Red Rose

Hi all, 

I'm sure this has been asked many times before and I am being lazy not using the search button

Do those who have moved back to the UK still make contributions to their Super fund from their UK accounts (I would propose to make one or two contributions a year to top it up) as well as contributing to a UK pension? 

thank you!

13 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

That is 100% true. Counselling cannot change those feelings, and nor should it.  However, if you're stuck in Australia for whatever reason, counselling CAN help you cope a lot better with those feelings.   If nothing else, it gives you someone who'll lend a sympathetic ear, whereas you've probably given up talking to family and friends about it - and having a vent now and then definitely helps.  

True, true. 

I have not read all the posts in this thread, but for some people they just have this strong emotional attachment to the UK and don't realise what they have been missing until they have experienced living overseas. The UK is far from perfect of, of course, but for me it is the quaintness and old fashioned charm of this country that I find most appealing. I realise how much I love old fashioned royal mail post boxes built into stone walls, national trust houses, English pubs, places like the lake District, cream teas, the cold, open fires, narrow country lanes, and just the sheer diversity of landscape, accents and culture in such a small country. The attachment and yearning some people have for the UK will always be more than superficial because the UK is a part of them, it's in their DNA, and no amount of counselling or counter arguments will ever change that.

I think one area where Australia thrashes the UK hands down for salaries is public sector work. Teachers, nurses, police, civil servants, all do significantly better in Oz than in the UK. 

I'm still not convinced though whether the generally higher salaries in Oz leave you financially better off compared to the UK.....but have just done a quick google search it seems I am wrong and Australia wins by far with a much better cost of living

Australia vs United Kingdom: Cost of Living. Who has it better? - Odin Land

Here is an alternative POV for this chat.

Work is better than retirement (including voluntary work)

It gives you purpose. You're continuing to use the grey matter. You have more social and human interaction working than not. It's proven to be better for your health than retirement. 

9 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

It has it's nice parts, nice park, good views, people seemed friendly, good pubs and eating out. Hotels were horrendously expensive and there's a part of the City, just beyond gas town, that is like Dante's inferno. Cops seem to have given up on it, people openly doing drugs, begging, smoking crack pipes. As long as you keep away from that bit, you should be OK.

Yeah I've heard about that....I think you may be referring to this:

www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-what-i-saw-in-a-day-on-the-downtown-eastside-shocked-me/

On 11/09/2021 at 03:31, Canada2Australia said:

My dream retirement would be to spend six months here and six months in Canada. That would make me the happiest clam in the world. Unfortunately, economics come into play and seemingly dash my hopes of that ever happening......unless I win the lottery or stumble upon an insanely large inheritance from a relative I've clearly never met!

I'd love to visit Canada. One city which I want to find out more about is Vancouver, it seems to really polarise opinions (much like Perth), it looks beautiful, but I've read online that it's incredibly insular and unfriendly. 

9 hours ago, Dusty Plains said:

Good question. What actually is a progressive outlook?  Well let's see.

Why are there regulated alcohol outlets in both Tennant Creek and Alice Springs? Why are the alcohol outlets in Tennant Creek basically cages with Police inside the cage and the locals on the outside? Cunnamulla is SW Queensland has two hotels and they are also cages. Why is that?

My experiences as both a government officer and subsequently as a tourist reminds me of all those places I have worked in or spent some time in certain towns where NONE of the "progressive outlook" is self-evident, as much as anyone might try to find it. In Tennant Creek NT, if 50% of all children within school age actually attend school, then that is something  to celebrate in TC.  Why is that? Similar problems occur at nearly every whistle stop down the Stuart Highway through the NT heading toward South Australia. 

Then there is Ceduna SA (also an alcohol-restricted town). Wilcannia NSW where at the local petrol station there are signs everywhere warning customers to lock their vehicles when paying for fuel. The ruse at the Wilcannia petrol station was that if you left your keys in the ignition of an unlocked car, when you return to your vehicle you might encounter youths who hang around the petrol station and have your car keys dangling over the grating of a deep drain. They will return your car keys to you for a fee of $50. 

Then there is Dubbo, ( riots in the Gordon (state) Housing estate several years ago which saw approximately up to 10 houses every night set on fire with firefighters and Police being attacked by youths. Their progressive outlook? It was the Australia Day weekend and so the "locals" were pissed off. I was there, ducking, rocks, stones, roof tiles and anything else that could be thrown. I had to replace two emergency vehicles as they were smashed beyond serviceable condition. Yet there were no arson charges ever made, no charges made relating to affray, assault, or damaging property including government property.

So what is this progressive outlook? Here is my definition:

Get up in the morning and prepare your children for school. Pack healthy lunches for your children. Head off to your job, work hard and pay your taxes.  Stop being a burden on the taxpayers, and mostly stop being some sort of "victim". You are not a victim,. There are no generational victims in Australia, so drop the victim ploy and start being a contributor to Australia. Obey the law and work hard to ensure that your children have brighter prospects that you do.

 Now that is a progressive outlook, for everyone.

 

 

      

 

Crikey those places sound unsafe. Reminds me of growing up in South Africa with bars around the windows. Now there is a country that is a complete enigma. Really progressive politically but still so unstable and unsafe. 

13 hours ago, Canada2Australia said:

I escaped from Darwin October 11, 2019. Lived there for four years. Very different place than from the 90s clearly. It's an overpriced, overrated, crime ridden ******** now. The outback up there is gorgeous but Darwin itself is a socio-economic disaster. Alice Springs is worse. Tennant Creek is the pinnacle of hell. If you value a decent quality of life without worrying about being a victim a some form of serious crime, you would reconsider a move anywhere out there, but do what you must. I'll take Perth over the NT any day, thanks.

So happy I moved

My god. I just did a Google Street view of tennant creek. That must be a contender for the worst town in Australia. 

13 minutes ago, Blue Flu said:

I have considered a return to England but again the old chess nut where exactly in England and only Bournemouth has come out on top to date. London probably too expensive and not great in the future with age. 

 

 

 

I would take Brighton over Bournemouth...London by the sea! 

1 hour ago, Toots said:

You gave Australia a few years and it obviously didn't suit you.  You found Sydney small compared to London, Perth parochial, yadda yadda yadda.  Heard all this over a hundred times on this forum from various people who have gone back to the UK.  That's fine but do we really have to read about it over and over and over again.  I've already got one forum member on *ignore*.  Boy was he a repetitive, non-stop whiner about his utterly boring life in Perth.  Still and all, that particular poster stuck it out for 10 years.  Talk about a glutton for punishment.    

As HappyHeart said above, all very tiresome.  I haven't lived in Perth for donkey's years but I always find myself supporting the place.  Just waiting for Mr Flu to come back with a list of the things wrong with his city.  Top of the list being the problem with drugs.  Why aren't the police doing something about it for goodness sake?

Toots, I respect your right to critique my view 100%. I am only expressing a personal view on a topic specifically about Perth where the OP has asked for a view on Perth. I don't think I have expressed that view disrespectfully or said anything personal about any poster. 

I am not really sure what you are looking for here other for me to censor my views, which is fine. I shan't say anything more on the topic and apologies if I have upset anyone! 

6 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

I'd be inclined to go along with that. A world much its own creation and not very interested in outsiders beyond using then to further own advantage. I've never 'lived' in Sydney but have visited several times , once for a longer duration and did detect a more favourable vibe there,  for want of another way to put it. But from friends living there or had lived there, I know also can be  an incredible stressful place with an onus on work and income. I guess along the lines of what London became. (London was a pretty chilled out city in late seventies, hard to imagine I know,)

Perth meanwhile gives out the initial impression of being 'chilled' , but is on many levels a strange sort of 'up tight' conservative place, where conformity is somewhat necessary to survive a very cliquish environment. People largely keep to themselves, don't warm readily, making relationships hard to get above ground level. 

Obviously others may differ in experience and perhaps in comparisons depending probably past experience and where from.  In my view a very  superficial surface sort of place , built too much around greed and money , where any search for depth may well result in disillusionment or worse but many won't care. 

Be sure though the sun will shine most days  , the Indian Ocean will look superb, the obvious signs of mining wealth prosperity will in the way of city towers will add to that impression, but for the more vigilant among us, other factors may give a different picture at the reality under the surface. 

 

Those comments reflect what many people have described about Perth. As an outsider who moves to Perth you need to experience it to understand it. Many will not recognise what you have described above, but many do because you hear the same things about Perth being superficial, cliquey, parochial time and time again. 

Perth is a funny one. I found it incredibly unfriendly and parochial whereas I found Sydney, which is a lot bigger and busier, incredibly friendly. It is very subjective though and everyone's mileage will vary. 

9 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Loved Bournemouth for holidays when I was in my 20's. Met my wife there, she was staying in the same hotel with a friend, I was there with a few mates.

When the weathers good it's brilliant, one of the best beaches in the UK, much better than Brighton. Gets packed on a nice day though, don't even think of driving and being able to park. The hotel we stayed was about half hour walk from the beach but that was fine.

Had the reputation of being a retirement spot but it was always lively enough for us. If we wanted really lively we'd just go to Spain or Greece.

If we had got turned down for emigration we would have moved to the South Coast, Bournemouth would have been on our list.

It's a nice spot for the UK but nowhere near as nice as here.

 

Nice is very subjective Paul!

Everywhere just seems expensive these days. Anyone been to Cambridge before? If you are looking at living near the centre of Cambridge you don't get much for half a million quid, maybe a 2 bedroom flat. Brighton is probably even more expensive. 

On 16/06/2021 at 02:55, Dan Not Dale said:

Hi There,

Apologies, could be a long read. I’m looking to hear the experiences of people who are back and forth between Australia and UK or those that have never really made their mind up.

A little context first.

I’ve been in Melbourne 7 years next month, based in Melbourne. Met someone on a working holiday. She did 18 months in UK so we could do visas here. We now both have a UK and Australian passport. 

I miss home intensely and visit every year, do 3 week holidays (pre covid). However, after 15 days I’m often ready to come back to Melbourne. I don’t know if it’s the stress of cramming everything in or the emotion of it all and seeing parents age etc but I’m aware I’m ready to come back often when I visit. 

Although strangely, I dislike Melbourne. The tv and radio telling us it’s the best place in the world on a daily basis doesn’t make it so. It probably is great if you are in a decent suburb, but we have little desire to take on $800,000 debt to be in a good one. The roads and traffic are terrible. People seem far from happy in general. Vast swaths of it are a complete eye sores. I’m often left scratching my head at supposedly ‘beautiful’ spots too.

Ive felt extremely lucky to be here throughout this pandemic. I don’t want to bash the place, it’s been great and welcomed me. 

My opinion has been that Australia is the better option because our salary is higher and house is bigger. I feel wealthy here despite a modest salary. I rarely feel financially stressed. That wasn’t the case in UK. Personally that’s where the benefits end for me.

When we go home and I walk the streets I am beaming, it’s so beautiful, the small tree lined streets, the old buildings. I can’t explain how great it feels.

Does anyone else relate? Do you change your mind regularly, will the beauty of the green tree lined streets be forgotten when I’m scraping ice off the windscreen in January before driving to work? Will I pine for my nice house in a boring Melbourne suburb when it costs me £100 to fill the petrol tank.

Does going back to a smaller house become an issue? Does it ever matter? Hose prices look absolutely mad across the south of England.

I hope I haven’t rubbed anyone up the wrong way. I don’t want to bash Melbourne. I can’t help but think the constant population growth is detrimental to its existing population. I don’t see it improving as a place to live.

I’ve made no friends here in 7 years so I realise I could be the problem. Still close with friends back home and I’d be welcomed back in the circle with open arms I’m sure.

Does anyone relate, do you fear you’ll want to be back in Australia 2 months after you’ve returned to UK?

Thanks, Dan

 

 

 

I haven't read this whole thread so you may have already covered these points. From reading your post, I wonder whether what's really happening is that you're no longer really that in to Australia? Sounds like it's got to the point where you're getting through the motions without really thriving. If you have that feeling right now, it doesn't really go away. It doesn't help that all your friends are in the UK. It all comes down to what your value and priorities are, and what nourishes your soul. If your priorities are your family and friends, and those lovely green tree lined streets, then I hope one day that is what you return to

2 hours ago, tea4too said:

 You sound like my Mum, Jez. She was mightily miffed when she rang yesterday and I told her I'd got three loads of washing dry and needed to water the pots! But it just goes to show that for a relatively small landmass,  the UK can experience very different weather at any given time. Lovely blue skies and warm sunshine here again today though - hope it's a bit drier for you. T x

That's the UK for you, for such a small island, we're extremely diverse, which is what makes it interesting. There can't many other countries in the world which have such diverse accents too across such a small landmass, but that's a different topic entirely....! 

I think what is hard to beat with the UK is our proximity to things. It feels like we are a global hub, in the middle of everything. The biggest draw card as others have mentioned is Europe, which cannot be beaten anywhere in the world for diversity, history or culture. If you love Africa, that's not far away. If you love New York that's, what, about 7 hours. That's why so many Aussies come to London (which in itself is a world in one city), and don't want to leave because they are suddenly on the cusp of everything. 

I went through a phase where I thought 7/11 coffee was the future, tasted really good and a quarter of the price of my $4 barista coffee, until one day I bought one and the milk they were using had gone off. It turned my stomach and I never bought another one again. As much as I love coffee, I spent far too much on it, probably close to $2k a year on barista coffee. 

26 minutes ago, HappyHeart said:

Isn't there a few coffee chains in UK now? Are they any good? Love my coffee. 

Costa coffee just taste like hot milk to me. I miss the real bite of Australian coffee. My flat whites in the UK just don't seem as consistently good or punchy as they were down under. 

Besides the weather (it is hard to top Sydney's weather IMO) for me it's got to be breakfasts and coffee. It's only when you get back to the UK do you realise that breakfasts and coffee down under are levels above the UK. 

Really awesome list of world's top 100 cities, beautifully produced with no scrolling of pages, well worth a look 

https://www.bestcities.org/rankings/worlds-best-cities/

Only 3 UK cities that I could find in the top 100, I think Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane also made it. Really interesting read. 

1 hour ago, Dusty Plains said:

Manchester is still Manchester obviously. One poster has unflattering memories of the city some time ago, and another poster confirms those memories from a more recent perspective. Why would someone have to go back to the UK to offer a valid opinion on Manchester or any other city.  How long has Manchester been there?  Forever?

I was only a tourist and saw Manchester through a day-tourist perspective. It seemed to be an OK place to a tourist.   

I think what doesn't help is the weather in the NW, unfortunately that part of the UK does get more rain and grey skies than other parts of the UK which doesn't help. 

On 19/05/2021 at 22:48, Bulya said:

It’s still your typical northern dump.  It ain’t gonna change 

Bulya out of interest which part of the UK were you from before moving to Oz? 

I take back what I said. The weather in May has been disgusting.