beachgirl

Hi go for the Goldie and not Brisvegas (local lingo). More family activities themeparks and beach etc. Ferry Road and Southoirt Nerang riad near Minnie Street. As above you have to walk in jobs in Qld hard to find. The property market good time for tou rent or buy. You need air con , pool or live clse to beach, be aware of the humidity its hot at 7.30am and UV is very strong at 10am in the summer. Apologies using my phone cant amend errors. brickworks is a local shopping hub upmarket great food market gallery and amazing store Tradesecret which is great value.

Thanks Wakeboard for the cathartic exercise it was very interesting and I now know I'm doing the right thing. Maybe Thistles 13, Fizzybangs and myself should start a relocaters club for 25 years plus in oz and have a drink and chat in the uk once settled I think we have a lot in common. Cheers BG.

I concur with Thistle and 25 years what happened in oz, things in the uk going pear shaped after the 80's recession couldn't afford to live in London anymore and the Thatcher years so Australia was an adventure to partake in and an escape and it was fashionable to visit and the music scene was great and the cost of living low, I lived on steak, strawberries and champagne for the first 3 months (less than $10) so 1987-88 (I was 27) backpacked around Australia and parts of the world it was one of the best times of my life, 1989 moved here to live and hated it, but worked hard. 1990 measles admitted to fairfield hospital wanted to go back to uk but stayed 1991 had accident was unemployed no support network moved back to uk in 1993, 1994 had regrouped and moved back to oz to get citizenship worked really hard and bought property, sex in the city lifestyle (well almost) enjoyed my life being single. 1995 brought my mum out here got citizenship. She had health issues 1996 and1997. Started taking holidays 1998, 1999-2002 worked hard still, 2003 mum in nursing home started to lose friendships and invitations as I was known as a carer as weekends were spent visiting her 2003-2006 worked hard again but disastrous relationship both financially and emotionally and lost more friendships - regrouped by - 2007 opened my first business working 7 days a week in the summer 2008-2010 GFC came and had no customers, closed down business, financial ruin, lost all assets Needed time out from being a carer, 2011 moved interstate new career did not work out, 2012 got glandular fever no income insurance, again no support network and in few years time when I get my super at 55 I have the means to go back to UK. So lifes a box of chocholates so it hasn't been an easy ride and I was also very unlucky. My needs now are to write and work part time and travel europe and go to Rome (70 pounds from manchester) and Paris (see family in SW france also) and New York and I'm done with Asian holidays, Bali, Malaysia, HK, Thailand , but glad to have experienced as close from oz. I want to see historical buildings, galleries and see old friends and meet a nice guy and eat great fish and chips and enjoy driving along country lanes in the summer and have a quenching ale. I am past caring about how bad the weather is in the UK. Have had 2 biopsies for skin cancer but all ok. So you see life is what happens and what you make of it so I think I tried damn hard and now its time to explore other places and people.

Hi Patsmb thanks for info on another post Sapphire mentioned a whole new break down of pensions (working credits time etc) anyhow I will work it out. Re flights she came out on first class those were the good old days it would be that or nothing. Its the blood clotting issue (she had it before) air pressure and the sitting for long periods and the bathroom would be probs but will see how things go. As she would say "there are raisons (reasons) for everything and currants for a cake" being Irish. Life is so complex I wish it were so simple as that. It's amazing all our reasons for leaving permanently or ping ponging. I guess its about our needs not being met like in anything, work, relationships, friends, family, lifestyle we leave them, rekindle them or not, we go back and forth in our minds and then we physically relocate, but both Australia and Uk have their differences but when it compromises our lives so much to make us unhappy we owe it to ourselves to make the changes if its possible. We make the right decision at the time and that takes courage. Regrets sometimes but that is life. Its very easy to sit up on an ivory tower in each place and say how great things are for them you are very lucky but everyones lives are not perfect or hassle free all the time. Who knows I might ping back when I'm 65 and be a cougar (joking) and have a great time on the coast for 2 years and take the pension with me its all in the lap of the gods. Whatever happens I will have emotional bonds with both countries and very happy memories to cherish and will try to forget the bad stuff..s... happens they say in the movies. Anyhow, Cheers to Fizzybangs and good luck to her on her next chapter isn't it interesting there are alot of people living here in oz 25 years plus that are moving back to UK...maybe one of the tv networks will create a new show we've got the cast already. At least Fizzybangs should be met at the airport with a bottle of fizz, don't you think, cheers !

Hi Patsmb and Thistle 13 thanks for your posts. I am not sure what a super pension or payment "yours" is ? and re super I know at the age of 55 I could take it and say I'm retiring, no questions asked, if I wanted to come back and work again no problem re the super. I hope I make a go of something good that I don't have to rely on a pension but who knows. Re my mum I think it would be too traumatic to get her back on a flight only alternative would be a cruise but again costly and not sure she would handle 6 weeks. She would probably get into a place there but its just getting there, she gets an aussie pension but a small amount uk. I will make more enquiries but thanks for your input.

Hi Fizzybangs yes I will have to find out these details I really feel like a gypsy hopefully one day I will settle down and feel at home somewhere in the world. Sounds like you had a tough time with the illness. It took about 4 months to find out what was wrong with me and I faced alot of frustration personally and I copped attitudes from people because they did not understand the illness as I spent 3 months in bed. I am on the crash and recovery roundabout but able to go out a couple of times a week to do shopping and banking etc. I appreciate life alot more as having not much of a life makes you value what you have and it also tests your friendships or lack of them and support network and what you want in life and where you want to be. Fate has a hand in this I suppose and you have to go through the tough times to come out the other side a better and stronger person which I think has happened.

Hi Fizzbangs thank you for getting back to me so soon and for the helpful advice. I guess the reality is my mum will have to stay I did a bit of research on what you said and she has left her run too late to return. The irony is she is Irish (my dad also but deceased) and she nearly bought a house in Dublin before she came here in xmas 95. When she does pass the plan is a road trip for me to Ireland to her home town and to scatter her ashes close to the River Shannon and the way its looking I may end up living in Ireland, I like the look of Donegal near the coast (the silver strand) we used to holiday as kids there have some distant cousins on the South West coast. I can't believe that the pension is not transferable its blown me away so you lose both ends of the globe. So would I get 5 years of Nat Ins back? The Glandula fever thing is a similar routine, no energy in the morning can't get to sleep at night when I do its light sleep and get woken with the birds and go into a second sleep and its worse and heat is not helping every person I have spoken to here has had glandula fever or knows someone with it I am beginning to think it is endemic to Queensland. I would recommend income insurance I don't have it but when you are off work and sick for a long time and every other advert is about income insurance you really feel like an idiot.

Hi Fizzybangs we have spoken before, not long till you go back to the UK, you must be excited, I am sitting here on the Gold Coast sweating and really not looking forward to the heat this coming week and I can't wait to return to a moderate climate. I am making plans for a future return to the UK after 25 years and everything you have said on this post and others I agree with your sentiments entirely. I guess I have outgrown Australia and I feel quite lonely here and don't fit in. My mum also wants to return but I don't know how I am going to manage that she is 91 in a nursing home and not sure if I could get her into a nursing home in the UK or even if she would survive the journey back. It is tying me here and one thing you mentioned on another post was that you would not get an Aussie pension I don't understand. I am basing my move back thinking I would get an Aussie pension in the future. (I am 52) and re UK pension I have only worked in UK for 5 years. I am now really confused about both pensions. I do plan to work in UK when I return. I moved up here to take time out (carer burnout, mum has dementia) and follow a different career path and it just didn't work out.The lonliness crept in as I have had glandula fever since May and still recovering I have no support network here and relocating back to Melbourne at Easter to a very small support network. The past 10 years in OZ have been very trying everything I did just evaporated. I have tried so hard to make things work out here but have failed so I really do want to go back to my roots and start over there its been too painful here. Any thoughts, thanks.

For Fizzybangs - about 3 years - good luck with your move rgds Beachgirl

I think you are on the right track now, I felt the same things etc so you are just going through a natural process of assimilation but in both countries. It is your personal journey and we all have an affinity with both countries the good and the bad. We make decisions that are for the good at the time but when things start to compromise your life thats when we start making plans to change the status quo for the better. Some people are getting in my head why I won't like the uk after 25 years I guess I have to through the assimilation barrier again. The irony is when the brits leave the uk for oz they think it is a more permanent move but when aussies leave oz for the uk its more going with the flow and no real time limit is placed so there is the lesson. I am going back with the Aussie mind set, " ce sera sera, what will be will be, the futures not ours to see"..I might be crossing paths with you in the air,best wishes to you and your family.

I understand how you might feel. I think you are going through the boomerang stage. What exactly were you trying to fix in this move? What is it that is pulling you back to oz? I have been here in oz 25 years and I pinged and ponged back a few times. I have even moved interstate a few times. You never really settle anywhere when you feel like this. You are displaced. If I had my time over again I wish I had stayed back in the Uk but I came back to get naturalised and everything went well and I brought my mum out and then I had to stay as she was too elderly to get back and now I am here until she passes and then I can go back to the UK. So think wisely. Australia as a single person was fun back in 1987 i was a backpacker and if you were married and had kids a great place for families but as we age priorities change. I never thought I would want to go back to the UK but the only thing on offer to me now is the weather and as I miss my old friends proximatey to Europe and my history and background you start to yearn for this as you age. The cost of living has escalated and I really can't afford to live here ie dental costs I would have to fly to a third world country to get my teeth fixed as you need a second mortgage to fix your teeth. I would say I am a free spirit still single at 52 so I don't really fit into mainstream society and the culture "your on your own" and that's how the aussies see it too much of a threat to be invited as a single to an event in fear of losing their partner am still looking alright. On the other hand you have a family to consider. I am glad I finished my education in the UK our family nearly did emigrate when I was 12 via the 10 pound pom thing and glad we didn't. I watched the show Puberty Blues i loved it and I would have been one of the charachters. So you have to ask yourself what is important to your family and some times you have to make sacrifices I did but I'm still happy. I wish you well but I think you are better off staying in the uk there is far more on offer and if you miss the sun book a few european holidays. When you sit in your lounge room in oz watching a cooking show in Italy and you wish you could be there and you don't have the funds as it would cost thousands to get there from here thats what I'm talking about. Life is short...