Newstart

Do they use the computer? Could you get them on Skype?

I went through the same issue with my English hubby. The only discussion we had about him living in OZ was when we first got together and he was going to move there. As I had an English parent, it was easier immigration wise for me to move for him. I was very happy in the UK for the first four years and than I lost a parent and I got incredibly homesick that just became very servere. I become depressed and that type of homesickness, wasn’t something I could have ever got over. The first couple of times I said I wanted to go back he was angry but once he realised I wasn’t going to let up and I was extremely upset, he came around. Not only that he became very excited about being an Aussie. Persistence is the key as he will never just agree, if left to his own devices. So stick to your guns. You moved to be with him and likewise he needs to consider your happiness as well. It’s not 100% up to him where you both live for the rest of your lives, that’s selfish. You need to ask what his fears and dislikes are about moving. It’s a huge move and he could be worried about money and if he can easily find a job over there. Perhaps you could be flexible and move to larger job centres such as Sydney or Melbourne? Maybe he doesn’t like the lifestyle, but could be open to a different city in Oz that is more to his taste. All I can say is you need to keep your eye on the prize and never give up! If he truely loves you he will not want to be without you and will follow you.

I completely understand the homesickness. I was quite happy in the UK and then after I lost my dad, homesickness crept upon me and never left. I remember telling my husband and he said no at first ( he wanted to wait until retirement lol). I thought there was no hope. I think the key to getting him to come around and be even more excited about living in OZ then me, was I just kept being honest and my homesickness was too severe that the arguments were worth it. All I can say, is if you truely desperately wanted to go back to the UK, I’m sure your husband would want to find a way once he saw how unhappy this was making you. Don’t give up hope. I guess if you can get back for a hoilday first and access how your feelings are then. Maybe say to your hubby, I’d like to be back close to my dad and then once he has passed on, I’d be happy to come back to Australia to live. It’s not easy with the cost of moving etc but you make a plan, a budget and through the set backs, you don’t give up.

I could never live in Perth for the same reasons you hate. I think you do need to get out of Perth. However, I don’t think you should leave Australia just yet. Could you convience your husband to move to a different Australian state? What about Tasmania for greenery or Melbourne for the “ English type weather” . Places in NSW like Southern Highlands has a lovely country feel. After living in the English Countryside, it’s a place I hope to have a house one day. You say you wouldn’t like to break up with your hubby and so I think that would be tragic, as if you did, I think you’d find you be rather lonely in the UK and not as happy as you imagine without him. Even if your daughter returned with you, she will need her own life. It’s also not that easy to make friends right away here and you have been gone 30 years. A holiday or two is not like day to day life here. Have a think about what kind of activities you would like to do and look into other areas in OZ that seem more exciting to you.

I guess it depends what kind of lifestyle you want and where you want to go travelling to next. Travel wise; do you plan on seeing other parts of Australia? Australia is a great base if you’re wanting to see New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Asia. US and Europe are obviously going to be closer via London. Career wise ; have you looked at pay rate, career advancement? Lifestyle ; are you outdoorsy? Love the sunshine and beaches ? If yes, Australia is better. If you plan on settling down with kids at some point. Do you consider London and ideal place for you to raise kids? Of course housing is going to cost a bomb and you won’t be going to nightclubs etc, once married. So what is it you get out of London and what do you hope to get out of London, once settled down? You say if you were to find a girl you would live in Australia. Imagine that were to happen, how would you cope missing your family? Could you afford to go see them every now and then? Would they vist you? Are you happy to talk to them on Skype between vista home? To be blunt - leave friends out of the equation because quite frankly, some of them, you might not stay in contact with in years to come. If they wanted to move, they aren’t going to put their dreams on hold for you. You could always go back to London and go back to Australia later on ( if you have time before the cut off point ) however if you fall in love in the UK, the girl may not want to go and live in Australia with you. I’d get a pad and pen and make a list of what your dream lifestyle looks like. What are the pros and cons of living in Sydney or Australia for you? Likewise, the pros and cons with living in London. Where you can imagine yourself living ( not just now but in 10 years time) by the sea, countryside or in a city. Is it in an apartment, a house with a big yard for the kids? What hobbies and activities do you enjoy and what you would like to try? Can you do all these things in Australia or London? Only you can know, what you want out of your life.

Hello Chase, I’m an Aussie who loves Asians! I grew up having a fascination for Japanese culture, I used to love watching a comedy sitcom based in Singapore. One of my dad’s best friends was Vietnamese , his son married a Chinese girl, we went to their wedding. My favourite doctor is Chinese. I know a bit about Chinese culture as well My English husband is teaching himself Mandarin. I have always found Asian people to be very much about family, kind, giving and respectful. They have a lot of values I highly admire. Infact I hope when we move back to Sydney, I get to make some Asian friends. The fact you are willing to mix with non- Asians puts you on the right foot. You and your family we be fine!

That’s a shame. Thank you so much, Iron Chef.

Thank you Pom Queen and Bob. I will just buy new ones over there.

Fantastic, Marissa, that makes a lot of sense and has given me some well needed reassurance.

So if we just take over our powerboards and plug them into Australian travel converters, it will be totally safe and fire free, until we can get an electrician to change the plugs? I have never used a converter for anything larger than an iPad lol, so bit worried about using one on something big and powerful such as white goods.

Hi iron chef, I think I read something a while ago about having to have owned the car at least 12 months? My car is on it’s last legs and since cars in OZ are so expensive. I would like to buy a brand new car or even a second hand car with low mileage to ship over there, despite not owning it very long. Is it possible? Would there a heafty financial penalty or it would be the same as if you owned it a couple years? Or am I better off, just buying a car in OZ?

Hi, I hope this doesn’t sound too silly. Did you discard your dog and cats collars / leads, and just buy new ones once you arrived in Australia? Since the pets don’t fly with their collars on; I assume quarentine put their own leads on the dogs when taking them for walks at the facility? And perhaps, if you fly with their leads and collars, they will be taken off you once you go through Quarantine, anyway?

Olman, Do you have any family and friends in Australia? Do you know anyone in Luton?

Thank you very much.

Hi, my dad was a ten pound Pom and came over to Australia in 1951 aged five. He never returned back to the UK until I moved here, over five years ago. My father was living on his Australian pension. However, he didn’t recieve anything from the UK gov whilst in Australia. I’d imagine Luton would have changed a lot since you were last living there. Have you tried google images to see what Luton Town Center looks like now? My Grandfather went back to the UK to vist his hometown in the 80s and it changed so much, he didn’t like it, and never went back. I agree with contacting Macmillian. All the best to you.

Anybody? You all stayed at home the whole 8 months? Lol

If my husband and I went away for a couple of weeks, overseas, or even somewhere local for a few days,we would need to put the pets in a boarding kennel& cattery. Home sitting is out, as one of the cats tries to escape. I’m just wondering if the Australian government would have an issue with this ie do they need to be kept at the same residence for the 8 months until departure? I thought I read awhile ago they had to be kept at the same place but not sure. My dogs have been in a boarding kennel once for 7 weeks while holidaying in Australia, a few years ago. Two of the cats stayed with a relative and the eldest took a very long time to recover from that experince lol. We now have a third cat, the baby since then, who has had only been left with my dad who was living with us ( now passed over). The cats are indoor cats, Asian cats that are very spoilt and clingy to us. I would like to get the cats used to staying in a cattery, so they will cope better with the quarantine process. I’m worried the eldest cat might drop weight like she did last year when my husband was home for a long period of time with his own business before going into another contractor role.So I’m trying to lesson the aniexty all three cats will feel being caged up for 10 days. It’s going to be a really nasty shock!

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

Being Sydney born and raised , I really dislike the heat and always thought I preferred Winter. However, after five years living in the South of England, I’m over the weather. It’s dark, been wet and raining a lot, we have had snow before as well as after Christmas and it has been freezing! I can’t wait for spring to arrive! Lol When I first arrived over here, I couldn’t understand why people complained about the weather a lot. It took a while but I have turned into one off them. Seriously, it’s going to be a lot cheaper to buy a new air conditioner than moving overseas. And like others have said, it could just be Canberra. Unless you have the time, and lots of money for flights, accommodation, cost of tourist attractions, eating out etc. You won’t be off to Europe that often. I did consider moving to Bath, Bournemouth and Cornwall. However as my husband said, you still have to spend most of the year dealing with the aweful weather. I would come for a hoilday first. Have a look at where you would like to live. Look at the type of houses ; very different to what your used to in Australia, and costs, the same types of business you both run and see what the average turn over is as well as dealing with the nightmare as a self-employed person that is HMRC!!! Both countries have their good and bad bits. Regardless of where you move to, moving from one place to another won’t solve your problems. At this point in our lives as well as our future goals, OZ is going to provide us with the lifestyle we want. Besides weather, think about your dreams and what kind of lifestyle you, your husband and kids want and work out which country will best provide it for you.

Our our target is August 2018, I want to be back ready for Christmas. I’m so sorry your job fell through. I definitely think you should save up first - work out the average weekly rent and what you are hoping to have in wages and get a three or four months money behind you. There is no guarantee when you arrive, you will get a job through an agency straight away. My husband is an IT contractor at senior level and it can be months before the next contract and that’s applying for dozens a jobs every day. If it’s hospitality/ retail work or directly through the employer it might be a lot easier. It can take a very long time to make friends, though if you are flat sharing, that might make it easier. So unless you know people in London already or have a friend who wants to go to London with you, without savings, you aren’t going to have the support network behind you when you first come over. And that is scary. The best way would be to go over there on a hoilday with a view to stay. Come over , have a look at London, go to the areas where you are looking to live, imagine your daily life shopping and living there and get a real feel for the place. Apply for some jobs while there , if you like it and look at what kind of rentals you would be able to get. See if you can get an open ended return ticket. That way, the pressure is off and if it’s not your cup of tea, you at least got to see London and got it out of your system. Have you considered moving to say the Gold Coast or Sydney for a bit of a change ? If you decide not to move to London.

Flynster, first time I went back home, I was comparing food in the supermarket to Asda lol. Food is sooo cheap here in the UK. Going to a pub and having a three course meal is so much cheaper. That’s one thing I don’t look forward to returning back to OZ is the cost of food. I really do feel for anyone moving overseas with young kids and not having the support of their family. Hopefully your partner’s families will help and you can find local mother groups etc for extra support.

Thank you. I’m glad to hear you are enjoying it. Absolutely, everyone has a different perspective. At the end of day, if it becomes about wanting a certain lifestyle or being homesick. It doesn’t matter how great where you live is. My husband is more Aussie than me. He is happy with just going back once a year to vist his family as they aren’t interested in spending much time with him despite his efforts. So it’s made the return to Australia not as painful as it would be for those with close families.

I’m an Aussie returning to OZ due to extreme homesickness. I was the same as you. I thought Sydney was boring and I wanted something new and exciting. And on a hoilday, the UK just wowed me, the family friendly pubs, the countryside etc. I moved back a few months later to live with my bf ( now husband) and I didn’t care about the bad weather. For a few years, I was living in a happy bubble. London, here is the thing. I love walking through Soho onto Oxford St ( main shopping area) but there is only so many times you can do that before it becomes boring. It is soooooo crowded. Think of the entire population of OZ, just in London. Trains are very expensive, not anywhere as cheap in Australia and you are very lucky if you can catch one getting a seat. Anywhere nice to live in London, you are going to have to be rich. Quite frankly, the affordable areas of London are ugly imho. I know you say you are only going for two years but English guys can be very cute and charming which means no easy escape back to OZ for you lol. So let’s be realistic and look at a future where you do end up settling in the UK. You say you want to settle down and have kids in a few years. Well, if you end up doing that in the UK, you most likely will have to live a bit further out of London when you have kids. Houses are very pricey, and you know how houses in OZ, are detached, big yards and they all look different from one another? Well, you will be looking for housing with kids, outside of London which is South and that is mainly semi-detached and houses the size of a dog box on a housing estate. A lot of houses on the same street look the same. For something detacged, you are looking at older houses with a yard and they cost a bomb. You could move far far away from London, up North. People are friendlier, houses are cheaper and nice but there are no jobs and it’s even more boring. Christmas just gone was raining and so was NYE. Imagine your future kids spending most of the time playing indoors because it’s always cold and wet. And at Christmas time, it’s winter, so rain, cold and it gets dark by 4pm. Living outside London, is just like living in the suburbs, very boring. You might be living closer to Europe but how often will you afford to be able to go there once you have a mortgage and kids. And if you do end up with someone in the UK and they are close to their family, they might not want to leave the UK to go to OZ just because you are homesick. They could end up homesick as well. I think you should go for a shorter hoilday to see if you like it first. Not all that glitters is gold I took living in Australia for granted but I tell you what, I’d happily kiss the ground when I get back!

Hi MetalToby, Thank you so much. I will get the husband to look at their site.

Just read your job spec to my husband and he said “ this is me” and to ask you the rate lol. However, he is in the UK atm but not in a role and willing to travel . PM me if you would be happy to consider him for a similar role next year and I will give you his contact details.