to year saving to go back for a holiday, go while you can.

Well i have been here nearly 40 yrs, i have told my family that i want my ashes scattered in England in the woods among the Bluebells.

I think you are right one place we went to in Hobart the curries all came with the same sauce,same colour ,same taste, we gave up on curries haven't had a good one here yet. Usually cook my own.

Whenever i go back to the UK on holiday i feel at home, i step off the plane and with a tear, say to myself "i'm here" i don't even think about Australia while i am there.I love everything about it. Australia has been good to me i had a job i loved, a job i probably would never have had in the UK but my heart is still in England and i have been here nearly 40 years.

Last year i travelled on the trains from the Midlands to the North and back but didn't come across any of that sort of behaviour, one of the trains from Sheffield to Huddersfield was quite scruffy as were the people on it but it was quiet, I did travel first class one leg of the journey as i got it cheaper, it was another world.

I do hope you can sort something out and go back to your home and family, as you say time is marching on. I have spent years wishing to go back and spent a lot of money on holidays in the UK i won't be going now as i'm in my 70's, I'm glad your husband feels the same way as mine didn't. Go while you can and good luck

Yes the roadkill has been especially bad this year,we had one in the garden she must have been hit on the road and struggled to get where she died,on checking the pouch we found a tiny baby, no fur eyes still closed, Bonorong rescue park sent someone to pick the baby up, i doubt it survived but we couldn't leave in inside the mother. Anyway welcome to Tassie and good luck.

Yes they certainly had something to whinge about unlike todays migrants arriving with jobs and money to buy houses, they lived in nisson huts ( imagine that in the heat)with other families.

Notice a lot of the places recommended as the best, are tourist holiday places not living and working.

As an older migrant from the 70's i can't help thinking how different it is for you than when we came, the exchange rate was opposite to what it is now and we lost half our money, with two teens 13 and 15 we shared a poky little flat for 6 months after leaving our lovely home in England. We started from scratch and had to work our buts off to buy a very small house and land package. My husband worked two jobs. I worked shift work and we hardly saw each other, Yes we did love the weather and the beaches for the first 7 years but once i went back to the UK i was very unsettled. this went on fOR years and i had to have my 2 yearly holiday back in the UK Well yes i'm still here and realise for all the struggle i have been able to achieve more here than i ever would have in the UK. I'm so pleased for you that you are where you are and enjoying your new life.

Yes they do this now and then, on Sky channel this mornign the commentater said "he didn't care what happens at the olympics as long as we beat the poms" terms of endearment ? i don't think so.

Great place to live,been here 8 years wouldn't want to live anywhere else, wish i had left Victoria years ago but the work wasn't here.